Chapter Two
Iggy struggled with the loss of his eye slight. He wanted to be treated normal. His parents had wanted him to go to a special school for the blind and deaf, but he had refused. Iggy had spent two weeks in the hospital after the accident and then stayed home from school for another two months after that. Mum had taken Nudge, Ella and I in after school every day to visit him.
The summer before school started back for grade three, we started a tradition of a yearly camping trip. It all started with Nudge, Angel and I, late at night, at one of our sleep-overs. We wanted to do something fun before school started. Something we could involve the boys in. We hadn't really done anything all together since Iggy lost his eye sight. But Iggy's wounds were healing into scars that would fade over time, life was moving on. Angel had suggested camping. She and Gazzy had gone camping with their family the month before. It was all the twins could talk about for days afterwards. It took a lot of convincing to get Nudge excited with the idea, but eventually she caved and we went to the boys with our plan. Our parents were harder to convince, but after weeks of begging, sucking up to our Parents and chores, it was decided Fang's dad (Mark) and my dad (Jeb) would take us.
Age Eight
"Argh. How much longer?" Nudge whines struggling to pull her little hot pink suitcase up the steep mountain. Fang walks around Nudge, who has stopped walking, with Iggy following close behind him holding onto a strap of Fangs backpack. Iggy grins in Nudges general direction as he passes her. She sticks her tongue out at him.
"Not too much longer now, Nudge. The clearings just up over this last hill." My dad tells her as he lifts Angel up onto a rock she is struggling to get over. Dad then took Ella's hand again. Mum said we had to take Ella. And because she's only six we're not allowed to take our eyes off her. Mum had said she wasn't allowed to go at first, but gave in after Ella cried the house down.
The camping spot Dad and Mark had settled on could only be reached by Forward-Driving to a mountain terrain. Then walking for 5 kilometers up and over the mountain.
We kids are all carrying our backpacks…well except for Nudge with her impractical wheelie suitcase. We're all taking it in turns carrying an old duffel bag of utensils and equipment we need for the week. Right now Gazzy and I are dragging it along between the two of us. Dad and Mark are carrying the tents and the esky.
"Okay kids, careful down the hill. I don't want to have to run after any out of control kids rolling down this hill." Mark says humorously. Fang rolls his eyes.
"Are there toilet blocks here, or something?" Angel asks after we are all safely down the hill.
"No Darl, this is a real camping experience… you bath in the river, and go to the loo in a make shift toilet we'll make." Mark says, putting down the tents and surveying the area.
"Ahh! What!?" Nudge asks. "What happened to cabins?"
"Come on Nudge! We're camping." I exclaim.
"I think this is the best spot to set up camp." Mark calls from over by the river. We follow Dad over to him.
"Okay Fang, Max, and Ella you pull this tent out of the bag, good… no Ella the blue one, and Iggy, Nudge and Angel the red one, and finally Iggy and Gazzy the black one, Gazzy show him were it is." Dad points to the tents as he talks.
"Gazzy are you helping me?" Asks Iggy. He's turning his head this way and that. His head snapped in Gazzy's direction when he hears Gazzy, who had a thoughtful expression on his face, talk.
"Who would we eat first if we get lost here? And run out of food?" Gazzy asks seriously, a thoughtful expression on his face. Dad and Mark laugh.
"Probably you." I tease him, trying to keep a straight face. Gazzy laughs nervously. Ella is looking around alarmed.
"Really?" She asks, her brown eyes widening.
"No. Ha-ha. El's, we're not going to get lost and we brought enough food." Dad says smiling down at her. Mark moves closer to Ella bending down in front of her a playful smile on his face. "Although…you do look tasty." He teases. Ella's eyes widen even more. She runs over to Dad, who takes her hand.
"Don't leave me alone with him Daddy." We hear her say as they walk away. Mark chuckles to himself.
On the second night we all sat around the fire, Mark had got started, and roasted our sausages which we put in bread. Dad and Mark had made a scavenger hunt for us kids. We were all buzzing with excitement. We had decided on the teams, Boys verses Girls. While Mark and Dad waited at the camp site, we were to go off and find the items on the list and meet back in an hour. Each team was given a stop watch, counting down from sixty minutes.
"Okay, I'll read the list out." Nudge says, pulling it out of her jean pocket. Angel, Ella and I move in closer to her.
"A pine cone, a fish, a rock shaped as a heart, clover leaf, three different types of flowers, Y-shaped twig, a worm, animal droppings. Yuck! A birds nest, a feather, bark from a tree, dirt, strangest shaped leaf, and something pink." Nudge looked up at us when she finished reading the list.
"We can beat the boys, no worries." She said grinning. I nodded my head. "Damn straight we can." I grin back at her then look at Angel who nods her head in agreement.
"Okay kids here are the rules." Jeb says waving us over. "You have an hour, no more, no less. Your objective is to find all fifteen objects and bring them back here at the end. Stay in our camp sight. If you think you need to venture further out just tell Mark or I and we'll come with you. Am I forgetting anything?"
"HAVE FUN!" Mark yells enthusiastically. We all cheered.
"Oh wait. No sabotage. That means you Iggy and Gazzy." Dad looks at them seriously. Gazzy puts his hands up in defense, pulling a face that says, 'who me!?'
Iggy has a thoughtful expression on his face for a moment then he smiles.
"Well, that's an evil grin." Gazzy laughs.
"Don't even think about whatever you're thinking about!" Nudge says uneasily.
"What like? Put spider in your sleeping bag?" Iggy grins. Angel looks frightened.
"It won't be that. It's too obvious." Iggy opens his unseeing eyes wide to scare her. Gazzy and Fang exchange smiles. I punch Fang in the arm.
"What!?" He pushes me back still smiling.
"I'm gonna tell my mum when I get home if-" Angel starts but is interrupted by Mark.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Angel. What happens on camp stays on camp! Okay?" Mark grins.
"Okay." She says sheepishly.
"All right, ready? Your time starts... NOW." Mark yells, waving this arm up and down. We girls all ran straight for the track of the forest, I pull Ella along with me.
Angel drops onto her knees picking up small rocks, looking for a heart shaped one.
"What about this one?" She holding up a small smooth pebble.
"Hmm. Not quite." Nudge answers while she picks up twigs and then tossed them away. I look around for strange shaped leafs.
"Do you think the boys are going to try something funny?" Nudge asks after a moment of silent searching.
"I don't think they're that dumb." I respond at the same time as Ella says, "I hope not!"
"I do." Nudge tells.
I smile at her. "Let's hurry guys. We need to beat the boys."
We 'of course' did beat the boys in the end. Much to the disgust of Iggy who argued there were more girls than boys so it was unfair. He demanded a re-play. Which we had done the following night and won again.
We settled into our tents on the first night. But not before checking and rechecking our sleeping bags for any creepy crawlies. Nudge and I were pretty on edge that night. Terrified the boys were going to play a trick on us, which they did, but not until the last night when they filled our shoes with worms, and put itching powder into our sleeping bags. What an absolute disaster that had been. I'm not sure the boys have lived that down yet.
This is the way we spent our camping trips for years to come. Playing tricks on one another and having scavenger hunts. One time when we were older, the first year we were allowed to go without Mark and Dad, in the dead of the night we packed the camp up and moved a kilometer away, leaving a passed out Iggy lying in the dirt by the fire. But more on that story later. I am jumping ahead of myself.