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Please note that the memories and artwork contained herein are copyrighted 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 |
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I am in some kind of a predicament. I'm about twelve years old, and I am in the woods. Grasping on a log, a large tree that has fallen across a small river. The fallen tree was used as a bridge. My legs are dangling over the edge. I know Lothar is somewhere nearby, but I'm not sure where. He had gone ahead of me, and I had slipped. I can hear the water rushing beneath me. It is about a ten to fifteen foot drop into the water, but there are rocks below and the landing would be most unpleasant. I'm scared and my mind is racing. My hands hurt and they are white knuckled from holding on. Lothar has come back. I can see him. He does that "tight rope" walk with arms extended out for balance and he reaches me. He can't pull me up from that standing position so he sits astride the log. I can't seem to pull myself up or swing a leg up. I keep getting a flash of a girl. Elza must be with us. I think she watching from the side of the river. She wants to help but for some reason cannot. I can't give Lothar a hand because that's what is mostly holding me up. If I slip off of the log anymore, I'll lose all grip that I have. He tries to grab a hold of my shirt and sweater, but that does no good. I think he was able to reach down and grab me by the pants. I ended up being able to swing my left leg up with Lothar's help. It's hard to remember because we were both pretty scared. I remember sitting astride the log and hugging Lothar. Shaking a bit I remember looking down at the water and rocks below. The small river dipped down after flowing over the rocks and then turned left around a bend. If I had survived the fall, the current was fairly strong and I would have been carried down stream. It was a lovely sight; the river, the tall trees, and the mountain. We crawled across to where Elza was waiting. I think he had helped her across while I had followed and then slipped. She hugged Lothar and me tightly. I guess I could have been killed from the fall. I don't think any of us wanted to go across the river in the same place, so when we were ready to return home, we sought another spot to cross. It is much later in the day. I would guess about 4:00 in the afternoon. We found a section of the river that was wide, calm, and flat without jagged slopes to fall down. All we had to do was walk across in the shallow sections of water and hop onto the rocks. This was no problem for Lothar and myself, Elza was not dressed for this kind of adventure. So to keep Elza from getting wet, I carried her on my back. (Now if you don't know this, she was older and taller than me.) This went fine until I slipped or got a bad footing. We both ended up being drenched from head to toe. I think Lothar thought this was funny and started laughing at us until he realized what kind of trouble we were all in. I'm not absolutely certain as to why we were going to get into trouble, but I don't think we were supposed to be crossing the river in this area. I think it was a short cut. I also think that Elza's clothes were new or special and she was not to get them ruined, and I think she wore them for a reason. I keep thinking that maybe she was trying to impress a boy. I remember the three of us walking home. Elza and I were both miserably uncomfortable in our wet clothes and looked like a pair of drowned rats. Our discussion while walking centered on what we should tell our parents. I think we finally decided upon a story that would get us in the least amount of trouble. It would be double trouble for Elza since she crossed the river and ruined the dress. She was nearly in tears over the situation. I think something important to her was coming up like a party or something that and I think she thought she would not be allowed to go because of this. The final story that was decided upon was that Lothar and I were horsing around and Elza got in the way and ended up in a pond. I volunteered to be the one who accidentally knocked her in since I was the one who slipped in the river. When we told them our little story, they looked skeptical and somewhat unhappy. Usually if I did anything bad to Elza, she'd go all out for me to be punished, but she didn't this time. And the normal arguments that would happen during such incidents of this caliber did not happen. I'm also a lousy liar. I recall the speech that resulted about being too old to be acting like this and I should be more responsible. I don't think our parents really wanted to punish me and normally they were pretty good natured about our behavior, but the dress was ruined and it was very expensive. At some point later I remember being in the study room. It was darkly furnished with heavy wooden book shelves, a dark wood desk, and cabinetry that had a crystal liquor decanter set upon it. There was one tall window with long heavy curtains. There were open at the time. I think they were dark green? Papa was did not yell at me, but informed me of the situation in a most serious tone, They were tired of Lothar and I horsing around and wanted us to start behaving more appropriately to our age. Elza was now at the age where she should be treated more like an adult female and knocking her into a pond was not acceptable. Basically, Papa had come to the conclusion that a stricter enforcement would make Lothar and I pay attention to their wishes. I then heard the order to lean over the desk and then got whacked a couple of times much to my surprise. I really didn't think that I would get that kind of punishment. I had assumed that I would get away with it. After leaving the room I found Elza and Lothar lurking down the hallway wondering if it was bad. I told them what happened and I think they felt a little guilty about it, but everything would have been a lot worse if Mama and Papa had known the truth. I wasn't too upset. Of course, it didn't feel very good either. |
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