I remember summer mornings when I woke up to

a bright light in my eyes,

some really good smelling food being cooked,

I could hear Carl’s feet running through the house,

anxious and ready for me to wake up so we could eat and go play outside together.

I finally get the motivation to get out of bed,

I walk down the Hallway to go to the bathroom

silent,

too silent,

squinting my eye down the bright hallway filled with sun rays,

Carl jumps out in front of me,

“Ha ha I scared you”

having a smirk on his face,

he runs to the bathroom,

shuts the door,

“MOM”

she’s on the phone trying to ignore us kids fighting

“Carl I just woke up leave me alone”

“okay”

“Thank you”

I slammed the door.

flush

stopped and paused,

thinking about a goal for the day,

get along with your brother,

I opened the door,

walked like a zombie to the kitchen.

I sat at the table waiting for my home made breakfast,

the smell’s just teasing me

“Time for breakfast!” mother yells,

Carl comes racing to the table,

licking his lips,

mom set our plates in front of us,

the smell of the warm sausages,

blueberry pancakes ready to be smothered with syrup and butter,

we all gobbled our breakfast down.

I went zooming to my room

picked out the clothes I wanted to wear,

I was going to wear a dress until I heard a yell,

“Bridget come play outside with me”

that meant I was going to end up doing something that got me all dirty,

climb trees and get all cut up and sticky,

I hated getting all muddy and running around everywhere,

I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t go outside,

I decided to wear some jean shorts and a shirt,

ready to go,

looked out the bedroom window,

my brother was already climbing a tree,

too high for me,

shivers down my spine,

I was afraid of heights,

but it was the adrenaline rush that made me do it,

I ran outside ready to climb,

I stood in front of all the trees.

deciding which one.

I chose the one that I thought had the most sturdy branches,

afraid of slipping.

“Bridget come on hurry up, and get going”

“I’m going!”

I ran to the tree I picked,

I gripped on to the most available branch,

it was covered in sap,

oh well I’ll wash it off when I go back in the house,

the one thing I loved about climbing trees was the up close and personal smell of pine.

by the time my brother and I were done climbing trees we were covered in

dirt, from falling off trees

sticky sappy dirty hands,

pine needles and bark in our hair,

we had bloody scrapes and cuts all over ourselves.

mom was miserable when we came in,

we were dirty,

we expected her to help us clean up,

we weren’t allowed to get dirty again,

I had no problem with that rule,

I was always ready for a nap!

By Bridget Bertelson

Monmouth Academy

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