Sweltering Summer Season

Summertime in North Carolina always left one feeling as if they were physically wearing the air. The humidity was like a wet blanket, a thick wall of wet heat. The children would run out to play in the morning, and then later in the evening. However, during the hottest part of the day, they would whine to be allowed to play inside in the air conditioning.

The couple who babysat watched several children in the neighborhood. They lived on a farm with cows and one bull. Occasionally there would be a few chickens that would take up around the area but were truly free range. Roosting in the few trees around, there was no telling where they would end up.

The children were best friends in the way that only youth can be. They were completely accepting of each other simply because of time and experiences shared. All came from families that had grown up together and even though when school started back, they would be in different grades, they still were instant friends when they spent time at the sitter’s house. Each day was a new adventure for these fast friends.

One such adventure was the time when a stray dog ran through the yard, and they abandoned the safety of the fenced in portion to bribe the dog to come to them with scraps of food. Once they were caught, they had to come inside the house long enough to let the dog run away. They had to wait a bit, because once the stray had found a source of food, he thought he had a new home.

There also was the crazy time the boys dared each other to touch the hotwire that kept the cows and bull in the pasture. Neither one ever did so, but they did throw weeds to see if they could hear the moment the wire and plant made contact. A little buzzing sound could be heard that made the dare all that scarier.

The overall most outrageous moment these friends had together was when they all dared each other to enter the pasture, past the hot wire. They knew they were only allowed to do so with the husband of the lady who watched over them. He was the farmer, and he knew how to keep the cows and bull away. They were not to cross the wire by themselves.

That did not stop all of them from daring one another and calling each other names until they each, one by one, figured out how to crawl under the wire where they would not get shocked. They figured if they were quiet and went slowly, like they had to walk with the farmer, then they would be safe and undetected. They did not count on the old bull seeing them though.

What the children did not know, is the day that they chose to cross over the wire, the old farmer was running late with chores. The cows and bull knew when it was their normal feeding time, and they would be on the lookout for the farmer coming by with his truck. Every day, around the same time, they would all sort of gather where they knew the farmer would enter the pasture, and then follow him to the feeding areas.

There was no way for the children to have known that being the farmer was late, and the animals were attentive, that the old bull would immediately spot the children across the pasture. There was no way for them to know the old bull would not take too kindly at having his lunch run late. They had no way to know that of all times for them to sneak into the fenced in area, they had picked the worst time possible.