"Wake up Nick." A voice said softly, shaking my arm. Still in the land of sleep I mumbled that they should leave me alone. Ok it was not in such nice words but not as nice as I told before.
"Come on." Another shake. This time a bit harder. Confused over that someone was talking to me I opened my eyes only to see Brian's blues looking down at me. A smile toyed at his lips. "Hey there. Those were some nice words you called me."
Duh what did you expect? After all you were the one that woke me up! In the middle of the night!! I blinked several times, trying to clear the fog out of my head, when it dawned upon me that we were not driving any longer. "Why did we stop?"
"Because we´re here."
"Where? Where are we?" I felt confused. It was like all the brain cells had suddenly disappeared from me.
"At our destination." He laughed. ”I don’t remember the name but it’s kind of like the Norwegian wilderness."
"Aha." Brian had some strange explanations at times. Looking out through the window I noticed that it was still rather light outside, which was weird since it had to be midnight by now. Pulling Nike jacket closer to my body I sank back into my seat. Too tired to do anything but just sit, yawn and hope that I could spend the night in the warm and comforting car instead of having to go out into the cold night. Closing my eyes I hoped to get another shut eye but Brian had other thoughts on his mind.
"Come on," he urged, pulling me on my arm.
"Don’t!" If there was one thing I hated it was when someone pulled me at my arm, wanting me to go somewhere where I didn’t want to go. Shrugging I pulled my arm back, folding both my arms in a stubborn gesture.
Brian chuckled. "Man Nick you’re really hard to wake up sometimes. You know that?" When I said nothing in response he reasoned "I know that you’re tired. I’m tired too but you’re only making it worse with refusing to get up. So come on now let’s get out and help the others. They have already started with setting up the tent.
I sighed. Brian was right. I was tired and since I had dosed on and off for most of the time ever since we left that restaurant it would take lots to drag me out of the car. Correction it would take a Kevin to drag me out of the car!
"Nick what the hell is you doing? Kevin's voice boomed. "You have to help AJ to set up the tent. That’s your task." The words were firm and even if I groaned in response he did not budge as I tried my "But Kevin I’m tired."
"So am I, but that’s no excuse."
"But it’s so cold.." I started only to get yelled at seconds later.
"NICK get out NOW!"
Man I swear that if we will not make it in the music business and Kevin ever is unemployed he would fit in the army. He has just the right approach for it. The shouts and the hardness.
"Get your ass moving." Brian said, suddenly very inspired by his older cousin to kick my ass. He opened the car door wide enough for me to get out. I felt annoyed. Here I was thrown out into the cold wilderness with nothing but a thin jeans jacket for defence. I shivered from the cold that hit me in my face. But it turned out to be more that hit me..
"Shit!!" I yelled as millions of mosquitoes were attacking me. Yelling and stomping I tried to scare them away but it didn’t work very well and instead they flew after me. This resulted in even more yelling and Brian got the laugh for the day, or should I say night since it was pretty late.
"What is it?" he asked as I tried desperately to wave the bugs away.
"It’s those fucking bugs!" I yelled annoyed as more and more seemed to gather around me.
"Nick!" Kevin shouted suddenly.
"What? It’s these damned.."
"Nick don’t cuss."
Neither Kevin nor Brian liked it when I swore and they often let me know that it didn’t suit me to sound like that. AJ however didn’t care about that and when I had asked Brian why they were never on his case he’d said that it was no use. AJ was AJ. When I had responded, very pissed I might add, that it was unfair and that he could get away with just about everything, even if he was just two years older than me, Brian had shrugged his shoulders and then changed the subject. To this day this was something that nagged me like a tear in my side. That AJ could get away with it all."
Ignoring that last comment I walked over to Howie, who was busy unpacking all of the things we brought with us, and then said with a yawn, "Hi D!"
"Hi Nick..So you decided to get up now?" He smiled while taking out bag after bag from the car. God it looked like we were going to stay for months. Note: It was NOT my luggage since I only brought with me my backpack which had everything I needed. A pair of clean jeans, shorts, four pair of boxers (yup I like to be clean underneath even if I can look like a slob on the outside), three tees, trunks and a pair of socks. Oh yeah I almost forgot mom packed me a sweatshirt too in case it would get cold.
The luggage that Howie was unpacking was mostly his own as well as AJ. You might think that they were heading to a fashion show instead of going canoeing with all the stuff they packed.
"You want me to help you D?" I heard myself say and being the nice guy I am I actually volunteered to help out even if all I wanted at that time was crawl into the tent and go to sleep. Deep inside I also hoped that he would say "No it’s all right", but I knew the answer before it was being said.
"Yes Nick. That would be great." Before I had a chance to react he loaded several bags and stuff on me like I was some freaking pack mule. The only thing that was visible was my head; everything else was covered with luggage. Ok I might be exaggerating just a LITTLE bit but you get my point. Mentally I cursed myself for asking such a stupid question. Of course he would want help. Since I was this pretty nice and polite guy I mentioned before, I carried the luggage towards our destination by the lake.
We had decided to spend the first night here only to go downstream with the canoe tomorrow and then set a camp further down. "Where is Bone?" I asked as I balanced the bags and with slow careful steps walked towards the direction that Howie pointed to.
"Over there. He’s setting up the tent."
"Ok." I never knew that AJ could be such a boy scout. He sure had many hidden talents. Wonder what would be next? A go-go dancer?
I had to walk a bit until I saw the sight of Bone walking around near the shore, putting up tent pins. "Yo!" It was best to announce my arrival, especially since I hoped he would help me with the luggage. To my dismay nothing like that happened and instead my good friend waved at me. Not a hello wave no it was more like he was waving like a moron. Shouting things at me."
"Idiot." I muttered walking away. I couldn’t understand what he was saying anyway and I had a tough time walking as it was and now AJ had to act like a lunatic. Annoyed over my friend’s strange behaviour I contemplated why he wouldn’t come up to me or even better help me out with this luggage, especially since most of it was his anyway.
"Niiiickkk waaaaiiittttt!!!!"
The scream was loud and I was just about to ask what he meant when I suddenly knew what he had been trying to say to me. "Oh crap!" Something hard connected with my foot and before I had a chance to react I flew like an airplane pilot across the grass only to land on my stomach. Ouuuccchhhhh!!Man that hurt even more then the fall I had earlier on at the restaurant. Bags as well as stuff flew over the grass, scattering all over the place like a battlefield.
On top of everything had the wind knocked out of me, but that was not the worst. As I was starting to regain my breath I noticed a searing pain in my leg. Or more likely my ankle.
'Fine. This is really fine.' I thought sullenly. ‘Now I had a broken leg too.'
AJ came running to me. "What happened? Are you all right?" When he saw that I was still alive, bruised but breathing he continue, "Didn’t you see that fallen tree? I tried to warn you but you kept walking all the time." Strangely there was more concern then irritation in his tone.
The pain in my ankle made tears well up in my eyes. So that was what had happened. I had tripped on a tree! No wonder I got my wind knocked out of me.
"You got hurt?" Hunching down beside me AJ did his best to try to access how severe my injuries were. When I had sat up straighter and was rubbing my left ankle with a hand he said, "Dude that was some fall you took." Shaking his head he mumbled, "You’re really accident prone do you know that Kaos?"
I nodded. If I knew? What kind of stupid question was that? Of course I did. I was the one that had battle scars all over my body. The one that had to stitch my forehead twice, broke my arm while riding a bike and had a concussion no less than four times in my life. Top that if you can and oh those are just the times that I broke something. The times where I cut myself or fell from a bike are not included.
The pain got worse and moaning I told him that it hurt badly and I thought I had broken it. That was how bad it was for the time being.
AJ's eyes whitened when he realised what might have happened. "You sure?" A frown was etched on his forehead.
I didn’t have a chance to answer since the rest of the guys came over to me. Running. "What happened? You hurt Nicky?" Kevin asked as he was instantly by my side. To my deep and utter surprise, he bent down next to me and I could see on his facial expression that he was pretty worried. "
"Nick tripped on a fallen tree." AJ explained with a sigh. "He hurt his ankle and he thinks he broke it too."
"He did?" With a frown Kevin tried to access just how much truth lay in that comment and he pressed with his hand on my ankle. "Does that hurt?" he asked I bit my lip from crying out loud. "Apparently it does," he muttered as he pressed another spot. At that time it really showed that he had spent lots of time with his dad who run a sports camp for teenagers. He had inherited his dad's way of dealing with problems. Realistic and disciplined with an anal touch.
During this painful examination both Howie and Brian choose to show up. Both shocked to see their little brother lying in the grass, crying in pain. Before they had a chance to ask the inevitable question what happened to their Frack AJ explained the situation. Kevin was busy asking me all these annoying questions about where it hurt and how much and all that and I had a tough time answering them. Once the examination was over Kevin felled his statement.
"I think I have an idea how bad it is." His tone sounded like the day of doom and for a moment I feared the worse.
"How bad?" Part of me wanted to hear the verdict, part did not. What if I was right? That the ankle was broken. Then what would happen? Would I have to go to a hospital? Despite my fear of going to all kinds of doctors a hope lit up. If I had broken my ankle would I then be able to go on this hellish trip into mosquito land? The answer would be NO. Smiling, despite the pain in my ankle, things suddenly didn’t look so hopeless anymore. Broken leg meant to go back and that was something I think I could live without.
Kevin looked at me with a serious face. "It’s so bad that you might have to.."
"Might have to what?" I cut in, trying to make my voice less shaky. Fearing the worst.
"I think you have to cut it off. With a chain saw!" Kevin laughed loudly at his own stupid joke and so did the others. Especially AJ who was laughing so much that he was shooting the gum that he was chewing on out of his mouth. Gross!
"What?" At first I got mad because they were laughing at my pain but then I realised that he was only joking around. After all I had discovered that it wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. Maybe I had overreacted, just a little at least. No broken bones could be felt and the pain had toned down too after the first shocking reaction.
"Calm down Nick," Kevin smiled at my reaction. "I’m just kidding with you. Seriously. " He added in a gentle tone, "I don’t think you broke it and instead it looks like you might have sprained your ankle a little. All you need is a good nights rests and then I think you’ll be as good as new again tomorrow." He patted me on my head like I was some kind of dog or a kid which was even worse.
"Well thank you doctor Kevin." Despite my irritation for my older brother I couldn’t help but feel satisfied too. He could be a pain in the ass, giving me hell for everything, but despite that he is always there when I needed him. As a matter of fact they all are and I love them for it.
"Think you can try and stand?" AJ asked when it was for certain that I would survive this ordeal without much harm being done to myself. Like it or not.
Nodding I tried to stand only to feel Howie's arm as a support around my waist. Gently he helped me to stand and then guided me over to the same fallen tree that had lead to this misery minutes ago. "Here Nicky," he said as he helped me to sit. "Sit here and try and relax and we’ll take care of everything."
Nodding, still in shock and a bit of pain I did as my brothers told me and sat down on the tree. With that everyone but Brian went over to start setting up tent so we could get to sleep anytime tonight.
Brian sat down next to me. "You’re cold?"
"A little." I confessed as a shiver ran down my spine.
"You want to borrow this?" Brian asked as he handed me his sports jacket.
"No," I shook my head. "It’s ok." It really was. I wasn’t cold as in outside cold, it was more as in cold from the ordeal I had been through and it was getting better as the time passed.
"Don’t be stupid Frack," Brian said, putting the jacket over my shoulder anyway. "It’s cold and you’re hurt and I don’t need it." Before I could object he had went away to the others. Grateful for the help that my friend shoved me I sat there watching them work on setting up our camp. Even though it had to be night, or even worse early dawn it still wasn’t dark outside. Howie told me that it had to do with the midnight sun and in the summertime it was nearly light 24/7!
Watching the scenery I thought that maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. It was actually pretty neat the way the sun shone on the lake and if I hadn’t been so tired I might have actually enjoyed the Norwegian nature, even if I was not going to tell the guys that.
I must have dosed off when someone nudged at my arm. "Nick it’s time to go." It was Howie. He held out a helping hand which I took.
"Ok." I mumbled as in slow-motion, since by that time I was so chilled that my teeth did chatter. My butt felt also very sore from sitting down for so long and the bruise on my left butt cheek, you know the restaurant incident, didn’t help. As I stood up, my ankle throbbing with pain, I started to wonder why I hadn’t gone back to sit in the car. That would have been a smart idea to do since then maybe I wouldn’t feel like a Popsicle. Everybody had been so busy to get the tent up that the thought hadn’t really crossed anyone’s mind and to tell you the truth it hadn’t crossed my mind either.
"You ok?" Howie asked when he once again held my waist for support.
"Yeah." I limped in silence beside my brother and it felt like a bliss when I could finally crawl into the tent and then later into the sleeping bag. There was no strength what so ever to get up and get undressed and I didn’t even bother to brush my teeth. Sleep was all I had in mind and sleep I would do. My first day on this trip had been much too exhausting and I was dead tired to my bones. Neither of us was talking very much and after a short goodnight we all fell asleep.
