A CAMPING ADVENTURE
Disclaimer: Don’t own them wish I did.
Chapter 2: Alex meets the Wilderness.
It was quite early in the morning, when Evelyn felt her husband move out of their bed. She yawned, and sat up.
“Do you want me to make you two something to eat?” she asked,, as she got out of bed, and pulled on a robe. Rick smiled, and came over to her, gathering her into his arms.
“You don’t have too,” he said, knowing that she was still tired from last night. They had made love quite a few times, to make up for not being able to while he and Alex were away. She snuggled against him.
“I’m going to miss you,” she said. It was hard to let him go, to let both of her men go, but she wanted them to have this time to bond, as fathers and sons did on these types of trips, so she supported this.
“Get ready, I’ll go get Alex up,” she said. She tried to pull away but he held onto her. When she looked up, he lowered his head, and gently took her mouth in a slow searching kiss. His tongue moved in to her mouth, meeting her tongue, and his hold on her tightened. As much as she hated to, she was the one to stop the kiss, reminding him that he and Alex had a trip to make. Reluctantly, he let her go, knowing if he messed this up, that Alex would likely never speak to him again.
It was still dark as Evelyn walked down the hall to her son’s room. When she opened the door, she found that he was still asleep, laying on the bed sideways, so that his head hung over the edge, and his feet were raised on the wall.
She smiled and shook her head. He never slept in a normal position, it was either like he was now, or with his bottom stuck in the air. After getting his cloths out, long jeans, and a warm shirt, Evelyn went over to his bed and rubbed his back.
“Not go way,” he mumbled. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head.
“It’s time to wake up so you and your daddy can go camping,” she reminded. He came awake then, sitting up, and rubbing his eyes. Then he stood on his bed, and she got a hug, and he snuggled against her resting his head on her shoulder, something he hadn’t done in a long time.
“Mum are you mad cause me and dad are going without you,” he asked still letting her hold him.
“No baby, I’m glad you get to go with your father. It will be fun for both of you. While you are away, Marie and I are going to do some heavy duty cleaning. He lifted his head then.
“Thats boring.” She laughed, and spun him around, then set him down and helped him get dressed. As he was finishing, Rick walked in.
“Alright buddy, we need to hurry up.” They all went down to the kitchen to have breakfast, and after they ate, Evelyn saw her two men off, and hoped all went well. The drive to the area Rick had decided on, was almost a full days drive, which was why he was wanting to get an early start. Evie had packed food for them to eat on the long trip, and once they were on their way Alex fell asleep, leaving Rick to his own thoughts for the time being. He was happy about this trip. There had never been a time, when it had been just he and Alex over just a day, and he was looking forward to teaching his son about camping, and about how to survive without the finer things in life.
It was getting dark by the time they reached the forest area, and the lodge where Rick would leave his car. The first line of business was to get the nessary supplies they needed from the little store run by the lodge. Rations mostly for the nights they didn’t want to eat fish, and once that was handled, Rick put on his Rucksack, military issued which was huge, but which fit in everything they would need. He smiled as Alex struggled to put a smaller Rucksack on.
“Here let me help you with that.” Alex allowed him to do that, then they were off into the forest. The paths were set clear, and the site would take them an hour by foot to get too. It wasn’t even 10 minutes into the trip that Alex began to complain about his Rucksack being to heavy, therefore Rick took it off his hands, and Alex ran ahead.
“Alex not so far, I need to be able to see you,” Rick called out. A ways ahead Alex found a stick and used it to battle off the bad guys.
“Come on dad, you going to slow.” From his place Rick shook his head.
“I have allot of heavy things here, or I would run with you.” When they finally reached the site it was dark, and they were using lanterns, to see by. The first line of business was to start a fire, and this didn’t take long for Rick to do. While he did, Alex went down by the water.
“Dad I have to pee,” Alex yelled. He came back as his dad was getting the fire going.
“Well when we are outdoors, we can go pee where we want.” This was new to Alex.
“Really?” Rick grinned.
“Really, but only when we are camping.” With that, Alex went a little ways away and did his business. He couldn’t wait to tell Megan about this, glad that she wasn’t like other girls, who would think that was discusting.
“What do we get to eat dad?” Alex asked, as Rick set up their tent.
“Well tonight we will have soup. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be able to have fish.” Alex nodded and tromped around the site not going to far, and when dinner was ready they sat by the fire and ate.
“What do we do besides go fishing” asked Alex as he picked at his soup.
“Well we can go swimming, though its going to be very cold. Tomorrow we will likely go hiking and see if we can find any wild animals around, like Deer, and squirrels.” When they finished, Alex wasn’t tired, however Rick was, and said it was time for bed. They went into their tint, and Rick tucked Alex into his sleeping bag.
“Now, you stay in here, all right.” Alex nodded, and after a bit, Rick was asleep, leaving Alex awake and alone. He tried to go to sleep, but there were to many sounds, and too much excitement. Despite what his father told him, Alex got out of the tint, and decided to check things out. The first thing he noticed were all the fire flys. That was like home. He was barefooted, and the ground was cold to his feet, but he didn’t mind it. He went down by the water, and stuck his foot in, and pulled it out, it was freezing. Then he was lifted into the air and screeched until her realized it was just dad. Rick slung him over his shoulder.
“Alex, you do that again and there will be big trouble,” Rick said in a stern tone. When they were back in the tent, Rick tucked Alex back in to his sleeping bag.
“Dad, whats wrong with me going out all alone?” Alex asked as his father started to stand. At this, Rick settled down beside him.
“The wilderness is a dangerous place if you don’t know what you are doing, and it’s my job as your father to protect you.” He explained. It was not his intention to scare Alex, and he hoped he had not, but at the same time, he wanted Alex to stay with him, so that he could keep him safe.
“Now we both need to get some sleep,” Rick said kissing his forehead. His son nodded, and soon dad was back to sleep, but again Alex couldn’t sleep. He had slept most of the drive up to this camp site, and he was wired. He heard noises outside of the tent, something that made a ‘Hoo’ sound, and something the squeaked. He remembered dad saying dangerous, and got very afraid, very fast. The next sound was a snap of a twig, and that woke Rick. He sat up and got in his Rucksack, pulling out his shotgun. Alex’s eyes grew wide, and Rick put a finger over his lips to indicate that he needed to be quiet. Whatever it was that was outside of their tent was big, and it made allot of noise, it was sniffing, and Rick had a sinking feeling they were being scooped out by a bear. He really didn’t want to shoot it, but if it tried to hurt Alex, or him he would have no choice. Luck seemed to be on their side, because he heard the bear move away, and once he was sure it was far from them, he went out and looked. He saw it at the water, getting a drink, an decided tomorrow he and Alex would find a site that the Bear didn’t inhabit. When he walked back in, Alex was huddled all inside his sleeping bag. After putting his gun down, Rick went over and Unzipped the bag and lifted his little boy out.
“I want to go home now,” Alex said crying. Rick carried him the short distance to his sleeping bag and set him down then got in, and Alex followed, until they were both snug inside. Alex was still sobbing,
“Shhh. It was a bear, and it was just seeing who we were. Tomorrow I’ll take the tent down and we will go up the path a ways to the next site. I will check to see if any bears have marked the area as theirs, and I’m guessing we won’t see anymore.” Alex was calming down.
“I don’t want to be here dad,” he said through a yawn. His eyes closed, and soon his breathing came in a steady rhythm of sleep. Rick would see how he felt in the morning, and if he still wanted to leave, then they would.
It was the smell of good food that woke Alex, and he scurried out of the tent, and found dad had made an interesting breakfast.
“Whats this stuff?” he asked as he sat on one of the stones next to the fire.
“Well, before we left, your mother helped me slice the potatoes into these little sticks.” Alex nodded.
“Potato sticks then.” Alex tried one, and liked it, and aside from that they had some bacon.
“Do you still want to leave.” Alex sighed.
“No. I want to go to that other place though.” Rick agreed, and after they packed up camp, and put the fire out, they headed up the lake. It was two hours of hiking, and Alex had a ball learning about all the plants. They even saw some Raccoons, and othe smaller animals. The next site Rick checked thoroughly, and found no bear marks, or any such signs of a bear. After he set up camp, he got a shovel and a bucked and he and Alex went over by the water.
“Are we going to make a mud castle?” Alex asked confused about why they were going to dig up the dirt.
“No, we need to dig up worms, so we can catch our Lunch.” Alex helped, and within ten minutes they had a lot of worms. The next step was to get their poles ready. The one he had for Alex was Alex sized, and after he put the weights on them and the hooks he sat down and Alex sat with him.
“Now, we have to hook the worm,” Rick explained he took one out, and Alex grabbed it away.
“No way dad, your going to hurt the worm?” he said holding the wiggling creature in his hand.
“Alex that is the way we catch the fish.” The little boy frowned, but let his dad show him how to hook a worm. Once it was over with, Rick cast Alex’s line in first, then handed the pole to him ,and cast his own line in.
“Now you take the real, and start pulling it.” As soon as Alex did he felt a tug.
“I thin I got one daddy,” Alex yelled Rick put his line down and helped Alex, and sure enough he caught a pretty big fish. Rick got a net and dipped it in the water, and pulled it out.
“Oh cool, can we keep him?” Rick chuckled.
“Actually Alex he is a baby, so no.” Rick grabbed it around its fins, and got the hook out of his mouth, then set it in the water and it swam off.
“Bye little fishy,” Alex called. When Rick picked up his line it was being tugged harder than Alex’s had. He pulled in an adult fish, and that one they kept. Rick put it in their bucket that they had filled with water, knowing he would have to deal with explaining to Alex about eating the fish, which entailed killing it, but one discovery at a time he decided. The O’Connell men caught 4 fish, before calling it quits, and went back up to the site.
“Dad what do we do now. Do we eat them like that?” Alex asked making a face.
“No,” Rick suddenly felt guilty, remembering what Evleyn had gotten upset about with the cat, and didn’t want Alex to be upset with this next part.
“Why don’t you go get us more wood, and when you get back I’ll have these guys ready for us to eat.” Alex nodded and left, and when he was gone Rick prepared the fish, for eating.
Gathering wood was its own adventure for Alex. He pretended to be Mogli, and wondered if there were any wolves. around. As he was heading back to camp he heard a cry, a strange cry, but a cry, and decided he better follow. The cry took him pretty far from camp, and what he found was a baby dog. It yelped and cried, and Alex held out his hand as he approached it. It kept crying, and as he got closer he found that its leg was caught in some sort of thing with teeth in it.
“Oh my god your hurt little puppy.” Alex sat down and tried to pry that thing off and the puppy cried louder. It made Alex cry.
“DADDY HELP.” Alex wouldn’ t leave his new friend, and screamed for his father.
“ALEX?” Rick yelled from a far distance.
“HELP,” Alex said crying with his new friend. His crying led Rick to them.
“Look its got its paw caught.” Rick came over and knew that this pup was past the point of helping. Its leg was nearly ripped away, as if it had been gnawing at it, and it had a wound in its neck as well as its side.
“We have to help him daddy,” Alex cried. Rick lifted his son into his arms.
“Buddy I wish we could but he is so hurt, and we don’t have what we need to help him.” Alex just cried into his dads shoulder, and Rick swayed with him.
“Did a person do this to it?” Alex asked looking at his dad.
“Yes. though I don’t think they meant to catch a baby, but sometimes that happens.” Alex sniffed.
“It needs to die so it won’t hurt,” Alex said, wise beyond his years.
“I know it does.”
“Would it be bad for you to help it?” Alex asked.
“No. But you need to go back to camp.” Alex nodded and when he was far enough away and couldn’t see, Rick bent down and snapped its neck. From here on out he would have to watch their way for more traps, if he or Alex got caught in one it would be very bad.
When he got back to camp Alex was in the tent crying. This trip was turning into a disaster. Lunch was ready, but Rick left it be, and went to his baby and held him.
“You killed our fish.” Rick nodded.
“Alex thats how we eat, and its not wrong for us to do, if we are going to eat them. If we killed them to stuff and put up on a wall then that would be wrong,” Rick said trying to justify this to his five year old. Alex sniffed.
“Do they taste good?” he asked.
“Come try some.” They went out, and Alex found that fresh fish did taste good.
“Did you put the puppy in a grave?” Alex asked.
“I put him in some bushes,” Rick said taking a bite of fish.
“You killed it?” He nodded not feeling comfortable with this conversation.
“Yes, or it would have hurt for along time before it died.”
“Did it hurt it when you did it?” he asked finishing his lunch.
“No, it was very fast. Now since your finished we should go and try out the water.” That got a smile from Alex and they spend the rest of the day splashing in the lake and actually took a swim. It was a warm day and the water was cold, but not bone chilling. Alex had never had the chance to learn to swim, so now Rick stood on the bottom of the water, not too far from land and held his son afloat.
“Now kick your feet like I showed you and move your arms.” Alex did that, and without knowing it his dad let him go, and Alex did well. Rick was right beside him, and when he tired, he held on again.
“Oh wow, mum will be so proud that I can swim.” Rick nodded.
“It’s getting cold,” Alex said, his teeth chattering. At that, Rick lifted his son against his chest, and they got out, and went to the tent gettng their towels and dried off. Once they had dried off, Alex got out his new book. The Jungle Book, and Rick read to him about Mogli, the boy who was raised by Wolves.
“Dad was that A wolf cub?” Alex asked, of the cub he had found in the trap.
“I think so,” he responded kissing the top of his son’s head. Rick got through chapter one before Alex was asleep, then he leaned them back and decided a nap for both of them would be good. They slept for several hours, and by then it was time to get dinner underway. Alex stayed this time, and watched his dad prepare the fish, and was not so upset by it. He was having a wonderful time, and hoped that they would be able to go up to the cliff tomorrow like his dad had said. Neither knew that the next day would bring an end to their fun, but for now it was time for fun, and after a big dinner, and another dip in the lake the Father and son went to bed, to get an early start for the cliff.
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