Yesterday we went to Al's house for dinner. Once we got there, Ch1k3n (referred to as 'Nate' in the story) and I just watched him chat on Gmail. Then he moved to another computer, so I Facebook-stalked people with his account.
After dinner we decided to go to his "backyard," where this whole story starts.
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"Hey, guys, want to go to my backyard?" Al asks, slipping an glass apple juice bottle into his pocket. "We might be out here for an hour, so I might need this."
Nate and I followed him out the back door.
"Here, you guys need shoes. Nate, wear these flip-flops. Annasophie, just... use these old shoes. Do they fit?"
I slip the old, worn down tennis shoes on my feet as Nate puts on the flip flops and stuffs his socks into his pockets.
"That's my whole backyard," Al pointed beyond the fence at the thick forest. "It's about an acre or so."
"Really?" I ask.
"No. That's why there's this fence," he says as he opens the gate anyway. We head down the steep, rocky hill, dodging tree limbs and random vines.
"You need an adventure stick," Al said, picking up a short branch.
I find a stick with a wood vine wrapped around it.
"Mine's better than yours." I hold mine out for him to see.
Al looks at his, then looks at mine.
"Yeah, yours is pretty cool. Keep it. No! Vi's coming!"
I look up the hill to see Vi, Al's older sister, coming down toward us.
"Hide!" Al commands, dropping down behind a ledge. I do the same, but Nate still stands there.
"Oh, I wonder where Al is," Vi sarcastically says as the neared us. "I see you."
"Oh no! I think she sees me!" Al cries. We stand up.
Vi loses interest and leaves.
"Okay... Let's go down further. You guys want to go down to the lake?"
"Sure."
We begin down a steeper slope.
"Look up! Funnel web spiders!" Al yells, stepping over rocks.
"Really?" I ask.
"No. Just kidding. No, yeah, actually there are."
I spot one right by my foot. Then another. And another. Soon, I see that the ground is covered with funnel-shaped webs of venomous spiders. The more I looked, the more I realized that we were trekking down the side of the steep, rocky mountain all surrounded with spiders!
"I can't get down these rocks very well with these shoes," I mumble, stepping over a small web.
"Well, Annasophie, look what we're wearing," Al defends, pointing to him and Nate's sandals.
I stop commenting and we reach a lake. It's all green and algae-covered, and it doesn't look to good. So Al starts up the other side of the "canyon."
We get onto a street and start walking to the right.
After a while of aimless walking, I question Al.
"You do know this street, right?"
"No. I actually have no idea where we are."
"What? We've been walking, for, like, twenty minutes and you never said we were lost!"
"We're not lost," Nate comes in, "he just doesn't know where we are."
Al nods, taking a swig of his apple juice.
I turn to him.
"Well, you did say it may take an hour, so I'm glad you have your juice. Which I can smell now."
"Want some?"
"No!"
We begin down a hill.
"ROADKILL!"
There's a dead... something... on the road with flies swarming around it.
"What IS that?"
"Opossom."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
We turn the corner, and Al takes out his apple juice again.
"I can smell that. And, no, I don't want any."
"I didn't even ask."
"Still, though."
"Do you know this street?"
"No. Your adventure stick is getting us this far. Don't break it."
"Too late. It already kinda broke."
"Well, it's not that bad. Just don't break it any more. Okay, I don't know this street. We're going back."
We turn back, go down and up the roadkill hill, and onto a long street. Al gets his phone out.
"Hey, Nate, you think I can use Yellowpages?"
"I don't know."
"Would I have to pay?"
"I don't know."
"Then I'd better not use it. But as soon as we get to the next street, I'm calling my mom."
"Why?"
"Cause... I have no idea where we are. Oh, I recognize that! That golden lion on that mailbox! Come on, let's run!"
"No!"
So we run and run, me in Al's old shoes and them in flip-flops, until Al stops.
"We haven't been getting anywhere."
"It's a long road."
"Oh, wait, I know where we are! Look, that's the Country Club!"
"What? Isn't that, like, five miles from your house?"
"More."
"Want to walk back?"
"No way, it's, like, crazy far. I'm calling my mom and telling her to pick us up." Al gets out his phone again. "Hey, mom? Yeah, we were walking and we... kinda got really far. Can you come pick us up? ... Yeah, we're at the Country Club. Yeah... I don't know, we were just walking... We cut across the canyon. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Bye."
We walk across the parking lot and get a lot of stares. I guess it my adventure stick, or just the sight of three dirty-looking kids hiking up to a parking lot. We wait and wait on the curb. If it takes this long for a car to get here, then how much longer would it have taken if we walked...
"Hey... dad? Yeah? You're just now leaving the house? No, you can't get here in three minutes! Fine. Okay. Just don't speed."
Al hangs up and repeats the news.
"Three minutes."
After ten minutes, we get picked up from the parking lot, ending our random, amazing journey through poisonous spiders, sweat, and confusion.
