The Simple Life

When John Robert returned, Bobby Lyon was kneeling down in front of the hollow. John stood probably fifty or sixty feet back from the tree so his view was that of the first balcony as the strangest act was played out before him. Smoke, in thin, almost transparent shafts, slowly began rising from every hole in the old oak. Light puffs of smoke even found its way out of the highest limbs. Bobby Lyon had built a fire in the hollow out of fat lighter, feeding it with damp leaves and twigs. Those old, wet matches Bobby found really lit, thought the older cousin. From his vantage point, John Robert saw the crack in the dam begin with five or six cat squirrels jumping into the branches of nearby trees and flying squirrels sailing off into space. A shriek from Bobby Lyon signaled the actual break. John Robert looked down at his cousin who was lying on his back, convulsing and slapping himself. A raccoon was just stepping off of his face and little black dots seemed to cover his body. A few small fires burned about the base of the tree and around Bobby Lyon. John Robert ran over and began stomping out the fires. He then turned to his cousin and saw the little black dots were big black ants with small ants filling in the gaps between their larger cousins. He began slapping them off as Bobby Lyon stood up, ripping his clothes off. The boys lost the battle. Both were standing in their underwear, their clothes strewn about the woods, covered in ants. Seemingly hundreds of mice descended upon them in a second migration from the tree. The ground immediately around the tree looked as if it was boiling with a host of bugs and vermin. “What in the world were you doing Bobby Lyon? Have ya lost your mind, settin’ fire inside the tree like that?” John Robert asked in a voice that was as calm as could be expected of a person standing in the woods almost naked and swelling up. Bobby Lyon was bent over studying his legs. “I wanted to clean out the hollow so we could climb up into the treehouse through a tunnel.” John Robert immediately saw the logic and the beauty of his cousin’s effort and sacrifice. But both boys knew if their parents found out that Bobby Lyon had been playing with matches (grown-up words), the sacrifice they would have to endure may not be worth even an elevator shaft leading up to their “penhouse.”