The Tale of The Cornflower

Austin Mortel
Sep 4, 2018 · 8 min read

Chapter I: Campfires and Marshmallows

Photo by Teddy Kelley on Unsplash

Okay, okay here we go. If you really want to know what happened, I should probably first tell you what my life story is, you know the typical cliche that romantic comedy movies do. First I was born with my mom and dad in Homewood, Alabama. I was named Ethan Paul, I was the least my parents expected, Growing up was pretty like any child’s experience for me. until I reached the time when I started to go to school. My parents gave me a diary when they told me to write everything that I want to remember but I really didn’t have a use for it just yet.

It all dates back when we’re kids when it all happened… It’s was at summer camp when me and Claire Russel first met, we were in kindergarten when we first became friends. I had a huge crush on her, she was the popular girl in our class and I was considered — the douche bag or the weirdo by people who were more of a douche than me, enough about that let’s go back to that time when we were at camp. We were just getting ready to set up our tents then the camp master gathered us right by the camp fire — we told stories, ate a bunch of toasted marshmallows, then my friend, Gerald also a weirdo just like me — introduced me to what they call “smores” It was the greatest crap that, that dude has ever introduced to me.

The camp master said to us that we go and get ready for an activity. Me and Gerald were talking about being partners for the activity. As the camp master shouted to pick a partner, everyone quickly grabbed their partners. Then Gerald forsaken me for a girl, I was left alone then I saw in the distant that Claire hasn’t a partner yet. I slowly approached her — never realizing we were going to be partners that night, of course on the inside I was the happiest loser that night. It was very awkward for me to be talking with her but she was optimistic. The camp master told to build something special that will remind us of when we were kids, Claire said to me “let’s make something magical”. I jokingly said “aha! let’s go create a wand like those in Harry Potter.” She replied “Not like that you potter-head!” She then followed “I was thinking about something that’ll always be that “Oh I remember that time!” sort of thing.” Then we agreed on making a dream catcher. As we crafted two dream catchers we started to talk about ourselves, she told me everything about her childhood, from when she was a fan of that stupid gay purple dinosaur to when she first came to school. She wasn’t as I expected as she tells me her story.

She was raised without her Father, Her mom and aunt was all she had growing up. Things weren’t in favor for her. Then she said to me ” have you ever wished of something that you really want to have?” I nodded yes, then she followed “I wish I could grow up with my father… you know, to get to experience what’s like to be a princess while my mom and dad are the king and queen.” Me and Claire had never been this close before and for once I was genuinely scared that one day she might forget about me. As we continue our conversation she opened up something to me. She said that she somehow knew that I had a huge crush on her, as those words came out of her mouth I was in shock and in fear that she might knew the creepy things I do. She told me that It was pretty obvious that — I was such a creep. Then she said that she also had a crush on me but she never really told me about it she only told her best friend Amy about it. I was completely baffled, I never knew that she had a crush on me too, then she said that it just lasted for like a week or so. Then after confessing to each other we finally completed crafting our special dream catcher which we gave to each other what we made.

The camp master gathered us once again, this time we sat around the campfire. We began telling stories then my stupid friend sat beside me, smiling like an idiot. I asked him why, what’s the matter? He replied “Nothing much, I’m just happy for you that you and Claire have gotten close. You two have never talked like, since the beginning of time.” I replied “Yeah, I know it’s nothing special. Just the average.”. Right when we were telling ghost stories we enjoyed every bit of moment while sat around the campfire. Then after all of the fun we were just about getting ready to sleep, we got our sleeping bags from our cabin then placed them inside our tents — then one of our classmates played a prank on us, he told us that when we go to that one tree behind our cabin, we will see big foot. We went there to check it out, when we got there — what he called “big foot” was a bag of shit, tied to a stick swaying in the wind. of course we laughed and all, and as we were heading back to our cabin we heard something in the bushes — we thought it was another one of his clever pranks, then we realized that i wasn’t and we got scared and ran back to the camp as fast as we can. The camp master asked us what’s happening, we told him that we heard something in the woods. He told us, we should be careful because there’s many creatures lurking around bushes. Then Claire saw my reaction, that smirky-idiotic look on my face when I get scared, she thought it was funny but for me it was completely embarrassing and awkward, then after all of that fuss we finally went to sleep.

While in the middle of everyone sleeping there was a scream — it was Claire. She woke up from a nightmare, crying as she wet herself. Some douche bag started calling her “yellow mellow” then everyone laughed. I held her hand and took her where she can get cleaned up, I wen to find some extra shirt and pajamas for her to use. I went to my bag to fetch those, then I handed it to her. As I handed the clothes to her I glanced her face and I said to myself “She still looks extremely sad, something must’ve bad happened in her dream”. She asked me if we could stay outside for a bit, I kept her company as she gets herself together. After a couple of minutes, I asked what happened, She said she had a nightmare because of her grandfather who had just recently passed away. She cried and I hugged her and comforted her, I know the feeling of losing someone you love, it sucks.

We laid down and stared at the beauty of the stars — Do you ever just wonder why stars light in the dark, she said. I wondered the same thing — everyone wants to be the sun so badly, but no one ever wants to be a star or the moon and bring light in the darkest hours she said as she looked at me with her frantic smile. I thought to myself, How could someone be ever as strong and confident after all the things that they’ve been through — well it’s true what they say about pain, its only temporary once it’s gone something positive will replace it and it’s our duty to get rid of that pain permanently.

As we headed back to our cabin, she saw a cornflower, she gave it to me and she said that it was her favorite flower, I kept the flower in my pocket as we continued to head back to the cabin. We got ready to go to sleep again and I made sure that she was completely okay after what happened, she thanked me for being there and everything.

We woke up the next morning — greeting me was the smell of freshly cooked bacon withsausages and eggs that my campmates cooked, Gerald and I quickly got out of our sleeping bags, we saw that there were people still sleeping. we headed out to go visit the lake. While we were walking down the path to the lake I remembered the flower that Claire gave me, it somehow latched into my head that, that flower will always remind me of her. I gently got it out of my pocket to soon realized that it was all squished and torn apart, it must’ve been when I was asleep, I must’ve slept while moving all over the place. I asked Gerald if there were any flowers down at the lake, He wasn’t sure but he believed there were some down there. After quite some time walking, we finally arrived at the lake, gazing upon as we arrived is the beauty of the wilderness, trees that stood tall, water — crystal clear as if it was like glass, some colorful fishes swam across the shore.

Gerald did his thing where he skipped rock across the lake while I wandered about and stumble upon some daisies, they were beautiful but not what I was looking for, I walked a bit more and there caught me by surprise I saw cornflowers, I picked some and held them and made sure that I didn’t placed them in my pocket, I was peacefully picking flowers when Gerald came running at me pulling to go, I was confused and asked him why. He saw a bear he said, I checked it out and there I saw a bear so we quickly ran back to the camp.

We got to the camp heavily breathing with gasp and fear on our faces, the camp master laughed at us and said to our faces “you saw a bear didn’t you”. I calmed myself down then slowly realizing that I was still holding those cornflowers I picked from the lake, I quickly placed them in a jar that I had in my bag from those cheese puffs we ate the day before. We were eating breakfast when they started singing songs from our childhood, we were teary-eyed singing our favorite songs, what a truly memorable experience that was. We are now placing our bags below the bus’s luggage area, Claire sneaked behind me and hugged me, she has never felt so happy after what we did at summer camp, she has never felt something so surreal, she wanted to let me know that we can hang out sometime while during our spring break before school starts before she boarded the bus. I took one long last look at the camp and the surrounding scenery, wishing to be back again to this magical place filled with fun and happy memories that will forever be treasured in my heart. Gerald smudged his face on the bus window calling me to hop in aboard and so I did. We began our journey back home, while at it I was thinking on what i should do during the spring break before school begins, then it came in my head, saying — Oh I know!…

Oh! by the way in case you were wondering in what grade I was, I was in fifth grade when summer camp happened turning sixth when the spring break ends, anyways ciao!


©Austin Mortel, 2018. All Rights Reserved

heritage

A Collection of Poetry, Stories and Ideas. Header photo by Photo by Jack B on Unsplash. All stories, poems and series are written by Austin Mortel or otherwise noted. ©2018

Austin Mortel

Written by

Hi I’m a hooman who writes

heritage

heritage

A Collection of Poetry, Stories and Ideas. Header photo by Photo by Jack B on Unsplash. All stories, poems and series are written by Austin Mortel or otherwise noted. ©2018

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