Back 40: The Queen’s Call

The river ran backward on the day the Queen vanished.

I remember it like it was yesterday, even though I was only nine. The water twisted and curled up its own length, as if trying to swallow itself, and we just stared. Standing on the tallest mound of fresh dirt, I looked over my kingdom, the “Back 40,” as we called it, sprawled out behind our family’s woods and field, with Grayson beside me and Forest just below, clutching his bamboo spear. There was no mistaking it: something had changed.

I raised my arms high, the King of this dirt mound, and declared, “The Queen has disappeared, and the river… it’s cursed!” My voice was low and booming, like the voice we’d give to all our serious proclamations. Grayson, my older brother, crossed his arms, his face hardened and his jaw set like a true warrior. Forest widened his eyes in perfect dread, gripping his spear as if preparing to defend us all.

From where we stood, the sun was slipping lower in the sky, and the bamboo thicket rustled in the clearing. This was our kingdom: twenty acres of woods, ponds, paths, and old barns, with wild bamboo growing so thick it was practically a forest. We’d grown up here, mapping the land and discovering secret spots like the old oak with roots that let us wriggle into an underground “home” or the pond with the overhanging willow tree where we could fish or hide.

The Queen had always been part of our stories, a distant figure whose presence we felt but never truly saw. But today, she seemed close. We felt her loss as though we had known her our entire lives. She needed us, and we would answer her call.

As if on cue, our cousins, Tami and Beau, came crashing through the woods, their voices raised in excited shouts. They’d seen the river’s strange movements, and in moments, we had a full meeting of the council convened at the mound. Tami, ever the strategist, took a post at the mound’s edge, peering out toward the old barn, while Beau unfolded a piece of paper as if it were a sacred treasure.

“Look!” he whispered. “A message from the Queen!” He unfolded it to reveal scratch marks, a drawing of a flower, a sun, a crown, but it was enough. We all knew what it meant: we were needed.

With bamboo spears, fishing poles, and an old map scrawled on tree bark, we set off on our quest. Grayson led the way, taking us along the narrow path that snaked between the woods and the tall grass in the clearing.

Every crackling twig and darting shadow put us on edge, and I kept my bamboo spear raised, feeling as though we were the Queen’s last defenders.

Our pace quickened, the urgency building with each step. “The Queen wouldn’t just leave,” Forest whispered, glancing nervously around. “She wouldn’t leave us to face… him.”

None of us wanted to admit it, but we all felt the weight of the shadowy figure lurking somewhere in these woods. In our games, we’d imagined villains before, shadowy wraiths in the trees or invisible spies, but this time, the figure before us was flesh and blood.

We were well into the forest when we saw him. The man stood halfway behind a tree, his face partially obscured, one eye peeking out at us. He looked a bit ragged, with a scarf wound around his neck, dark clothing that seemed to blend into the shadows, and a hand resting on a slender metal staff.

“What do you want here?” Grayson demanded, his voice steady.

The man stepped out, his eyes narrowing. “What you seek is not yours to keep,” he said, his voice smooth but cold, like the whisper of wind through bare branches. “Turn back now, or be lost to the curse that lies upon this land.”

Forest gripped his spear tighter, and Beau and Tami went silent, wide-eyed. But Grayson didn’t flinch. He squared his shoulders, lifted his chin, and took a step forward.

“We’re here for the Queen,” he said firmly. “If you have her, hand her over.”

The stranger smiled, a thin, unfriendly smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He shook his head, and something in that look told us we were in deeper than we’d planned. For the first time, I felt a chill trickle down my spine. But Grayson held his ground, defiant.

Then, without warning, the man raised his staff, and the ground around us shook. Leaves blew up from the forest floor, swirling in a mad cyclone, and the shadows around him seemed to stretch and twist until he vanished into the depths of the forest.

We took a breath, each of us stunned, and Grayson turned to us, his face set with determination.

“The Queen is depending on us. We keep moving.”

The path forward lay darker than before, and we each felt a strange, solemn pull to protect the Queen. Whatever lay ahead wasn’t part of our backyard kingdom anymore; this was something else entirely. But we were her last hope, and in that clearing, we vowed to find her.

Our pace slowed as the mist grew denser, muffling the world around us. The forest was so silent now that the only sounds were our breaths and the crunch of leaves underfoot. I glanced over at Tami, who wore a determined look but kept her fingers clenched tightly around her fishing pole.

Every so often, I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, a shadow flitting between trees, just out of reach. But each time I looked, there was nothing there. The unease grew with every step until we reached a clearing, where moonlight cast an unearthly glow over the ground.

In the center stood an old, crumbling stone altar, covered in moss and strange symbols. On top of it lay a small, glimmering object, something metallic that caught the moonlight.

Grayson approached cautiously, his hand outstretched, but just as his fingers brushed against the metal, a deep rumbling shook the ground, sending us all stumbling backward. The trees around us seemed to lean in, their branches stretching toward us like claws.

And then we saw him, the stranger, emerging from the shadows at the edge of the clearing, but this time, he wasn’t alone. Figures in dark cloaks surrounded him, forming a circle around us.

“Well, well,” the stranger drawled, his voice slithering through the air. “The children of the Queen have come to play. How quaint.”

Grayson stepped forward, chin high, though I could see the tremble in his hand as he held his spear. “We’re here for the Queen.”

The stranger laughed, cold and mocking. “Or what? You’ll poke me with a stick?” He snapped his fingers, and the figures around him shifted, their cloaks billowing like smoke. “The Queen is beyond your reach, kids. Turn back, before you’re lost to this forest forever.”

Tami, her eyes blazing, stepped forward. “We’re not leaving without her. She belongs to our world, not yours.

The stranger’s eyes glinted with something dark and dangerous. “Then let’s see if you can find her,” he sneered.

He lifted his hand, and the ground beneath us opened in a thunderous crack. I screamed as the earth gave way, plunging us into darkness. We tumbled, branches and roots clawing at us as we fell deeper and deeper until we landed with a thud in an underground chamber lit by a strange, flickering light.

The chamber was vast, with walls covered in carvings of mythical beasts and ancient symbols. At its center stood a statue, a tall, regal figure with a crown and an outstretched hand. But her face was blank, smooth stone, as if waiting for someone to give it life.

Grayson pushed himself to his feet, wincing as he clutched his arm. “Then we’ll find her,” he said, his voice steady.

I felt a strange pull toward the statue, as if something unseen was drawing me closer. I reached out, my fingers brushing against the stone hand, and felt a jolt of warmth, like a heartbeat beneath my fingers.

And then I heard it, a whisper, faint but unmistakable.

“Grayson, Finn, Forest…” It was her voice. The Queen’s voice.

We all froze, the familiar, warm tone filling the chamber, and the stone around us began to glow softly. The Queen’s face softened, taking on features I recognized.

The slender nose, the slight laugh lines around the eyes… how had we not seen it?

It was her. It was our mother.

The warmth of her voice echoed around us, drawing us in, and I felt tears welling in my eyes. “Mom,” I whispered, almost to myself.

“Yes,” her voice replied, gentle and full of love. “Come home now. Dinner is ready.”

The statues around us faded, the shadows retreating, and the forest’s strange chill lifted. We found ourselves back in the clearing, the night calm and quiet once again.

Grayson let out a long breath, lowering his spear, a gentle, knowing smile on his face. “Guess the Queen’s home.”

The path to the house stretched out before us, our adventure dissolving into familiar sights and sounds as we walked up toward the kitchen windows, where light spilled into the darkening yard.

Our mother, the Queen herself, stood by the stove, stirring something in a pot, her face lit softly by the glow. Beside her sat the King, my dad, King James, as we called him in our stories, reading his newspaper at the table, as if no river had run backward that day, as if the world hadn’t twisted and spun in her absence.

“We thought…” Tami whispered, her voice catching.

“You vanished,” Forest added softly, still clutching his bamboo spear.

Dad finished his coffee and folded his newspaper, setting it aside with a curious smile. “Where have you been all day, my Queen Bee?” he asked, that familiar twinkle in his eye.

Mom laughed, her eyes crinkling at the edges. “Just down to the grocery store, less than a mile away. Had to fetch something for dinner. You know, in the real world,” she said with a gentle smirk, brushing her hair back. She had always indulged our games, knowing that every time she left, even if only to run an errand, it left us feeling a little lost.

We glanced at each other, exchanging embarrassed smiles, as we scrambled to wash our hands in the sink, wiping the dirt from our faces and trying to tame our hair filled with bits of leaves and twigs. Our clothes were smeared with mud, knees still caked from the day’s battles, and Mom shook her head, passing each of us a cloth to wipe the worst of it off.

“Looks like the Knights of the Back 40 have had a long day,” she said, barely containing her smile.

We took our places at the table, Grayson on Dad’s left, me on his right, and Forest, Beau, and Tami across from us.

The smell of roasted chicken and warm mashed potatoes filled the air, and we dug in with all the reverence we’d give to a king’s feast.

Dad chuckled, ruffling my hair as I took my seat. “I heard you managed to knock Grayson off the hill this time, huh? The King of the Hill has a new ruler?”

I grinned, a burst of pride swelling in my chest. “Yep! I’m the King now. Led everyone all the way to the Lost Kingdom and back.”

Grayson gave me a playful nudge, trying to stifle his own smile. “He got lucky, Dad. It won’t happen again.”

“Oh, it will!” I laughed, leaning back like a true monarch.

“Today, I was the king. We defended the Queen, trekked through the Shadow Woods, and escaped the Curse of the River. Even Grayson couldn’t stop me!”

Dad laughed, his eyes sparkling as he passed me another piece of chicken. “That’s the spirit. Protecting the Queen, escaping curses… Sounds like you all had a day full of adventure.”

Forest, mouth full of mashed potatoes, pointed his fork at me, nodding enthusiastically. “He’s right, Dad. We even saw the dark wizard!” he said, eyes wide. “He tried to stop us. But Grayson was brave and told him we wouldn’t leave without the Queen.”

Mom gasped, playing along. “The dark wizard? Did he cast a spell on you all?”

Beau chimed in, holding his butter knife like a sword. “Oh, he tried! But we weren’t scared. Even when he told us we’d be lost forever.”

Dad listened, nodding with a look of awe that encouraged us, his hand on Grayson’s shoulder, his fingers lingering as if proud of the bravery we’d shown, even if it was just in our heads.

Tami leaned in, eyes sparkling with excitement. “It was dark, and the shadows were everywhere. But we kept going because we knew we couldn’t leave without the Queen.”

“And then,” I added, leaning in closer as if revealing the best part, “we heard her voice. She called out to us, saying, ‘boys… come home now.’”

Mom placed her hand over her heart, clearly touched by the retelling of our adventure. “Well, that is a tale,” she said, glancing at Dad with a smile. “And here I thought you’d just been out playing by the barn. I’m lucky to have such loyal defenders.”

She set a dish of green beans in front of us, and Dad squeezed my shoulder. “Looks like we’ll have to keep an eye out for this dark wizard. We’ll need all the courage you have, King of the Hill,” he said to me, pride clear in his voice.

I beamed, still feeling the thrill of the day. “We’ll protect the kingdom every day, Dad!”

And as we ate, we shared every detail of our day, right down to Forest’s daring jump from the old oak, Beau’s near fall into the creek, and Grayson’s bold standoff with the dark stranger. Dad listened, ruffling each of our heads in turn, laughing and shaking his head at our adventures.

When the plates were empty, we sat back, full and content, knowing that our Queen was safe, our kingdom was strong, and even the darkest curses were no match for us, not with Mom and Dad, our Queen Bee and King James, sitting right there beside us. The river might run backward, and kingdoms might rise and fall, but here, around the table, we were safe and truly home. We knew we needed to sleep early, because for all we knew, with the sun’s arrival, we would be out back, digging to China.