“ Grary, have packed up your
stuff yet?”,cried Mom
“Mom, I just
SAID I am NOT COMING” I replied, quite agitated.
“Oh, come on
Bibs. A little of nature’s touch is all you need. Squirrels, raccoons,
hummingbirds, macaws and many more!” said Dad.
“Including,
snakes, poison ivy, bugs, mice and no-good-dirty-rotten-food-stealing animals,
too!”
“That’s it, Mr. Grary
Bilbo Jones. You’re coming with us whether you like it or not” replied Mom, her
tone rising. When Mom used a “Mr.” infront of my full name, it clearly means
that she is fuming. “Look at your sister! Awwwww! Sweet as an angel!”
I turned around
to see my sister, Maris Filbo Jones. She almost had a golden halo around her
head and her eyes were growing large and her mouth curled into an ethereal
smile. I always think that she does that just to make herself look all cute and
innocent and very immaculate. But I could easily see out of the corner of her
eyes that she was giving me a very smug and sly look. I gave a long devastated
sigh. This was going to be catastrophic.
Dad had planned
a camping ‘adventure’ because he thought that we weren’t spending ‘quality time
together as a family’. Dad worked as a
financial manager and never had enough time to spend with his family. Mom
worked as a librarian in a local library and I, aged 13 and Maris, aged 10 went
to different schools. So, we weren’t exactly meeting each other until the
weekends came around.
Soon, we were
loading our camping tents and other camping gear into our red car. According to
me, the worst part of the trip to the camping site was that Dad and Mom made me
and Maris sing along with them to (I
mean SING) ‘OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM’! I
hope it doesn’t get any worse! Unfortunately, it did get a lot worse.
Searching for a
suitable campsite was another story. We searched for almost an hour until we
finally stuck to a tiny clearing near an enormous lake. The land was grassy and
it sloped towards the lake where it formed some kind of short, natural rock
jetty. A large piece of solid wood that seemed old but quite steady drifted
close to the jetty.
Mom suggested
the tent be put up in the piece of drifting wood as she particularly disliked
clammy, damp earth. The soil was damp but warm enough but Mom was dramatizing
it (the Oscar award is a piece of cake for her).
Putting up the
tent was a huge problem too. First, Dad forgot to bring one of the poles for
the tent so we had to make do with a wooden stick. (How in the world can some
wooden stick be equal to a pole and bear the weight of the tent?) Second, Maris
wanted to help us badly but she doesn't know a thing about camping so she
nailed the nails at the wrong place. Third, Mom forgot her tablets and she
basically can’t live without her tablets so Dad had to drive all the way to the
nearest store to buy one (the nearest one took around half-an-hour by car).
Finally when everything was done, a fat groundhog came noiselessly and nibbled
at the wooden stick and by the time we were aware of what was happening, it had
chunked through the wood, and once more the tent collapsed. We had to put it up
for a second time, unfortunately, with some trouble. I was wary about the whole
trip after all that had happened. Dad somehow figured that out and tried to convince
me by telling its all part of the adventure and is nature’s play.
Soon, twilight
fell and Mom thought it would be good to light a campfire and she made Fibs
(that’s Maris’s pet name) and me go into the woods and collect some firewood.
She gave us two torches and when we entered the almost dark woods, we were in
one piece and when we came out, we came in a couple of pieces. You see, me and
Fibs don’t have brother-sister relationship. It’s more like Voldemort-Harry
Potter relationship. Send us anywhere alone, and we come back scratched and
wounded meaning that we had a fierce battle. That’s exactly what happened when
went to collect firewood. Mom learned her lesson and so she and Fibs went into
the forest to collect firewood. Upon their return, we tried to light a fire
only to find the matchsticks damp. So we had to use the torches. Worse, Dad
wanted to have a campfire sing-along and so we sang ‘HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A
WALL!!’ Boy, I hope this doesn't get any worse. But it did.
It was raining
cats and dogs that night and some good-for-nothing animal had poked a hole on
the roof of our tent and I don’t why it did it but the hole was right on top of
my head so I was soaked to the skin by the time the sun woke up.
“Aieeeeeeeeee!”
SPLASH! “Help, help”
Those were the
words that woke me up the next day on which I was hoping the camping trip would
‘turn over a new leaf’. But it looks like it was too much to hope for. My eyes fluttered
open and I was staring at the roof of the orange tent. Again, I heard that
helpless shout. I threw back the extra blankets, scrambled out of my sleeping
bag, crawled out of the tent and….stopped dead. I was dumbstruck. The wooden
plank was surrounded by water. The grassy land and the rock jetty seemed far
away and I felt like I was floating? Floating? I looked around. Oh my goodness!
The wooden plank was floating. My face went slack. We were floating on the
lake. Of course, we forgot to tie the wooden piece to the jetty! What about the
splash? I looked around the wooden plank and saw a tiny brunette head bobbing
up and down. Blood drained from me face and I stood rooted to the ground as
realization dawned over me. That little brunette head was no one but my awful
good-for-nothing kin. My stomach turned to ice as I quickly hurried inside the
tent to find my parents only to find them gone. Oh great! I always told them
that morning walks may be good for health but not for situations like these.
I ran back
outside to still find her head bobbing but with less energy now. I had a quick
thought. What would my mother do? She’d probably hold her dress up in her thumb
and index fingers and corner up and say a high pitched ‘aaaaaaa’. What about
dad? He’d say “its nature’s play. Let her learn swimming”. What about me? Well,
I know swimming a little bit. Chances of surviving are like 40%. Chances of
getting eaten by the fishes are like 70%.
I checked for
the brunette head again. Gone! No other go, I dived in after her. The water felt cool. If it weren’t for this
situation, I would’ve loved to waddle in the shallower parts of the lake. I
dismissed the idea out of my head and doggy-paddled faster to reach her.
Luckily, she wasn’t too deep in the water so I took a deep breath and dipped
inside the water. I couldn’t see inside the water so I tried to feel where she
was and successfully, I caught her slender arms. I hauled her up and pushed her
to the surface and followed after her in triumph.
I heaved her
onto the wooden board and stared at her anxiously, my heart slamming against my
rib cage. I wasn’t too keen on blowing air into her mouth. Fortunately, she
spluttered, coughed and her eyes slowly fluttered open. She stared blankly at
me.
I didn’t know
what to do. I can’t or I don’t want to embrace her and I certainly can’t scold
her (she’d tell mom and mom would reprimand me) so I blankly asked,
“What on earth
were you doing in that lake?”
“I um… actually…
I sleepwalked into the lake” she replied, a little wary of the answer.
I was
flabbergasted. Sleepwalked into the lake? I mean I knew she sleepwalks but I
never knew it could lead to this. I was getting a little annoyed when someone
bellowed. I turned around to see Dad and Mom who were wearing huge smiles on
their faces.
“Now now now. Looks
like you guys have been taking a small dip in the lake”, said Dad, smiling
broadly.
Dip in the lake?
Me and my sister exchanged looks. Oh my god! This doesn't seem to go very good!
