Chapter 57 Scout Class - part 4 - from my book Changes

Practicing camouflage.

Chapter 57

Scout Class - part 4

A different night raid took us a couple miles away, past an intersection where the sides along the roads were very high.  They could not be climbed easily.

When my team reached that intersection, we stopped to discuss.  First, we were completely exposed on the open road and I felt stressed standing there debating what to do, when anyone could come upon us, out in the open.  After a few minutes of hurried discussion, we finally back tracked along the road to where we could get up on the high bank.  By walking there, instead of on the road, we could quickly sink and fade into the brush.

As we neared the intersection from the bank, we saw headlights coming toward us from behind.  The truck was moving quickly, like whoever was driving was hoping to catch us exposed on the road.  As a team we slipped backward, on our hands and knees, into the brush, each of us dragging our lances alongside.  Tom and his wife roared by in his truck, whooping and laughing, and shooting paint balls over our heads.

We remained still until all was calm and our team point signaled us to start moving.  As we began coming out of the bushes, we saw another team slowly making their way along the high bank toward the intersection where we hid, so we stayed put.

Then, just as the oncoming team was next to the bushes we were laying in, the headlights showed up.  The roar of the truck racing down the sand road toward them triggered the eight of them to sink and fade into the bushes, where we just happened to be!

Surprised, whispers and stifled giggles ensued as they realized our team was already there.  But necessity demanded they settle in all around us.

We lay there still and silent as the truck clambered by along the pot holed sand road, with loud music and sounds like a party blaring through the vehicles open windows.

Both teams waited until the road was calm and quiet again, then each team’s point made a signal for their team to move out.

Just as everyone was getting in position to slink out of the bushes, the headlights glared again, from far down the road, bumping along as the truck sped toward our cover.

We all fell to our bellies and were still, waiting once again, when another scout team scurried up to our spot and scooted backwards, in the darkness, right onto our two teams!

The new team, shocked by the presence of our two teams already lying there, had to silence their whispers of surprise and laughter as the truck passed by us, quietly and slowly this time, listening for us.

And here’s the interesting bit:  Lying in the bushes like we were, it was impossible to see each other.  Being under the cover of all those bushes, it was so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face.  But as the third team fell in among us, I saw, in my mind’s eye, the face of the person who had crawled in next to me.  And when I heard him whisper, I knew I was right!

I remember a story that Tom told us about how he and Rick would hurry out of school before the rest of the kids, so they could turn their backs on the school’s double doors, and predict, based on what they could sense and see in their minds, who would be coming out of the school first.

I now knew it was possible to see without seeing.

The story of that night was one of my many favorites from scout class.  I think Tom knew exactly where we all were, and planned to come along that road at just the right time, to make our teams collide in those bushes just for fun, and hopefully trigger something like what I experienced, for our benefit and education.