Faith In The Wild •CARL GRIMES•

Memories

The moist, cold air that found every crack in the wood, kept blowing past my back; I shivered, as chills covered my pale skin.

How am I gonna get through the night, if I can't even stay above freezing? I asked myself.

Then it came back to me, every once and a blue moon when I was little, my family would go out camping. I learned how to make fires with my brothers, and it actually wasn't that hard.

~Beginning Of Flashback~

"A fire?" My dad asked. "Yeah, daddy pleaseeee.. come on, it'll be so fun!!!" I begged.

"Alright, alright. You little pilgrims." He chuckled.

I gasped in excitement. "Really?" My face lit up, and I hugged him as tightly as I could.

"Easy there, kiddo. I'm an old man, remember?" He teased, hugging me back.

"Here," My dad pulled out a lighter, "If you can't get it going the old fashioned way." He winked.

"Woah, I never get to touch these!" I snatched it out of his hand excitedly and spun around to show my brothers, who were further down the river than I was.

"Guys!" I yelled to my brothers, running down the muddy river bank. They were all huddled around a small hole dug in the sand. Little whiffs of smoke flowing gracefully in what little wind we had today.

My feet were hitting the small puddles of water and the clay-colored mud was clumping between my tiny toes, as I ran to the dry sand where my brothers were.

"Check it out, dad let me have it. He said to use it if we can't get the fire going the 'old fashioned way', which, is too old for me to understand. That's like.. 80s stuff. " I joked.

"Sweet! Just what we needed, give me that." My older brother said, taking it from me.

"Hey! Give that back, it isn't yours. Dad gave it to me! If he wanted you to have it, he would've given it to you." I said childishly.
"Come on, give it back, that's not fair." I insisted, my bottom lip puckering out to show that I was sad.

"You know what's not fair, Bella? That we finally had the fire working the 'old fashioned way,' and you ran up here all excited like a 4 year old, and kicked wet sand all over the flame. Now we have to start all over." He spat out, not caring if it hurt my 8 year old feelings.

"Thanks a lot." He added, rolling his eyes.

My excited smile faded faster than any other, and I realized that I fell for it again. They didn't want to actually hang out with me, they were forced to. Again.

"Well, you know what?" My voice gave away the lump in my throat, and my ever growing tears swelling in my eyes. "Enjoy your special day of hanging out and making fires, all by yourselves then!" I said, but before any of them could respond, I was already running back to the car to be by myself so I wouldn't ruin any one else's day.

It genuinely hurt my feelings that they found me annoying, even when I was trying to help.

~End Of Flashback~

I did my best to ignore how my brothers never included me in something unless they were forced to, how it still hurt my feelings to this day.

Making a fire couldn't be that hard, right?
The only advantage we had back then, was that we had a lighter, and.. now I don't. 

The funny thing is, I don't even need a lighter. After that day out at the creek, I told my parents what happened and they taught me how to make a fire, the old fashioned way.  And hey, look how useful that skill turned out.