Eager Beaver

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Alex's House

The path behind me was narrow and swamped with mud, with two drainage channels on either side for water to seep into. Stumbling back with inexorable inertia, I first managed to push myself forward onto my knees, but then I found myself rolling down the slope! I tried to get a purchase on the slick grass, but kept tumbling over myself - letting out a final puppy-like yap as I disappeared below the dyke.

I splashed into the ankle deep water at the bottom of the ditch bottom first, the icy cold murky-mucky puddle enveloping me completely. I could feel that my clothes were now completely drenched, the frigid liquid seeping completely through my jeans, t-shirt, and beaver vest to saturate my previously cuddly pajama base layer and nip at my skin. I floundered and flopped around like a drowning fish, trying to stand up - but only succeeded in falling forward face first into the water. My stomach heaved and I gagged as my mouth and nose filled with the foul-tasting water. Now I was the one who really knew what the forest tasted like - and it was gross. I finally managed to push my face out of the quagmire, dribbling more puddle water down my mud-splattered front, but I was still hunched up on all fours in the swamp. My hand sank deep into the muddy bottom of the ditch and another crack of thunder rolled through the sky as I dragged my torso up to lean exhausted against the steep banks of the puddle. I lifted my head up and coughed out some more of the gross water, wheezing for air.

"Cooper!" Alex shrieked in horror, looking down from the path. "Zach! Charlie! Help!"

I tried to stand up fully, but my sneakers had sunk deep into the muddy bed of the ditch - weighed down with gloopy brown muck. I pulled my hands out of the earth, enrobed in a thick layer of wet dirt. Disorientated, I stumbled and fell back onto my bottom, falling heavily into the black stinking bog again.

"Cooper!" Zach hollered and immediately slid down the side of the ditch, much more gracefully than I had. He stopped just before the bottom and held onto the root of a tree to stabilize himself. "Take my hand." He said, reaching his free hand out to me. He was almost within reach.

I looked down at myself in disgust. It looked like I had been rolling around in a pig pen. My entire front was covered in mud and I assume my face and hair were in the same state. I was still sitting in it, and I knew my pants must have been completely covered. I saw my beaver hat floating in the puddle beside me and grabbed it - squeezing the sodden material for comfort.

Straining with effort, both physical and emotional, I tried to get up again - but I just couldn't steady myself from my new position, too much burdened by my soggy bottom stuck to the bog like super glue. I let out another miserable cough and dribbled more water down my front as I let out a pathetic high pitched whine, wrinkling my nose and closing my eyes in despair. My mouth still tasted like I had just eaten a whole bowl of dirt.

"Come on, Cooper." Zach encouraged. "You can do it!" He shifted his feet a little, still barely clinging onto the root but taking another risky step into the uneven marshy land ahead of him. It was just enough. I reached my hand out to Zach from my sitting position and he took a firm grasp of my wrist, yanking me up to my feet.

I held onto his wrist for support, transferring mud from my covered hand onto his clean cub scout shirt as he heaved me like a tow-truck away from the uneven ground. I was only now processing just how messy I had gotten as piles of the chunky wet earth slopped off my clothes and skin and fell back onto the ground. With one foot now free, I tried to pull my other foot out - but it wouldn't budge, only digging deeper into the ground! "I'm stuck." I moaned, fear in my voice.

"I'll pull." Zach said stoically, trying to sound brave even though his own voice was quivering. Hardening his brow and gritting his teeth with effort, he gave one final almighty tug on my arm - and like a released suction cup, I came free with a popping noise.