ESCAPE FROM DANGER ISLAND

It's the bottom of a small waterfall
Icy cold water splashes onto dark jagged rocks around me
Muffled shouts of dismay come from above
Pushing myself up from the sodden log which softened my fall
I squint skyward
Dirt crumbles down
Worried eyes peer over the edge
A look of relief washes over his face
"I'm alive," I say with a grin

ESCAPE FROM DANGER ISLAND

The bus bumps along a beaten dirt road deep into the woods
When we finally get there all the kids run off down the hill
I walk off a ways and find some bushes to take a whiz
After-which I amble to camp
Clueless that the very first thing one did at camp was sign up for classes
I was the last kid down the hill
Most of the coveted classes
Water skiing
Parasailing
and Pottery(for some reason) filled up
Quickly I scribble my name in Archery

and
The only other class left
was
for
Repelling
Wasn't sure what that was
Heard something about climbing rocks
Didn't much like the sound of it
Signed up all the same

It

started off nicely
Carefully climbing into canoes
We paddle across the water to an uninhabited island
It's early
The sun is out so we're warm when we hit the foreign shore
(dragging the boats up a ways) and hike into a dense dank forest
The ascent begins
In and up we press
Soon the sun is swallowed by clouds and heavy evergreen branches
Ferns and mossy rocks adorn a barely discernible path
The sweat on my arm takes a chill
Even though the climb is vigorous the forest is cold and damp
I begin to question this quest
Hiking to a giant rock face from which we are to repel
Over 100 feet
The thought fills me with dread
My spirits lift as we break into a sunlit field

But not for long

Because they come
Big, black and biting

ESCAPE FROM DANGER ISLAND

Horse flies
Nasty and ferocious
A buzz and a blur and bam
It's bitten right through your shirt and it hurts
We try to fight them off to no avail
The flies retreat as we re-enter  the cool dark tree canopy
The path though
is getting narrow

and more perilous

ESCAPE FROM DANGER ISLAND

Musky dense verdant air

fill our lungs

as we slink our way

sidling along a steep slope to our right

that disappears at a ledge

We wind along

When suddenly the girl in front of me

slips off the path

and slides down

dropping toward the edge of the ledge

At the last moment

she grabs a sapling

a few feet 

from empty air

and

stops

This is my moment

I've been waiting for it some time now

Somewhere deep inside

A voice has told me

whispered

That I am

going to be a super-hero

Though, I'm not sure what my power/powers will be?

Flying?

Time travel?

Shape Shifting into some water form?

I don't know

My powers have yet to manifest

But this is the time

Time for these superpowers to SHOW THEMSELVES

I leap after the girl

and

slip and fall

and slide just as she had

plummeting past her and her sapling

Just before the empty space is a fallen log

A log that I intend to use to stop my descent

My descent to...

Who knows where?

ESCAPE FROM DANGER ISLAND

I thrust my legs out

and kick at the log

which breaks

disappearing into space

I follow arms pinwheeling

(Turns out flying wasn't my hidden secret superpower)

downward I tumble

landing with a squishy thud on a spongy mass of detritus

unhurt

with jagged rocks and splashing ice-water around me

"I'm alive," I say with a grin

"Thank God," shouts the counselor

They can't get me back up

It's too high

The ledge too unstable

"There's a bridge a couple hundred yards up that a way," he points

"We'll meet up with you there"

They trudge off

I'm alone on Danger Island

"Uh Oh Chongo!" I say

and press on through the brush

Turns out cliff repelling wasn't half as scary as the journey

Isn't that often the way of it?

We went through safety protocols

Belay on blue?

On belay blue

We repelled

It was fun

We hiked and paddled back to camp as twilight touched the sky

Maybe that summer I didn't go

Parasailing

or

Water-Skiing

or

Make myself a vase?

(Still don't get the pottery popularity)

But how many kids can say

they 

Survived Danger Island?!!