The Hike

The Hike

“It’s so hot, I didn’t know it would be so hot,” Sandra said, literally walking at a snail’s pace.

Alex looked back, stopping till she caught up. “I didn’t know you never hiked before, you seemed so excited about it. Have some more water,” he said, not knowing what else to do.

“I have hiked! I just thought a hike was a longer walk, on a sidewalk, or a dirt road maybe. Not through the wilderness.”

“We’ve only been in the woods for an hour.”

“In my mind a whole hike takes shorter than an hour... Maybe after this, we can do short hikes for a while. I like the woods...”

“Yes, and here’s another surprise!” he said.

“What?” she asked, hoping for something exciting.

They came around a large cluster of evergreens and there was a pond. “We can go swimming and cool off! Then have our lunch here!”

Sandra looked at the pond, vegetation growing right up to the edges, and on top of the water in many places too. Vines and things hanging from trees, dangling into the pond even. Something quick and unseen caused a sudden splash. Sandra shuddered then said, “I’m not going in there.”

“What? Why not! We’ll get all cooled off, then have lunch before we start home!”

Just then a bunch of geese swam by, getting noisy as soon as they saw the humans.

“They don’t want us here.” Sandra said.

“They’re just geese! They don’t own the pond,” Alex said, a tad sarcastically for Susan’s taste.

“I’m going home,” Susan said, turning.

“You’ll get lost!”

“I was a Camp Fire Girl,”

“How could you be a Camp Fire Girl and never go out in the woods?”

“We lived in Manhattan, our ‘woods’ was Central Park.”

“Well, that explains a whole lot... “