Weekend Assignment: Lie to Me

Ok, I've recovered enough from The Shamrock Shuffle to write up my weekend assignment. Karen has cooked up a good one. Go check it out over at Outpost Mavarin.

Weekend Assignment #209: Tell us a story about yourself, something that is plausible but definitely, outrageously false, while containing a kernel of truth. Since we don't want to create any work for Snopes.com, begin your tale with the words, "This is not true," and don't say anything defamatory about any companies, products, celebrities or politicians.

This is not true. My grandparents used to own some cabins on a lake in Northern Michigan. We generally took at least one family vacation out there every year. It was a great place. A nice quiet lake, plenty of fish or frogs to catch, and a lot of places to explore.

Since this was back in the 70's, and in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, me, my brother, and step-brother were allowed to go out and explore on our own. It wasn't a very large place, but to three boys all under the age of 15, it was plenty big.

On one particular day we decided to climb through a large sand pit and then explore the "woods" behind it. I'm not sure what the purpose of the pit was, all I remember about it now was that it was about 10 feet deep and the bottom was covered with rocks. Fairly large rocks.

We started at the bottom, since the road to the cabin led to the lowest point, and we started climbing. I was in the back since I was the youngest. That's how it works, you know. The climb wasn't very steep, but the sand made it hard to gain traction. But, we slowly made our way towards the top. My brother cleared the top first, my step-brother was close behind him and then I reached for the grassy top. But the top gave way. I fell backwards down toward the bottom. I don't remember hitting the bottom. I just was there. Laying on the rocks. I was afraid to move at first, thinking I probably wacked my head on the rocks, but I was fine. No pain.No blood.

I looked to see if anyone was at the top of the hill looking for me. Nobody was there. I thought about calling out, but decided it would be best just to start climbing again. I didn't wan't to be called a baby.

I made it to the top with no problem this time, and started toward the wooded area. There still was no sign of anyone else. I knew I only had to go through about 500 feet of woods to get back to the service road that curved through area. So I headed in. I was a little nervous going in by myself regardless of the short distance I had to cover. My uncle telling me stories of bears in the area certainly didn't help.

After covering only about 50 feet or so I stopped. It was bright daylight out, though diffuse through the trees, but the area ahead seemed very dark. Much darker than it should have been. I stood there for a few minutes deciding what to do. I knew I was just scaring myself. Just being stupid. I should just walk through, be a big boy and catch up with my brothers. I took one more step, and a cold breeze came rushing through the trees. I froze. There was no way I was going ahead. I didn't care what anyone thought. I turned and headed back the way I came.

I climbed back down the sand pit, and walked the long way around the service road to meet up where my brothers would have come out of the woods. As I rounded the last corner I noticed a small crowd had gathered, mostly my family, along with a few other guests that were staying in the cabins. The local fire truck and lone police car where there, too. I started to jog up to them, thinking someone in my family had been hurt. I saw my mom first, she was crying. My heart sunk. I thought something bad happened to my brother or step-brother. Maybe one of the bears got them.

I started sprinting up the street to them, that was when my mom saw me. She yelled something, I couldn't make it out, and ran toward me. At first I stopped running, I wasn't sure what was going on, then I saw my brothers running towards me too. I started crying now. They weren't eaten by bears.

My mom grabbed me and kept saying, "Your okay. Your okay."

All I could say was, "Yes, mom. I only was a little behind them."

Turns out, that's what saved me.

My brothers didn't know I fell in the pit, and they kept going right on into the woods. They were playing S.W.A.T. team and not really paying attention to me. Abouth half way to the road the ground gave way right behind them. A large sink hole, about 20 feet across, 15 feet deep, opened up due to an underground stream leading out to the lake. They didn't know I fell back at the pit and they thought I was right behind them and fell in the sink hole. They freaked and ran to get help.

The reason it looked dark ahead of me was due to the way the trees fell to form a canopy, blocking more sun than the rest of the area. The cold breeze was probably due to the cold water the was running beneath the ground. I think. It makes the most sense. Doesn't it?