It has been a few years since that first camping trip, we have made the trip to Candy Mountain many, many times and every camp out was a trip, get it, a trip. Now it was that time of year again it was time to go camping. It had been almost a month since our last camping trip because we had to wait and let things calm down and it was now time for another one. This time without the Gargoyle, Max’s sister, along things would go better.
We spent at least two hours planning it. When we told our mom’s they helped us pack and practically pushed us out the door. They told us to camp out as long as we wanted, in fact they said a week would not be long enough, we should stay gone longer. Then before we were out the door they started talking about having a party and celebrating and how nice it would be to let things be normal without us around. It was terrible the way they carried on.
The last time, Max’s mom insisted we take his sister with us. We were beside ourselves over this. We tried to talk her out of it, explaining that she would be scared and besides she was a girl and would be in the way. It was no use; we were stuck with her. When we looked at the Gargoyle she gave us a look and a smile that was a cross between Frankenstein and Count Dracula, with that look I got goose bumps and knew we were in trouble, when I looked at her again my goose bumps got goose bumps. We were doomed I couldn’t imagine what terrible things we were in for.
She loaded her pack with enough stuff to camp out for a week. I mean to tell you she had so much loaded in it that a mule would have collapsed with it. She then told us to pick it up and get going. She didn’t let us argue because she looked at us like she was sizing us up for dinner. So we struggled to pick it up and we were off. Figured it was in our best interest to do what she said if we wanted to live. She then took off at a walk that would have made a Marine sergeant pass out.
When we got to where we were going to camp me and Max just collapsed under the load, thinking that death couldn’t come soon enough, every muscle hurt. The Gargoyle looked fresh and rested, like she had just left the house. She then took one of the camping chairs she made us bring and sat down and started to shout orders at us. We put up the tent, cleaned up the camping area, gathered the fire wood, started the fire, cooked the supper, washed the dishes, made the beds, and finally cleaned the camp again. In general, she made us do all the work while she just sat around and watched us with that evil smile which she gave us every time we slowed up. I knew we were going to be eaten in our sleep. We were done for, finished, kaput, they would never find our bodies.
After we had the camp set up we all went exploring Candy Mountain. This is a small mountain that was about 3 miles south of where we lived. It is multicolored and looks like the Badlands of South Dakota. It had draws, canyons, rocks, sagebrush, snakes and all the stuff that we loved. A perfect place for two adventure seeking guys and a crazy sister to run wild. Maybe lose somebody in the process, hint, hint.
We have played and climbed all over this mountain many times and know it by heart. It’s our mountain, ours, ours, ours. But no matter what we did we couldn’t lose her. Every time we thought we had won and she was lost never to be seen again, we would turn around and there she would be, with a smile and a laugh that gave you nightmares for years to come.
When we weren’t trying to lose the Gargoyle, we checked every nook and cranny looking for bears, bobcats and whatever we could find for something to carry the Gargoyle off to its den, but with no luck.
We were really looking for a bear it was the only thing that stood a chance with the Gargoyle. It didn’t matter to us that there had not been a bear seen in the area for over fifty years, we looked anyway. You never know, maybe somebody missed one.
When we got back to camp late in the day, lo and behold, there were bear tracks all over the place. Well, maybe not bear tracks, but they looked like bear tracks, hard for us to tell since we have never seen one, but they were close enough for us. It was getting dark so we decided to follow the tracks tomorrow. No sense in taking a change of the bear eating us by mistake in the dark.
That night we sat around the fire and the Gargoyle told ghost stories. She told them real good. Almost like she was friends with them and knew them personally. When we finally went to bed Max and myself were plenty scared. We stayed awake for hours, or so it seemed. Our eyes moving back and forth like radar seeing everything that wasn’t there, our ears were picking up sounds from twenty miles away. When we fell asleep is hard to say, but we did.
We were really sleeping when all of a sudden this blood curling scream woke us. We sat bolt upright and looked around. The tent was shaking and there was something huge and black looming in the middle of the tent. A BEAR WAS AFTER US.
Max and me left that tent like we were shot out of a cannon. Still in our sleeping bags we took off to parts unknown. Let me tell you, running while still in a sleeping bag is no problem if you’re scared enough. In fact we figured if they ever had an Olympic event that involved running in sleeping bags we were sure to get silver and gold, one of us had to be first.
After about a hundred yards of running we slowed down and finally stopped. We looked around and it was just us, the Gargoyle was missing. We thought about it for a while but then decided we had better go back and rescue her before the bear ate her. Actual we felt sorry for the bear and wanted to save him before he ate her and got an upset stomach. If we let the bear eat her Max’s mom would never let us hear the end of it.
As we approached the camp we stopped and looked around for a couple of good sticks to defend ourselves with. Thus prepared we entered the camp.
As we approached the tent something moved inside it. We jumped it from outside swinging our sticks and jumping all over it. After a tremendous fight Max’s sister crawled out, looking the worse for wear. We looked in the tent for the bear; we looked all around the camp. How did the bear get out of the tent without us seeing it? We asked her what happened to the bear, when we left the camp she was being eaten by a bear and we came back to save her and that is what we were doing when we jumped on the tent.
After making several remarks about our intelligence and about doing damage to various parts of our bodies, she finally told us what had happened. She explained that she had had a leg cramp in the middle of the night and sat up and grabbed the tent pole and let out a scream. “Oh”, was all we could say.
After explaining that she made us rebuild the tent and camp and go back to sleep. The next morning she made us take it all down again. Wish she would make up her mind. Since we had it down we decided to go home.
When we got back home she told Max’s mom before we could say anything, about how she had done all the work and that we had sat around doing nothing just giving orders. She went on to explain how we had scared her in the middle of the night and then had tried to do her in by beating up the tent with her inside it and she was just a nervous wreck now thanks to us. We couldn’t get a word in edge wise to defend ourselves and when we did get to talk his mom didn’t believe us anyway.
We decided we had just as well go to our club house; there was nothing we could say that would change anything. As we left the Gargoyle stuck her tongue out at us and then gave us that evil smile again. The goose bumps chased each other up and down my arms at that smile.
Now we were set to go camping again, this time without the Gargoyle, I hope. After this trip we will have to figure out a pet for ourselves, something soft and furry.
