Summary:\u00a0 The brothers go camping, and there’s nothing better than telling a ‘ghost story’ around a camp fire, unless you try to tell the tale with these brothers.<\/p>\n
Rating:\u00a0 G \u00a0 (1,220 words)<\/p>\n
Camping Trip<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a dark and stormy night. The\u2014\u201d Adam was interrupted by Hoss\u2019s incredulous voice.<\/p>\n \u201cIt ain\u2019t stormy, Adam. A bit cloudy maybe but not stormy. You gotta get your stuff right for us to believe it.\u201d Hoss advised his oldest brother.<\/p>\n The campfire light danced against the night, and the tendrils of smoke drifted on the air. Three figures were huddled near the fire, hoping to warm up against the cool breeze.<\/p>\n \u201cFine. It was a dark and cloudy night. The sound of banging footsteps could be heard on the\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do footsteps bang? I\u2019ve heard of thudding and clomping footsteps but never banging. Makes it sound like they were walking on a door or something,\u201d Joe interrupted, speaking with the ringing authority of a ten-year-old.<\/p>\n Adam let out a deep sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He was out camping with his brothers and, at the moment, wondered how Pa would take it if he came home without them. Looking into the young faces across from him, he suspected they were trying to annoy him on purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to hear this or not? Because, quite frankly, I would like to go to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe and Hoss looked at each other for a moment. Joe spoke first.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, we wanna hear a story. Maybe you should stick to something you actually know.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss chimed in, too. \u201cYou got all that fancy book learnin\u2019 an\u2019 all, but you forgot how to tell a story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFine, fine. So, no one wants to hear a ghost story?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNaw, we wanna hear one. Just make it believable, that\u2019s all.\u201d Hoss\u2019s advice drifted over the hissing sounds of the burning wood.<\/p>\n Groaning to himself, Adam had to wonder at what had possessed him to take a ten year old and a sixteen year old on a camping trip. I know it was to ‘reconnect’ after coming home from college, but I didn’t expect to have to entertain them all night. <\/em>Sighing loudly, he began his tale.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nights on the trip across the plains were black as pitch. You could barely see your hand in front of your face.\u201d Adam deepened his voice, speaking in soft tones. He leaned back a bit and shadows played across his face.<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean like now?\u201d Joe asked, leaning forward, his eyes wide.<\/p>\n \u201cExactly like now. Only there wasn\u2019t a home to go to for safety. We only had the back of a wagon to sleep in and there were no doors to keep roaming creatures at bay. You could hear the sounds of animals in the brush, just outside. We were never sure if they would come in with us or not.\u201d Adam smiled at the look on his younger brothers\u2019 faces. Hoss had been so little, it wasn\u2019t surprising he had no memory of any of it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d meet travelers heading back East, and they would tell us of the town of Poker Flats. It had been settled by the Spanish, but renamed by the whites moving into the area. The town had been abandoned for many years, the families long gone. The only remains of the settlement were the cellar openings and the cemetery.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe inched closer to his larger brother. He looked around him, trying to make sure there was nothing resembling the remains of Poker Flats nearby.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said if you stood in the middle of town, no matter what time of day, and closed your eyes \u2013 you could hear the sounds of the dead town. Mothers calling for their children, laughter, stock animals milling about. All the sounds of a live town but everyone had died or moved off.<\/p>\n \u201cPa and the rest of the adults didn\u2019t think much about it; they thought it was stories told around a campfire to pass the time. A few weeks later, we found ourselves in a small area, weeds and vines everywhere, and cellar holes dotted the ground. In the distance, you could just make out a cemetery. They figured it was Poker Flats, but no one heard or saw throughout the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam tried to hide his glee while watching his youngest brothers. Joe was almost in Hoss’ lap, and he wasn\u2019t sure how much longer they\u2019d stay on their side of the fire.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that night . . . it came alive. We were all bedded down; and, in the distance, you could hear children laughing and playing. A few of the men got up to go see who was out of their wagons, but no one was missing. After settling down, we could hear women calling to each other, and the sounds of plows in the fields drifted on the wind.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you I was scared,\u201d Adam said, laughing. Sure enough, Hoss and Joe had slowly crept towards him \u2013 if they inched any closer, one of them would get singed by the fire between them. \u201cNo one was willing to go out and see where the sounds were coming from. We all knew the stories had been true.<\/p>\n \u201cI could hear Pa snoring towards the front of the wagon, and knew Hoss was snuggled close to him. I couldn\u2019t sleep for the noises just outside. Close to daylight, I heard someone walking near our wagon. The slow, steady footsteps rounded the end of our wagon and climbed inside. I kept my eyes shut, scared of what I might or might not see. I could smell tobacco and knew no one in the wagon train smoked. A hand brushed the hair back from my face, covered me back up and left.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss was trying to be brave for his little brother, but to think he\u2019d been that close to a ghost! He could feel shivers of fear running through him.<\/p>\n \u201cI never did tell Pa what happened that night. Needless to say, everyone packed up the next morning and left. As we pulled away, I looked back to see old man near the cemetery watching us leave.\u201d<\/p>\n His brother\u2019s eyes were as big as saucers. Adam knew he shouldn\u2019t be having this much fun scaring those two, but he couldn\u2019t help himself.<\/p>\n \u201cWho was the old man?\u201d Joe wanted to know.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know. He disappeared in the blink of an eye, and we never looked back again,\u201d Adam said, looking down for a moment. He met their eyes and smiled brightly. \u201cSo, who\u2019s ready for bed?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam pulled out his blankets, watching as his younger brothers brought out their bedrolls as well and placed them nearer to him than normal.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, why don\u2019t you two go back to your side? I won\u2019t be able to move,\u201d Adam complained, trying to shove his youngest brother away.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want ya to be scared,\u201d Joe explained, scooting right back.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, we thought that ya might get a fright after what happened to ya as a boy,\u201d Hoss chimed in.<\/p>\n Adam closed his eyes, cursing himself for his bit of fun.<\/p>\n **********<\/p>\n Adam lay next to the fire, watching the flickering light. He smiled to himself \u2013 Joe was practically in the bedroll with him, he was so close. Hoss had moved his blankets a bit closer, too. An elbow to his ribs from a squirming Joe caused him to grunt in pain.<\/p>\n \u2018This is not how I wanted to reconnect,\u2019 he thought to himself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ~The End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: The brothers go camping, and there’s nothing better than telling a ‘ghost story’ around a camp fire, unless you try to tell the tale with these brothers.<\/p>\n Rating: G (1,220 words)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9526,"featured_media":13937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1009,23,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brothers","category-drama","category-prequels","wpcat-1009-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-30-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/ghost-town.jpg?fit=400%2C239&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}