A Night of Camping Fear
The girls looked out the windows of the camper as the calm night took a turn toward becoming very eerie. They could hear the hoot hoot of an owl in the background as the wind started picking up. As the wind began whistling through the trees the girls heard the sound of what could only be footsteps circling the camper.
Trying to be as brave as six 11-year-old girls could be they decided someone would have go outside the camper and check things out. As girl scouts they had always been taught to do things in pares and since Beck and Carrie always wanted to appear brave, they volunteered to check out the situation.
Trying to be as brave as they acted was not an easy task. Trembling as they walked Beck and Carrie walked out of the camper and around the side of the house. Suddenly they both stopped dead in their tracks. Directly in front of them, they could see what appeared to be a man leaning against a pole. Their minds started racing a million miles a minute. They knew they would have to be quiet so the man wouldn't hear them. It was important to get to the safety of the camper and warn the other girls of the possible danger looming outside.
Always the ones to act braver than they actually were, they had volunteered to check things out after a strange noise outside scared everyone. Oh, how they both wished they had just stayed in the camper with the other girls. Better yet, they wished someone else had checked out the noise.
Quickly and quietly, they made their way back through the dark yard to the safety of the camper. Once inside they told the other girls about the large man they saw leaning against the pole. Immediately fear swept through the camper, as the six girls tried to figure out who this man might be and what reason he might have for being there. Moreover, they had to find a way to protect themselves if this man tried to get into the camper to attack them.
Charlie spoke up and said, "Maybe we should wake your parents and have them check it out." At once Carrie and Beck shot that idea down. No way were they going to sneak out of the camper and try to make it into the house to wake up the adults.
There were two reasons they refused to go to the house to alert Beck's parents. The reason first being the possibility that the man could have been her dad or her brother trying to scare them. There was no way that the girls would give them the satisfaction of knowing they were scared. The other reason was quite simply that they were scared. If the man wasn't Beck's dad or brother, then it would mean that he might be dangerous and could capture them while they were trying to get to the house.
It was then that Angie came up with a great idea. "Let's search the camper to see what we can protect ourselves with" she exclaimed. The girls frantically searched for anything they could possibly use for protection if the stranger just outside tried to get in. Ann stood guard by the door of the camper watching for any slight movement that might occur if anyone tried to open the camper door.
Finally, the girls gathered together and laid out all the items they found to use for protection. Now they had to figure out what they would do with the things they found. The items were a broom, a roll of toilet paper and a wooden spoon. Since there were six of them, they decided to watch the door in shifts. The first three would watch the door while the other three tried to sleep after a few hours they would switch and continue this throughout the night until daybreak.
Beck, Carrie and Suzie took the first shift while the other girls tried to get a little sleep. The plan was to line up by the door with items of protection in hand ready for use. One girl stood armed with the toilet paper, another with the broom and the final girl had the wooden spoon.
The girl with the toilet paper would immediately try to wrap it around any intruders head in hopes of making it difficult for him to see while the other girls beat him with the broom and wooden spoon. At this point, the girls that were sleeping would wake up and run to the house screaming for help. The girl with the toilet paper would jump on his back and beat on him while keeping his eyes covered so he couldn't see to fight back. The hope was that the other girls would be able to wake Beck's family in time to get the intruder before he could hurt anyone.
As the night wore on, the girls struggled to be as quiet as possible, which caused them all to become very sleepy. Each girl ended up dozing off and on waking up often because of the fear of the possibility the man might try to get in and hurt them. When it finally started to get light outside the girls quietly snuck out of the camper to see if they could find any evidence of the mysterious intruder who had been there that night, and possibly figure out why he was there.
Upon searching the ground surrounding the camper, the only footprints they could find were that of Beck's dog. They had forgotten he was even out there. He must have been walking around the camper watching out for them and hoping for a treat.
Suddenly there he was, the mysterious man that Beck and Carrie had seen the night before. They instantly felt their faces turning several shades of red as the other girls rounded the side of the house and saw the man they had all feared that night. The other girls started laughing as they teased, "Is this your man?"
There, just where it was the day before staring at them with that mocking grin, stood the scarecrow the girls had built for the upcoming school fair.
What had started out as a boring night retelling old campfire stories had ended up being an adventure filled with fear and excitement. Later, every one laughed and talked about how much fun they had working together to come up with a battle plan. Even if the enemy was a scarecrow that they had made themselves. It was a fun filled night they would laugh about for years to come.
There was one haunting thought in the back of the girls mind that lingers to this day. A thing they never discussed again. One question no one could explain away. Why was there straw scattered around the camper, where did it come from and how did it get there?