Once, six orphans decided that their destination
should be down the river towards the southwestern plains, or forests. They
had not wished to leave the orphanage by the orphan train, instead they wanted
to go on adventures down the river.
"Hurry up you two, we’re already late meeting the other three!" James whispered
urgently in the icy darkness of their last night at the awful orphanage. James
was a tall and slender young man with tanned skin and deep dark brown hair,
who at this moment was hurrying his two friends to drag any possessions they
had decided to bring a lot faster.
"We’re going as fast as we ca…"
"Need some help you three? I can carry anything you want me to!" interrupted
Sidney. She was tall and slender with hair so dark and shiny it sent a shiver
up your spine at every look!
The other three looked in amazement as the strong, sinewy, and dark form
lifted a bag upon each shoulder and walked toward the river as the others
snapped out of short daze and began to follow her. Seeing the other two ahead
they started jogging only to be stopped by the hairy and ugly arms of Mr.
Gahster.
"Hey, go get your teddy bear to go with your rabbit pj’s Mr. Gahster!" jeered
James who had slid noiselessly past the teacher.
James’ commotion allowed the others to run around Mr. Gahster, pushing him
into a group of kids coming to see what was all the noise was about. They
ran toward the dark and shiny outlines of two canoes where the others were
waiting.
"Get in, get in!" said Amanda urgently.
Once they were all in, they pushed off with their paddles and screamed with
joy. Their thoughts were all the same, they were finally on an adventure of
a lifetime.
Sidney could not have been happier at any time in her past. She and her
friends were finally going home, not a place to live, but a place to enjoy.
James was paddling in the front of one canoe with Sidney steering in the
back. Tommy was steering in the back of the other canoe where Amanda was
paddling in the front. Brandon and Tia were in the middle of each canoe and
were making dinner with some of the food they had manage to smuggle from
the orphanage.
It was almost dawn when they ate. They had berries, gruel and fish that
had been cooked over a canned fire. Sidney stood up after the meal to switch
spots with James but the boat made a sudden lurch and threw her into the icy
water.
She felt a cold chill envelope her, and when she tried to take a deep breath
she only filled her mouth with something that felt like silk. After what seemed
like an eternity, she felt two warm arms pull her up onto a thick, warm soft
blanket. Then she heard faraway voices and fell asleep.
As Sidney slept off her accident, the others found a peaceful, deserted
landing area.
"Can we stay here? I mean we have no clue how far down the rive.."
"Hey look, Sidney’s coming around," Tommy interrupted, "I always knew nothing’
could kill her!!!"
"Ha ha ha, Something kill me, ya right!" chuckled Sidney deeply.
James also chuckled, "Ya, then get up Lead-head! Let’s see ya walk."
With a challenge on hand, Sidney yanked her self up and out of the canoe,
ran over to James, and whispered, "See, I’m fine. No dark, icy waters can
hurt me!"
They all fell down and laughed deeply. It was their first laugh in years,
or since they came to the orphanage. They had to agree that they would need
shelter to stay happy, or at least to stay healthy. After much discussion,
they decided to split into three pairs and take off in three directions. They
would whistle if they found any sort of shelter.
James and Amanda went down-river while Brandon and Tommy went up-river.
Sidney and Tia, best friends, were walking deeper into the woods.
Tia was a small chubby girl with her hair in golden curls running down her
back to her knees. She was physically strong, but definitely not a genius.
Sidney was walking ahead of Tia, who was having trouble keeping up. When
Sidney was out of site Tia would wait for her to maneuver her way into site
again. One of these frequent times instead of seeing Sidney come back, she
heard the soft vibrant sound of Sidney’s shrill scream. Without thinking,
she ran towards the scream only to be confronted by the furry face of a bear.
Sidney was lying close to a stick screaming like the devil himself was staring
her in the eye. Tia, whose eye’s were transfixed upon the bears, stayed rooted
to the spot, even when the other four came up beside her.
"Get up Sid, hey, Tia look away. No, no, no, Brandon you chuck the rocks
not roll them", said Amanda who was trying to give advise to everyone, while
throwing rocks at the bear.
"Shut up Mandy, hey, look, he is leaving. Ha, we win, we win," said Brandon.
After Sidney explained her adventure with the bear, cave, and her falling
over the stick, they decided to claim the cave as a house, or a camp until
they built a house. First, they examined the cave. It looked ordinary, but
had passageways leading into different littler caves, and had an opening in
the back to get out. The rooms were large, but not as large as the front and
back rooms, altogether there were ten rooms and two places to put doors. Then
they went back to the river and carried the canoes and luggage up to the
cave. Then lugged them through the narrow opening into the back room where
they gently set the canoes down and grabbed everything that was theirs and
pulled it to their part of the cave. There they unpacked everything and set
it where they wanted it.
The front room was the living room and it looked empty with only a rug at
each opening and one oil lamp set on a ridge of the cave. To the left passage
was the kitchen with a canned fire and a rug at each opening, to the left
of the kitchen was James’ room. He was a gun adorer so it had many guns around
it, for light he to had an oil lamp. On the other side of the kitchen was
Sidney’s room, she adored sewing and cooking, so she had sewing and cooking
stuff on every ledge of her room.
The middle passageway led to Brandon’s room, then to Amanda’s room. Since
they were twins, they had everything in common. Their rooms were full of wood
and knifes, they enjoyed woodwork, and building.
The passage on the right led to Tia and Tommy’s rooms. Tia’s room was full
of brushes and scissors, her life ambition was to dress hair and cut hair.
Tommy’s room was full of games; he enjoyed making the boards and their pieces.
Then it led to a dining room; all it had was pictures and china. All the passages
led to the front and back rooms; this would be good for later incidents.
Once they finished everything they were so hungry they thought they would
die if they didn’t eat soon. It was so late that if you stepped outside of
the cave an icy chill would envelope you and fear would tingle even the bravest
of brave’s backbone.
Without anything to eat, and barely any warmth in the cave, they decided
to all sleep in the kitchen and wait until morning to eat. Tommy was the only
one that slept well; this was because he had a very large lunch. Sidney couldn’t
sleep because she had slept the majority of the last two days. James &
Brandon couldn’t sleep because Tommy kept rolling over them. Tia and Amanda
couldn’t sleep because they were afraid bears would come and gobble them
all up.
After what seemed like an eternity, dawn came like opening your eyes after
a nightmare. They had no more food left so they decided to search the area
and come up with what would become a pretty good breakfast since they hadn’t
had dinner the night before. As before, they went off in three separate directions,
but this time in search of food instead of shelter. Only this time they had
a boy and a girl in each group. Sidney and James took off down-river while
the twins; Amanda and Brandon went upriver. Tia and Tommy went deeper into
the forest.
"Can we stop for awhile, Brandon?" asked Amanda breathing hard.
"No, we cannot stop. We still have to search for food. Hey look at those
berries, I wonder what they taste like?" replied Brandon.
"Let’s go see!"
"Okay."
While Brandon and Amanda had found a fortunate and delicious discovery,
Sidney and James were even more triumphant! They had located an elk that
had appeared to die from a broken neck. It was a yearling buck with antlers
that could been made into weapons and other tools that would be useful in
the days to come. Grabbing a nearby branch, they took James and Sidney’s
belts and tied him onto the branch. Each elevating one end they slowly yet
successfully carried him back to the cave where they found the twins with
their discovery. Tia & Tommy showed up moments later with nothing at
all.
"Wow! Look at all of the meat we have. And the hide can be made into clothes
and shoes, too!" announced Tommy excitedly.
"Yeah, but we need some good cook to make our feast," sighed Brandon discouraged.
"I’ll volunteer. I’d be proud to do the honors," volunteered Sidney who
had done nothing but fall out of the boat and sleep the entire journey.
"Really, really? You would be willing to do that for us. Thanks Sid. You’re
a pal." Exclaimed the twins together.
"Duhh, what do ya think I am, an enemy?" retorted Sidney jokingly.
"Oh, just go and cook the meal, already. Sheesh, people these days." Replied
Tia.
"Shush up or you’ll get none!" Sidney said to the group as she stood over
the large carcass and tiny canned fire.
Looking at their situation, they realized they would need a large fire to
cook the wild game. Once Sidney made a fire in a cleared out spot outside
of the cave, she prepared a feast like none they had experienced before! The
meal was awesome: Fresh berries, pureed berries, berry juice. Elk and berry
soup and an elk steak so lucious that it felt like it melted in their mouths.
They ate off the china that Sidney had insisted they lug along.
"I’m stuffed! I feel like I’ve eaten an elephant," burped Brandon.
"That’s nothing’, I feel so sick that I could explode any moment now," replied
Tia.
"Yeah… isn’t it great!" giggled Amanda.
"Oh, and thanks Sid. You’re a better cook than Ms. Cookie at the orphanage!"
teased James.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment or were you insulting my culinary
skills?" Sidney rolled her eyes acting all hurt and offended.
They all fell over rolling in laughter. Their second laugh since they had
escaped. With all the labors of the day, the group had lost half of a day
just preparing the food and the other half enjoying it. They did not realize
how late it was until the first star appeared in the sky. With a warm fire
and full bellies, the Colorado Kids fell quickly to sleep in front of the
still-red coals of the fire.
Tia, sensing something was amiss, awakened before the others. Seeing the
empty spot beside her where Sidney had vacated figured she was inside the
cave. So, she looked in the cave for her friend, but found nothing except
what they had left there the evening before. Screaming in terror remembering
the bear incident, she quickly and not quietly, awoke the others.
"What’s up, Tia…hey, where’s Sidney." The others became alarmed at their
missing friend.
"The bear took Sid! We no long have a six pack, we are just five," sobbed
Tia.
"Don’t jump to conclusions, Tia, you always act like a baby," accused Brandon.
"I’m no baby, you’re just jealous!"
"Jealous of what? Your hair or your appetite?"
As they quaraled Sidney walked in with a bundle of dry wood, " Would you
all help me here?"
Tia jumped up and bowled Sidney over in a giant hug, the wood sprang from
Sidney’s arms, and rolled everywhere. When Tia got off of Sidney, there was
almost a minute of complete silence, and then sheer laughter as they all walked
into the cave.