First Time Camping

  First Time Camping

The power had flickered once, and then twice before it failed completely.

“I can’t believe it. This is a total rip off.” Nishad cursed his luck. Just as he was about to beat a game at a level that he had been trying to defeat for a week the power kicked out and he lost all advantage.

His sister was furious.

“Mother, father, the power went out. Please fix it right now.”

Divya smiled at them.

Their father Garan looked around and didn’t know what to say or do. 

The family had just moved to their new home in Michigan from India. Their father, a civil engineer had landed a three-year contract with a large company. Their mother Gora and father had hemmed and hawed about moving their twelve-year old son and fifteen-year old daughter away from everything they knew to start over.

But, to their surprise the kids had decided that it would be a fun thing to do.

So they left their house in India in the care of relatives and packed up a bunch of their stuff and moved to the United States of America.

The power outage was the first one they had experienced in their new country. They were supposed to go an amusement park, but that idea was nixed.

“What about the amusement park?”

“I am afraid that it is cancelled.”

“But, father that isn’t fair.” Nishad had never been to an amusement park.

“We will go to the amusement park some other time. How about we go camping? That is something you haven’t done in your whole life.”

Nishad had talked about going camping. His one and only friend Mark had also gone camping and the two families that lived next to each other were supposed to connect at the campsite.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, you are an engineer can’t you fix it?” Nishad looked at his father.

“I am glad that we are not going camping. I hear there are lots of bugs and I don’t like bugs. There are also snakes and bears and wolves and all kinds of animals that I don’t feel like dealing with right now.” Divya smiled.

“Yes, I am sure that the animals are glad you will not be around them.”

“What does that mean, mother?”

“It means when you see anything that scares you, you scream loud enough to wake the dead back in India. I am sure that the animals on the campsite can do without this.”

“I do not scream that loudly.”

“What about the spider yesterday in the bathtub?”

“Well, yes, that was very icky.”

“You screamed so loud that the neighbour came rushing over thinking you were being murdered.”

“He is a very attentive man.”

Gora rolled her eyes at her precocious daughter.

“Maybe we can go camping in the backyard.”

“It’s no good,” said Nishad very disappointed.

“How do you know that if you haven’t tried it?”

“Because the backyard is boring.”

“But what if we roast marshmallows and tell scary stories. We will pitch the tents and lock the doors. There is no going inside the house for anything. There will be no electric devices. We will make it a real camping experience.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” His mother smiled at him.

“What are we supposed to do if we have to go to the bathroom?”

“Then we will go into the house.” Goran smiled.

“Come on, I am getting excited.”

So the whole family pitched in and set up the tent. Goran locked the house and put the key in his pocket.

“From this point on we are camping.”

The parents had their own tent and the kids had each a tent. There was no way they could put the two of them together because it would have been a huge fight.

Divya looked around and shook her head.  

“This is so lame and boring.”

She went out of the tent and into her parents tent.

“Did you ever hear of knocking?”

“How am I supposed to knock on a tent?”

Her father smiled at her.

Nishad popped his head in the tent.

“It is very boring on my own.”

“Let us tell stories.”

“Okay, who goes first?”

“I want to,” shouted Nishad.

“Okay, you go first.”

“Once, there was this family from India and they were in the United States and there was a power outage. They decided to go camping in the backyard and while they were all asleep, a bear came by and ate all of them.”

“Nishad! That is an awful story.”

“But, mother people go camping all the time and the bears eat them. My new American friend told me.”

“I am going to have a talk with his mother.”

“Who is next?”

“I will go next,” Divya said.

“Then please do.”

“Once, there was this family from India and they were in the United States and there was a power outage. They decided to go camping in the backyard and while they were all asleep, a giant light appeared in the sky. It woke up the beautiful, intelligent daughter and she peaked outside to see the spaceship. The girl was curious and didn’t want to wake up her parents so she slipped out of the tent and an alien appeared. He bowed before her.”

“We have been looking for you a long time my queen.”

“Queen? I am not your queen?”

“Oh, yes you are. We have searched the galaxy far and wide. You are the lost queen. I need to take you back to the planet so you can rule all of your millions of subjects.”

“Well, what about my family?”

“They can come and visit.”

“So the girl was swooped up in the spaceship and taken to the planet. It was paradise and all of the millions of citizens were waiting for her. There was a red carpet and the paparazzi was there. She was already famous, more so than all of the actresses and swimsuit models in the entire universe combined.”

Gora exchanged glances with her husband and he smiled.

“So Queen Divya decided to accept the throne. There had to be a king and millions of men lined up for the position. But none were worthy of being her suitor because she was too beautiful and intelligent for any of the men on the planet.”

“I had a boyfriend back in India and he was handsome and very intelligent. Please go and find him and bring him back here.”

“I am sorry, my queen, but you must marry someone from the planet.”

“Well, in that case I don’t want to be queen anymore. Take me home.”

“Everyone cried and was deeply depressed that she was leaving. It was a day of mourning. In fact, they mourned for weeks and even months at the queen that got away. So she went back to her family and stayed with them even though they did not recognize her awesomeness like the people on the planet Vidya.”

“I liked my story better.”

Gora smiled. “It is my turn.”

“Once there was a very old woman in India. She was very wise and had lots of life experience. She had ridden elephants and had given birth to twelve children. She was a healer and had healed many, many people. The one thing she had never seen was a tiger. Then one day, she went for a boat ride and there was a tiger on board and-

“Mother, that is the Life of Pi.”

“Oh, you are right.”

“It is my turn.” Goran smiled.

“Once there was a family that had moved from India to America. They had made a major decision and didn’t know if it was the right move. Then, one day, the power went out and they decided to camp in the backyard.”

“And what happened after that?”

“I don’t know because the story is being written as it is being lived. How about we roast some marshmallows?”

“I get it. Father that is very clever.”

“I thought so.”

They laughed and Gora reached for the bag of marsh mellows.