Dancing Around the Throne

When I was growing up, my family lived way out in the country, so there were no children to play with except for my siblings. My older brother and I would often go to the creek near our house and fish with home made fishing poles. This stream ran a crooked way down a near by hill and across the orchard behind our house.

We would pretend we were explorers in a strange land surviving only by what we caught, or that our parents were starving (which they were not) and if we did not catch the granddaddy of catfish then they would die. Time was of the essence. Of course, we never did catch that great big old fish, but it was fun pretending. Sometimes we would say we were Tom Sawyer and Becky, or Tom and Huck, even Marco Polo. Every time we would say we were something different, and it would never be the same twice. Those were the days!

We would wander from right behind the house to the top of the hill and from one side of the creek to the other. Bud would roll up his pants and I would hike my skirt, take off our shoes and wade through the water downstream from where we wanted to fish. The willow trees provided shade and a resting place to eat our lunch mom always packed for us. We could take the whole spring and summer vacations just fishing and enjoying being outside. Camaraderie was par and we did not put each other down even if the other one deserved it. Those two years passed in the wonderful world of imagination and getting along.

When we did catch several fish, we would proudly take them home and have mom cook them for dinner. We'd brag about how great fishermen we were. However, more often than not, we came home empty handed. At those times our little sisters would raze us about the fact that we would have no fish for dinner.

Often the younger girls would ask me why I liked going off all day just to fish...but try as hard as I could, they just never seemed to comprehend that Bud and I didn't just fish, we had adventures! How can you explain to someone that you got to be an astronaut and walk on the moon, or some distant and unknown planet or star? Or that you rode camels in the desert, was a cow girl, or a princess saved by a knight? Perhaps they were just too young to understand.

One Thursday, Bud and I decided to climb to the top of the hill and see what lay beyond. This was the first time we had ever done this, so we were being really adventuresome. It was a long way up to the hilltop, some parts had no clear cut path and others had a well defined trail. We stopped and fished all along the way and it took us about two hours to reach the top.

What we saw was a complete surprise. Down below us was a big white farm house, complete with red barn, corrals, chickens, and people riding horses. We were excited, and I wondered out loud if they could hear us if we shouted to them.

"Nah. You see, sound travels up and so we can shout as loud as we like and they would never hear us. Let's try!" Bud explained.

"Are you sure? I have never heard of that before. Who told you?" I inquired.

"My teacher. Come on, let's call 'Hello down there!' It will prove to you that they can't hear us." Bud smiled real big in his confidence.

"Well, okay." I said slowly. "However, if they hear us we could get into trouble for being way up here so far from the house so we couldn't hear mom if she called for us."

"How will she know? It's just them and us and they can't tell who we are from way down there any more than we can tell what they look like from up here."

I must have looked doubtful because Bud did what he always did if he couldn't get me to comply with his ideas. "Double dog dare you to yell 'hello down there'." Bud had a gleam in his eye because he knew I did not want to be considered a coward.

"Okay. On the count of three. One... Two... Three... ‘Hello down there‘!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. My knees were shaking and I was scared, but there was no way I was going to let Bud know. He had not said anything, just let me scream.

The people did not turn or even notice. "Hey, it worked! They didn't hear me. Wow. I just thought you were kidding. They really didn't hear me."

Bud looked so smug. "Told ya. Come on, this time we will both yell." I nodded my consent as Bud counted: "One... Two... Three... Hello down there!" They still did not seem to hear, for no one turned or even looked around.

We were laughing with glee. Apparently there was nothing we could do to attract their attention. We continued to yell another two or three times, when all of a sudden the person on the brown horse turned and looked up the hill and the one on the black horse pointed at us and the people on the ground all turned to where the person pointing was showing them where we were.

Boy! Were we both scared! If we got caught way off up this hill we'd be in big trouble and grounded for life. Restriction would be our middle names. "Let's get out of here!" Bud screamed at me. We turned and ran like a couple of roes down the path, slipping and sliding the whole way. We rushed into the pasture and took out our fishing poles and pretended we had been there all day long. Gasping for air, we decided not to tell anyone about our adventure, least we bring retribution upon our heads.

We caught two fish, which was not enough for our large family, so Bud cleaned them and I wrapped them then put the fish in the freezer so we could combine several days worth of catch to make that one dinner filling. When we had cleaned up, we showed our faces in the house and sniffed the air to see if mom had baked any cookies that day. All we smelled was the chili she had simmering on the back burner of the stove.

At dinner that night, mom asked us if we'd done anything interesting that day. "Just the usual, Mom," we replied. Glancing at each other with a secret smile.

"Mrs. Johnstone down the road said she saw a couple of kids up the hill from them near the creek. What were you doing clear up there?" Mom inquired.

"How did you know it was us?" Bud exclaimed.

"Because there are no other families in this area. Next time you want to go up there, just let me know so I'll know where to look for you. Mrs. Johnstone also said that you yelled hello down to them, but when they started to reply, you ran away. Why?"

We gulped. I looked at Bud and kept quiet. "We were afraid that we would get into trouble if they saw us and told you," he confessed. I nodded my head in agreement.

"As well you should have been, because I did not know where you were and in an emergency I would never have found you. As long as you stay on this side of the mountain, you may fish up there, but tell me before you go next time. Also, you are to stay in the back yard for a week," she said. "Do you know why?"

We both shook our heads yes. "Because we went somewhere without telling you where we were going." I confessed.

"That's exactly right. Remember: no going out of the yard until next Saturday."