Day 6

Rose woke up to the sound of a plucking guitar. She loved her brother’s music hobbies. He was playing hymns in a soft quiet manner. If she wanted she could go to back to sleep to the sound it was so peaceful calming  and beautiful. Slowly she peeled back three layers of blankets until the last one revealed her face. It was like a flower blooming as each petal opened. Her room was pink and floral. A floor length mirror was in a frame that looked like a castle. The canopy over her bed was lacy white with pink silk.

She yawned as she sat up, reaching over to her end stand to grab a leather bound book. The white cover flipped open and she ruffled through a few pages before found Proverbs.

“These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out the matter. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.” Further down the passage it read. “Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself; and discover not a secret to another: Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame and thine infamy turn not away.”

Rose loved reading Proverbs in the morning. It always filled her up with good things to think about.  She continued reading until she heard her brother put away his music. Getting up her night gown ruffles brushed against her ankles. She knocked on the wall, between her room and her brother’s, three times. He knocked back. It was a signal they’d come up with to say things without shouting through the walls.

They didn’t know it but when their mother heard them knock she couldn’t help but smile. It was something she and her sister had done as children. She wondered if it wasn’t their wild Aunt that had taught the signals to them to begin with. It would be just like her to do something like that.

“Morning Mr. Miller.” She greeted her husband sitting in the living room with the news paper. He reached out and grabbed her arm pulling her into his lap. They snuggled and kissed.

“Ew, you two get a room.” Peter opened the fridge and pulled out the milk. He poured two glasses.

“Were they doing it again.”

“Wouldn’t you know.” The two couldn’t help but smile at the way their parents acted. It hadn’t always been that way. Peter and Rose could both remember a time when things were much different. Most of the time they chose not to. It had been soon after their dad had come back from being a soldier. Really it’d been the first time for a long while that the two had seen both their parents together. With Mr. Miller gone so much their parents had gotten out of touch. It had taken a lot of tough times to finally pull them back together. The real change had come one night after they’d returned from counseling with a marriage counselor from a church group. It was the first time that Peter and Rose had seen their parents smile since Mr. Miller had come home. The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Miller explained how their lives had changed. They apologize for the way they had been treating each other. When they were done telling the children how Jesus was changing them from the inside out. When they explained what their new found Savior had done for them. They were in tears.

From then on they’d gone to church. It wasn’t like everything changed overnight but Peter and Rose saw a big difference. They appreciated that their parents were trying to make each other happy instead of arguing all the time.

Rose handed Peter a buttered blueberry bagel on a paper plate. Then scooped up her glass of milk. Together they ate their breakfast at the kitchen table.

“So I was thinking that we could work on the,” he looked sideways to the living room. “Place, after school today. I have a few new supplies and Dad said we could have the paint after all.”
“I’ll see if I can find some brushes and see what colors we can mix up.”

That afternoon the two hurried home from school. Leaving their things in the house they told their mom they would be home for dinner.

“Don’t forget you have homework tonight!” She yelled after them as the scurried out the door carrying  whatever fruit was sitting in the basket on the table.

When Mr. Miller came home and found the two were out he asked his wife. “Aren’t those two getting a little old to be playing games in the woods?”

“Not for another year or two I’m sure. Didn’t you say you checked it out and they were building a fort or a tree house or something?”

“Yeah, they nearly have it finished. Looks about as nice as that shed we had delivered over the summer. By the way I let them have that leftover paint from remodeling the house. I figure by the time we need to do touch ups the paint will either have faded or we’ll want a new color anyway. They might as well have some fun with it.”

“Doesn’t sound bad at all. Want to grill these burgers in a little while? I have macaroni and cheese in the oven. I thought I might do up some of those peas. What do you think?”

“Now that doesn’t sound bad. I’ll just change into something more comfortable then.”

Peter and Rose carried their supplies in an old plastic sled. It had cracked along the bottom left side and didn’t work well in the snow anymore. So they had started using it to haul stuff to their hideout.

It had originally been Peter’s idea. When their parents would argue he would bring Rose outside and they would pretend anything they imagined. He’d first thought of doing it when he found Rose hiding in her closet and realized that she got scared when they raised their voices.

During that summer they’d played outside a lot. As it got colder Peter knew he had to come up with a better idea. He’d been working on this hut ever since.

Rose liked to help when she could. It wasn’t easy doing heavy lifting but Peter couldn’t do it alone. Painting was just her thing. Rose did any form of painting. Watercolor, oil, acrylic and she wasn’t afraid of wall painting. She examined the colors as the two walked through the woods. It was mostly white, cream, tans, even a deep brown, and mossy colored green, there was also the deep blue from Peter’s room. It had been something he insisted on when Rose and their mother had decided his baby rubber duck walls need remodeled. That had been the summer just before their father had returned home. They had done so much laughing.

When they reached the hut Peter and Rose unloaded the supplies. Peter began framing windows. He’d been working on this idea for a while. He didn’t want people to see the hut from the air. He was afraid that by adding glass he’d end up with a reflection.  First he’d decided to build under a giant pine tree. There were a few smaller ones as well but the main one almost completely hid the hut from sight. The entrance to their little area was through the only thin spot between the branches of the smaller pines. Peter had been making sure the limbs didn’t grow too close together so they wouldn’t be able to get in.

“Peter!”

He rushed around the side wondering what could be causing Rose to yell so. However what he saw was not at all what he suspected.

Note ~ So I thought this was a good place to end this post. There is just one more character to add in and then BAM! The exciting stuff should kick in.

I'm still working on that word count... just maybe not as hard as I should be.