Childhood Campaigns

Back in the innocent days of youth, two pairs of brothers, one of which was I, enjoyed adventure. Capture the flag, manhunt or just exploring the woods would satisfy our need for adventure. Although, one day we found enough adventure to keep us satisfied for days.

Our quartet of forest explorers began as normal. We dressed in our usual uniforms of mismatched camouflage and dark colored clothing. The four of us set out on our mission by sneaking first behind houses to the edge of the woods. Travel through brush and trees were easy for four young boys with too much energy. A river came up in our path. Dubbing it the first river, we made our way across what looked like an old concrete truck crossing. It was at one end a marsh, flowing out the other side as a stream. Growth covered the bridge and made passing difficult.

Overcoming our first obstacle was a challenge, but not a setback. We continued marching through the forest amidst an army of deciduous and coniferous soldiers. Before long we came to a path and we followed it for a while. The path led us beside another stream, or maybe the same stream just around the bend. We came up with a name for it and called it the second river. An original name for it, but later it was found out that it was called Bad Luck Brook, a more fitting name. We did not however cross this river, but continued on the path beside it. The path eventually directed us away from the stream, and we marched on.

The path brought us to an opening. Large white piles of spent clamshells loomed above us. This was the refuse from a clambake, a sign of civilization and more importantly property. Property that was most likely private. Cautiously we crept in this area. Surely it would be our peril if we were to be discovered. We crept further into the clambake compound. Sneaking about, we hid under fir trees and behind large rocks. In the distance, by large white buildings used for preparing and consuming seafood of all sorts, we saw humans playing wiffle ball. The people were rather large, at least bigger than a thirteen year old. This was now very dangerous; we were trespassing on their property. We had now found an enemy, and were on their territory. We must escape quickly. The four of us continued to our last cover, wary of this new danger. We now had to make a dash to the woods. This was tricky, the timing had to be right. We must not be seen. One at a time, we dashed for the woods.

A success, we were not seen, or so we thought. A short trot through the woods would have brought us into the safety of the street. We were in the woods ten yards from the drive and 300 from the street. We had not suspected that our enemy was aware of our presence, in which case we planned to walk up the drive to the safety of the street. The two older brothers always went first to check it out. My friend and I, being the younger of the group and more likely to blow our cover, stayed behind to await the signal of the older boys. The two of us were like sitting ducks wearing camouflage in the midst of fir trees.

A rustling of branches, then two bodies sprinting through the brush gave us our signal, run! We had been wrong; the enemy had seen us. Our brothers came crashing through the brush and continued right by us. I knew what I had to do; I dashed under some bushes for cover. However, my friend had just stood there, and was immediately captured by the compound guards. I was next to be found in my poor attempt at hiding. Third to fall prisoner to the guards was my friend’s brother. My brother was the tricky one and it took our captors a few minutes of looking for him until he surrendered to them.

These captors were not old men, and in fact were no more than 10 years older than the oldest of our group. They were quite rude, and it seemed they only cared to scare us a bit. After settling their terms of capture, we were set free to go. As we began our way to the street, we were threatened to leave within a short time span or else we would be roughed up. We began to run as fast as our sapling legs could carry us. When they saw they had scared us enough to run in fear, they turned back and continued their game back at the compound.

They only wanted to scare us and have a good laugh, just as we had been searching for adventure. We got the last laugh, as we had only run to humor them, we did not run in fear. We certainly did get enough adventure for that day.