"Hey, Sean! Set up the tent, will ya? I'm gonna go find some firewood."
As Gavin disappeared into the brush, I reflected back on how me, a 14-year-old kid; and Gavin, a 16-year-old, were able to go on a camping trip by ourselves in the Kanderby National Forest. I remembered how hard it was to explain to Mom that there wasn't going to be any trouble. The forest was only three miles out of town. I wasn't going to miss any school, we were only going to camp Saturday and Sunday. I got to go, but she still made me bring an extra two bags' worth of stuff. Dad didn't seem to mind much.
I started assembling the tent.
Now, Gavin's family, on the other hand, seemed almost too eager to get rid of him. They probably were. Gavin told me that, as he was exiting the house, he heard his father working up a plan to get rid of Gavin's sister. His father had said to his mother, "Now we just need to convince his sister that there's an all-weekend sale at the mall."
As I drove in the last nail, I heard Gavin return. "Jeez, Sean! It was too much trouble finding some wood. Almost thought I needed to hold a beaver hostage and make him cut some wood for me!"
"Yeah?", I said as I began to roll out the sleeping bags. "You could've just climbed a tree and broke off some weak branches."
"Aw, and ruin my good shirt?" He pointed to his t-shirt that stated 'Kangaroos Rule' and had a design of a kangaroo. "That bark can really stain."
"Didn't you get that from your brother in Australia?", I questioned.
"Yeah, and anything foreign is something you gotta take care of.", Gavin said in a matter-of-fact way.
We finished unpacking just as the stars appeared in the sky. Gavin brought out some big, multi-colored marshmallows from his pack, as I started the fire.
"What should we do tomorrow?", I said as Gavin handed me a stick with three marshmallows on it.
"Well, we gotta sleep in!" he said as he brought his own stick of marshmallows over the fire.
"Huh? Why?"
"Sean, Sean, Sean! You don't know the ritual?", Gavin said fake-seriously. "Sleeping in on a Saturday morning is a must!"
"Alrrrright....but then what should we do?"
"As I was looking for firewood, I found the most amazing, most spectacular, most extraordinary thing ever!", Gavin hyped. Wanna know what it was?"
"You're going to tell me anyway, aren't you?"
"It was a cave!", he said excitedly.
"So?", I said. "A cave. Woo-hoo."
"Sean, a cave could have anything in it!"
"That's the problem, Gavin. There could be anything, like wolves, bears, pumas,...."
"Alright, but this cave had a sign by it."
"A sign?" That got my attention. "What'd it say?"
"It said, 'Abandoned coal mine. Danger! Keep out!' "
"Well, doesn't sound like we should go in there, though I am curious."
"But Sean! Think of what we could find in there! Plus, it looked pretty safe, from what I saw."
"Alright.", I gave in. "But if there's ANY sign of danger, we leave."
The next morning, we ate a breakfast of scrambled eggs which Gavin cooked-and they didn't taste very good. We then got ready to go to the cave.
"Lessee, we got the flashlight, the jerky snacks, the knife...blah, blah, blah,.....right, we're set!", Gavin stated, closing our backpack.
"Do you remember where the cave is?" I questioned.
"Of course, Sean! I've got a good memory for these things!"
After a while of walking, Gavin began to get chatty.
"Hey, maybe we can find some gold and get rich!"
"It's a coal mine. The most we'll find is coal.", I said.
"Well, you never know.", Gavin said solemnly.
"Is this it?" I pointed to a large cave entrance.
"Yep, that's the one!" Gavin said, viewing the sign he had stated last night. "Let's go in!"
I turned on the flashlight as we entered the pitch-dark cavern. We moved further into the cave, with only a long, thin passageway to take. The sound of water dripping echoed in the corridor. Stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere, and we had to walk carefully because of them.
"Geez, what's up with all these 'mites and 'tites?", Gavin said as he tripped over another stalagmite.
"Well, I think water forms them, somehow, and there's sure a lot of water dripping." I remembered.
"Ow!", Gavin said as he ran into a stalactite. "Well, geez, these things are annoying!"
"Well then, watch your st-ahhhhh!" I screamed. The ground went out from under us, and we tumbled down!
"Ahhh...ow...what?" I got up from the soft dirt I was laying on. I felt as if I had been laying there for a while. "Gavin? Gavin? Are you here?"
I began to look around-and gasped. Crystals lined the ceiling, the walls, and some of the floor. They were large, and shined like the moon. Some were red, some yellow, and some just plain white. It was an amazing sight!
"I guess I should look for Gavin.", I said to no one.
"Naw, you don't need to."
"What?! Who's there!?", I yelled.
"Relax, Sean. It's only me." Gavin rose up from among the crystals. "Me and a big bump on my head."
"It's good to see you, Gavin. Do you have the supplies?"
"Yeah, right here." Gavin picked up the backpack. "Have the flashlight?"
"Ah, no.", I said.
"That's okay. That big hole in the wall giving out light probably means we won't need one."
"Hey!", I said too excitedly. "A way out! What are we waiting for?"
When we exited to the outside through the hole, we were faced with a new problem. We were now at a steep cliff on a mountainside! There were only mine cart tracks to get down with, which were old and rusted anyway.
"Yikes! Loooong drop.", Gavin said, looking down.
"Too bad we don't have a mine cart!", I said jokingly.
"Ah, but we do." Gavin pointed to a junky old mine cart, sitting on the tracks nearby. "Let's go!"
"But it's-ah, darn...I guess we have no choice...", I admitted.
We got in the cart, and Gavin gave it a push off, since the lever to control it was broken off.
"I guess we'll get a roller coaster ride! Woo-hoo!", Gavin stated with no fear.
"Calm down, will you?", I responded weakly, as the cart began to pick up speed going downhill.
The cart rolled left, right, up, down, and directions I never thought existed. We could be going three miles per hour one second, 180 miles the next. I covered my eyes.
Suddenly, I heard the best words in my life. "We're done." Gavin said, almost disappointedly.
I opened my eyes and got out after Gavin. We were in another cave, and it was even more amazing than the last one. There were several pools of lava around the large cavern, illuminating everything. I looked at Gavin. He was grinning.
"What?" I questioned.
"I saved your life, Sean.", Gavin grinned even more. "I stopped the cart before you ended up being boiled."
I looked at the tracks. He was right, as the path of the tracks went through the lava.
"Thanks, Gavin." I said.
"You'd do it for me any day.", he cooly said.
"Where do we go now?" I asked.
"Welp, that path over there looks good." Gavin pointed what looked like descending stairs across the lava. There was only one way across. A rickety bridge hanging above the lava.
"Not another dangerous path. Those are starting to get annoying.", I complained.
We began crossing the bridge. Carefully watching our step, we got to the end of the bridge fairly easily. As Gavin stepped on normal ground, I took the last step of the bridge. Suddenly, the wooden plank I was standing on broke in two!
"Ahhh!", I yelled as I feel through the bridge. I closed my eyes, waiting for the lava to envelope me.
"Sean, open your stupid eyes and grab my hand!" Gavin yelled.
I looked up. Gavin had dove down and grabbed my shirt with one hand, while holding out his other hand. He was losing his grip on my shirt! I grabbed his hand just as he let go of my shirt. He pulled hard, and was able to get me up far enough to allow me to hoist myself up to solid ground.
"I guess I owe you two now." I laughed.
"Ah, no you don't." Gavin said genuinely. "Friends help friends. It's simple."
"Well,", I started as I got to my feet. "let's go down these stairs."
"You okay, Sean?" he said, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't be my Mom, okay?"
"Ha ha ha! Don't worry!", Gavin laughed.
At the bottom of the stairs, we found an unexpected sight.
"Heyyyy! Our flashlight!" Gavin picked up the flashlight.
"Why is that there?" I pondered. "Unless..."
Gavin turned on the flashlight. I front of us was a hole, and a long corridor behind it.
"This is the hole we fell in!" I said. "We're almost out!"
We jumped over the pit, and started to walk toward the exit.
"Uh-oh....", Gavin said, turning around.
"What?" I turned-and gasped.
Lava was flowing quickly toward us! We turned and started running.
"What's going on?!" I said.
"It could've been that step I stepped on! It went down when I put pressure on it!"
"You activated a switch?!", I yelled. "Arrgh!"
The lava was closing in. We had to make it. The light was just ahead....
Daylight blinded me as we exited the cave. We ran a little more and turned. We saw the lava slow down and stop a few yards in front of us.
I packed the rest of our gear into the car. The Sunday sun was shining bright in the sky.
"We're all set!", I yelled to Gavin, who was putting out the fire from last night.
"Coming!", he hurried over to the car as I got in the passenger side.
Driving down the interstate back to town, I was relaxing with the seat back.
"Hey Sean, check out the plastic bag behind your seat."
"Uh? Okay." I turned and opened the white bag. "It's-"
"...A piece of crystal I grabbed back in the cave.", Gavin interrupted. "It's yours, Sean."
"Thanks, Gavin." I smiled.
"Quite an adventure we had, huh?"
"Yeah, too much, really." I laughed.
As we drove back to the city, I was happy to have had such an adventure. Who knows what we'll do next time we go camping?
As Gavin disappeared into the brush, I reflected back on how me, a 14-year-old kid; and Gavin, a 16-year-old, were able to go on a camping trip by ourselves in the Kanderby National Forest. I remembered how hard it was to explain to Mom that there wasn't going to be any trouble. The forest was only three miles out of town. I wasn't going to miss any school, we were only going to camp Saturday and Sunday. I got to go, but she still made me bring an extra two bags' worth of stuff. Dad didn't seem to mind much.
I started assembling the tent.
Now, Gavin's family, on the other hand, seemed almost too eager to get rid of him. They probably were. Gavin told me that, as he was exiting the house, he heard his father working up a plan to get rid of Gavin's sister. His father had said to his mother, "Now we just need to convince his sister that there's an all-weekend sale at the mall."
As I drove in the last nail, I heard Gavin return. "Jeez, Sean! It was too much trouble finding some wood. Almost thought I needed to hold a beaver hostage and make him cut some wood for me!"
"Yeah?", I said as I began to roll out the sleeping bags. "You could've just climbed a tree and broke off some weak branches."
"Aw, and ruin my good shirt?" He pointed to his t-shirt that stated 'Kangaroos Rule' and had a design of a kangaroo. "That bark can really stain."
"Didn't you get that from your brother in Australia?", I questioned.
"Yeah, and anything foreign is something you gotta take care of.", Gavin said in a matter-of-fact way.
We finished unpacking just as the stars appeared in the sky. Gavin brought out some big, multi-colored marshmallows from his pack, as I started the fire.
"What should we do tomorrow?", I said as Gavin handed me a stick with three marshmallows on it.
"Well, we gotta sleep in!" he said as he brought his own stick of marshmallows over the fire.
"Huh? Why?"
"Sean, Sean, Sean! You don't know the ritual?", Gavin said fake-seriously. "Sleeping in on a Saturday morning is a must!"
"Alrrrright....but then what should we do?"
"As I was looking for firewood, I found the most amazing, most spectacular, most extraordinary thing ever!", Gavin hyped. Wanna know what it was?"
"You're going to tell me anyway, aren't you?"
"It was a cave!", he said excitedly.
"So?", I said. "A cave. Woo-hoo."
"Sean, a cave could have anything in it!"
"That's the problem, Gavin. There could be anything, like wolves, bears, pumas,...."
"Alright, but this cave had a sign by it."
"A sign?" That got my attention. "What'd it say?"
"It said, 'Abandoned coal mine. Danger! Keep out!' "
"Well, doesn't sound like we should go in there, though I am curious."
"But Sean! Think of what we could find in there! Plus, it looked pretty safe, from what I saw."
"Alright.", I gave in. "But if there's ANY sign of danger, we leave."
The next morning, we ate a breakfast of scrambled eggs which Gavin cooked-and they didn't taste very good. We then got ready to go to the cave.
"Lessee, we got the flashlight, the jerky snacks, the knife...blah, blah, blah,.....right, we're set!", Gavin stated, closing our backpack.
"Do you remember where the cave is?" I questioned.
"Of course, Sean! I've got a good memory for these things!"
After a while of walking, Gavin began to get chatty.
"Hey, maybe we can find some gold and get rich!"
"It's a coal mine. The most we'll find is coal.", I said.
"Well, you never know.", Gavin said solemnly.
"Is this it?" I pointed to a large cave entrance.
"Yep, that's the one!" Gavin said, viewing the sign he had stated last night. "Let's go in!"
I turned on the flashlight as we entered the pitch-dark cavern. We moved further into the cave, with only a long, thin passageway to take. The sound of water dripping echoed in the corridor. Stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere, and we had to walk carefully because of them.
"Geez, what's up with all these 'mites and 'tites?", Gavin said as he tripped over another stalagmite.
"Well, I think water forms them, somehow, and there's sure a lot of water dripping." I remembered.
"Ow!", Gavin said as he ran into a stalactite. "Well, geez, these things are annoying!"
"Well then, watch your st-ahhhhh!" I screamed. The ground went out from under us, and we tumbled down!
"Ahhh...ow...what?" I got up from the soft dirt I was laying on. I felt as if I had been laying there for a while. "Gavin? Gavin? Are you here?"
I began to look around-and gasped. Crystals lined the ceiling, the walls, and some of the floor. They were large, and shined like the moon. Some were red, some yellow, and some just plain white. It was an amazing sight!
"I guess I should look for Gavin.", I said to no one.
"Naw, you don't need to."
"What?! Who's there!?", I yelled.
"Relax, Sean. It's only me." Gavin rose up from among the crystals. "Me and a big bump on my head."
"It's good to see you, Gavin. Do you have the supplies?"
"Yeah, right here." Gavin picked up the backpack. "Have the flashlight?"
"Ah, no.", I said.
"That's okay. That big hole in the wall giving out light probably means we won't need one."
"Hey!", I said too excitedly. "A way out! What are we waiting for?"
When we exited to the outside through the hole, we were faced with a new problem. We were now at a steep cliff on a mountainside! There were only mine cart tracks to get down with, which were old and rusted anyway.
"Yikes! Loooong drop.", Gavin said, looking down.
"Too bad we don't have a mine cart!", I said jokingly.
"Ah, but we do." Gavin pointed to a junky old mine cart, sitting on the tracks nearby. "Let's go!"
"But it's-ah, darn...I guess we have no choice...", I admitted.
We got in the cart, and Gavin gave it a push off, since the lever to control it was broken off.
"I guess we'll get a roller coaster ride! Woo-hoo!", Gavin stated with no fear.
"Calm down, will you?", I responded weakly, as the cart began to pick up speed going downhill.
The cart rolled left, right, up, down, and directions I never thought existed. We could be going three miles per hour one second, 180 miles the next. I covered my eyes.
Suddenly, I heard the best words in my life. "We're done." Gavin said, almost disappointedly.
I opened my eyes and got out after Gavin. We were in another cave, and it was even more amazing than the last one. There were several pools of lava around the large cavern, illuminating everything. I looked at Gavin. He was grinning.
"What?" I questioned.
"I saved your life, Sean.", Gavin grinned even more. "I stopped the cart before you ended up being boiled."
I looked at the tracks. He was right, as the path of the tracks went through the lava.
"Thanks, Gavin." I said.
"You'd do it for me any day.", he cooly said.
"Where do we go now?" I asked.
"Welp, that path over there looks good." Gavin pointed what looked like descending stairs across the lava. There was only one way across. A rickety bridge hanging above the lava.
"Not another dangerous path. Those are starting to get annoying.", I complained.
We began crossing the bridge. Carefully watching our step, we got to the end of the bridge fairly easily. As Gavin stepped on normal ground, I took the last step of the bridge. Suddenly, the wooden plank I was standing on broke in two!
"Ahhh!", I yelled as I feel through the bridge. I closed my eyes, waiting for the lava to envelope me.
"Sean, open your stupid eyes and grab my hand!" Gavin yelled.
I looked up. Gavin had dove down and grabbed my shirt with one hand, while holding out his other hand. He was losing his grip on my shirt! I grabbed his hand just as he let go of my shirt. He pulled hard, and was able to get me up far enough to allow me to hoist myself up to solid ground.
"I guess I owe you two now." I laughed.
"Ah, no you don't." Gavin said genuinely. "Friends help friends. It's simple."
"Well,", I started as I got to my feet. "let's go down these stairs."
"You okay, Sean?" he said, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Don't be my Mom, okay?"
"Ha ha ha! Don't worry!", Gavin laughed.
At the bottom of the stairs, we found an unexpected sight.
"Heyyyy! Our flashlight!" Gavin picked up the flashlight.
"Why is that there?" I pondered. "Unless..."
Gavin turned on the flashlight. I front of us was a hole, and a long corridor behind it.
"This is the hole we fell in!" I said. "We're almost out!"
We jumped over the pit, and started to walk toward the exit.
"Uh-oh....", Gavin said, turning around.
"What?" I turned-and gasped.
Lava was flowing quickly toward us! We turned and started running.
"What's going on?!" I said.
"It could've been that step I stepped on! It went down when I put pressure on it!"
"You activated a switch?!", I yelled. "Arrgh!"
The lava was closing in. We had to make it. The light was just ahead....
Daylight blinded me as we exited the cave. We ran a little more and turned. We saw the lava slow down and stop a few yards in front of us.
I packed the rest of our gear into the car. The Sunday sun was shining bright in the sky.
"We're all set!", I yelled to Gavin, who was putting out the fire from last night.
"Coming!", he hurried over to the car as I got in the passenger side.
Driving down the interstate back to town, I was relaxing with the seat back.
"Hey Sean, check out the plastic bag behind your seat."
"Uh? Okay." I turned and opened the white bag. "It's-"
"...A piece of crystal I grabbed back in the cave.", Gavin interrupted. "It's yours, Sean."
"Thanks, Gavin." I smiled.
"Quite an adventure we had, huh?"
"Yeah, too much, really." I laughed.
As we drove back to the city, I was happy to have had such an adventure. Who knows what we'll do next time we go camping?