THROUGH THE TENT'S DOOR



July brings hot days, especially ~in Washington DC. Today was hotter than most, and everyone stayed indoors (if they could). Daniel was different, so were his friends, they didn't mind the heat one bit, and played outside for hours even if it was noon and one hundred degrees.

They lived in the suburbs right outside of Washington DC, where so much history has been made and continues to be made.

Daniel's house sat on a small hill a few miles from 295, a major highway that runs next to DC.

His backyard was large and had a small patio and was closed in by a five foot fence so his dogs couldn't get out.

"General, I don't think I have a visual on the bunker just yet. Over," Mason, one of Daniel's friends said into his walkie-talkie. They were playing army outside in their spacious backyard.

"Copy that. Just try to get closer, just don't get yourself killed," Daniel replied into his radio.

A small picnic table was turned on it's side to have the effect of a bunker. Two of Daniel's friends, Tommy and Will were hiding behind it with their toy BAR's filled with Nerf bullets.

Daniel watched the situation from his deck, looking down to see how the mission was going so far.

"Status report," Daniel called to Mason through his radio.

"Sir, if I get any closer, I'm toast."

"Very well. Abort." Daniel said.

Tommy and Will heard that clear as day, they were getting upset, mostly because they weren't able to come out and ambush someone.

"This stinks!" Tommy said.

"Yeah, we're getting nowhere with this. We've been sitting here for to long!" Will agreed.

Daniel ran down the stairs from his deck and called the game off.

"Hey guys, you wanna call it quits?" Daniel asked to his soldiers.

"Yeah, Will and I don't get to do anything!" called Tommy from the bunker.

"Alright, well lets talk it over tonight, we'll figure out a way to make it better. Lets say over a...camp out?" Daniel suggested.

"Oh yeah!" called Will. "I can ask my mom, but she has Zumba on Tuesdays, she won't be able to drive me."

"You can walk!" said Tommy. "It doesn't take long to walk from your house to Daniel's."

"Alright."

Daniel thought. He was the so called "leader" and needed to call a time for all of them to come.

"Is seven good for you guys?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright."

"Sounds good!"

"Okay, see you then!" Daniel said and ran up his deck stairs into the house, awaiting a much anticipated night. But tonight something would happen. Something no kid had ever experienced before.



The clock struck nine, and everyone was in the tent. Reading stories about war from one of Daniel's old books he found in the attic stored away in some locked box.

He had found it when he was helping his dad get out the Fourth of July decorations, his dad went back down to put some of the stuff up around the house, and Daniel stayed up there to explore.

What he found was a key hidden away in an old box of his dad's toys when he was a kid. It was kept on a necklace and was as old as the dickens.

He had wondered what it was for and what it belonged to, it was then that he found the box.

It was locked, so he tried using the key to open it. The key worked and the box flew open and the book caught his attention. He skimmed through it and took it down stairs, so his friends could see it at the camp out.

The book was army green on the outside and it's pages on the inside smelled like powder from long ago. It kind of stunk. The book had no picture on the outside just a green hard cover.

"Wow! So you found that in your attic?" Will asked. "Too cool."

"Yeah, it's filled with these great war stories, I mean just look at them!" Daniel exclaimed.

"Yeah Dan, I just think it's too cool for me you know. I'm going to turn in, and go to sleep!" Tommy said.

"Aw, Tommy don't be the down side of the party!" Daniel said.

"Na, I'm tired tonight. 'Night!"

"Well now that our second leader has failed us, I guess we'll all just go to sleep!" Will said.

Everyone got inside their sleeping bags and closed their eyes. Daniel was unhappy about this, but everyone else was tired from a simi-fun filled day.

"But guys!" Daniel said. "What about the book?"

"We'll look at it in the morning!" Tommy said.

"Whatever!" Daniel voiced, he put the book down, and got inside his hot sleeping bag. He turned the last flashlight off and closed his eyes.

The book on the other hand light up, and began moving. The pages flew open and sounds of gunshots came out of it.

Everyone jumped up.

"Do see that thing?" Will asked. "I'm not crazy am I?"

"No, I see it too," Tommy said.

"Good."

The book flew up into the air and hit the ceiling of the tent.

"Wow!" everyone said in amazement.

Then, lights surrounded their tent, noises of gunshots and yelling.

"What in the name of Mike?" Will asked. He walked to the tent door, and unzipped it, then walked out.

Sand was under Will's toes, and a salty wind blew on his back.

"Guys, we're not in DC anymore!"

Everyone slowly walked out of the tent. Lights from gunshots lit up their faces.

"This isn't real. Is it?" asked Will.

"Oh yes, this is real!" Daniel said.

Their tent now sat at the bottom of a beach. It was surrounded by men in military gear running up a long beach and up a tall hill in front of them.

Large planes dropping paratroopers flew just over everyone's head. Men with parachutes fell to the ground like snow on a December morning.

"Lets run!" Tommy said. He grabbed one of four M1 Grands that sat lying on the sand, the rest of the friends grabbed one as well, and ran behind Tommy up the beach, getting closer and closer to the hill.

Their tent was blown away by a grenade thrown by one of the Germans at the top of the hill.

"My tent!" Daniel cried.

"This is war partner, there's no time to worry about a stupid tent!" Tommy yelled. He never took his eyes off of the hill that awaited him and his friends.

Bullets rushed past all of them before hitting the sand and making small holes.

Bodies laid along the beach, the ocean water was dyed with the horrible red color of blood.

"Come on!" cried Mason. "We need to kill some Germans!"

Everyone was just as enthusiastic as Mason was. This was their chance to be heroes, something that might not come again in either of their lifetimes.

Suddenly, after a gun shot rang out from atop the hill, Mason screamed and fell to the ground. He got hit with a bullet in the lower leg.

"I'm hit!" Mason called to his comrades.

Tommy ran where Mason laid, he picked him up and carried him up closer to the hill.

"Hurry! We're almost there!" Will yelled.

An explosion threw sand in their faces, and dirt crowded around their eyes.

Mason was in a lot of pain. Would he survive?

There was no time to sit down and answer these questions, this was a life and death situation.

BOOM!

An explosion blew Will back and threw him on the ground, busting his eardrum.

"I can't hear!" Will tried to scream, but he didn't know if he was really talking. He must have been because Daniel ran over and picked up his fallen friend.

"To the hill!" Daniel yelled and they all ran as fast as they could. It was harder than anything they had ever attempted. Trying to run from nasty Germans in World War Two was the hardest thing a teenager, or a man could even try.

They all got to the bottom of the hill, everyone looked up to see how much longer they would have to run, but there was a blinding light. Something that was so bright it was like staring into the sun...



"Mason! Dude wake up! You okay?" Daniel asked. Sweet morning light shined down into the windows of the tent.

Everyone sat in the tent and looked at Mason laying in his sleeping bag.

Mason's eyes opened. He shot up and looked around. The book was in the same spot they had left it in, and...everyone was looking at him.

"What?" Mason asked.

"Man, you were rolling around and yelling in your sleep. You're okay, right?" Will asked.

"Wow. So it was a dream," Mason said surprised. "But it was all so vivid!"

Mason looked down where he was shot in the leg in his dream, and what he saw amazed him...

There was a scar about the size of a penny right where he was shot with the bullet. This was a scar that was never on Mason's lower leg before.

"That's impossible!" Mason said in amazement.

"What?" everyone asked they all stared at him like he was some weird person with five eyes.

"I had the coolest dream!" Mason said.



So in the end it was a dream, right? But one question still remains, where did Mason's scar come from?