Chapter 19: Her Own Tree House
Rory wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes. Lorelai always knew what to say. That's what she loved most about her mother. Next she opened the letter from Luke.
My Rory,
I remember this one time, I think you were about ten. You had decided that you were going to run away because you and Lorelai had argued about something. You declared that you were going to go live in a tree house. The only problem with that was no one in Stars Hollow had a tree house. You came into the diner, pouting that you great runaway plan wasn't going to work. You asked me to build you a tree house and I told you I'd get to it.
It only took another ten years but now you can run away to you very own tree house. In the box is a map into the woods to where your tree house is located. There's not much to your tree house. It has a rope ladder, a decent roof that doesn't leak and a cooler that can be used to store cookies or other things you don't want Lorelai to get to.
Your mother mentioned a key in her letter to you. Well that key is to your own house. When you get back from Paris, my childhood home is open to you and whoever you want to live with you. I know it's a pretty big gift but I want you to always have a place you can go to. Not that you can't come here because you always can.
Even before your mother and I were together I would go and talk to my parents about you like you were my own. "My Rory got into Chilton. My Rory got into Harvard, Princeton and Yale." My Rory this and My Rory that. I just want you to know how much it means to me that you have taken on my last name. When Lorelai told me that I cried. My Rory was really going to be My Rory. I love you Rory, more than any other father loves his daughter. Congratulations Rory. You are going to take the world by storm.
Love, Dad
Now if Lorelai's letter made her cry then Luke's caused her to blubber. He built her a tree house and gave her his old house that he grew up in. She thought long about that day. She didn't even remember what the argument with Lorelai was about but she did remember asking Luke to build her a tree house. She asked him over cookies and milk, her regular comfort food before her coffee habit kicked in. In her mind she replayed walking into the diner carrying a tiny backpack stuffed with her books. She was carrying Colonel Clucker, her stuffed chicken.
"Rory where are you going?" he asked the little girl.
"I'm running away. Mom is being a meanie and I'm going to live in a tree house!" she had said so sullenly.
Luke placed a few cookies on a plate and poured her a glass of milk. She sat at the counter munching on her cookies and sipping her milk.
"You know no one in town has a tree house," Luke had said.
"Darn. Now where am I going to go?" Rory had asked. "Luke will you build me a tree house?"
"I'll work on it," he had said.
Rory left her room and found her parents sitting in the living room watching The Way We Were. Audrey was asleep on Luke's shoulder and Chip was resting comfortably on Lorelai's lap. Lorelai kept her hand on Chip's chest making sure it was rising and falling in a normal pattern.
"Thank you Mom," Rory whispered as to not wake up Chip and Audrey. "Thank you for everything."
"Your welcome little girl," Lorelai whispered back.
"Thank you Daddy, for both houses," she whispered. "I'll always be Your Rory."
Rory awoke the next morning early. She went into the kitchen and made herself some coffee. She put some in a travel mug retrieved the map to her tree house and went in search of it. About a half hour later she found it. She climbed the rope ladder and looked out the small window. It over looked the lake. She decided that when Chip and Audrey get bigger she would take them here and let them jump from the tree house and into the lake, something she would have done herself.
She went back home and washed the dirt that had accumulated on her from her hike. She changed into her dress that her grandmother had bought for her and found her parents up and about. Luke was in the kitchen making breakfast. She could smell the chocolate chip pancakes warming on the stove. Chocolate chip pancakes were always abound on special days. Or really bad days.
Rory took a plate and placed two pancakes on it and then scooped eggs next to them. She ate quietly.
"I found my tree house," she said finally. "Thank you for building it Daddy."
Luke smiled at the new title he had been given by his 23 year old daughter. "You're welcome Rory."