Camelot
April 2002

"Hey Erika, you'll never guess what I found in our own backyard!" Tiffany screeched as she ran through Erika's backyard towards the swing-set. Erika was hanging upside-down with her t-shirt falling down over her face where she had forgotten to tuck it into her cut-offs. "Snakes, tons of 'em! You gotta come over and see 'em sometime. They're black and--"

"Tiffany, you know you didn't find them." Tiffany's little sister scrambled after her and tripped over the huge, furry dog that was also chasing after Tiffany. He looked up at her with hurtful eyes. "Sorry Starr," Rachel said as she patted the pup on his head. "Hey Erika, Tiff didn't find 'em. Johnny showed 'em to her."

Still hanging upside-down from the bar, Erika rolled her eyes and tied up her loose hair in a ponytail. "Well, it doesn't matter 'cause I've seen snakes the size of your arm over at Jaycee Park." She held out her arm to her friends, extending it as long as she could make it. "They're all over the tunnels out there." Then she flipped to her feet and dashed over to the shed. Rachel and Tiffany followed, and the three climbed up to the top, using the windowsills and loose boards as steps.

Erika cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "All aboard! This ship's setting sail. Last call. All aboard! Today I'm the captain, and Tiffany you can be my first mate. Rachel, you go sit over there and look out for land."

Rachel took her post at the lookout and Tiffany followed Erika to the helm of their ship. "Hey Rayche," Tiffany called over to her sister, "you gotta show Erika your new trick! It's so cool, Erika--Rachel learned how to do this neat flip. Whatdya call it, Rayche?"

"A front-handspring. It's no big deal, really, guys." Rachel tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Yeah it is, it's so good. She's so good. One day she's gonna be a professional! And I'll tell everyone, 'That's my little sister!'"

"No, it's nothing, Tiff, really." Rachel then turned away and brought a flat hand up to her forehead and shielded her eyes, looking first right, then left, then right again, and pointed off in the distance. "Land ho! Land ho! I've spotted dry land! Let's dock her!"

"Good work, matey," Tiffany called to Rachel. "Hey, I got an idea. Let's have a race to dry land!"

Erika took charge. "Okay, you see that tree over there? The first one to jump off of the shed, run over and touch that tree, and climb back up here wins! Ready, GO," Erika yelled, and since this gave her a headstart, she won. Rachel, the youngest and shortest of the three, trailed behind--but not too far behind. Tiffany always stayed a foot or two behind Erika and only a few steps ahead of Rachel. They stuck together.

A quick glance at these friends would show three typical young children. They looked like any other perfectly prim girls. They all curled their hair and wore makeup (when fathers weren't looking), wore the latest styles, and listened to the radio while they talked about boys. But looking a bit closer, you might see grass stains and skinned-up knees, dirty fingernails, and callused feet. You might see three little girls who climb trees, ride bikes with no hands, dig up worms, and wish they could run around topless like their boy counterparts. A closer look would show three genuine tomboys.

Erika was the biggest tomboy of them all. She beat up on her younger sisters and called the neighborhood boys nasty names. She popped out dead bird's eyeballs with sticks and played in the giant sewer pipes that ran through the forest at the park. She rode her massive dogs around the yard, ran through fields barefoot, and dared her friends to eat dog food. She was so tough that she just had to be the instigator and leader of nearly every adventure Tiffany and Rachel embarked on.

Erika was also Tiffany's best friend. She had brown hair and brown eyes and was skinny. Rachel thought Erika was not the skinny of starving children in Africa, and not the skinny of starving girls' anorexia. But skinny like a model. She had small bones and her skin fit snugly around them, with enough muscle for every bend to curve smoothly. Some skinny girls, like Rachel, were angular and sharp, with big bones jutting out around every corner, but not Erika.

Rachel though Erika was beautiful, but not as beautiful as Tiffany.

Erika, Tiffany, and Rachel- the three ran wild. With no school to confine their energetic spirits, the whole world was their playground. Days were spent on bike rides through the park, foraging their own trails, building forts in the trees, and exploring the uncharted areas of fields and forests and lakes. But when darkness covered the summer sun, parents demanded that the three girls return to Erika's yard. Wherever their journeys took them throughout the day, they always ended up at the shed in Erika's backyard. It stood tall, a giant looming over the entire untamed lawn. The long climb up the wooden wall was a daring one, one that only the bravest of little girls would attempt, but Rachel, Tiffany, and Erika were three such girls. And while some girls would giggle and gossip inside the clubhouse, these three friends could only be content on top. This was the place they could run to when life wasn't fair, when parents were mean, and when friends betrayed. This was where they came when there were secrets to be told, pacts to be made, or games to be played. To these children, like went on because of their shed. They weren't really old enough yet to see the beauty in watching from their roof a majestic sunset or a night sky filled with stars, but they were young enough to believe they were eagle babies and could spread their wings and learn to fly as they plummeted to the sofa cushions on the ground below. They were young enough to pretend the shed was their castle, and everything as far as they could see was their kingdom.