The Sparrow Found A House (Sparrow Stories #1)

by Jason McIntire

  Chapter 9

  “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday”

  Camp Day dawned with perfect weather and a beautiful sunrise. Jessie, who wasn’t going, saw no reason to get up until the last minute. As early as four o’clock, though, she could hear those crazy boys – and that sister she thought she knew – bustling around finishing preparations in great excitement. She wouldn’t spoil it by not saying goodbye, so she finally crawled from her bed around seven. This was just in time, as the rest of the family was already gathered at the door getting ready to see each other off.

  Ben Naylor had arrived an hour ago, no less overprepared and excited than anyone else. One would think they were going to Manitoba, and not just to the farm of Ben’s “Nana,” fifty miles outside the city. Still, it was nice of Mrs. Scroggins to let them use it. There were a hundred acres, the boys said, some wooded – and all privately owned, so they wouldn’t have to worry about other campers or hunters. At the time Jessie had blown them off with a crack about Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood of Winnie the Pooh, but deep down she was glad they were going. Glad for them to have the opportunity... and also glad for herself to have four whole days at home with no Sergeant.

  Advancing into the kitchen in her pajamas, Jessie realized too late they were about to have a prayer. Since she couldn’t retreat now, she allowed herself to be drawn into the circle and bowed her head with everyone else.

  “Father,” said Mr. Sparrow, “I just want to thank You for bringing this family together, and letting me be a part of it. Thank you for this beautiful day You’ve made, and for working it out for us to have this special time enjoying your creation. Please make it safe and enjoyable for all of us, speak to our lives through all we see and do, and help us to know You better when we return than we did when we left. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”

  Jessie’s own amen was mouthed silently, but those of the others were entirely too enthusiastic for her liking. Next thing you knew, they’d all be going to church with Mom and the Sergeant – and dragging her along with them. The room suddenly exploded into a hugfest, and halfway between her mother – who wasn’t leaving – and Katie, Jessie found herself embracing the Sergeant.

  “I love you,” he whispered in her ear. For a moment he sounded exactly like Dad, and Jessie thought she was going to cry. The feeling passed, but when the van finally rolled away around the corner and disappeared, she realized that she would actually miss them. Maybe even the Sergeant himself.

  For the group of happy campers, the miles between them and the Scroggins farm passed quickly. They started out by singing Ninety-Nine Bottles On The Wall – though the Sergeant insisted that they sing “juice” and not “beer.” This stipulation was much to the amusement of all, who by turns changed the beverage to more and more outrageous (but still non-alcoholic) liquids with each verse. By the time thirty bottles of Windex, perfume, glue, and motor oil had been “passed around,” they’d all collapsed in a fit of merry exhaustion. That and the four-o’clock starting hour soon sent more than one off to sleep, where they stayed until they reached their destination.

  “I was just resting my eyes!” Chris insisted as the Sergeant nudged him awake.

  “Line up!” the Sergeant ordered them in his most severe voice. “On the double, men. And you, too, girl. I won’t have slackers in this platoon, no matter how pretty they are!”

  Giggling and yawning, the sleep-disheveled troop tumbled from the van and stood in a ragged line. The Sergeant walked up and down, surveying them with a deep scowl.

  “Repeat after me!” he suddenly shouted.

  “Repeat after me!” they all chorused.

  “Not that, you pathetic nincompoops!”

  “Not that, you pathetic nincompoops!”

  “All right, so I see you are not only the puniest, the scrawniest, the sorriest excuse for a bunch of half-baked recruits I ever saw, but wise guys as well!” His scowl deepened until it almost looked real. “Maybe you young people think this camp is going to be some easy summer vacation! Is that what you think?”

  “Sure, Dad!” Moe got out of character for a moment.

  “What?” The Sergeant whirled.

  “I mean, yes sir, no sir, sir!”

  The Sergeant stooped down and looked his young recruit straight in the eye. “Well let me tell you the way it is in military training and selection,” he growled. “Our friends the Navy SEALs put it like this....”

  “We know, we know,” Chris interjected. “We’ve heard it before.”

  “Oh yeah?” the Sergeant stood up. “Then let me hear you all say it as loud as you can!”

  “The only easy day was yesterday!” they all roared out together.

  “I can’t HEAR YOU!!”

  “THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY!”

  Katie was beginning to get hoarse, and not a little vexed with all the nonsense. “Daddy,” she piped up in exasperation, “we were home yesterday.”

  “I know.” Returning to himself with a broad grin, the Sergeant picked her up piggy-back style and pointed to a rise just ahead. “Our campsite is half a mile over that hill,” he gestured. “Last one to get there’s an aging Army Sergeant backpacking a really heavy nine-year-old.”

  Grabbing totes and packs, they scrambled up the trail and topped the hill in fifteen breathless minutes. “It’s perfect!” Ben exclaimed. “You can see all the way to the Killingsworths’ silos from here!”

  “Trees to break the wind, and the creek right here for fishing and washing,” Chris added. “How did you find it?”

  “By using my clever scouting skills,” the Sergeant bragged. “Of course, Google Earth might have helped a little bit too.”

  “Daddy?” Down on her own feet again, Katie was suddenly tugging on his sleeve. “This campsite is on a downslope near a creek. If it rains in the night, won’t the ground get pretty wet? We could all get pneumonia.”

  “You’re something else,” the Sergeant observed with a fond but puzzled look. “You’re also correct,” he admitted, “except for one thing. We’re hammock camping, remember? These trees aren’t just to break the wind; they’re also for us to sleep in. Now it’s not supposed to rain these four days, but even if it does pour a bit during the night, the wind will just rock us to sleep in our nice dry hammocks. Complete with nice waterproof tarps, of course.”

  Most of the afternoon was spent putting up those “nice dry hammocks.” This was more trouble than it might have been, because the Sergeant had them use tension cords – not spikes – in order to protect the trees from damage. Once the first hammock was up, they each had to jump in and find out just how far it would swing in each direction without dumping the occupant on the ground. Only Katie didn’t seem eager to mount up, and had to be coaxed by the Sergeant. Once in, she sat very still for a moment, then quietly asked to get down. While the others began to choose out trees for their own sleeping arrangements, Katie carefully unrolled hers on the ground and began to make it up like a bed.

  “That’s not going to be very comfortable,” the Sergeant pointed out, “without a ground pad. Katie, if you were nervous about sleeping in a hammock, you should have said something before we came out here. We could have brought you a tent and everything you’d need.”

  “I’m not scared,” she insisted with a blank lack of conviction. “I just like sleeping on the ground better, that’s all.”

  “Don’t you want to come back and try the hammock again?” the Sergeant offered kindly. “You just need to get used to it. It’s like being rocked in a cradle, really. And it’s not bumpy like the ground.”

  “I’m not scared,” Katie repeated. She couldn’t meet his eyes.