Wendy’s sister, Anna, stepped down from the second story, walked by us, and gave a wink to her sister before walking to the kitchen.
“Do you want me to help you with dinner, mama?”
“I think it’s Wendy turn.”
Wendy looked to me and then back to her mother. If I was her, I think I’d be pleading with my mother to let me skip helping her but then I’d wonder how that would make me look to my guest.
“I’ll start on dinner, but you’re cleaning up Wendy Jean.”
“I’ll help you,” I replied.
“Thank you, Jeff,” Mrs. Joel replied with a smile.
“Thanks mama,” Wendy then turned to me and grabbed my hands. “Come on.”

Wendy led us up the staircase to the upper hall. I took a glance at the floor below and how it looked even larger from our vantage point. We walked down to the end of the hallway and made a left turn down another large hallway to a blue door.
“Papa calls this the dream room.”
“Dream room?”
“You think of what you want, and it appears, right in front of you.”
Being twelve, I had to think that maybe she was fibbing or maybe she was telling the truth. I had always wanted to play the newest video game system. However, my parents repeatedly told me I already had one and I’d appreciate playing outside instead of sitting in front of the TV. They were adults, so they never saw the MACS for who they truly were.

Wendy opened the door and turned on the lights to reveal what could only be described as the ultimate playroom-complete with a tube-tunnel system, slide, a ball pit and…sitting in the corner, a TV hooked up to the newest Nintendo system. The game system called to me, but it lost to the tube-tunnels as Wendy jumped indie and I followed her.

It felt like I was at a Chuck E Cheese, granted, maybe I was supposed to act “older” but at the moment, I didn’t care. Other kids, the ones who were thirteen and older, could laugh all they wanted to. I was sliding head-first into a ball pit.

“This all yours??
“Well, Anna too, but, she’s not too interested in it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Wendy replied as she vaulted herself onto a platform. “Boys take up too much of her attention.”
I nodded, as a part of me kind of felt the same about Wendy. She reminded me of that person you longed to give a valentine day card every day, but all all you can do is just hang out with her. That was fine with me.
“Papa said we could put whatever we wanted in this room. This was my all idea. Even down to the rope swing.
I nodded as Wendy grabbed onto a rope and swung across the pit. So, she could have swung across the creek without any effort.
“What do you think?” She asked,
“It’s incredible I would live in this room if I could.”
“I sometimes do. I just hang out, and only leave if I have to. Hey, want to see something cool?”
“Sure.”
“Follow me,” she motioned and then jumped into a tube. I swam through the multi-colored balls and followed behind her. We crawled for several feet until we reached a slide.
“Ready?”
“You have a slide?”
“Yeah, this goes to Papa’s game room. Goes pretty fast.”
“I’m for it,” I replied as Wendy dived down the slide and I took off behind her.

The slide down felt like a roller coaster as we twisted and turned around at a stead downward angle until we landed on a large mat in a small room. The lights in the room gradually lit up so we could see. Wendy opened a sliding door, and we were then a room with a pool table and an air hockey machine along with a large black leather couch.

I looked all around the room, trying to believe that not only did we go through what was the dream of any young boy: secret passages within a house but we end up in another room with more things to do. My eyes locked on two paintings hanging on the wall opposite of the couch. One was a painting of a girl standing in a forest with a sky filled with stars. I walked closer to the painting and the stars looked like angels. The other was a boy standing in a field, but with same “star angels” surrounding him.

“Those are Papa’s.”
“He painted them?”
“He had them created.”
“Wow,” was all I could say as they almost looked like photographs, except for the brushstrokes on the figures kind of washed out their faces.
“He calls it ‘Windows’ as a way to remember the past. Are you any good at Air Hockey?”
“No,” I replied as I shook my head and turned back to her.
“You’re gonna be a pro before dinner.”
I nodded as Wendy turned the air on and tossed over a mallet.