Breaking The Peace

Chase Folsom

So there I was sitting on the warm worn out boards of the dock. It was just after noon time. The old wood planks under me creaked as the water from Long Pond hit them. My brother showed up with his fishing gear. As he walked down onto the dock, I grabbed my gear that was sitting beside me and made my way to the other side of the dock, where the boat was tied. I stepped into the boat and nearly fell over. After my brother got in, we went off into the deep, dark mysterious waters.

The fish were jumping all around us everything from bass to perch. My brother casted his reel.  As it hit the water, it seemed like instantly my brother yelled, “Fish on!” He reeled his line in at a steady pace. I could see that this fish was a monster.  Ripples came from where it was struggling in the water. Seconds after I casted my reel, it sunk into what seemed a never ending dark pool. The fish, while being reeled in, was moving side to side under the water. After a minute or so my brother had it in the boat. The yellow of its sides glistened in the midday sun showing as a gold color. He had caught a yellow perch. As he took the hook out, carefully I felt my pole twitch then twitched again then came a big pull. As the big pull came, I grabbed my pole and reeled not too fast but not too slow. I felt tug after tug. After what felt like seconds I had the fish in the boat. My brother had finally gotten his fish off the hook, and as I turned around he gave it a kiss. I got my fish unhooked then dropped it in the water.

As my brother and I got our casting rods again he asked, “So how's school been going?”

“Good” I replied.

The night went on, and the sun sank below the treeline. We had caught too many fish to count.

My brother said, “I think we should head out now.”

I agreed, and we were off.

After five minutes we were in the cove, and I could see the shoreline. A few minutes after that I was stepping onto the dock. The boards were not warm anymore; they were stone cold.

As we walked up the shore line, I could feel the sharp, rigid rocks beneath my feet. Once we got to the fourwheeler ,we started it and drove out of the woods. My aunt and uncle were outside at their house cooking dinner as we drove by. We waved and they waved in return. Furthermore down the road, we drove by my uncle Tim’s house. He was outside working on his boat. He heard us coming up the road and waved. When we drove by my cousin's house, he emerged from the woods holding a chicken. We waved to him and he waved back. The dirt of the road kicked up behind us. As we came across my Uncle Jeff’s house, we met my cousin on the road.

He saw that we had our fishing gear and asked, “How many did you catch?”

My brother said, “Too many to count”

Then the conversation continued. After what seemed like forever we had waved and said goodbye.

As we pulled into the dooryard, my dog ran out of the house to greet us. We walked inside, and my brother’s friend was there. We ate dinner then an idea came to mind.

“Let's make smores!” I said.

Everyone agreed, and we went outside to start the fire. After a couple of minutes the fire was crackling. The red and orange flames reminded me of the wood stove, that we had in the ice shack in the winter.

As the night went forward, I went to sleep and dreamed. Then the dream took a turn, I would have never expected. I was dreaming about winter. The dream first started out as me building a snowman in the front yard. We had just come back from ice fishing. It was very fun. Although it was blizzard conditions that didn’t stop us. We had caught ten fish that day. Then my dream came to an end, and I woke up to a chilling cold running down my spine. I felt like something was wrong. I woke up to look out my window and seeing piles upon piles of snow that had fallen. This was a miriale, but I knew it wasn’t why I had felt that cold chill.  Gradually everyone woke up and was amazed to see the magnificent amounts of snow that had fallen.

We went outside to the garage and noticed something strange had happened. Something that would change our world of feeling safe. One of the windows had been broken. The shards of glass remained on the ground. As I picked it up, it broke again. As we entered the garage something was off. I quickly walked around to  my dad's truck and discovered that the four wheeler had been stolen.

At first we panicked and started trying to find it, but then we went outside and looked for any possible tracks in the snow. There were none other than ours. This was alarming. We had never had anything stolen from our house, andt something told me this wasn't the only thing missing. As I turned to look outside, I noticed something unusual again. Where there was supposed to be two trash cans, only one remained. I could tell, because where it had been there was a huge hump in the snow. Not shortly after my dad caught on.

As he was looking at it, I said, “why would anyone want a trash can?”

My dad replied with a simple, “I don't know.”

While the day was turning into night, I thought long and hard. Then it came to me. A criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. I made the plan all up in my head. At daybreak I would camp out in the garage and wait.

I woke up to the sound of an alarm in my ear that morning. It rang for about five minutes. I went out into the kitchen, and grabbed a few things and was out the door. As I left the house, I heard my dog barking, so as fast as I could I ran in and got her. In the garage I picked a spot, where I could see the whole thing. It was on the floor in the far right corner.

The floor was cold as ice. Once I got comfortable I told myself ,“Now it’s just waiting game.” The wind howled outside. I could hear the snow hitting the sides of the garage. Off in the distance I heard coyotes howling at the moon.

A couple of  hours went by, and nothing seemed to happen, until I heard the doorknob of the garage door turn then turn again. I felt the dog flinch under my hand. As the door started to open slowly, it revealed and weird looking shadow in the moonlight. From a distance it looked like a tall man with a really long beard. Once the door was open fully, it quickly closed with a loud thud. The figure pulled something out of his pocket.  It shown yellow from the little bit of light. Then out of nowhere, I was blinded by a beam of light. Now I knew it was a flashlight. But what was the thief looking for now? I watched him walk across the concrete to my snowmobile. He was about to get on it, when he heard me lock the door. He shone the light on my face.

A deep voice said, “And who are you?”

I said, “Who are you and why have you stolen things from here?”

The man looked at me, then laughed. I wasn’t sure what was funny. I got a better look at the man. It was no one I’d ever seen before, but I saw in his hand the key to the four wheeler.

I asked him, “Where is the four wheeler?”

He just laughed again. I looked outside to see if anyone was looking in. No one was, but I noticed the outline of something. The man obviously wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know, so I took matters into my own hands and opened the door. It had stopped snowing and blowing, so I could make out two wheels in the snow. They looked like the same ones, we had on the four wheeler. Once I got closer, I realized it was. I rushed inside to grab the key from the man. This time he didn't seem to want to do anything but stand there. I went up to him and grabbed the keys out of his hand. Then  I ran out and blocked him in.

I ran inside. Behind me, I heard the dog trudging through the snow. I sprinted up the font stairs inside and ran to my mom and dad's room. They had woken up, and I told them everything that had happened, and they called the police. When the police arrived, they had unlocked the door and arrested the man.

Even though this man had broken into our peaceful lives, we would not let him change the way we live!