didn’t need to panhandle for gas money yesterday, we decided to drive up deep into the mountains and hide out a spot we knew, where I could swim and Mom could pretend that there weren’t other humans in the world. We knew this spot because it was where we parked the last time we were in the mountains. Six miles below, where the dirt road left the pavement, there were no signs telling people that there was camping. You had to drive up, up, up the mountain on a dusty dirt road to find the secret camp ground, and we didn’t think anyone else would find it but us. Last time we were there, the guys from inside the only other truck had taken their pea pod boat into the middle of the lake to make a moat between themselves and us. This was our kind of place.
stopped in a place with moose-skeeters or one that’s haunted with howling fantods, but usually it’s a good thing.
turtle-person right in front of me. “What are you doing here? Let me see your early morning permit!” I barked. She looked suitably scared of me, so when Mom called my name, I figured it was okay to leave the turtle-person, go get Mom and show her. When I came back with Mom, the turtle-person held out her hand, and I was about to bark instructions for how to scratch my butt when Mom grabbed my collar and gave me one of those leg hugs that holds me in place. Since I couldn’t reach her anymore, I had no choice but to use my voice to ask the turtle person if she was cool. “Hey,” I said. “Are you cool?”
“Hey, Mom,” I said. “Remember when I learned about responsibility, and we found that secret trail with the bat cave over yonder? And then remember that time when I won Second Dog in the half marathong down over there? And that time when you taught me about the longest trail that you can walk the same distance in either direction, and depending on which direction you chose you would land in Mexico or Canada after the same number of miles? And remember that time when we were trying to hike over there, but the road was blocked so we drove for a whole day, and the road was blocked in the other direction too, so we ran all the way to the trail to find it was covered in white dirt? And remember how we’ve walked up this mountain before, both from the front and the back?”
-Oscar the Life Coach
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