Some of my favorite memories from the DTB club were building our forts. It seems that we built one at every reunion between the ages of 7 and 15. Not only that, we built forts at other places - including several different spots around my neighborhood. In the first drafts of the Narrows Escape, I had the family reunion take place in the White Mountains of Arizona, totally separated from the hike. When I changed location, I changed the fort too to match the new setting. Of course I pasted the old scene among my deleted scenes files in case I ever wanted to use it again. Here is the original:
After
completely examining their fort, they began exploring the surrounding
area. They hadn’t gotten very far when the rain started falling
again.
“Not
again!” exclaimed Devin. “Why does the rain always have to ruin
our fun?”
“Should
we go back?” asked Brady. “Maybe we can work on our book some
more!”
“But
we did that all afternoon!” complained Devin. “I didn’t come
all the way to Arizona to read and write. We can do that
at home.”
“We
can always wait it out inside the fort,” suggested Trey, ducking
back inside their retreat.
Devin
and Brady followed him in. They had to stoop over slightly so as not
to bang their heads on the “roof,” but there were plenty of
branches to sit on. Devin was pleasantly surprised at how well the
roof was doing at keeping the light rain out. There were only a few
spots where the water was seeping through.
“Hey,
we’re pretty good builders,” he said proudly.
“You
mean architects,” corrected Trey.
“What’s
the difference?”
“Architects
sounds more professional,” said Trey.
“Well
I’m just glad we don’t have to go back,” said Devin. “In
fact, we can hang out here instead of in the camper every time it
rains.”
To
pass the time, they played Tic-tac-toe by using a stick to scratch in
the damp earth. They were running out of dirt when Devin heard a
voice calling out from the other side of the river.
“Shh!
Quiet! Someone’s coming!” hissed Devin.
The
three boys sat silently, without moving, listening to the drumming of
raindrops against the tree, and the gurgle of water from the nearby
creek. Devin could feel his heartbeat pounding as they waited for the
threat to pass.
“Brady!
Devin! Trey?” the voice repeated.
“It’s
my dad,” announced Brady. “I better go find out what he wants.”
Brady
carefully climbed up the wet branches to the lookout post. As he
disappeared from view, Devin heard him call out, “Hey Dad, over
here!”
Brady
lowered himself back into the clubhouse. Several seconds later, Uncle
Darrell followed – though a bit more cautiously. He was wearing his
familiar red jacket and his favorite cowboy hat. The three boys’
coats were slung over his left arm, dripping wet from the rain.
Once
inside, Uncle Darrell had to stoop over almost double to keep from
hitting his head. A low branch still knocked the hat off his head
anyway. He carefully placed it on again and gladly accepted Brady’s
invitation to share his branch. Then he passed out the coats.
“This
is a nice set-up you have here,” Uncle Darrell said admiringly, as
he inspected the makeshift roof. There were still only four or five
drips.
Not
bad at all, Devin
decided. I’ll
bet Steve and Shane couldn’t do any better themselves.
They
quickly gave Uncle Darrell the “tour” – which they were able to
do without even getting up. They then humbly accepted the praise he
heaped on them for their craftsmanship.
"This
is great!" Uncle Darrell repeated with a wide grin. “Your
fathers and I used to build forts like this all the time in the
orange groves and fields behind our house. We would spend hours and
hours pretending we were Roy Rogers, fending off bandits and
Indians.”
“Roy
Rogers? Who’s that?” asked Devin, wondering if he was related to
Buck Rogers from the twenty-fifth century – one of his favorite TV
shows.
“My
dad still has all his old Roy Rogers stuff in a box in our garage,”
Trey explained. “He was some old cowboy.”
“Not
that
old!” laughed Darrell. “But I almost forgot. I was supposed to
find you to make sure you guys weren’t getting all wet. Aunt Doris
was afraid you were going to catch pneumonia or something, but you’re
all much drier than the rest of us.”
“So
we can stay?” asked Brady hopefully.
“I
don’t see why not,” Darrell replied. “I’ll just go back and
tell them what a masterful job you guys did.”
“All
right!” exclaimed Devin, extending his hand so Brady could slap it.
Uncle
Darrell left the way he came, and the three boys remained in their
fort, playing games until the rain stopped.
