Glory Days and D&D: page 3
Two weekends later, I was at Colin's house on Orchard Sation Road. Colin lived in the middle a pretty hole in the in the middle of nowhere. It was actually a nice farm with a large pond and stream surrounded by hills and farmland. This little spot was tucked neatly away in a valley that probably looked exactly the same two hundred years ago, minus the telephone poles that brought such modern conveniences like phone and electricity to the house.
Colin's household consisted of his Mother, and his sister Sophie. Sophie was always out with her urban pre-rap hip-hop friends. I have no idea what his Mother was doing, but she was never home either. Perhaps they could only take so much of perfect seperation from modern living before running to the city.
We were playing yet another game of "Pirates!" on his Apple II, when the phone rang. Colin took the call. It was Glenn. He was at home, bored, wanted to know what we were doing. I got up to listen in on the conversation.
"He says his parents left him at home ... told him he can't leave the house till his report is done ... what else is new." Colin cocked his head, looking over his shoulder at me.
As I stood there, I a flash of mischief hit me. I held up my hand, and as he looked at me, puzzled, I yelled "WHAT THE H*LL was THAT!" Threw myself to the floor, and slapped it hard.
Colin looked around and of course said "WHAT?" loudly into the phone.
"Duck!" I yelled, knocking over a chair. Colin caught on, and threw himself to the floor also, letting the receiver drop and rattle about. We both spent a couple of minutes rolling around cursing and making noises that must have sounded like a real scuffle over the phone.
Finally, I gave Colin a 'hold it' signal, raising both hands fingers up, and a raised eyebrow. Then, I scuttled across the floor, picked up the receiver, and breathlessly huffed into the phone "You won't belive it, but we just got attacked by big hairy pig-looking guys."
"Damn, that Karate training sure came in handy" Colin shouted from his prone postion on the floor.
Glenn was prattling on, obviously agitated, and probably only heard half of what I said. "Glenn, Glenn!, GLENN!, shutup. Go to the Phoenix Theater, We'll be there in ten minutes!" and hung up.
It was of course physically impossible to get from Orchard Sation Road to downtown Petaluma in ten minutes, so Colin and I calmly cleaned up the dining area and determined what "D&D Artifacts" we should take with us. Colin picked a necklace with a sunburst motif, and I grabbed some old hunting tipped arrows that had been rusting in a sheath by the side door. A couple of machettes and a recurve fiberglass Ben Pearson bow rounded out the whole package.
Once we were on the road, I examined his necklace. It said "Made in China" on the back. "Oops. How are we going to explain that?" Colin tucked the pendant back in his collar.
"It's OK, I have a plan."
