Ghost In The Snow

Chapter 28: Memories in heaven

"We're here!", a happy voice said in another world. I opened my eyes, face against the window. I looked around, saw the guys jumping out of the car and out on the camping ground. I opened my car door and got out, stretching my tired legs and back.

The area was really nice. We were in the middle of a forest, full of pines and other smaller trees. The camping ground was really just a clearing. But the ground had a nice dirt, like, there wasn't any pinecones or big stones. Apart from the ones around the bonfire. There was also a waterpipe with a tap on and a pile of dry wood under a shelter.

I rubbed my eyes and took my backpack out of the black car. When I had closed the door and looked around, I saw Frank sprinting around with his arms over his head. "I love this!", he yelled and kicked the earth so it formed a cloud of dirt. He grinned and jogged back to the car. Gerard and Ray were throwing the bags and the old tent out of the trunk.

Mikey sat on a bench, reading a manual for the tent. Frank got bored of looking at Gerard and Ray, so he ran over to Mikey. "Can I see?", he asked. Mikey gave him the manual. Frank stared at it for a moment, then throwing it at Mikey. "How the fuck are we supposed to get that tent up?", he yelled and grabbed his hair. "Take it easy", Gerard said and shook his head. "I don't think it'll be that difficult", Mikey commented and picked the dusty manual up from the ground.

I sighed and walked around in the little area. It was so beautiful. The dark green pines were tall, reaching for the clear, blue sky. The sun shone, roasting the whole earth. A single bird crossed the sky. I looked away from the sky and over at the boys.

"So how are we gonna approach this?", I asked, rubbing my hands and looking at the bag, where the tent was. Gerard shrugged and smiled to me. "I guess we'll just see...", I mumbled as I started pouring all the things out. I looked at the bunch of black plastic sticks, pegs, and of course: the actual tent. Ray swallowed a lump in his throat. "I guess..", he mumbled as he started connecting the black sticks. "Yeah", I muttered back. Gerard looked confused. "And we're gonna sleep in that?", he asked and poked the tent's material with his shoe. "Yup", I said happily and laughed at his horrified face. "Oh dear", I mumbled carelessly and connected more plastic sticks.

After some time, the tent was finally up and looked great. I observed the tent, looking for something we might've forgotten. I saw we missed a peg. "Ray", I called and pointed at the loose orange string. Ray put a peg in the metal ring and kicked it into the ground with his boot. I looked around. Gerard was sitting on the car's trunk, Mikey still on the bench, Ray in front of me, and Frank was crawling around inside the tent. "It stinks in here!", he yelled and came back out. "It smells like smelly socks", he said and frowned, but laughed. "Should we get our blankets and bags in there?", I asked them all, and they nodded.

There were two rooms in the blue tent. A front porch kinda thing, where our bags and food could be, and behind that was the actual sleeping zone. It was small, would probably get a bit cramped, but it was only one night anyway. So we would probably be fine.

"What's the time?", Mikey asked as he pulled his pillow out of his sports bag. Ray looked at his wristwatch. "11:09 am. So when we have packed our stuff out, we should get some food." Ray looked around, smiling at us all. It was like he was our responsible guide. "What are we gonna do all afternoon?", Frank asked and seemed to be a bit bored. Getting stuff ready wasn't his kind of thing. "I don't know, I think there's a lake nearby. We could go swim there?", Ray suggested and threw his half-empty bag in the front room of the tent. He crawled inside the "bedroom" and laid his pillows and blanket there.

He came back out, brushing a bit of dust off his leg. "We also need to figure out who sleeps where", he said and nodded in the direction of the tent. Gerard came forward, "I think Tess and I will sleep next to each ot-" "Yeah we figured that out", Frank giggled and wiggled his eyebrows. Ray kept it serious. "So if you two sleep in the left side of the tent, yeah.." He touched his chin, really figuring out how to plan it out. "Can I sleep on the right side?", Mikey muttered, hugging himself. "Sure", Ray said and looked at Frank. "Just so Mikey can actually fall asleep and not wake up with some kind of moustache drawn with a permanent marker; I should probably sleep in between Tess and Ray, right?" Frank giggled, saying that was a deal.