Summer Days

The little girl was home for a whole month. She had to live with her mother and her step father, but that wasn't home. Home was here in the woods with her brothers. And the judge who made her live with her mother said she got to come home every other weekend and for a month in the summer. She was very happy to be with her brothers, their sister had moved out but they were happy to be together. Her oldest brother was 16 and her other brother was 13. She thought they were practically grown ups. She felt safe with them and she had so much fun. She knew when she turned 12 she was going to tell the judge that she wanted to live with her dad and them all the time and he would have to let her then.

Her dad was off hauling logs to the sawmill so they all got to stay home from working in the woods this sunny summer day. They had played catch with both the baseball and the football and they were getting bored. The little girls biggest brother said "We should ride our bikes to Taco Johns for lunch, my treat". Taco Johns was about 7 miles away, Three and a half of them on their dirt road that had three railroad bridges because it was an old rail road track.

The little girl said "My bike is at Mom's house", not "My bike is at home" She refused to ever call her mother's house home. Her other brother said "My bike is still broken"

"No big deal" her oldest brother said. "We can all just ride on my bike." The little girl looked at her brother that was closest to her in age and they both shrugged. They knew that their older brother was going to talk them into it, he always did. His plan was for him to peddle, her other brother to ride on the handle bars and the little girl could ride on his shoulders while he peddled. Before either of them could object they were off towards town all on one bike. The little girl thought they must look like circus performers. She imagined they were going to get a lot of looks once they got into town.

At first the little girl was pretty scared. It was really high up in the air to be on her brothers shoulders on a bike. She was afraid if he wrecked it would really hurt. But after a little while she felt safe up there. Her biggest brother was really strong and just good at everything, including riding a bike with his siblings on the handle bars and on his shoulders. Before too long she was having fun. The day was perfect and she was with her brothers on an adventure. This was what she missed most when she had to be with their mother.

After enjoying the ride for a while she remembered that there were 3 old railroad bridges between them and Taco Johns. That made her scared again. The bridges had no real deck, they were still railroad ties with the track taken off. Their dad had put 12 inch boards on where the car tires hit so it was smooth instead of all bumpy but that seemed like it was a bad idea even for her brother who could do anything as far as she was concerned. She started floating the idea that they stop and walk across the bridges. Her oldest brother said no it was too hard to get everyone situated right and if they stopped they would just have to do that three extra times. There really was no point arguing with him he was truthfully in charge of the situation.

When they got to the first bridge it was just as scarry as she expected it to be. She could see all the way down to the creek and she knew if they crashed they would get hurt really bad and no one would find them. But her brother didn't even hesitate he went right over that bridge like the secret circus performer he obviously was.

After the first bridge they heard a familiar sound. It was their dad's logging truck. When they met her brother stopped and so did their dad. He rolled down the window and asked what they were up to. When he found out he said that the boys could go on if they wanted but the little girl had to go home with him. The little girl was so happy to not have to go over two more bridges she climbed from her brothers shoulders right into the open window of the semi and across her dad's lap to the passenger seat.