“Come see what I’ve made. You’re going to be surprised,” said David.

http://www.hedgerowmobile.com

David carved out and cleared a three-foot square area. He made a bench by placing a piece of wood across a couple of flattish rocks. As his guest, he let me sit while he squatted. We waited for a car to pass by his secret hidey-hole. This took some time, since we lived on a barely traveled rural road. It was fun to know we could see, but couldn’t be seen.

“I’m impressed,” I admitted. “This is neat.”

David got hungry and left to get food. I grew impatient waiting, and began bending back more branches to enlarge his room. I decided to surprise him by making his dirt floor perfectly smooth and lining the circumference with larger stones. I created a non-working fireplace with a circle of stones and sticks in the middle.

I worked quickly to complete my surprise before he came back. I watched through the thicket for his return, and scrambled out to meet him.

“Wait ‘til you see what I did.”

He crawled into his hidden chamber and bolted upright through the brush.

“You ruined it!” he thundered. “I hate you!”

Bewildered, I watched him kick and stomp, destroying his cabin. He marched over to me.

“Why did you do that?” he demanded. “It was mine. You ruined it.”

“I thought it would make you happy.”

“Well it didn’t!” He punched me in the stomach and stormed to the house.

The impact took my breath away and I dropped to my knees. Everything went black. I literally saw stars. Doubled in half, I cried over his reaction as much for my pain.

It took years before I understood what I had done wrong. I’d made his cabin mine.