“Those will go great in the Dino Den!”
“Those are really … nice, Mom.” EJ tried to sound happy about dinosaur curtains but was failing miserably.
“Oh, really?” Mom said, sounding skeptical. “I thought you might like
these
better.” With a quick tug on the fabric, Mom pulled the curtains inside out to reveal red fabric with gold and silver stars that shimmered in the sunlight—not a single dinosaur in sight!
“Oh man!” This time it was EJ who was amazed. “Mom! Those are
cool
! How did you do that?”
“I’ll show you how to switch curtains once I install these bad boys,” Mom said. “And since you couldn’t come up with a name that would work for both of you, why not have two names?”
Mom held up a wooden nameplate on a string that she had painted herself. One side said I SAAC ’ S D INO D EN and the other side said EJ’ S S TAR P ALACE .
“You can hang it on the nail that’s next to the front door,” Mom explained. “And I have one more surprise….” Mom pulled back the big plastic bags to reveal what was inside: two oversized beanbag chairs, one covered in Isaac’s dinosaur material and the other in EJ’s red-with-stars material. “Homeyness plus comfyness! What do you think?”
“I think we may never see our kids in our own house anymore,” Dad said as EJ and Isaac plopped down into their new chairs with big smiles on their faces. “On second thought, this tree house is going to be so rad that maybe
I
want to move out here, too!”
EJ laughed. “No, Dad! Kids only.” Then she added, “Well, adults can come—but by invitation only.”
Dad had a far-off look in his eye, still imagining living in the tree house. “I’d call it the Dad Cave. Yeah, that has a nice ring to it.”
“That paint job on the shutters looks great, David,” Foreman EJ says as she observes one of her best employees. “Think we’ll be ready to hang them on time?”
“Yes ma’am,” David says, raising his paintbrush to his forehead in a salute, leaving a smudge of green paint on his hard hat. “Right on schedule.”
EJ nods and encourages David to keep up the hard work. This is the biggest, most important house construction she’s ever overseen, and so far everything has gone according to plan. The only strange thing is that nobody knows who is actually going to live in the house. The whole job was commissioned anonymously, but since the payments keep coming, EJ has found no reason to complain or even question who is behind it
.
Ten thousand square feet of living space, complete with a bowling alley and driving range in the lower level, a forty-seat state-of-the-art movie theater (with plush reclining seats), an Olympic-size swimming pool in the backyard with eight waterslides emptying from the house’s second floor into the pool, a full arcade with video games and skee-ball (EJ’s favorite), eleven bedrooms, and fifteen bathrooms—EJ wouldn’t mind living in this house once it’s all done
.
EJ walks into the living room to check on the interior decorator named Tabby, who is installing curtain rods and curtains
.
“Looks amazing,” EJ says, admiring her work. “Do you know who is supposed to be moving into this place when it’s done?”
“All I’ve heard is that it’s some kind of famous inventor,” Tabby says, adjusting the curtains so they hang evenly across the window. “Whoever it is must be extremely rich, so I’ll be interested to hear what he invented.”
A young boy walks into the room, sipping from the juice box in his hand and dragging a beanbag chair behind him. “Hi!” he says between sips. “Is the arcade ready yet?”
“Excuse me, but this is an active worksite,” EJ says, making sure that her “foreman” name tag on her chest is visible. “You need to have a hard hat on. And by the way, who are you?”
“I’m the owner,” he says. “This is my house.”
“Wait a second,” EJ says, not believing him even a little bit. “What did you
“Those are really … nice, Mom.” EJ tried to sound happy about dinosaur curtains but was failing miserably.
“Oh, really?” Mom said, sounding skeptical. “I thought you might like
these
better.” With a quick tug on the fabric, Mom pulled the curtains inside out to reveal red fabric with gold and silver stars that shimmered in the sunlight—not a single dinosaur in sight!
“Oh man!” This time it was EJ who was amazed. “Mom! Those are
cool
! How did you do that?”
“I’ll show you how to switch curtains once I install these bad boys,” Mom said. “And since you couldn’t come up with a name that would work for both of you, why not have two names?”
Mom held up a wooden nameplate on a string that she had painted herself. One side said I SAAC ’ S D INO D EN and the other side said EJ’ S S TAR P ALACE .
“You can hang it on the nail that’s next to the front door,” Mom explained. “And I have one more surprise….” Mom pulled back the big plastic bags to reveal what was inside: two oversized beanbag chairs, one covered in Isaac’s dinosaur material and the other in EJ’s red-with-stars material. “Homeyness plus comfyness! What do you think?”
“I think we may never see our kids in our own house anymore,” Dad said as EJ and Isaac plopped down into their new chairs with big smiles on their faces. “On second thought, this tree house is going to be so rad that maybe
I
want to move out here, too!”
EJ laughed. “No, Dad! Kids only.” Then she added, “Well, adults can come—but by invitation only.”
Dad had a far-off look in his eye, still imagining living in the tree house. “I’d call it the Dad Cave. Yeah, that has a nice ring to it.”
“That paint job on the shutters looks great, David,” Foreman EJ says as she observes one of her best employees. “Think we’ll be ready to hang them on time?”
“Yes ma’am,” David says, raising his paintbrush to his forehead in a salute, leaving a smudge of green paint on his hard hat. “Right on schedule.”
EJ nods and encourages David to keep up the hard work. This is the biggest, most important house construction she’s ever overseen, and so far everything has gone according to plan. The only strange thing is that nobody knows who is actually going to live in the house. The whole job was commissioned anonymously, but since the payments keep coming, EJ has found no reason to complain or even question who is behind it
.
Ten thousand square feet of living space, complete with a bowling alley and driving range in the lower level, a forty-seat state-of-the-art movie theater (with plush reclining seats), an Olympic-size swimming pool in the backyard with eight waterslides emptying from the house’s second floor into the pool, a full arcade with video games and skee-ball (EJ’s favorite), eleven bedrooms, and fifteen bathrooms—EJ wouldn’t mind living in this house once it’s all done
.
EJ walks into the living room to check on the interior decorator named Tabby, who is installing curtain rods and curtains
.
“Looks amazing,” EJ says, admiring her work. “Do you know who is supposed to be moving into this place when it’s done?”
“All I’ve heard is that it’s some kind of famous inventor,” Tabby says, adjusting the curtains so they hang evenly across the window. “Whoever it is must be extremely rich, so I’ll be interested to hear what he invented.”
A young boy walks into the room, sipping from the juice box in his hand and dragging a beanbag chair behind him. “Hi!” he says between sips. “Is the arcade ready yet?”
“Excuse me, but this is an active worksite,” EJ says, making sure that her “foreman” name tag on her chest is visible. “You need to have a hard hat on. And by the way, who are you?”
“I’m the owner,” he says. “This is my house.”
“Wait a second,” EJ says, not believing him even a little bit. “What did you
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