Sometimes we have a flashback. A moment that returns us to a time that has long passed. Whether it’s good, bad, pretty or ugly, there is no turning back. Maybe it’s a certain scent or a picture. For me, it’s an old friend coming around again.
I remember a time when I had a group of friends that all lived within walking distance; being that we weren’t old enough to drive, it was perfect. Every day after school we would meet up at Dakota’s house. There was no question as to where everyone was going.
Up the road from Dakota’s was some woods. The woods were rather large, dark and full of adventure. Being kids, this was the most exciting and fun opportunity we had every day.
Daily activities involved making fires, cooking things on shovels, telling stories and of course, exploring. One little adventure has been ingrained into my mind forever.
There was this small tree. The trunk split into two long thick branches right around our waists. In the middle of the trunk splitting was an actual split that went deep into it.
One day we were playing around that tree; I have no idea what we were actually doing. Probably nothing exciting to report, unfortunately. But we created our own unexpected adventure that day.
We saw something move inside of it. Could have been nothing. But it wasn’t.
Inside the tree lived some sort of animal with beady little eyes. Falisha, always being the instigator of the group, thought it was a good idea to get a long stick and poke it down in the tree split.
When she poked something squishy, she ran away screaming. Which in turn, made me and Dakota run away scared as well.
Being the instigator, troublemaker kids that we were, we took turns putting the stick in the tree to feel what it was that was inside. Let me tell you, that wasn’t a good idea.
Next thing we knew, something came crawling out of the tree right towards us. This time we really ran. We had to regroup and make a plan.
Several minutes later, we went back. It was time to try out our well thought out plan of trying to poke it again.
We stuck the stick in real fast. Then suddenly, we didn’t just feel one squishy thing. We had disturbed a nest of sleeping baby mice. Mice were climbing out the tree everywhere – more than we thought could have lived in there. It was a moment that my heart stopped. Falisha and I were clinging to each other, screaming.
Needless to say, we learned our lesson. After the feeling of being attached by 10 or more baby wild mice, we never went back to that tree. Adventures from that moment on no longer involved that tree or anything in that area.
KAT SHINDLEDECKER
