The Fort

The Fort

A Story for All Ages be Aaron McEmrys

Josie loved forts. She had several different kinds of forts; some were inside forts and some were outside forts, but her favorite fort of all had to be the classic blanket fort. Josie would take all the chairs from the dining room table and make a circle out of them on the thick living room carpet. Then she would strip all the blankets and colorful quilts from her bed and drape them over the high chair backs until all the open space was covered up except for a tiny door for crawling through, and maybe a couple spy holes so she could keep a sharp lookout for her little brother, Jeb.

Inside the fort it was cool and dim and very secret with the light from the living room windows filtering through the fabric of her bright quilt in a patchwork of colors, like stained glass.

Josie loved her forts, but she couldn’t stand her little brother! He was always following her around everywhere, but the one place he was never allowed was inside her forts – that was her private special place. No boys allowed.

One snowy winter day, Josie was headed outside for a big snowball fight with the other neighborhood kids, when Ted came racing down the stairs after her, bundled up form head to toe in winter clothes, “Wait for me”, he cried, “Mom says you have to take me with you!”

“No way!” Josie yelled back. “You always cry, every single time. You can’t come with.”

“Mom says”, Ted replied darkly, and Josie knew she was stuck with him.

So across the street they went to the big lawn by the apartment buildings where all the best snow fights happened. There must have been a million kids there, and snowballs flew through the air like big white raindrops. It was awesome, for a while, anyway.

About three minutes, Josie aimed a big wet snowball at Thomas, a kid from her class, but Thomas ducked and the snowball went over his head – and hit her little brother square in the face! Ted staggered toward her crying his head off, his face covered with a mush of cold snow. His nose was red, his face was wet with tears and Josie had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

As soon as Ted could stop crying long enough to speak he yelled, “I’m telling Mom!!”

Josie ran after him, saying, “I’m sorry, it was an accident, don’t tell mom!” But Ted didn’t listen, he just sloshed his way home in his snow boots, and Josie knew she was in trouble.

Sure enough, Josie tried and tried to explain that it was an accident, but her mom just shook her head and said, “Josie, Ted is your brother and you have to watch out for him no matter what.” In the end, Josie was sent to her bed early as a punishment.

The next morning was Saturday. Josie got up, went downstairs and built the biggest best blanket fort ever. When the fort was done it was so big that it filled up almost the whole living room. Josie loaded up the fort with all her favorite things: her books, markers, her favorite stuffed animal, Bunny, and a couple boxes of graham crackers. Then she went into the kitchen and announced her intention to go inside her fort, never to come out again.

“Mother, Ted, I hereby declare that my fort is an independent country, and I am the President. None of you are allowed in, no matter what. I have everything I need, and I will not live for one more minute in this terrible Kingdom where everything is so unfair.”

She then spun on her heels with her dignified nose in the air and crawled into her fort, never to come out again.

Josie had a lot of fun for a while there, and she smiled to herself, thinking how much everyone would miss her now that she had seceded from the family. It was good to be Queen, she thought. But it was a little stuffy in there, with all the thick blankets piled above like a roof. And the graham crackers were pretty good too, but she quickly realized that she had forgotten to stock her fort with milk. So she snuck quietly out of the fort and got some milk to bring back to her kingdom.

Some more time passed, and Josie started to worry that her hamster might be lonely without her. So she snuck upstairs and got her hamster, his big glass cage and all of his food.

Still more time passed, and she realized she had already thumbed through all of her books, and it wasn’t even nighttime yet. So Josie snuck upstairs again and came back down with as many books as she could carry, enough to last a good long while.

The carpet wasn’t as soft and comfortable as Josie remembered, so what do you think she did? Right, she snuck back upstairs again and brought down all her pillows to make a nice soft nest for herself. She also brought down her boom box and some CDs while she was at it in case she wanted to listen to some music, and a flashlight in case she wanted to read in the dark.

By now the fort, big as it was, was almost completely full of stuff. Pretty much everything Josie owned or though she might ever need was piled and stacked everywhere, so there was barely enough room for her to lie down. Her milk was warm and so was the air, as the late afternoon sun poured down on the roof of her fort. Her graham crackers were dry, and Josie was also starting to feel lonely, even though she wouldn’t admit it.

Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she snuck back into the kitchen for an ice cream bar. But sneaky as she was, she couldn’t get past her little brother and her mom, who were getting dinner ready. Spaghetti, her favorite! Her mouth was watering and her stomach was grumbling, but Josie pretended not to even notice they were there.

“Would you like to join us for dinner, Madam President?” her mom said with a friendly smile.

“We’re having cockroaches for dinner!” Ted exclaimed joyfully. Saying gross things was his favorite pastime.

“Well, perhaps I could join you this once, like an ambassador.” Josie said, trying to hide how happy she was to not be all alone in her fort any more.

Dinner was great, and even Ted wasn’t quite so irritating as usual.

After dinner, Josie’s mom asked if she could see her fort and Josie agreed to give them a tour. It was very hot and too crowded with stuff for anyone to fit inside though, so while her mom went to get some ice cream sandwiches, Josie pushed everything out except for her hamster and her pillows. Then putting her most sparkly tiara on her head proudly, she her mother and, only a little grudgingly, Ted, into her palace for desert.

They had a lot of fun playing Kingdom, and when it was time for Ted to go to bed, Josie’s mother asked if Josie was still planning to stay in her fort.

Josie looked around her fort for a minute, and then said, her eyes shyly off to the side, “No, I guess not. No matter how big I make these things, I can’t ever fit in all the things I really need.”

“I know, honey. Come on, I’ll tuck you in.”