THE WOODEN SWORDS CHAPTER 9. - SUDDENLY A CASTLE
On Wednesday afternoon we were all desperate to see the treehouse. I don’t think any of us slept the night before and school seemed to go so slowly because it was all we were thinking about. Timmy had to ask for his parent’s permission for the use of the treehouse for the Kings Street Knights, but I had the feeling that he got carried away because his mum called my mum to talk about it.
- Hmm! I think we can let them.
- …
- Yes! I agree!
- …
- You are not serious!
- …
- You have already done it?
- …
- Ok, see you at the weekend! I will call Daphne. Bye!
My father couldn’t stop laughing when he heard my mum’s news but nothing, nothing could spoil it. We had a castle at last.
When we arrived at Timmy’s house after school we all went straight into his back garden to inspect the castle. The tree looked so high and the castle looked like it was large enough to easily hold all of us safely, even Ralph.
- I have written the rules on this sheet of paper in large letters and I must insist that it is pinned on to one of the walls. Ronny will come and help you put it up.
Timmy’s mum is just like my mum when it comes to making lists and writing rules, which might be the reason mums are so good at remembering so much information. Timmy’s parents have funny-sounding names too; his father is called Piety and his mother’s name is Lisy.
Ronny is Timmy’s older brother. He is in the school above us because he is really old. He has his own mountain bike with 21-gears and posters of weird bands in his room. He has a guitar as well. Timmy says that he has a girlfriend but we don’t believe him. I think Ronny is a good older brother because we have heard some really bad stories about older brothers in school but Timmy never says anything about his brother. Timmy thinks that Ronny is weird talking about girls all the time with his friends, but he is a good brother and gives him lots of his old cool toys. I wish I had an older brother instead of a baby sister, although Perry thinks Anne is a good sister, but she is more like a boy.
Before Ronny climbed the ladder to pin the treehouse rules to a wall, he read them out to us first:
- I want you to take care of this treehouse. My friends and I have spent a lot of time there when we were your age and I don’t want it damaged.
- KEEP IT CLEAN
- NO FIGHTING
- NO HORSEPLAY
- COME DOWN WHEN A PARENT SAYS
- NO PLAYING ON THE LADDER
- NO FIRES
- USE ONLY DURING THE DAY
- NO FOOD
- NO SPITTING
- NO DIRTY SHOES
I was certain my mum had written the last rule. She’s always after me for my shoes and now I had to be careful in our own castle. There were ten rules, but we could live with them.
- What is horseplay, Ronny?
- It means to misbehave or fool around. Does anybody else have a question about the rules?
- No food? No food? That’s impossible!
- Ralph! If you eat up there the tree might fall down! A-ha!
- Shut up, James! No food! No way mister!
I have never understood why Ralph calls everybody ‘mister’, he must have heard it somewhere, but now we had a problem. Ralph eats all the time. The only thing he can think of is food, but Ralph is our friend, second-in-command and he is always our big weapon in battles. Nobody dares go against him in school.
We were lucky that Ronny was there because he is great at helping us solve problems, like now.
- Read the rule again, Ralph.
- No! I won’t read it and you can’t make me, Ronny!
- Alex, you read the rule!
- No food.
- You see? What does it say? No food.
- Yes!
- Ralph, is cake food?
- …
- Are sweets food?
- …
- It doesn’t say anything about cake and sweets, Ralph.
- Ohhhh! You are right, Ronny! No food! That was a good rule by Timmy’s mum!
- Sweets are not a food because if you are hungry and want chocolate, your mum will always say, ‘Sweets don’t fill you up; have some proper food!’
- He’s right!
- But, Ronny, my mum says that if I eat chocolate before dinner it will fill me up and ruin my appetite.
Adam had made a good point. Ronny didn’t know how to answer and just laughed.
- Parents are crazy! Anyway, now this is sorted out I will leave you to take control of the treehouse. Just take care of the place!
We all promised Ronny that we would. We were grateful to him. Ralph was happy again and he was already celebrating with some biscuits he had in his pocket. It was amazing to watch Ralph eat; his hand would go to his pocket, grab a biscuit, stuff it in his mouth and repeat the process until the whole packet was finished. He would never save some for later or share them among us.
Timmy climbed the ladder first, I followed next and the others all joined us eventually. The treehouse was just like a castle. It was huge. It had two small windows and a hole in the corner was the door. It had a small table and there were mats to sit on. There was even a flag pole that had a square red flag with a white cross on it.
- What is that flag, Timmy?
- It is the Swiss flag because this is the Swiss Embassy.
- It is a castle now.
- No! It the Swiss Embassy!
- We have to do some extra cleaning in here.
- Why don’t we give it a secret name that only we know?
- Like what?
- The Swiss Knights Embassy Castle.
- NO! That is too long and doesn't make sense!
- What about HQ?
- HQ?
- It is short for headquarters.
- HQ sounds cool.
- How do you spell it?
- RALPH!
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