A day of mischief- By Wade

Marty's dad had a giant apple orchard that set next to the Westridge Elementary baseball fields. it was bordered with a 6" chain link fence. Sometimes we would climb over the fence, go to Marty's house for lunch and take our time going back to school. We would walk down the rows of apple tree's and gorge our selves on any apple low enough to the ground to pick. there was one particular tree next to the base ball diamond that tasted different from all the rest, and I would usually take at least 1 apple from that tree each day I visited the orchard.

Marty's family had 4 wheelers and we spent many of our days riding around the great expanse of trees. Fuel was free because they had a gas pump on property so when we were low we would fill back up. On one edge of the orchard was a canal that was wider than I was tall and we would go and "ditch jump" which consisted of running as fast as you could on one side of the ditch and then jumping to the other all while staying above the flowing water. Many times, depending on how bad you didn't want to get wet, you would end up on the wrong side of the canal.

One day Marty took us to a new portion of the canal and as we were ditch jumping. I ended up on the wrong side. Marty told me I needed to come back because there was a 'mean dog" on that side. We all stood and stared looking at the dog house, there was no dog, intrigued Marty crossed the canal too and we began to walk quietly through the long grass bordering the canal. As we neared the dog house a black head pounced from behind the tree and began to bark, we scattered... I remember looking behind me and seeing the giant black barking head full of teeth and slobber, bounding behind, on top of an unseen body. we jumped across the canal and boarded the 4 wheeler, which was all very dramatic but the dog had stopped chasing at the canal.

We sped off down the dirt trail. Over the top of a ridge we came to another portion of the canal where we heard splashing. Over the bank were several of the migrant worker kids skinny dipping in the canal, their clothes laying just over the bank. Marty jumped off of the 4 wheeler grabbed their clothes and jumped onto the 4 wheeler and sped off down the dirt road as I sat on back holding all the clothes. After 20 minutes of holding the clothes we decided to return the clothes to the canal bank. back on top of the ridge Marty jumped off of the 4 wheeler and threw the clothes back on the ground. As he began to return to the 4 wheeler, we looked back to see a band of migrant workers running up the lane towards us along with a some of the kids who's clothes we had taken, although they were fully dressed this time. Marty Jumped back on the 4 wheeler and pushed the gas , which stalled the machine. He frantically pulled on the lawn mower type pull string in a futile attempt to get away from the Frankenstein like mob that was quickly approaching. As the angry mob got nearer Marty Yelled "RUN!" We bailed off of the 4 wheeler and down a path the mob would not follow... Strait off of the hill through a pile of bushes, old tree branches and briar's. We fought our way through, as the tree branches whipped us on our bare legs and the briar's clung every piece of clothing. We reached the bottom of the hill and ran for our lives, not stopping until we reached Marty's house on the other side of the orchard. We hid ourselves in his tree house and waited for punishment.

A short time later we a 4 wheeler engine was heard, which came to a stop in front of the farm house. The back door opened and Marty's dad come out of the house with a red faced and I think I remember steam coming out of his ears. He yelled at us, dispensed a threat or two then went back inside. We were banned from ridding the 4 wheeler for a while but the orchard was still a giant play land where you didn't have to go home for lunch cause there was always plenty to eat.