Falling from the treehouse

I remember going to Mother's friend's Esther's house on the coast when I was little, more so for her bratty son Edmund than I did the visiting with anyone else. Edmund was always self proclaimed 'in charge'. He made up the games we played, he made up the rules for them and he changed them at will. Always to suit him. No surprise he always won. I remember him most from the summer he pushed me out of the tree house. No girls allowed, he said then showed me the sign he'd made to prove it. It was only him and me so it divided the troops by half.
That fall knocked the breath out of me and made me mad. I mean real mad, the kind of mad that makes you all calm on the inside, past seeing red but seeing blinding white instead. I was too mad to cry. I tried climbing back up there to ... I don't know what I would have done if I'd gotten back in while he was there but he sort of figured it wasn't a good idea to let me up there again. So I waited him out. I didn't make any more attempts to get back up there while he was self proclaimed king of the tree house.
Eventually he got lonely or maybe just hungry but he slithered down the makeshift ladder and headed for the side porch of the manor. That was when I made my move. I skinnied up that tree and pulled the door closed behind me. Only took a minute to change the sign. No boys allowed

I held the treehouse for the rest of the afternoon. I touched each and everything Edmund had stashed there. Tainted it all with girl cooties. That would teach him. I felt vindicated anyway at least until Momma called me in for dinner.
bell ... bell