“What on earth are you talking about?” asked Pinchas, hands on his hips. “Once we finish, we’re not just gonna stand around watching some people build,” Pinchas looked out at the monstrosity where they’d just collected their wood. “What is that even? Some stairs? A chair? We’re gonna bring games here, and we can have a place to play shesh besh and stuff without our little sisters bothering us!”

“We were bored, remember?” Gilad growled, putting his hands on his hips and leaning toward Pinchas. “When you’re bored, you need to go out and find some action. That’s why we’re building this tree house!”

“When you’re bored,” snarled Pinchas leaning even closer to Gilad, “you need something to do. That’s why we’re building this treehouse! Why would we stand around doing nothing?”

Gilad was about to answer Pinchas with a retort of his own when Yair walked over.

“Are the two of you nuts? When you’re bored, all you need is a bunch of friends to hang out with. You don’t need anything to watch or do. Isn’t that why we’re building this tree house? Just so we can have a place to hang out with each other?”

Gilad and Pinchas stopped yelling at each other and turned to look at Yair. Chanoch coughed. All three boys turned to look at Chanoch.

“Um, it’s getting dark. If we don’t get started, we won’t have a treehouse to argue about,” Chanoch said.

It took all week, but they finally finished their treehouse.

“It looks like someone else is finishing whatever they’re doing, too. Look!” Chanoch pointed to the building they’d seen before.

“Whoa, that looks like a lot of ivory and gold!” Yair gasped.

“Let’s go check it out!” said Gilad

“Not now,” said Chanoch. “There are guards watching. Let’s come back late at night. It will be harder to see us in the dark, and hopefully, the guard will fall asleep.”

When the boys snuck back later, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

Someone had built what looked like an enormous golden throne. There were six steps leading up to the seat with lions on either side.

“Impressive,” whistled Yair.

“I think it’s a copy of Shlomo Hamelech’s throne!” said Chanoch.

“Hey, I think you’re right,” said Gilad as he walked closer.

“Uh, I don’t think you should do that,” said Chanoch as Gilad started to climb the stairs. But Gilad was too enthralled to hear him.

Kaboom! One of the lions stretched out it’s leg and Gilad went flying into the air.

“Um, whoever copied Shlomo Hamelech’s chair seemed to have copied the mechanical lions as well,” said Chanoch.

“It’s late. I think we’d better get out of here before that snoring guard over there wakes up,” said Gilad, limping toward home. “We’ll meet up tomorrow. We’ve got the perfect spot to check out exactly what’s going on around here!”

The next morning, Pinchas arrived carrying a satchel.

“What do you have there?” asked Yair.

“Shesh besh, chess, marbles, and some books,” said Pinchas, looking straight at Gilad. “So we have something to do.”

“Are you nuts?!” Gilad practically shouted. “Did you see that throne last night? Something big is going on. Really big!”

“Yes. I saw it. We all did. But what are we going to do? Stare at it all day long?” Pinchas shouted.

But as the boys approached the spot where the treehouse had been the day before, they stopped in their tracks.

Only wood scraps remained. The entire tree had been chopped down, along with their treehouse.

“What is going on? What happened?” Pinchas sputtered.

“I think we have termites,” Yair said.

“Termites?” laughed Pinchas. “I hope you’re kidding. Termites eat wood. They can’t chop down an entire tree overnight! It must’ve been a bear!”

“A bear! Even a bear can’t tear down an entire tree. An elephant must’ve gotten over here from whatever they’re doing over there!” said Gilad, pointing to where they’d seen the giant throne the day before. All the boys turned to look.

“What a shame our treehouse got destroyed. We need to be higher up to get a good view. Let’s go find another tree, fast,” said Gilad.

Even Pinchas followed, dragging a board in one hand and his sack of games in the other.

“You weren’t serious about the elephant, were you, Gilad?” asked Chanoch. “I mean, you could see that someone cut the tree down with a saw, right?”

“Uh, yeah, sure I noticed it was cut down with a saw. I, uh, I just thought, um, maybe an elephant was taught to use a saw, because they’re so strong and all that. Ya know, elephants can be trained to do all sorts of things.”

“Uh huh. Sure they can,” said Chanoch, sounding unconvinced.

It took all afternoon, but they finally managed to rebuild their tree house in a different tree. As soon as they were finished, Pinchas started climbing down the tree.

“Where on earth are you going?” bellowed Gilad.

“I’m going to get my satchel of games so we have something to do,” said Pinchas very slowly.

“Yair! Can you please explain to Pinchas that we don’t need his games!” said Gilad with his fists clenched at his sides.

“I already told you. I think all we need to have a good time is each other, not games or action,” said Yair. “But, just in this very specific case, maybe you should come look, Pinchas. Gilad is right. Something is going on!”

Curiosity got the better of him, and Pinchas found himself with the other boys gasping at the sight before them.

From higher up in the tree, they could see people building all around the throne. Marble floors were being put down, and the beginnings of walls were going up. It was obvious from up here that the first tree they’d used for their tree house had been in the way of the enormous building rapidly expanding around the throne.

“Let’s go check it out!” Yair said.

The boys started running toward the building site. There, they saw enormous stone pillars. But before the boys could look around anymore, two huge guards appeared and tried to grab them.

“Run!” they shouted, ducking past the guards.

Bam! The guards smashed right into each other!

Huffing and puffing, they reached their tree house safely.

“Now do you see I’m right?” Gilad said to Pinchas, arms folded.

“You’re right that they’re building. A very, very big building. Which will take a long, long time to build. Is that what you want to do? Spend hours and hours and hours watching them build?” said Pinchas.

“Actually, yes,” said Gilad.

Pinchas turned to look at Yair, but Yair looked away.

“I don’t think that’s a regular building,” Yair said more quietly.

Pinchas sighed. “Something interesting does seem to be happening just this once, in boring little Shushan. But we all know Chanoch is the smartest. Chanoch, tell them that when you’re bored, you don’t need to find any action, you just need some games or something to do.”

Chanoch stretched. “I wouldn’t know. I’m never bored.”

Everyone stared at Chanoch.

“There’s always something to think about. I always have ideas in my head or questions I can ask myself. Like, what are they building and why, for example. You know what I think?”

Yair, Pinchas, and Gilad all listened closely while Chanoch continued.

“No one besides Achashveirosh would have a throne like that built. But it’s really, really heavy. Did you see all the gold and ivory in it? And all the mechanics needed to make the lions move? I’m thinking it was too heavy to move… so if you can’t get the throne into the palace, get the palace to the throne.”

“But if I’m right, this tree house is way too close to the palace. They’re going to need gardens and landscaping and a gate. You can’t just build a palace everyone can walk right up to.”

Sure enough, the next afternoon, the boys found the tree had been cut down along with all their hard work, and grass had been put down all around.

“I don’t believe it. What are we gonna do now?” said Yair.

“No worries,” said Gilad. “You heard Chanoch yesterday. Who could be bored when you’ve got a mind to think with? Besides, I heard Achashveirosh is planning a big party for his new capital and Mordechai is telling everyone not to go. I have a feeling there’s gonna be plenty happening in Shushan.”

According to Greek historians, the only people generally allowed to dine with the king were the queen and the king’s mother.

Despite the severe fighting in Shushan on Purim and Shushan Purim, not a single Jew was killed.

The Persian Empire was the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of the ancient Near East.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Jr., Issue 902)