Five Brothers Went Camping Together

 

            Once upon another time and in another place, there was a family with five sons. Three were singletons, and two were twins. Their ages spanned 18 years down to 6 for the twins.
            Jack was 18, Denny was 15, Georgie was 11, a redhead, and the twins at 6 years were Samuel and Benjamin. Both golden haired with curls, angelic.
            One evening Jack said to his four brothers, “Tomorrow let us gather up all our camping gear and spend a night in the woods up by the Woody River. We shall build a fire to gather around.”
            The next morning, early, with their doting parent’s permission, they loaded all the required into Jack’s old third hand white Taurus. A noble beater. Into the trunk went the tent, the bedrolls, the food and drink, and this and that as desired. Jack brought his old flashlight. Georgie had a radio. Denny forgot his pocket knife and the twins brought their bears.
            The twins sat in the back seat with Denny, and Georgie sat beside Jack as he drove the handful of miles to the Woodsy River. It was not an official campground; it was just a place near a river under tall firs and some leafy trees.
            When they got to their spot, Jack wisely parked the Taurus facing out. He didn’t lock up either. Sometimes seconds count.
            It was a perfect day. The river muttered in the distance. The sun dappled the ground, shining through alder and maple leaves. The wind came by and made the fir trees sigh a little. There were crows, and jays chattering.
            Jack sent the younger boys off to find something to burn. He sent Denny to the river bank to find some handily-sized rocks to make a small fireplace. It took Denny two trips to get the rocks. Georgie and Sameul and Benjamin took a long time finding fuel, but finally came back with some dead fallen branches and such. Jack broke them up to useful lengths.
            As you can see, all proceeded well. Jack and Denny set up the tent. The five folding chairs went around the fire. The hot dogs were roasted; the pop was drunk.
            Evening came. The forest became dark. The brothers sat together by the pleasant fire.
            But then something very odd happened.
            Denny saw a man, a very big man, walking just beyond the light of the fire. He watched long and carefully before he said a word. “There’s someone walking out there between the Woodsy River and us, boys,” he said.
            Jack directed his flashlight’s beam where Denny pointed. “I see a bear walking away,” he said. “I think your head is full of old men’s tales, Denny!”
            Georgie said, “No. It’s just a big deer. It isn’t a man or a bear. I see a brown haired rump there.”
            Samuel said, “Someone is talking!” And, indeed, there was a chattering sort of a sound.
            Benjamin said, “It’s the river. The river makes a lot of noise.” But he was afraid.
            Said Jack, “Guys, let’s put it all back in the trunk and go sleep in own beds.” For he was responsible for the lot of them, and Benjamin was crying anyhow. Samuel agreed solemnly, and Denny and Georgie giggled, but did as Jack said.
            Thus ended the camping trip.
 
            Now, The Forest Man and the Forest Woman, left alone at their midnight fishing spot, were free to make some observations about the differences in perceptions among forest visitors.
            “You saw it, you heard it, my Dear, did you not?” he said.
            “I did,” she said, as she sat watching the man as he fished. It was a simple process of slipping underwater and catching a fish or two by hand while they drowsed in the dark water.
            “It seems as if each heart brings its own eyes and ears to the forest,” he said. “One will see us as we are. One will see something that proves the first one wrong, for the sake of his own state of mind.
            “It’s a mystery to me, and yet it is we who are the great unknown, so called,” said he.
            “I think, though odd, it’s for the best, my good man,” said she. “For we must share the world, to a certain degree, with mankind, the Relatively Hairless,” she laughed, it was an old joke among her people.
            “Perhaps mystery is a wall of separation for them and for us,” said he, coming up from the water with a fish in each hand. One for her, one for himself.
            “I believe that you are correct, as usual,” she said, taking his arm as they walked through the paths of the forest together to their own resting place.
 
            Then, only the softly sibilant river moved on over its bed of pebbles. Small creatures sighed in their sleep in burrows and nests, and the wind came looking and then left the stage itself. For the wind is very restless and curious above all things.

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