Muddy memories on my mind

I was probably 11 or 12 years old when this particular incident happened, I don't rightly recall. I do remember it was during the Summertime. My best friend, Kevin, and I were up to our usual exploring the land and goofing off. We were in my papaw Lorn Chesney's woods, back behind my parent's house. We spent many hours hiking, playing, and doing mischevious things in those woods. This particular day was nothing unusual from the others except for the fact that it had been raining quite a bit that week. We decided to walk up to the top of the hill and see what kind of trouble we could get into. We always liked to try to out-do each other in some way. If Kevin jumped over a ditch, I would jump over a ditch and a fence. If I climbed a tree, Kevin would climb a higher tree and dangle from from a top branch by his legs. We had absolutely no fear or thought of repercussions to our actions (which might explain the numerous injuries I sustained in my early years).

Anyways, we were playing in those woods when all of a sudden we came upon a large area of mud. If I remember correctly, it was roughly a 10-foot circular area. We took a stick and poked around in it. It seemed like it was bottomless. We picked up some large rocks and threw into the middle of it. The rocks quickly sank into the mud and out of sight. "Cool!" we shouted. Kevin had the bright idea of seeing if we could jump over the mud. "I'll betcha a thousand dollars you can't jump over that mud," Kevin said. "Oh yeah? Well, I'll betcha a million that I can!" I shot back. Now, bear in mind that Kevin was a couple of inches taller than me and weighed a good 20-lbs less than I did. He could usually out run me and almost always could out jump me. I wasn't going to let that bother me.

Kevin decided he would go first. He walked back about 20-feet from the mud and got a good running start. He ran lickety-split toward that mud pit and leaped up into the air, sailing smoothly across and landing safely on the other side. He turned and looked at me and said, "see Barn, it was easy! Now you try it!" I didn't let on to Kevin like I was worried about the jump. Ever my confident self, I smiled, looked at Kevin and said, "man, I'm gonna jump that pit and clear your mark by two-feet!" I took off running as hard as my short fat legs would allow. I came to the edge of that mud and leaped with all of my might. I soared straight up in the air and came straight back down right smack dab in the middle of that mud pit. The next thing I knew, I was quickly sinking. Past my ankles, over my calves, above me knees, I was struggling like mad to make traction and walk myself out of that mud. The more I struggled, the faster I sank. Before I knew it I was up to my armpits. Kevin was standing at the edge with a crazed look on his face. "Byron! Byron! grab my hand!" I tried my best to stretch forward to grab his hand, I couldn't reach him. He laid down on the ground and reached out toward me as far as he could, to no avail. I knew that I was going to die right there in that mud pit. My short little life flashed before my eyes. I was sorting through my mind the things that I wanted to leave Kevin when I died. He would for sure get my bicycle, he could probably use it for parts. My Evel Knievel toys and all of my plastic army men were his. I'd probably let my cousin Bradley have my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. I didn't really have much else to give away. My mom would be heart broken and my dad wouldn't have anybody to help dig taters. It was a wasted life.

While I was busy dying in my own mind, Kevin had ran in the woods and found a long stick on the ground. He was now sitting at the edge of the mud pit holding that stick out. "Grab it!" he yelled. Now up to my neck, I managed to reach an arm out and grab ahold of that stick. Kevin pulled with the strength of a thousand men. Suddenly I started coming up out of that mud. He was pulling and I was leaning, trying to get some kind of traction. Slowly but surely I inched out of that mud pit and made it to dry ground. I laid there on my back for what seemed like an eternity but in all reality was only a few minutes. Kevin was worn out and lying beside me. "Man, that was close, you nearly died!" Kevin said. "Yeah, you saved my life for sure!" I said. "You owe me a million bucks," Kevin said. We both started laughing hysterically. Eventually we got up and went on our merry way. It wasn't the first or last time Kevin would get me out of a mess. I'll write about that later.