“Chicken!”
“Am not!” John stamped his foot
“Are too!” Bob poked him on the shoulder.
John looked up at the granary roof that towered over his six-year-old head. All he had to do was jump. Bob and his friends had. He didn’t want to jump but neither did he want to be called “chicken.”
Pride won out.
He stood on the granary roof and looked down at the ground. “Jump!” they cried. John closed his eyes and leapt into the void.
“My arm!” he screamed.
Bob’s face turned white. “Dad’ll kill me!” The boys scattered like chaff before the wind.
#99WordStories #BeingDared #SiblingRivalry #Mischief #MargaretGHanna #AlmostTrueStories
The backstory:
Kids find ways to get up to all sorts of mischief. Farm kids seem to have a particularly wide assortment of opportunities. My brother and I certainly did. The above story is “inspired,” as Hollywood likes to say, by true events and people.
Bob and John were my mother’s two older brothers. Bob, the older of the two, was always getting John into trouble. At least that was John’s version of events.
So far as I know, neither of them leapt off a granary roof but I did, as did several of my friends. None of us broke an arm but I think one went limping home with a sprained ankle. Of course, this was yet another antic that we did only when our father wasn’t around. We knew there’d be h*** to pay if he caught us.
A Prairie Perspective 
My wife has many tales like this Margaret obviously from her time growing up in the city lanes and streets of old Kathmandu. It’s a very different place today, ruined rather than developed! Anyway she had three brothers and three sisters, something I find it difficult to identify with as I was an only child! Good to read a post from you Margaret, peace be with you 🕉🕉
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Thanks, Dr. B. It’s good to be back writing. That bonk on the head took more out of me than I thought. I’ve enjoyed your posts even if I haven’t commented.
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What about the Prairie Girl who took up the dare to walk over one of the concrete arches over the bridge just south of Meyronne? The arches were about 2.0 feet wide and at their peaks, 50 feet from the water of Pinto Creek!
My Dad asked me about this event, but I denied any knowledge of what could have possibly motivated her to do this!
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And I have no idea what you are talking about. I’d like to meet that brave, adventurous young lady some day. (Giggle, giggle)
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Oh tbe things us farm kids did!
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. . . and lived to talk about (but not to our parents)
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