They called it “The Fort” - a little refuge made with fallen tree branches arranged around a group of rocks. It sits in the forest just a short walk from the family cabin in Big Bear Lake, California. Alena and her cousins would rebuild the fort on their visits as children. I took over duties when I started visiting the cabin with her and her family. I was probably 19 then. Now I’m 42. We haven’t rebuilt the fort in years, but we decided to take a short trip up here while the kids are on spring break. Our kids are 9 and 6, and I think this is the first time they’ve seen the fort. It doesn’t mean anything to them yet, maybe one day it will. But right now they’re just happy to be out of the house. It’s a very small thing, this pile of rocks and dead branches. But I feel the history there and that’s.. comforting, or something in that direction, it’s hard to explain. I recognized some of the branches and logs, the shapes, it’s all the same. Sort of collapsed, some things buried a bit,