Spring, stay awhile.

The other day my son Jacob was carrying in grocery bags with me. With two foot of snow still on the ground, we juggled the bags and skated on the pact down paths. “Smell that Mom?” He questioned. “What?” I said. “Fishing!” He smiled at me. “Yes Jacob I do. Though to me it smells more like gardening.” Knocking on the sliding glass door with the tip of my boot, I could feel the bags slipping from my grip. “Hurry!” I belted out loud enough for one of the other two kids to come to our rescue. Jeffrey my oldest slid the glass open and unloaded my hands that were now beautiful shades of purple and red. I always attempted to bring in an incredible amount of bags at a time limiting the amount of trips I had to take. Though it was literally insane to do.

As the 45 degree air smacked Jeffrey in the face he grinned. “Mom did you get my baseball pants yet?” “Not yet Jeff, I haven't even thought about it. When does it start?” I tried not to sound as frustrated as I was for forgetting them. “Soon, can’t you smell it?” “What?! Jake just said it smelt like fishing! That's too funny.” I Squeeze through the door and slid off my boots. “What's funny mom?” My daughter came dancing over grabbing up the bags of food and sorting them through. “Your boys just said spring smells like fishing and baseball. I think it smells like gardening. What does it smell like to you?” I asked her. “Easter!” She blurted out without a second thought. “I don't know how we are going to have an Easter egg hunt though, if some of the snow doesn't melt.” She added with a concerned look appearing on her face. “Good question! I wouldn't worry, we'll figure it out.” We finished the rest of the trips to the truck and the children ran off to do what they do.

Later that evening my husband came home. Wet, muddy and cold. Putting on some hot tea for him, I flooded him with my usual commentary as he peeled off his Lacrosse boots and Carhartts. “It was beautiful today! I went shopping and oh yeah, don't let me forget to get Jeff’s baseball pants. Can you believe it's almost time for baseball? Kayla reminded me, we have to call my mom and finalize our plans for Easter. Jake –“ He suddenly cut me off. “Babe! Stop, you gotta wait. I'm cold, wet and muddy. The days are getting longer and everything is mud. Everywhere I went today was a trial not to get stuck. Even with the track machine. I'm going to take a hot shower.” He turned and headed towards the bathroom. “I really can't wait for this time of year to pass. It smells terrible. The only thing good about spring is turkey season.” He mumbled to himself as he made his way down the hall.

As miserable as he was I couldn't help but grin. The many smells of change. I’d never really thought about it like that. Each of us relate to the melting snow so differently. I buy seeds and soil to start my plants for the garden, so that we have a bountiful year. Jacob can't wait to toss a ball into the crisp pond and study his bobber. Jeffrey has the excitement of grand slams and competition coursing through his veins. My daughter anticipates family and eggs colored all different colors of the rainbow, littered across the yard. With all this happiness, my hard working husband can't wait for lightning bugs and summer heat, and I don't blame him, after all he works outside.  

I know that it seems like it’s been one of the longest, harshest winters, but as far as I am concerned, it can take its time. It comes and goes so fast sometimes I swear that I’m beginning to loose time. It’s like, one day I hear the peepers chirping hello to spring and the next day the locusts are screaming their summer goodbyes. “So welcome back Spring, plant your flowers, get some hot tea, sit with me, lets watch your colors bloom, and please, stay a while.”

The Cabin In The Woods

My son and I worked on this story (I only helped with sentence structure and grammor), last fall and he asked me if I would share...

It was a hot August night when my brother Jeff and I were hiking through the woods and found an abandoned cabin. The cabin was wooden and old. Some of the windows were smashed out and the door was hanging on one hinge. It was wrapped in the woods as if it were hiding from the rest of the world.

We hesitated as we started down the path to it. There was a strange silence in the woods almost like nature was trying to pretend it was not there. As we approached the cabin we couldn’t help but feel like something was watching us.

We walked in the cabin there was only an old type writer in the center of the room. There was a page sticking out of it. As I leaned over to try to read the paper, my brother gasped and pointed at the window. He said that he seen a young girl looking in at us and that she looked sickly! I did not turn in time to see her but I did see hands coming down the windows!

We flew out of the cabin very scared. We searched outside the building but couldn’t find anyone there. It didn’t make sense. As soon as we were sure that we were alone in the woods my brother and I ran as fast and as far as we could not looking back till we seen our house. We went in and never said a word to our parents. We knew Dad would get worried and think someone was messing with us. We knew we wanted to go back in the morning to check it out… as soon as we could gather our confidence.

        It was some time passed midnight and suddenly we awoke to “SLAM” outside of our bedroom. We mustard up our strength to step out of our door. We looked up and down the hallway again, there was no one there. Jeff took a nervous breath pointed and said to me that the girl was standing in the hallway behind me! I looked over my shoulder just in time to feel a quick cold burst of air blow past me. I didn’t see anything but as I was trying to figure out what just happened. Just then we heard a scream outside.

We ran to the window in the hallway. The moon was so bright and full. Finally I had seen her! She was standing by the edge of the woods where we had found the path to the cabin! She was wearing a plaid pea coat and looked old fashioned. We flew back to bed and tried to sleep but we couldn’t stop thinking about what we had seen. All that we had been through today was so crazy.

In the morning the house was quiet. We got out of bed and looked out the window again to see if she was still there. She wasn’t. Jeff and I asked our mom to pack our lunch so we could go for a hike in the woods and she agreed. We headed out just after breakfast. We walked path after path and we could not find the cabin it was as if it didn’t exist.

We went exactly the same way we had the day before but we could not find it. It had to have been hours. We just wanted to see if we could find an explanation or the girl in the woods. Maybe she needed help or something. Mostly we were just curious. We looked and looked. Talking back and forth about what was going on in the woods. How could the cabin have just disappeared?

Just as we were about to give up, we seen movement to the right of us. We looked over and somehow there was the cabin! Through the windows we could see flickering light as if there was a candle burning inside. We hid behind trees and snuck up to the door. The silence was overwhelming. Then out of the cabin came a “click, click, click, click”, there were thirteen of them.

I then told my brother that I thought it must have been that old type writer! We snuck up to the door and glanced in. There was no one inside. We walked slowly in. The floor had an eerie creak to it. There were stacks of paper on the table with titles, “The Smith’s”, “The Tory’s”, and “The Mathews”. We looked at the type writer and a chill went up our spines.

The type writer had a page sticking out of that said “The Fishgold’s”. That must have been the thirteen “clicks”. No one had gone in or out of the cabin since that had happened. We were right outside to see that. How could this be? As we turned to run out the door slammed shut and the candle went out.

We have been typing this story ever since. Waiting for the next curious child to wander out into the woods and take our place.  So that we can finally, rest in peace.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

My name is Jacob Fishgold. I play the drums and enjoy going golfing with my Dad. I live in a small country town in the state of New York. I have lots of land for my three dogs Bandit, Mylee, and Doc to run. I also have a cat. His name is Boomie and he is my favorite. We have lots of fish and a clam too. I go on walks and adventures with my brother Jeff and my sister Mikayla. That’s where I get most of my ideas. My Mom writes with me she helps me learn how to write. I love to shoot my bow, fish and go froggen, for frogs, tadpoles, and salamanders.