WHERE IS HE NOW?

Is this letter familiar? I was going though my files and found it.

Can't remember who gave it to me years ago.

Interested to know where the son is now and the mental state of the parents.

Dear Mum and Dad,

Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and got worried. We are okay.

Only one of our tents and two sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chris when it happened.

Oh yes, please call Chris’s mother and tell her he’s okay. He can’t write because of the cast.

I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was great. We never would’ve found him in the dark if it hadn’t been for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Wally got mad at Chris for going on a hike without telling anyone. Chris said he did tell him, but it was during the fire, so he probably didn’t hear him.

Did you know that if you put petrol on the fire, the petrol cans will blow up? The wet wood didn’t burn, but one of the tents did. Also, some of our clothes. David is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Wally gets the car fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the smash. The brakes worked okay when we left. Scoutmaster Wally said that with a car that old, you have to expect something to breakdown; that’s probably why he can’t get insurance.

We think it’s a great car. He doesn’t care if we get it dirty, and if it’s hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with ten people in a car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us.

Scoutmaster Wally is a neat guy. Don’t worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Terry how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn’t any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Wally wouldn’t let me because I can’t swim, and Chris was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.

Scoutmaster Wally isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn’t even get mad at us about losing the lifejackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car, so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges.

When Dave dived in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a torniquet works. Wade and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Wally said it was probably just food poisoning from the leftover chicken.

He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.

I’m so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time.

I have to go now. We’re going to town to mail our letters and buy bullets.

Don’t worry about anything. We are fine.

Love,

Peter.