The Tree House Incident

Some names have been changed to protect the innocent...although I believe the statute of limitations has probably run out on this...and, just for clarification, I hadn't thought about this story in quite a while, but the perpetrator brought it up last night so now it is fresh in my head...or as fresh as it could be with the devastating injury I suffered.

This story involves someone we'll call "Mike," who just happens to be a close relative and three years older than myself.  Mike and I were in a tree house together.  The tree house was in the mid stages of construction and still needed a lot of work.  Mike was pretty handy with tools and wood and stuff, even though he was only a kid, and he was up in the tree house trying to work.

I was up in the tree house because it was also my tree house regardless of what Mike said...and although Mike wanted me to get down, I refused...because I'm stubborn like that and nobody was going to tell me to get out of my tree house.

Because Mike also happens to be very stubborn, he continued to work.  Mike had a hammer, a typical hammer with the claw on one end, and he was pounding away on the wood.  You know a tree house, unless it's one of those glamorized ones you see online or something, doesn't have a lot of room to mill around, which means Mike and I were in tight quarters.   You can pretty much guess what happened...the hammer went down and back up and the claw found its way into my head.

The best part of this story is what my mom says when describing the scenario.  "When they came running in the house, I didn't know who was hurt.  They were both crying so hard."  Somehow, that makes me feel better, you know...