“All right, Cub Scouts. This meeting is over. Goodbye!” said Mrs. Lansing as she closed the Cub Scout book. Laura walked over to her friend, Cassie. As they were going home along the long winding country road, they talked.

“I don’t understand what this is about. If we’re careful, we’ll never get lost in the woods at night. Do we really need these skills?” asked Laura.

 “We should always know them just in case. We’ve still got a lot more life left. You never know what can happen,” Cassie replied.

 The girls were walking down Grove Highway. It was a very peaceful day. The birds were chirping from high in the treetops and the fresh aroma of lavender was flowing slowly through the air. After almost an hour of walking, the girls reached the place where they had to part. After a short “goodbye”, Laura was walking by herself back home. Finally, she stepped onto the gravel driveway of her house.

 Laura lived on a farm. She was fairly happy there. Laura had the animals to talk to and play with. She could ride the horses, milk the cows, and do lots of other fun farm chores. Laura could also grow lots of food and run in the wide wheat fields. But Laura’s personal favorite was the woods. During almost all of her free time, she would hop along the winding path and listen to the birds chirping while running through crunchy leaves. Laura walked up her driveway and opened the screen door to get into her house.

 “ Hello, sweetie! How are you?”, Mr. Edgars (Laura’s father) asked.

 “Great! Can I go to the woods?” Laura quickly exclaimed.

 “Sure! Here’s your walkie-talkie!” Laura’s father cheerfully said.

 Hearing this, Laura grabbed her backpack, jumped out of the door, and headed for their forest.

 “Don’t stay there too long! Dinner time is soon!” Laura’s father loudly warned. 

But Laura could barely hear him. She was on her way. Laura quickly ran into the woods. Her sneakers made crunching sounds as they hit the fallen dry leaves. As Laura thought, there was not a sight more beautiful than seeing the beautiful green trees in the summer sunlight of the afternoon, along with the pretty bushes and marvelous wildflowers. Often, as she ran through the forest, she thought of all of the lovely things of her life. Laura imagined her loving grandparents hugging her and watching television and drinking hot cocoa while it was snowing outside. There were many things Laura enjoyed.

 It was a long time before Laura noticed her surroundings. Laura gasped! She had run off the trail! Laura fumbled with her walkie-talkie.

”Dad! Dad! Do you read me? Over.” Mr. Edgars responded.

 “Laura? What’s the problem? You seem to be worried.” 

”I lost the trail! I can’t find my way back!” Laura worriedly responded.

 Mrs. Edgars came on the microphone. “Laura? Are you REALLY LOST?!”

 “Don’t worry, mom. I’ll be fine,” said Laura, who was starting to calm down.

 “Well, I guess the only thing I can do is spend the night.” 

“Really? Would it be safe?” Mr. Edgars asked.

“Hold on a second, sweetie.”

Then the walkie-talkie became quiet. Mr. and Mrs. Edgars were talking. 

“Max, Should we REALLY do this? There could be wolves and bears out there!" Mrs. Edgars exclaimed.

“WOLVES AND BEARS? Don’t be silly! There isn’t a single dangerous animal in OUR forest," Mr. Edgars answered. He was even chuckling a bit.

“MAX! Be serious! It’s our daughter!” Mrs. Edgars annoyedly replied.

 “Look, Claire. It’ll be fine. The woods are quite safe, and it’s only one night,” Mr. Edgars seriously replied. The walkie talkie came back on. 

“You’ll have to spend the night, sweetie. Don’t worry It’ll be fine...I hope,” Mr. Edgars said, despite being very worried.

“But we’re still really worried. Come back first thing in the morning, understand?” Mrs. Edgars kept going.

“Listen. We’ll go to bed, but we’ll keep the walkie-talkie charging, close, and at full volume in case you have anything to say. Goodnight, dear.” And everything went quiet. Laura was in the woods at night, FOR the night. Alone.

Now, any other child in this situation would have insisted their parents come and get them and bring them back home. But Laura was unusually brave. She could spend the night in the woods as easily as spending it at home. Laura also had common sense (surprisingly UNcommon among most brave people). She didn’t go around watching horror movies just because she was brave, as anyone else who thought they were brave would do. Anyway, Laura knew she had to take drastic action. Mrs. Lansing's words repeated themselves in Laura’s brain:

The first thing you need to do is find or make a shelter. Laura remembered this. She looked around for big sticks. Laura spotted a big pile by an enormous oak. She would build a lean-to. Laura gathered up the sticks and put them leaning against the tree, and then put up some dirt around their ends. After that had been done, Laura sprinkled some leaves on the top, and under the roof. She stood back to admire her creation. 

“Not bad...for one night,” Laura said to herself. What did Mrs. Lansing say next? Next, you must find something to eat and drink if it is time for a meal. That was easy. It was dinnertime, and Laura was hungry. Laura spotted several bushes nearly overgrown with berries. She walked over to her dinner. The berries were delicious. Water. Laura needed that. She dug around in her backpack and found a water bottle. GULP GULP. It was so refreshing! Laura had made her shelter and had her dinner. Now, it was time to go to bed! Laura lay down in her lean-to. Suddenly,...

BOOM! Thunder crashed! CRACK! Lightning streamed across the sky! FWISH! Rain pounded down in sheets to the ground! The wind blew strong! Leaves went everywhere! The wind ripped branches off trees and blew the lean-to away! Laura was whipped through the air at an alarming speed! She strapped her closed backpack to her, as well as all of her things! The wind finally died down a bit and Laura landed in a big pile of leaves. It was actually quite comfortable! Then, something surprising happened. Amidst all of the commotion, everything seemed like a lullaby,...and Laura actually fell asleep!

***

It was early morning. The birds were chirping, and the sun was shining down through the trees. Laura awoke. She was lying on the ground. The pile of leaves that she had landed on had blown away. What was most surprising was that there were four inches of water everywhere! There were also scattered leaves and broken branches lying all around!

“That was some storm last night”, Laura said to herself. She grabbed her backpack and got up. The trail had been washed away! But no worries. From where Laura was standing, she could see her own backyard! 

CRUNCH CRUNCH! SPLASH SPLASH! Laura ran to her house. Sure enough, she could see Mr. and Mrs. Edgars waiting for her! 

“LAURA!” they both shouted. 

“Sweetie! We were SO worried about you! HOW on EARTH did you manage to live through that storm?” asked Mrs. Edgars. Then, Laura told the whole story. She told about how she had wandered off the trail. She told her parents about her dinner. She told about the severe thunderstorm that sent her to sleep on a leaf pile.

“I think you're coming back causes of a celebration!” exclaimed Mrs. Edgars.

“Of a pancake breakfast!” Mr. Edgars wisely added. The pancakes tasted delicious!

***

Later that day, Laura had a playdate with Cassie. Laura told Cassie the WHOLE story. 

“Also, I’m sorry I rejected your advice. I really needed to know some survival skills.” 

“Maybe you should listen more," said Cassie with a smile. Laura thought, Maybe I SHOULD listen more.

The End