Remember the Alamo

Remember the Alamo

Bob was the youngest of three boys. Mel was his oldest brother. It always seemed that Mel could do everything. He had the Midas touch. Mel was the best student of all the brothers. Bob’s Mom and Dad would brag to all their friends about how smart Mel was. Mel had a scholarship to go to college next year to become a doctor. He had known that he wanted to be a doctor since he was a little kid even younger than Bob was right now. Bob had not idea what he wanted to do when he grew up. The way he figured it something would work out by the time he got there.
Then there was Sam. Sam wasn’t the smartest guy out there but he was close to the biggest. Even though he wasn’t quite sixteen he was already six foot four and two hundred and thirty pounds. He was a likable enough guy unless you made him mad. Bob always tried to just stay out of his way. Most of the time just being quiet and not touching any of his stuff was enough to stay on his good side. Even though Bob and Sam had to share a room they were able to get along better than Mel and Sam anyway. Mel drove Sam nuts. Sam hated the way that Mom and Day were always going on and on about Mel. Sam may be a big as a barn but to hear his Mom and Day talk he was invisible.
Of the two brothers Bob liked Sam best. Sometimes at night when Sam was in a good mood he would talk to Bob. You know about stuff that really mattered like what girls he thought were good looking and what guys he would like to beat up. Bob really liked it when Sam would talk to him like he was older. Sometimes it was hard only being twelve. There were a lot of things that Mel would let Sam go along with him and his friends to do. Bob hardly ever got invited only if Mom and Day were busy and the older boys needed to baby sit him.
October 11th was the day that Bob was really looking forward to. There was going to be a really big paintball tournament in town. Mom and Dad were going to visit Aunt Sally and Uncle John. They would be gone all day Saturday and not come home until Sunday afternoon. If Mel and Sam were planning on going they would have to take him. Being left all day would be too long a time in Mom’s eyes. Mel and Sam had been talking about it for weeks but Bob knew that they had not noticed that the day of the tournament and the day that Mom and Dad would be gone was the same day. Bob had noticed he had been saving his allowance for two months now. He decided that he would not say anything until after Mom and Dad had left so that they wouldn’t make the guys just stay home with him. Not only would be miss the big game but the guys would probably kill him for having to miss it to take care of him. So, Bob just dreamed about the game at night when he was trying to fall asleep.
The game was only three days away. Mel had been working and Sam had been playing football so they hadn’t had time to talk about the game. Bob didn’t have a camouflage suit like his brothers. He had just planned on wearing his black hooded sweatshirt and old jeans. He had a good gun. It was Sam’s old one but it was still really cool it was a Tippman 98 with a 14 inch barrel.
Friday night came and Mom and Dad were getting ready to take off. Mel was a work but would be home a couple of hours after they left. Sam was in a football game and would be home a little while after Mel. Bob reassured him Mom that he would be just fine until Mel came home and waved good-bye.
Saturday was finally here. Mel was woke up by his friend Dan calling asking him for a ride to the game. That’s when it hit Mel that he would have to take me with him or not go. He woke Sam up; I was already downstairs having a bowl of cereal and watching TV. “Well kid, today is your lucky day you get to play paintball with us. Do you have any money?” asked Mel. I ran up to my room and came down with the twenty dollars that I had been saving. “Well, I that will be enough to cover the game. I’ll pay for your paintballs but only a thousand. When you run out you’re done. I don’t have enough money to buy you any more. Okay?”
Mel and Sam ate a pop-tart and we took off to pick up Dan. We got to the field and there were at least two hundred people there. They broke everyone down into two teams, the Red team and the Blue team. Sam and I were on Blue team and Mel and Dan were on the Red team. They opened up all the playing fields and the game began.
Sam and I started out in the “City”. The “City” is a roughly build plywood city. There are several buildings with windows and towers. There are trenches between the buildings. Some of the buildings are two stories high and could hold eight people at one time. The object of the game is to take and hold the most territories. There were six territories in all.
Mel and Dan started in the “Alamo”. The “Alamo” was like a wooded castle. It was a huge fort with towers on each corner, ramparts and a tunnel leading to the woods outside the fort. The other areas were “Boulder Field”, “Bunker Hill”, “North Tower” and “South Tower”. “Boulder Field” is a big field with really big rocks, barricades, and a hut in the middle. The area called “Bunker Hill” was really just a hill with a building on the top of it. The “North Tower” and the “South Tower” were just about the same just at opposite ends of the game area. The towers were just huge oil tanks with floors and holes in the sides to shoot out of.
Sam and I started out with about four other guys made an all out sprint for “Bunker Hill” so that we could take it first. We got there without out our enemy even noticing. I was hiding outside the building. I thought that I had a perfect shot. I shot and took out a guy. The only problem was that I didn’t see the other ten guys that were with him. They ran and started just shooting like crazy at the building. Sam and I ran out through the woods as our teammates were swarmed and were lit up.
Sam ran much slower as his size was difficult to get through all the brush. I was able to run ahead. Sam made a distraction by throwing several grenades over the wooded walls of the “Alamo”. I was able to sneak the back door while everyone was shooting Sam as he tried to run back through the woods. No one even noticed me. I was able to run through the fort and I shot all the enemies as they were shooting at S am. This wiped out most of the Red team that was still in play. Since most of our team was still in play we were able to dominate them before reinforcements could come. We had won the day!
Sam came running up and just picked me up and hugged me. Mel came running asking what had happened he thought the Red team was winning. Everyone started to tell him how his two brothers had saved the day. Sam patted me on the back and told me that next time there was a game he wanted to have me on his team again. It was one of the best days of my twelve year old life. Yeah!!!