"We," Saylah paused as her bike hit a big rock and went over it, "Whoa!" Her bike jumped slightly in the air just far enough to scare her and be fun at the same time. "Anyway we are at the river now!" said Saylah as she squeezed the bike brakes that usually didn't want to stop. Though thank God and maybe a little oil she applied to them every once in a while, she managed to stop without hitting her friend the tree or ending up in the hospital. Or it would be her friend until she was in the hospital saying, "I rode into a tree, ouch…"
"Awesome," exclaimed Saylah's younger sister Emily who was nearly the same age as Amber was.
"B-E-A-U-TIFUL!" Amber said giving the same impressions as the popular comedian Jim Carry did in the movie Bruce Almighty.
"So I really did remember where it was from last time, didn't I?" Saylah said move her head in a small quick side motion, sarcasm in her eyes.
"Unh Hun, now what are we waiting for?" Emily asked as she kicked the kickstand down in to the dirt. However as usual the old bike's kickstand put up little fight and let the rusty bike clunk on the ground.
"Yeah, what are we waiting for?" Amber agreed as she through down her bike, Saylah following.
"First one down here gets to take Fritz on a walk!" Emily yelled back to the two girls who were too amazed with the views of the tall green hills and the deep blue river. The water's currents swirled in white torn clouds making the same noise as when a frustrated writer crumpled up his paper.
"Uh, Emily, you said first one down there and that would be you." Amber pointed out as, her and Saylah began laughing even throwing their heads back at the sight of Emily's confused to angry to happy again face.
"Dang!" Emily laughed as she took a breathless Fritz from the bike ride over and let him free from the leash. He bolted into the water quicker that dropping a pound lead out of the top story of the Empire State building.
"Yeah, now let's go play in the water. It is smoking out here." Saylah suggested as she threw off her dirt stained and well-loved pinkish brown flip-flops.
"Okay!" Amber and Emily yelled in unison as they both made a v-line for the water's edge following Saylah's lead.
All of the girls went down to splash in the water and have a good time. The icy waters swirled around them making the perfect medicine for the hot sun in the middle of July. The time was passing by as the trio of girls laughed played and soaked in the sun until the time seemed to be but another lost object like car keys. It was nearly two hours later Amber looked at her water poof watch and said to the other two girls "Hey, sorry but we got to go back to camp, times a little more than up."
"That's okay we can come down here later," Emily said smiling a devilish smile. What later really meant was saying hi to parents, grabbing a quick lunch and riding back in less that a half an hour flat.
"Sounds like a plan man!" Saylah cracked as she leashed Fritz back up and slipped back on her pink flip-flops.
Emily, Amber, and Saylah whipped all the sand off them selves and grabbed their bikes then rode up the trail. Fritz lapped beside them on the skinny trail chasing their bike tires the whole way. It was 11:00 am when they got back to camp that motivated the girls to just make a quick lunch instead of reaching for a few Popsicles and pixie sticks. "I am so hungry!" Emily exclaimed hunching over and grabbing her stomach. Amber and Saylah agreed and then went into their trailer and made turkey sandwiches. The task of sandwich making was annoying and time consuming to three hungry girls, though the reward of biting into a cold turkey sandwich on a hot summer afternoon was one they would never pass up for no river.
"Yum!" Amber squealed as she bit into the sandwich as her and Saylah walked out of the trailer to eat their sandwiches out side on the lawn chairs.
"Want some, Fritzy; you had a sweet run today! Hey little Ike, he will eat any thing Amber! Look," Saylah tossed him a square of lettuce and he quickly at it wagging his cropped tail. Amber laughed and threw him a chip, which he crunched in his mouth.
"I wonder where Casey could be," Amber said curiously. "He wouldn't want to miss the opportunity of a hunk of turkey sandwich!"
Just then Emily came out of the trailer with three cans of off brand orange soda pop. Amber cracked open the seal that made a sweet hissing sound and then took a big gulp. It was sweet and cold, just right at a time like this. That day was perfect. Hanging out with your best friends camping, eating turkey sandwiches, and drinking orange soda, what more could any best friends ask for. They all sat down in the lawn having the blue blanket of cloudless sky above your head. The birds were sweetly whistling, dogs distantly barking, bike tires spinning, people talking, and diesel trucks driving. The campground was the greatest symphony of random and familiar noises that filled their ears as they ate.
Meanwhile, Shana came into the campsite with Anita. They were talking about anything and everything. Amber, Saylah, and Emily all exchanged glances and went to Amber's campsite. Yet, Amber's campsite was a disaster. Their dads were talking loudly and Jenna and Kayla were singing, joy-to-the-world-barney's-dead.
Irritated Emily said. "Oh, my, gosh, do you guys want to go to the river and eat?" as family members were invading their own music of the quite and yet somewhat loud harmonic experience with nature and the things of camping.
"That sounds sweet." Amber replied in her head. So the friends rode in the direction of the river, each girl imagining the sweet smell of pine and the sight as the beams of the sun danced on the still side of the water.
Episode #2 by Saylah
Then they finally reached the river, which had been a difficult task considering Amber, Emily, and Saylah were each juggling the task of riding their bikes down a rock and vine laden trail while clutching their half eaten sandwiches and newly opened orange soda. In anticipation they all three threw down their bikes not even bothering with kick stands this time and dashed down to the rocky shore of the river. As if an instinct instilled in each one, Amber, Emily, and Saylah settled themselves next to each other on a fallen log facing the river and began to finish of lunch.
"Yup, this is the life!" Saylah commented between bites of turkey sandwich.
"Yeah." Amber agreed.
"This river kind of reminds me of the one at Ghormley. It has the same deep blue water though you can still see the bottom of it. We always went tubing in that one. It was so cold too! I wish we could go tubing here, but I think it might be too deep," Saylah went on examining the water closely.
"Hey Saylah," said Emily. "Maybe we can talk dad into taking us out on a different river tomorrow."
"That would be so awesome," exclaimed Amber with enthuse.
"Well, if we play our cards right and talk my mom into it first, I think we might be able to go, I mean we have the tubes in the trailer, we should go. It is not like we use them a lot anyways," proclaimed Saylah. Then she jumped off the log and grabbed a few faithful flat stones from the shore's edge. Saylah skipped the first three a far distance until Amber and Emily joined her.
The trio skipped rocks and told jokes until the smell of campfire smoke rose up just as the sun fell down over the horizon of hills of deep green pine trees. Suddenly the whole outdoors became a cold shadow and the girls knew it was time to head back up to the campsite. Ridding their bikes the whole way they took the long way back jumping over small logs and doing easy bike tricks. Finally they were to the corner they could hear the loud sound of Fritz barking and county music playing. All the lights shown threw the trees, and smoke curled up towards the sky like a giant sting of translucent spageti.
Dumping the bikes off by Saylah and Emily's dad's truck, the headed into the campsite where they we greeted by Ike who greeted them like he hadn't seen them in months. The girls where then mauled by Fritz was much bigger and still slightly jealous of Ike the new puppy of the family.
After pulling away from Fritz, the girls walked into the Leu's trailer like they owned it, which Saylah and Emily's parents did anyway. Grabbing some Pixie Sticks out of the cabinet, they proceeded to walk out.
"Hold it," shouted Shana.
"What?" Emily called innocently.
"We are going to be having Chicken and Dumplings as soon as someone helps me Finnish cutting up the carrots and celery," Shana said.
"Fine," said the two sisters.
Emily and Saylah said in accord, though inside they were sullen about not getting out of helping with the preparation of dinner, another annoying task. Amber helped bring out the ingredients for the dumplings and they all begin cutting carrots. When they were finished they brought them to Shana and she threw them into a big pan. The girls played cards on the pick knick bench while the soup began to cook, each one getting hungrier and hungrier as the smell of chicken drifted through the air.
In what seemed like a week, the soup was done and the family began to line of and serve themselves. They pour salt and pepper on the top, and loaded on some butter too. Then they all began to eat in silence because the dumplings were so good, no one could stop eating to talk. When they were all eaten, Emily began to hiccup, though she could still feel the warm dumplings making their way to her stomach. She felt full and warm and sort of sleepy.
Then it was time to clean up, and they all threw the paper plates into the fire and watched them as they turned black and curled up smaller and smaller until they finally disappeared into the coals.
"Hey mom, can we go tubing tomorrow?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, that would be fun. I will talk your dad into going tomorrow."
"We never use those tubes anyway. We should go," reported Saylah.
"It is going to be fun!" exclaimed Amber with great joy.
"Yep," Emily agreed.
Amber, Emily, and Saylah got up and headed into the woods where they went looking for a few good sticks to roast marshmallows on since they didn't want to burn their carved sticks which they carved yesterday morning. Finally Amber and Saylah found theirs, Amber proudly named her stick Mick the Stick Jr. and Saylah named her stick Delia the woody one. Emily however had to look a little longer. Later she found hers and named it Dick the Stick, again.
The girls roasted marshmallows over the hot fire and chatted. Emily burned her marshmallow to a crisp, while Amber and Saylah tried for a more browned marshmallow. Saylah finished her perfect marshmallow last and also enjoyed the shortest; she stuffed the whole thing in her mouth including part of the stick, which she spit out immediately.
"This has been a fun day," Saylah said.
"Dido!" chimed in Emily.
"Dido too!" yelled Amber.
The trio happily talked and enjoyed nature, as it became so dark that that you could only see one another by the fire. They played card games until settling down inside the tent where they told scary stories before bed. Finally they fell asleep one by one, each happy and excited for tomorrow.
Episode #3 By Amber Then next morning all of the girls woke up and got ready to go back to the river. While they were getting dressed Kevin, Amber's dad, came and knocked on the tent and asked. "Do you girls want to come eat breakfast over at our camp site?"
"Sure," the girls replied back.
"Alright, come on over in about fifteen minutes. Saylah, and Emily, your parents and sister are eating over at my site too okay?" Kevin told all of the girls.
"Got it like a fly under a fly swatter," Saylah in a smooth voice. Emily and Amber laughed at this expression for a length nearly exceeding five minutes. Saylah shook her head at them.
When the girls were all dressed they went over to Kevin's campsite, as they had empty stomachs and full thoughts of what they were going to do that day.
The three friends sat down at the picnic table, and ate eggs, sausage, and had apple juice to drink except for Saylah who preferred cereal to sausage, she wasn't much for meat. "Mmmm…" they all said between large bites of breakfast.
After they had done the dishes, as they call putting the paper plates, and plastic utensils in the fire and watching then shrivel up into nothing but flame and ash they girls spilt for the river but not before telling their parents.
"Hey, mom, can we go to the river?" Emily pleaded.
"Yeah, please!" Saylah chimed in.
"Well, okay. The rest of us are going to town so we will leave the door of the trailer unlocked. We are taking Fritzy, Ike and the little girls with us. Saylah and Emily be careful, Saylah you're in charge." In charge, a phase that Saylah had spat in her little sister's faces for years, it was a good feeling.
Soon all three girls were heading out on their bikes on the dusty and pinecone loaded trail towards the wondrous sparkling river.