Fifteen hundred pound Bull

Here's one you won't normally hear, from my personal vault of only known by a few, true stories. Of all the adventures to have in life, in our modern world we found some untouched by time's movement into the modern era moments. In this one, a true story as I have said, I hope you see my Huck Finn-ishness combined with my Tom Sawyer-nese. Right out of circa 1887, we here in our small town found a test of manhood that most 12 or 13 year olds are not faced with in this world today. it was either 1990 or 1991, but I and my two pals, all three of us the same age had decided to walk a long distance in search of a ride home because we were slightly stranded in the vast landscape of our hometown. I had begun a discussion about tests of manhood and adventure. I told them this would test us. It didn't seem very strenuous or much of a test, we merely had to walk like ten miles. We couldn't quite sit still and wait plus our town is always teeming with traffic, the streets, less busy than many streets, allowed us to get away with walking these country roads with less fear of being hit by a car then. I was rambling on and on and the guys were just looking at me and listening so I was the first to see it and it astonished me. I think at that time my cousin was telling me that I wasn't God, that I dpn't always have the right answer. I was a 69 pound pip squeak by the way. But I have noted in my life time I have saved our life something like hundreds of times. I didn't want to alarm the boys because I knew that would disadvantage us. So, I think, I just calmly transitioned in story to, "Remember when I was talking about adventure and testing our manhood? Well, I may have unwittingly called a little more down upon us than I had intended, too." My cousin said, "What do you mean?" and Ryan just kept smiling. I remember Ryan hadn't said much during most of the talk he just listened and smiled. So, I answered my cousin. I said, "I don't want to alarm you because we need to keep a calm head right now." And he said, "Jimmmmmyyy." a little frustration in his tone. So I continued, "It's just that there is a fifteen hundred pound Bull right there." and they turned and looked, and I continued even more with "and that fence looks small and flimsy. I'm not sure how a fifteen hundred pound bull is kept confined by such a shabby fence. If he learns that he can turn that fence to matchsticks we are in trouble." And then my cousin said, "What do we do?" and there was no smile on Ryan's face anymore. So I said, "Keep walking a normal pace, I'm going to show you something. See, they say red makes a bull charge but I'm sure it isn't the color of the cloth at all. I think it is movement and he's staring at us, so, do you see that big tree over there? I'm going to to get that bull moving and we need to run to that tree and get behind it out of sight. So when I say, run fast to the tree." I turned so that I was walking backwards when I took off my ball cap before the bull could gently walk up to and through the fence and gave my ball cap a wave as I watched him. Then I said run, and we ran and it started to chase us. We got to the tree and around it and out of sight. My cousin asked, "Is it still coming after us?" And I said,"No." He said, "How do you know?" I said, "I didn't hear the fence break." I said, "Chuck, can you please carefully look around the tree to confirm that?" We called Ryan Chuck for a nickname. My cousin said, "What would you have done if it broke through the fence? I said, "I would have thrown you in that tree and made you pull me up and I would pull him up because bulls don't climb trees." At that point I peaked cautiously around the tree and the bull had lost interest and was heading back up the hill away from the tiny fence that somehow contained him. I looked at Ryan, who hadn't spoken in a very long time and said, "I guess I should have told you 'and report back to me what you see' huh? Because I guess when I said look to see you decided you would keep that information to yourself but I did want you to report it back to me. That's ok though." Then we walked back out from behind the tree down the road away from the large beast and my cousin asked, "What do we do if he chases us again?" I said, "Just keep walking steady, we could run to that house if we needed but I think we are far enough away to be less concerned and then we will be far enough to be unconcerned." We saw my uncle in his own yard just ahead and I asked him is it a little unusual for a fifteen hundred pound bull to be kept in a yard behind a fence that seems to be made of material as flimsy as a bunch of McDonald's straws strung together, especially so close to town?" And he said, "There's a bull?" And I said yeah right over there. It was at his neighbors house on the backside of Main Street and he didn't even know it, hadn't even seen it. He walked out to his car and looked down the road and you could see the visible shock on his face. I said ok, you might want to tell the police because it is so close tot the center of town and if it got loose and rampaged that wouldn't be good. I might tell them, also" And he said Yeah. Then I said have a nice day. And the three of us wandered on down the road. That is my hometown. A little bit 1700 something, a little bit 1800 something, a little bit 1950 and a little bit 1970. A crazy mix of time capsule country and a part of what made me.