Writers on the Inside

It was back in the year 1994, there was a boy named Braxton Wild Rivers. He had just turned 16 and had to move to the country with his mom and dad. They had to move out of the city because his dad lost his job. Their new farm house was small and was in the middle of nowhere. The only thing around them was their new farmland which was 100 acres of nothing but fields and hardwoods. The house was old looking on the outside but it was really nice looking on the inside. There were lots of mounted animals hanging on the walls. Outside the house there was an old shop and a big red old barn.

Braxton asked his mom if he could go explore in the barn and look around and see if he could find something cool or of interest. She told him if he was unpacked, then she didn’t care but be careful she said. The boy went to the barn to explore and see what exciting things he can find. So he went in and was looking around when something in the back of the barn caught his eye. It was an old hunting chest and it was painted green. But dang, the chest was locked. He was thinking, “Should I just leave this alone?”  But he couldn’t help himself, he was just too curious about what was in there, so he was determined to find out what was in that old hunting chest.

The next thing that popped into his mind was, “I’ll go get my daddy’s old steel work hammer and I’ll break this lock so I can find out what is in here.” He went and got the hammer and looked back to make sure no one was watching ‘cause he knew if daddy caught him, he would flip out. Daddy doesn’t like anyone touching his tools other than him. So now Braxton broke the lock off and was amazed at what was inside.

Inside the old hunting chest the first thing that caught his eye was an old long short bow, which is a long bow modified for a youth. Also, there was a quiver, made out of deer hide, full of arrows. There were about 60 arrows total, half were fitted with field points for practicing and the other half were hunting arrows fitted with those hunting tips with the three blades on them called broad heads. Next, he found a knife in a case, a big one, that also had a compass on the back of it. The back of the knife twisted off and Braxton saw that this was a survivor knife. It had a plastic bag full of fishing strings, hooks, and a big box of matches. The last things Braxton found was some camouflage hunting clothes and some camping gear.

He took the things in the house and told his mama and daddy that he found them in the barn. Daddy said, “Come on outside and bring the bow and some practice arrows, son, and we will make a target. I’ll show you how to shoot it so you can go hunting in the morning and at least you will have something to do so you won’t be bored tomorrow.”

They went outside and hung an old tarp target on a old bale of hay. Daddy showed him how to knock the arrow onto the string and how to aim for the big dot in the middle of the tarp. The first couple of times he didn’t do so well, he missed the target all together. But finally he got the hang of it and before dark Braxton was hitting bull’s eye almost every shot. Now he was ready to go hunting and kill his first deer. 

That night, Braxton didn’t even sleep because he was excited about going hunting in the morning. It was exactly 4:45 am when he got up, and still dark out. It was October 15^th, the first day of bow season. He didn’t expect to see anything that first day, but he was determined to kill a deer, even if it took him all season.