Hanging Stars On Big Willow Creek: A Novel

by Sarah Hill

  “Whenever you want,” she answered with a shrug.

  “I’ll come get you early, eight o’ clock if not before. Ask Del to have you up before then, okay?” He started walking towards her back yard. “Come on, I’ll walk you to Del’s on my way,” he called over his shoulder.

  She caught up to him and matched his strides. Though his legs were longer, she walked a bit faster to even their pace. “Thank you, Maysen.”

  “For what?”

  “Being my friend.”

  Del woke Rylie at seven the next morning and had breakfast ready on the table for her. “You kids need to be careful today. I don’t like the thought of you hanging from trees to hammer nails into boards.”

  Rylie, who had taken a bite of toast tried gulping some milk to try and wash it down so she could answer. Swallowing the toast so quickly lodged it halfway down her throat, causing her to choke and sputter. Del, came around the table and banged on her back until she was finally able to get it down.

  “You alright?” Del asked, grabbing a towel from one of the kitchen drawers to wipe the milk that had dribbled down her chin and neck.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.” Rylie let a small cough out and took another drink of milk.

  “Don’t apologize, sweetheart. Just chew your food a little better.”

  Norm came through the doorway that led off the laundry room. “Look who I found coming through our gate.”

  Maysen stepped from behind Norm and waved at Rylie, an excitement danced across his face. “You ready?”

  Nodding, she slid from her chair and went to grab her jacket.

  “Now hold on. You haven’t finished your breakfast,” Del said, placing her hands on her hips.

  Rylie grabbed two more pieces of toast and held them up. “This okay?” she asked.

  Sighing, Del nodded as she shook her head and said, “Okay, but I want you both here for lunch.”

  “We have a lot to do Del. Is it okay if you just bring us lunch

  instead?” Maysen asked, his eyebrows raised.

  “I think you can take a break for a little…”

  Norm interrupted her mid-sentence. “Now Del, leave them alone,” he said. “They have a mission. If you insist on them eating, taking them lunch isn’t going to hurt anything.”

  Del rolled her eyes. “Fine. I will bring you lunch, but you’re going to sit and eat it. I won’t leave until you do.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Rylie and Maysen said in unison.

  “Thank you,” Maysen said under his breath to Norm.

  Norm winked. “Thank you for breakfast, wife, I have to get going,” he said, as he leaned over to give her a kiss.

  “See you tonight. I’m making roast and potatoes for dinner.”

  “My favorite,” he said, kissing her cheek and heading back out the door.

  Maysen looked over at Rylie and jerked his head in the direction of the door and mouthed, “Let’s go.” He looked at Del and said, “See you later, Del.” He turned and headed out the door.

  “Thank you for letting me stay here Del, and for breakfast.”

  “You are always welcome here. As a matter of fact, why don’t you stay tonight too.”

  Rylie’s mouth dropped open. Staying a second night in that big bed with the soft blankets would be a dream. Knowing she wasn’t alone helped her sleep better than she ever remembered. “You would let me stay again?”

  “I would and I say you do. So, plan on it.”

  Rylie smiled and said, “Yes, ma’am!” Beaming, she ran out the door after Maysen who was already at the back gate.

  The morning went by fast. Maysen rigged up a pulley system so they were able to pull the beams and two by fours up easily. Then he climbed up the tree with a large side-sling pouch that carried his hammer and nails, slung over his shoulder. He showed Rylie how to tie a heaving line knot. It was her job to get the various pieces of wood tied and lifted to him. Then, he would position each of them as she helped to make sure they looked straight from the ground so he could hammer them in straight.

  Rylie was in awe of how much he seemed to know about building a treehouse and wondered who had taken the time to teach him. Her own mom was never around to teach her anything. She learned to warm things from a can on the stove on her own. Her favorite was Ravioli’s. That’s if her mom remembered to buy them. She wished she could learn to cook like Del. Her food was better than anything she could get from a can. Rylie just wished she had someone to show her how to do things, like Maysen did.

  When lunch rolled around, Del showed up with a basket full of sandwiches, apples and chips. She also had a big pitcher of sweet tea and some cups tucked in with the food. The three of them sat in the shade beneath the tree to eat and Del listened to them as they pointed out what they had finished so far.

  “I have to admit. You kids have gotten a lot further than I ever imagined you would today,” Del said, as she looked around at the structure that was already starting to look like a house.

  “It’s all Maysen,” Rylie said, beaming at him and adding, “he knows exactly what needs to be done. I’m not a lot of help.”

  “Yes, you are. I couldn’t do this without you, Rylie,” he replied.

  Rylie blushed and looked down at her half-eaten sandwich as she said, “Maysen thinks we’ll be done before lunch tomorrow.”

  “Won’t that be something?” Del said, smiling at them.

  “Del, do you think you could show me how to make some curtains for the windows?” Rylie asked, looking in her direction, but refusing to look her in the eyes.

  “I would love to do that with you, Rylie.”

  A smile sprang to Rylie’s lips. “Thank you, so much!”

  “Nothing too girly though. Don’t forget this is my treehouse too. I don’t want butterflies or hearts all over them.”

  Rylie and Del looked at each other and burst out laughing. Del smiled at Maysen and said, “I think we can put together something you can both be happy with.”

  November 1982

  In the weeks following the completion of the treehouse, Rylie and Maysen spent every spare minute making it a place they could come to when they needed to think, read or write. A place they could go to when they just needed to be by themselves. Rylie and Del had sewn several large throw pillows to fill an entire side of the small room. They would be able to lounge anytime they wanted. They chose neutral colors Maysen could live with and sewed together curtains in an ivory green to place in the windows. Maysen stained the door, the frames of the windows and the railing around the porch balcony a dark brown. He’d also brought all the books he’d collected over the years, including one his mom told him he could give to Rylie.

  “Little Women. I’ve always wanted to read it. Thank you, Maysen,” she said, fanning through the pages before bringing it to her face and burying her nose in it.

  “What are you doing?” Maysen asked, his forehead wrinkling.

  Peeking over the book at him she laughed and said, “Smelling the pages. I love the smell.”

  Maysen looked at her as if she were from another planet. “Okay,” he said, turning to look at the wall closest to the creek. “I thought I’d build a bookcase and put it over there under the window. That way we can keep our favorite books here and one day we can add your stories too.”

  “You think my stories will be good enough to make it to a bookshelf?”

  “Don’t you?” he asked, leaning against the wall and looking around the room with a smile. “We did good, Rylie.”

  Closing the book he’d given her, she looked around the room and nodded. She had to admit, it was cool, better than she had imagined. “It was a great idea.”

  “Told you. You want to camp out tonight?”

  Rylie’s eyes widened as she looked at him and said, “You mean sleep in here?”

  “Yeah. We could bring our sleeping bags and some snacks and just hang out and think of more to add to the story.”

  Rylie sat down on one of the throw pillows an
d frowned. “I don’t have a sleeping bag. Besides, I don’t think our parents are going to allow us to camp out together.”

  “You can borrow one of ours and yes they will. Why wouldn’t they? It’s Friday and they know how hard we’ve been working on this.”

  “I guess I can ask my mom if she, uhm, I mean when she gets home.”

  Maysen, who had been pacing, froze and looked at her. “Rylie, I’m sorry. I forgot your mom isn’t around much.” He dropped down next to her and said, “That means you can camp out, though. There isn’t anybody to ask.”

  “I guess. Okay, if your parents let you, I’ll camp out too. It’ll be nice to finally have time to write something again. I love that we have the treehouse, but it took time away from dreaming up things to write.”

  “Deal! I’ll bring the sleeping bags and some snacks. You make sure we have plenty of paper and some well sharpened pencils. We can meet back here after dinner.”

  “Okay.”

  Rylie had been staying at Del and Norm’s for the past couple weeks. Her mom still hadn’t come home, but it wasn’t anything new. She would disappear for weeks at a time and then show up and act like she’d been there the whole time. Del told Rylie that she didn’t want her staying there by herself anymore and that until her momma came home, she would stay in one of their spare rooms. Del had even brought home some butterfly material when she bought the other material for the treehouse. There were now butterfly curtains hanging in the room she was staying in. Del told her that just because Maysen didn’t want butterflies on his curtains didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy them.

  When Rylie got to Del’s house, she couldn’t find anyone inside. She grabbed a piece of paper to write a note and let Del would know where she was and not to worry. Then she grabbed a couple pillows from the bed and headed back to the kitchen to put the note on the table.

  “Rylie? What are you doing, sweetie?” Del asked. She had just come through the door carrying groceries.

  “I was leaving you a note.”

  “What’s with the pillows?” she asked as she set the bags of groceries on the table and frowned.

  Rylie looked down at the pillows she had tucked under her armpits. “Oh. I was just borrowing them. They’re softer than the ones in my bedroom, is that okay? I would have asked, but nobody was home.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Maysen and I are going to camp out in the treehouse tonight.”

  “You are, are you? You’re only taking pillows?”

  “Maysen has sleeping bags and snacks. We’re going to work on our story.”

  “Aren’t you going to eat dinner? I’m making spaghetti.”

  Rylie paused. She hadn’t thought about dinner. “Oh, yeah.”

  Del walked over to the wall phone and picked up the handset. “I’ll call Mrs. Banks and let her know to tell Maysen you’re eating dinner first. You can’t have snacks for dinner.”

  Rylie made it back to the treehouse before Maysen. She was glad she did, not having had any time alone in it yet. She knew she would get more time in it than Maysen because it was practically in her backyard. She couldn’t help but daydream about laying amongst the pillows, just her and her notebook. Grabbing some of the pillows and arranging them so she had a large comfy chair, she sat down and opened her notebook. While the birds in the trees surrounding her sang their songs, she scribbled away.

  Sitting as high as the leaves of the trees opened her imagination to a magical world of woodland pixies, who protected the trees and the animals that lived within them. Rylie was just starting an adventure with her two main characters, Faysen and Kylie, who were the pixie equivalent’s to Maysen and herself, when she heard something clank against the treehouse ladder. Imagining a tiger or other dangerous animal scratching at the ladder, she dropped her notebook and pencil and crawled to the open door to look down. Maysen was climbing up with a lantern hanging from his mouth. As he pulled himself up each rung, the lantern smacked against it creating the noise that had broken her concentration.

  “I was wondering if you were coming back or not,” she said, as he clambered into the treehouse.

  “Sorry. I realized we didn’t have any light and it took my dad a bit to remember where he stored the lanterns.” He set the lantern down about a foot away from the pillows and then turned to look at her. “Dad says we can use it if we promise to keep it away from anything flammable.”

  Rylie nodded. “We can do that.”

  Maysen produced a thin rope from his backpack. He tied one end to the wood handle on the door and allowed the other end to fall to the ground beneath them. “I’m going to tie some of the other supplies to this. When I tell you to, pull it back up. We’ll keep the rope tied up here for when we need to bring stuff up.”

  Rylie was once again struck with his genius thinking. “You’re so smart!” she exclaimed.

  “Nah. I’m going down. There isn’t anything heavy, just the sleeping bags,” he said, as he started back down the ladder.

  Rylie stood up and watched as Maysen dropped from the ladder about halfway down and started tying the first sleeping bag to the rope. He looked up at her and shouted, “Okay, pull her up!”

  She pulled on the rope until the sleeping bag appeared. She sat it on the floor and quickly untied the knot, sending it back down to him. She grabbed the rolled-up bag she’d just pulled up and unrolled it by the opposite wall, making it back before Maysen shouted for her to pull the second one up.

  Once both the bags were set up and Maysen carefully lit the lantern, they sat back against the pillows, smiling at their accomplishments.

  “This was the best idea ever, Maysen,” Rylie said, picking up her notebook and pencil.

  “It was, wasn’t it?” he said, putting his hands behind his head and crossing his outstretched legs.

  Rylie went back to her story while Maysen closed his eyes. The only sounds to be heard were those of her pencil scratching across the paper and the crickets and frogs giving them a free concert as the sun went to bed and the moon came out to play.

  They stayed like that for close to an hour. When the lead in her pencil got low and needed to be sharpened, Rylie looked over to see if he’d fallen asleep and found him lying on his side watching her as she wrote.

  Trying to hide the embarrassment of being watched, she reached behind the pillow next to her and grabbed her pencil pouch so she could find her sharpener. “I thought you were asleep,” she said, digging through the pouch.

  “Nope. Just watching you. You wrinkle your nose when you write.”

  Her hand flew up to her nose. “I do?”

  He sat up laughing and said, “Yeah, it’s kind of cute.”

  Maysen’s words made her feel even more self-conscience, causing her to stick the wrong end of her pencil in the sharpener. She clumsily turned the pencil back around and started sharpening, pretending she hadn’t heard him.

  Leaning across her he grabbed the notebook and started reading. This gave her a second to sit back, take a deep breath and relax. She hated feeling so shy around him when there was never any reason to be, but he had said she was cute. Not exactly, she told herself, as she peeked over at him from the corner of her eyes. He was moving his lips the way he always did when he read her stories. He was engrossed in what she’d written and unaware that she was now watching him. As he neared the end of what was written, she looked away and concentrated once again on sharpening her pencil.

  “This is really good, Rylie! Faysen sounds like a pretty cool little pixie.”

  She had forgotten the names she gave the two main characters and turned to him with wide eyes, knowing her cheeks were pink and said, “I couldn’t think of any pixie names, so I gave them temporary ones for now.”

  “No, keep them the way they are, I like it.” He handed the notebook back to her and sat up against the pillows. “Did sitting in the treehouse inspire you to write about magical pixies?”

  “It definitely helped.”

  “Wer
e you imaging this little forest while you were writing?” he asked, looking over at her.

  “It gave me the idea, but this isn’t exactly a forest. The forest in the story goes on for miles and miles.”

  “Just because it doesn’t go on forever doesn’t mean it’s not a forest. I like our forest. It has a magic of its own.”

  Rylie sat back and thought about the tree line that followed the creek banks on the ranch. Big Willow Creek did run for miles. She didn’t even know where it ended. “I guess you’re right. It may not be as big as the one in the story, but it’s a forest.”

  “Big things can happen in small places, Rylie. You should write about our forest. Don’t count it out.”

  “I’m not. I’ve always loved running around the trees and playing in the creek. Maybe someday I’ll write a story about it.”

  Maysen smiled at her. “I think it’d be your best story, especially if you included me in it.”

  Rylie rolled her eyes. “Of course, you do.”

  Maysen laughed as he got up and looked out one of the windows. “You know what we’re missing?”

  Looking up from her notebook, she narrowed her eyes and asked, “What?”

  “A rope.”

  “Another one?”

  “Not a little rope, a big thick rope. Then we can swing down from the balcony, like Tarzan.” Maysen went through the door and out onto the balcony.

  Putting her notebook down, Rylie got up and joined him outside. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “You want to die?” she asked, looking towards the ground. “Look how far down it is.”

  “That’s nothing, I climb to the top of the rope in P.E. all the time and it’s a lot higher than this.”

  “Climbing isn’t the same as swinging like Tarzan. It’s a bad idea.”

  “No, it’s not. If I have the strength to climb up the one in P.E., I can hold on while I swing down from here.”

  Rylie shook her head and said, “I still think it’s a bad idea.”