From the Begining day 1

 This is day one of telling the story of my life.


It all started when I was turning nine and my mother decided that she was no longer happy with her customary life and routines. No... it did not start then. She was never happy; If there was not chaos in our house she would make it. It was hard living with her. It was even harder for my dad because he never wanted to leave us; he just wanted us to be a happy family. I think we were a happy family when our mom and dad were not fighting all of the time, which was rare. All my siblings and I used to sleep outside if the fighting get really loud or my mom started throwing things. That was another thing she did, she would get angry and throw our stuff all over the place.  When she got into one of "her moods" we knew to hide our stuff if we still wanted it when she was calm. She also never liked to stay in one house for a long period of time. We were constantly moving around from one rental house to the next. Right when we would get comfortable, we would be moving again. It was easy for her to move because we did not go to school. After a while it just became routine; we would all be sitting around and mom and dad would get into a big fight and then we were moving again. That is just how our life worked. We were just playing along with our mom's insanity.

“BITCH”

            I can distinctively remember the day when it. It was a nice sunny day in mid August. I was sitting in the backyard in the green grass with my feet draped over a pile of rocks. Watching as water slipped over my feet sending chills down my spine. It was really a nice peaceful evening at our house, which was kind of strange. Considering there was always eight kids instigating with one another. I was simply enjoying the silence when it all began.

            It only took one word to turn this peaceful day into a catastrophe. “BITCH” that was the word that started it all. When I heard Marcus (Mom’s boyfriend) scream this word it echoed in my ears, and I thought do I really need to get up? I have heard him call her that a million times. But then I heard my seventeen-year-old brother Jake in an angry voice scream, “nobody talks to my mother that way”. I knew right than that my peaceful day was over. So I got up and started running toward Marcus and Jake.

            When I rounded the last corner almost tripping over myself I could see out of the corner of my eye Marcus and Jake standing face to face with their eyes locked on each other. As I got closer to them the tension became agonizing. It felt like at any moment they were going to rip each other guts out. When I looked into jakes eyes, trying to plead with him not to do what he was going to do, I did not see the eyes of my fun loving brother anymore I saw the eyes of a killer. A moment later Marcus started taunting Jake with the words, “BITCH, BITCH, BITCH. What are you going to do about it PUNK!” With each word Marcuse’s saliva slipped off his tongue and onto jakes face. As Jake went to wipe the saliva from his face Marcus quickly shoved him to the ground. When Jake’s body slid across the asphalt and it sounded like someone had taken a knife and was repeatedly running it against a piece old rusted metal.

            Marcus walked over to Jake’s body, which had flown ten feet away from him and said, “Hope you learned a lesson punk!” Looking at Jake, I saw he was clenching his fist and before I could think anything of this he had punched Marcus clean in the face sending him to the ground. Immediately they both got up and started tackling one another. Just watching them fight one another was so heart wrenching, this went on for about five minutes until Marcus had Jake pinned to the ground with his hands around his neck. Marcus said, “Apologize punk”. Jake said, “NO” he was always such a proud boy. I knew he would not apologize even if his life depended on it. As a result Marcus squeezed his neck harder. When Jake’s faced started turning blue it finally dawned on Mom and I that we needed to do something. We frantically looked for objects in which we could hit Marcus with. However, I was unsuccessful and had to beat home with my fist, while mom found a fire poker and started pounding at his ribs. Each time mom hit Marcus with the poker it sounded like someone had broken a stick clean in half, but Marcus would not budge one bit.

            When I looked into jakes eyes again, I did not see the eyes of a killer anymore I saw a loving brother pleading with his sister to save him. I tried to be strong but I could not because Marcus was not letting go of his neck and I thought I was going to lose my older brother at the hands on my mothers’ boyfriend. In that moment mom hit Marcus over the head so hard with the metal poker that the sound of the poker hitting his skull echoed so loudly that it impaired my hearing for a few moments. Marcus got up looking like he was about to punch mom in the face, but instead he spat on her and went over to the bus. After I was sure that Marcus was not going to attack our mother. I looked over at Jake who was coughing uncontrollably unable to get up. Yet, somehow he was able to dial 911 and tell the operator what had happened with perfect clarity.

Still not done yet...

You Kicked My Dog

You Kicked My Dog

            “YOU KICKED MY DOG!” Those were the last words I heard before a woman weighing 350 pounds ripped open the driver’s side door of our bus. When the door was fully opened I was able to get a glimpse of the woman’s face. Her eyes were blood shot; I could see puddles of sweat pouring off of her face; when she spoke she slurred her words. Before I could have another thought the woman started pounding my mom’s face in. I will never forget the sound my mother’s flesh made when the woman’s fist hit it. It sounded like someone was beating a hammer into raw meat over and over again. The next moment my mom stomped on gas-pedal, sending the bus flying forward and the passengers flying backward.

We were thousands of feet away from the woman, but before we could feel relived I heard the words, ”We are going to kill you all just wait!” When I looked out the window I saw fifteen people surrounding our bus. The sight of these people made my stomach turn. When I took my head away from the bus window I could see a puddle of sweat where my head once was. As I watched my sweat trickle down the glass window, I was able to grasp in that moment how serious the situation had become. A split second later I was startled by the venomous voices from outside screaming, “We are going to kill you all! We are going to light your bus on fire with you all inside! We are going to kill your mother, and after that we are going to tie you all to trees and starve you to death!” Every word made me feel closer to death. Before anyone could shout anything else a huge brick came flying through the driver side window—breaking the glass, and sending it flying all over the bus.

            “GET DOWN!” Those were the words that sent tears into my eyes. I knew these words meant that my mom was not sure if we would make it out of the woods alive. I reluctantly grabbed my five younger brothers and sisters and took them to the back of the bus. Now, lying on the cold vinyl floor, I could see how scared they were. My five year old sister, Bubblegum, asked me, “Are we going to see Daddy again?” When she asked me that question I knew that she did not think we were going to live through this. I looked around and saw all of my siblings lying on the floor crying. They had their hands over their heads in case someone broke another window. I felt like I was in a war zone. I thought to myself, “What if this is it? What if we are really going to die here?” I felt so bad for all of my siblings. They were so young, so innocent! How could anyone want to kill them? Suddenly I thought you have to be strong Savannah. At that moment I realized I had to get up. I had to make sure my mom was okay.

             Now trying to get up I realized that my younger siblings had me firmly anchored to the floor of the bus with their grips motivated by fear. They pleaded with me, telling not to go. I told them that I would be okay, and that nothing was going to happen to me. Nevertheless, they could hear the uncertainty in my voice. I told them that if something happened and I did not come back to run toward the woods. I told them not to turn back, no matter what they heard.

            As I approached the front of the bus I could hear my mother screaming, “I’M CALLING THE COPS! You better get the fuck out of here!” Now that I was right next to her, I could see her face clearly. The sight of it made me sick. It looked like someone had beaten it in with a large board embedded with nails. Finally taking my gaze away from my mother’s face, I looked out the window and saw the mob. They were staring right at me. When I looked into their eyes all I could see were the eyes of a bloodthirsty animal. They had become so filled with rage that they had forgotten we were just a bunch of kids. A moment later the mob began to retreat.

            Still on the phone with the cops, my mom started the bus. She told us to stay the ground and said, “Hold on, we are getting the fuck out of here”. I could not see the speedometer, but I could tell we were going pretty fast because the bus was shaking uncontrollably. Behind us, there was a storm of dust from our rapidly spinning tires. Now only seventy feet away from Front Gate, I could see the woman standing in the road. When my mom saw the woman she sped up, which sent the gargantuan lady flying out of the way. As we passed Front Gate rocks the size of golf balls came flying at our windshield. Luckily we made it through the insanity with a windshield still intact.

            Once we were a couple of miles away from the gathering and the bus had stopped, everyone sat there—stunned—staring at each other. It felt as if none of us could believe that we were still living. Out of nowhere we all began hugging each other. We were still crying, but they were no longer tears of fear. We cried tears of joy; we had made it through that insane situation alive. While we waited for the police we could not help but look down the long dusty road in fear that the mob of people might be right behind us.

A few minutes later there were nearly fifty cops standing outside of our bus. They asked my mom to describe the people who attacked us; however, she told them that she did not want to press charges. In that instant my whole body turned a deep red, and I had to clench my fists to keep myself from punching her in the face. I knew that this meant those people were getting away with attempted murder! Even after this horrifying event, our mother continued taking us to these Gatherings. That was not the first—or last—time insane people attacked us. My younger siblings still tell this story, and it always brings tears to their eyes. I can tell how traumatizing this event was for them.

At the end, fifteen people got away with seven cases of attempted murder. After this event, I decided to stop attending Rainbow Gatherings, with my mother. I would love to say that I have stopped attending Gatherings all together, But I cannot. Because somewhere in my crazy mind I think I will be able to seek justice for my family if I continue to attend these gatherings.

The children that continue to travel with my mother continue to get attacked by the Rainbow Family. However, the Gatherings are not all bad. We have learned a great many lessons from these events. I for one have learned how to lead people in the right direction in a battle, how to protect my family, and what is really important to me in life. At the end, I love the person that these events have shaped me into, and I would not have it any other way.

The True Face Of Rainbow Gatherings

Rainbow

            A rainbow gathering is a place where many different people gather to pray for peace (or so they say). They set up free food kitchens and camps where the hippies can get free food. There is front gate, which is the welcoming comity. There is a camp where the alcoholics stay and get so drunk that they start beating the crap out of one another (you don’t ever want to be there at night).

The woods

There are two different parts of the woods: the dirty kid half and the yuppie half. T he yuppies hate the dirty kids and try to kick them out of the woods at any chance they get. Everyone is supposed to be really peaceful, but not many are. If you knock over a rock tower or say a curse word you will have a whole group of people around you trying to hurt you. That is their idea of peaceful.

Gatherings

There are two different kinds of gatherings: regionals and nationals. Regionals happen all year round, and nationals are only once a year. The gatherings are always held in a national forest, but it doesn’t matter which national forest.

The Dirty Kids.

Dirty kids are the kids who live on the road all year long and don’t work. They live off of everyone else and they spange.  Spanging is sitting on the side of a road and holding up a sign. They write things on the sign to try to make people who are driving by feel bad and give them money. They get food by using food stamps, going to the food bank, or going dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is when you go to the back of a store and see what they have thrown away. You would be surprised at what stores throw away. For fuel they gas or diesel jug. Gas and diesel jugging is when you go up to someone pumping gas or diesel and ask them if they can spare a few gallons. They are the ones who set up all of the regional gatherings, and they are usually the only ones who go to them.

Holding Camp

Holding camp is where the people who are going to the gathering wait for it to begin. People sometimes wait for over two months at these camps.

Nationals

            There is only one national gathering a year. There are usually over ten thousand people at these gatherings. Nationals are what we dirty kids call the yuppie gatherings, because no one likes the dirty kids there. The yuppies always try their best to find a way to kick us out of the woods.

             

Regionals

            There is always a regional gathering going on somewhere. You can go from one regional to the next all year—they are never ending. There are even regional gatherings going on when national are taking place.

The Yuppies

Yuppies are the people who have jobs and only go to nationals. They believe that they are all knowing and powerful because they have been to so many gatherings. They have council about every little thing, such as people cursing or someone bringing alcohol into the woods.

Council

Council is where the yuppies talk about all the problems they are having in the woods. Usually they talk about how the dirty kids are disrupting the gathering, and how they should just kick them out of the woods. They also talk about how death camp terrorizes people. The yuppies blame anything out of the ordinary that ever happens on them, such as things getting stolen, people getting a cut on their foot (they say that death camp sharpened sticks and put them in the ground), a tent gets slashed, etc.

                                                 

My Family and Friends

My darling mother—she is the one who brings us to these gatherings

Me—15, I am the controlling one and the leader

Forest—13, he is the obnoxious and a troublemaker

Katsura—11, he is the crazy one and a troublemaker

Ozawa—9, he is the sweet heart and a troublemaker

Annaleise—6, she is the tomboy

Bubblegum—4, she is the cutie pie and a little devil at times.

Harlan—he used to be my boyfriend

Kramer—we usually call him daddy Kramer because he was so good to us and always took care of us.

We were almost to the Wyoming holding camp. All of the kids had fallen asleep, and only mom, Marcus (mom’s boyfriend), and I were awake. The whole bus was filling with dust, and it was making us very congested. We had to cover our mouths so we could breathe. The road was really bumpy, so we were bouncing all over the place. Amazingly none of the kids had woken up. We had been on that road for half an hour, and were beginning to think we had made a wrong turn somewhere. Then I saw a rock pile! Rock piles in rainbow mean that you are going in the right direction. I saw a dim light up ahead, and I could smell the aroma of a fire. We found it, yay! Mom parked the bus in the grass on the side of the road. Everyone at holding camp was sleeping so we got in the back of the bus and laid down to go to sleep.

I woke up to the kids walking all over me. Still half asleep, I got out of the bus and was so amazed by how beautiful it was outside. The wind was blowing, the trees were swaying back and forth to the wind, the ground was covered with vibrantly colored wild flowers, and the woods were flourishing with life. I saw a river less than 50 feet away from me, and I ran over to it. It was a huge river, approximately 100 feet to the other side, and the water was so clear I could see right through to the bottom of the it. I saw little fish, algae, and hermit crabs; I pulled up my pants and stepped into the water. It was so cold, but also so relaxing that I stood in it until my feet got numb. I walked back to camp to put some warmer clothes on because it was rather chilly outside. When I was changed I came back outside and saw that none of the kids were washed up. I went back into the bus and got out the propane stove, some propane, and the teapot. I set up the propane stove because I didn’t want to use our spring water to make wash up. There was no spring there yet and if we used all of the water up then we would have to take the half an hour journey back into town. I sent Ozawa to fetch me some water from the river. I turned on the propane stove and the flames were so high I almost burnt myself. I had to turn it down really low because our propane stove was a little broken. I put the teapot on, and I went to wake up the rest of the kids. They were all snuggled up in the blankets on the floor of the bus. It was so cute! How cute the kids were distracted me. Then I heard the teapot whistling! I ran out of the bus, turned off the stove, and dumped the water into the red bucket. I put some cold water into it I and got the soap and tooth brushes out of the bus. I put them on the picnic table and called the kids because it was time to wash up. The kids came out and we all washed up.

Mom made eggs and potatoes for breakfast. After we were done eating some people came over and asked if we needed any help with anything. We told them we were okay. Everyone seemed really nice. There were approximately 20 people there, not including us. We asked mom if we could go exploring, and she said yes. She told us not to go to far we, and said okay. I asked the kids who wanted to go exploring. Forest, Katsura, Ozawa, Annaleise, and Bubblegum all wanted to go. First we went over and looked at people’s camps. We saw that a lot of people just slept in their sleeping bags by the huge fire, while other people had pop up campers, and others had strings attached to different trees. There were tarps laid over the strings, and the people put their stuff under the tarps. There was only one tent set up in the whole campsite! A few others just slept in their buses as we did. There were a myriad of fire pits already at the campsite, along with picnic tables because it was a free campground. This was unusual because holding camp is usually in some small part of the national forest, not at free campgrounds. Some people had dug some new campfires so they could sleep by them. We found a part of the campsite that was right next to the river, and it was the most gorgeous place ever. Enormous, long vines and gigantic green oak trees surrounded it. We felt we were standing in a forest castle. People kept trying to talk to us, but we were very shy so we decided to venture into the woods where we hoped there would be no people.

We found what looked like a little path and started walking on it. It smelled like wild flowers! As we walked we kept getting stuck in pricker bushes, getting cuts all over our legs, and tripping over vines in the pathway that we didn’t see. At the end of the path we came to a dam. To one side of us we could see the road we drove in on the other night, so we knew we would find our way back easily. It was very strange that on one side of the road there was just grass as far as the eye could see, and the other side was covered in green trees and flourishing with life. We walked over to the other side of the dam and saw tons of water gushing over it. It looked like an enormous waterfall and it made the river part. I told the kids to come away from the dam. We came to an opening next to the river, and we decided to sit down. There was a big dirt pile next to us and the boys kept trying to climb it. However, it was too steep and the dirt was so loose that they didn’t make it very far. After watching and laughing at them when they fell, the boys stopped trying to conquer the dirt pile. They decided to collect rocks with us instead. We dug into the dirt and got covered in mud. We picked up big rocks from our holes and found a whole bunch of limestone. We thought it was the most wonderful rock in the world! We put all of our rocks in a pile and sat in a circle in the mud. We sat in mud for a while trading our rocks. We got tired of collecting and trading our rocks, so we went exploring though the woods. It was a breathtaking sight, the oak and pine trees surrounding us. The wild flowers smelled so sweet, and the crisp breeze coming off the river smelled very fresh. We came to an opening near the river. In the middle of the river we saw an island. All of the kids wanted to try and get to it, and even through I told them no they somehow persuaded me to go. We took our shoes off and put them in a pile by a rock next to the river. We went into the water and started walking toward the island. The water was very shallow, and there wasn’t much of a current. It was, however, very murky and gross, and every time I took a step there would be a big brown spot in the water where my foot had been. My feet kept sinking into the muck. I thought it was disgusting, but the kids didn’t seem to mind at all. We made it to the island with no problems other than all of the kids’ pants getting a little wet and muddy The island was a massive beach with a bunch of little rocks covering it instead of sand. There were a few baby trees and some weeds scattered all over the place, and it had bunch of colossal rocks surrounding it. The boys decided to see who could be the biggest man and climb the most rocks, they kept almost falling, and therefore I told them to get down so they wouldn’t kill themselves. They all came down from the rocks. The babies and I were collecting more rocks, and the boys came and collected rocks with us.

The wind started to pick up, and it was almost three o’clock. I told the kids it was time to go back across the murky river. The kids just ran across the river this time. We got back to the beach, put our shoes back on, and grabbed the rocks we had collected. We walked though the woods until we found the main road, and took it back to camp. The kids started running around, and since the dirt was so dry they made a massive dust cloud. We played run away from the cloud of dust, and we were amazed when we saw the bus. We couldn’t figure out how we got back so fast.

We saw that mom was making lunch, and we asked her what we were having. She told us that we were having macaroni and cheese with applesauce. All of the kids were in the bus changing, and I went to join them. After we were done changing mom called us all to the picnic table. She told us she had a surprise for us. She told us that daddy Kramer had just called her. He said he was coming and that he would be there in 20 minutes. We all started jumping with joy! After a bit we all calmed down. We went into the bus and got the dish baskets. We brought them out of the bus, and since there were only four clean plates we all sat at the table after fighting over them. We ended up sharing plates to eat lunch. As we were eating we saw Kramer’s big white bus driving down the dirt road. We jumped up, but mom told to wait until he parked the bus. He parked in some grass in-between two trees next to our bus. We ran up to his bus, and he opened the doors. He got up from the driver seat and gave us all a big gigantic hug. Puppy Face and Remarkable, Kramer’s dogs, came running up and jump all over us. They started kissing us, and than we saw that Harlan was on the bus too. We gave him a lot of hugs as well. The bus was a mess! It smelled like dog poop, there were tools all over the chairs, and there were clothes everywhere. We asked Kramer why his bus was such a mess, and he told us it was because he didn’t have a woman on the bus and men are slobs. We all got off of the bus and went over to the picnic table. Kramer ate what was left over from our. We sat at the picnic table for a while and talked about our adventures.

Kramer saw pole across the river that looked like an electric pole. He called everyone in the camp over, and they agreed with him. He had a crazy idea that we could take an extension cord across the river and plug it in to the electricity if it existed, but first someone had to go across the river to see if it was really electricity. No one volunteered. I finally said that I would do it, because I am always up for a good adventure. First I had to walk back to the bus, climb up the black later to get to the roof rack, and unbungee the totes. I had to unbungee five totes before I got to the one I needed. The floaty tote was wet and it smelled like mould. I threw the tote down off of the roof rack and climbed down the latter. I found the boat that I thought didn’t have any holes in it yet—most of them did and we just never got rid of them. I went into the bus and went into the grey tool drawer. All of the tools in it were rusty. I went though every drawer before I finally found the pump. I went back outside and inflated the boat. I asked Forest for his phone and charger so that if there was electricity I could see if it worked. He said okay and went into the bus. He went to the back of the bus and under the bed, because there is a compartment under the bed where we keep our stuff. He had to take almost every crate out from under the bed before he found his red bag that his phone was in. He got a piggie bag out of food basket, put his phone and the charger in it, and gave it to me. We were ready! We took the boat over to the river. The current was moving really fast at this part of the river, so when I put the boat in the water it started drifting away. I had to hold it to keep it from floating down the river. I told Ozawa to get in the boat and hold the phone so it didn’t get wet. I got in the water and pushed the boat out further. I jumped on the back of the boat with my feet hanging out the back and my chest in the boat. Then I started kicking. We were moving, and the water was much colder now. It was taking all of the air out of me. We were going against the current, so it was really hard to get across. I thought about giving up a couple of times because it was so hard. I was so relieved when I could reach the bottom of the river again. We walked though the grass over to the pole and looked at it, but all we saw was a bunch of wires wrapped around a pole, no outlet. We were so disappointed! We yelled over to them that it was just a pole, and they were disappointed too. I had to rest before I could start heading back across the river. After a few minutes I was ready, so I got back into the freezing water. Ozawa got back onto the boat and we began the journey back. It was a very easy journey back because we were going with the current. When I made it back and pulled the boat onto shore I was so relived to be back on land. I ran to the bus because I was freezing, and I changed my clothes.

            I came out of the bus when I was done changing, and mom asked who was going to do dishes because the water was done. I told her that I had done them the last time. Forest ended up doing them because he had not done dishes in two weeks. While Forest did the dishes I asked if anyone wanted to play a game of dice. Marcus, Harlan, and Ozawa did, so I set up the game and everyone came over. We were in the middle of playing when mom came over to the picnic table and asked me if I knew where Katsura was. I told her I didn’t know, and suggested she check in the bus. Katsura appeared out of nowhere, but before I could tell her that I had found him an angry man came up to us. He asked who threw a rock at his old lady, and Forest jokingly said he did. The man grabbed him by the neck and dumped one of the dishpans. He started shaking him, and was going to hit him, so I jumped on top of the picnic table and leapt onto the man’s back. I wrapped my arm around his neck and tackled him to the ground, making his glasses fly off of his face. Then I screamed at him, and told him to never touch one of my siblings ever again. At this point the man had let go of Forest. I got off of the man, and everyone started yelling and cursing at us. The kids were crying hysterically. People started threatening our lives, and in all the madness I heard Marcus yelling, “Leave them alone! They’re just bunch of kids!” Suddenly a man jumped on his back, putting a knife to his throat, and trying to slit it. I jumped on top of the man to try to get him off of Marcus, not realizing that the man had a knife to Marcus’s throat. After a couple of moments of everyone thinking that Marcus was going to get killed, Marcus managed to get the knife away from his throat. He pinned the man to the ground. People came running over, and pulled Marcus off of the man. They checked to see if the man was all right, but not to see if Marcus was okay. I didn’t understand why they came running over to the man since Marcus was the victim and the man was the perpetrator. At this time Kramer came running over with a big metal object and was waving it around telling the people who were still yelling at us to back off. They were yelling things like “I hope you die”, “I hope that you get in a crash and your family dies!” We yelled back, “go away hippies,” “go kill yourselves,” and we yelled, “You tried to kill our friend!” They screamed, “Your friend deserved to die,” “ you all are a bunch of little brats,” and “your mom has promiscuous sex!” Mom yelled at us to stop, and put us all in the bus.

            I ran to the back of the bus and got my phone. I hopped out the driver’s side window so mom wouldn’t see me. I went to the back of the bus climbed the latter and sat in the totes on top of the bus since that is the only place I can get service in the middle of the woods. I called my dad crying hysterically, and he told me to calm down and to tell him again slowly. I told him what happened again, and he told me to call the police immediately, before someone gets really hurt. Mom saw me on the roof, and yelled at me to get down from there and get in the bus. I told dad I had to go, and I got into the bus. All of the kids were still crying uncontrollably, so I tried to calm them down but I just ended up. crying with them. Some of them were hiding under blankets because they were so scared I managed to get them out from under the blankets, and I told them it would be okay. We were still very angry, so we screamed to get our anger out. There were still people outside threatening our lives and telling us what horrible people we were. Marcus was yelling at the people because the man’s punishment for trying to kill him was to be tied to a tree for five hours. He got his knife taken away, but only temporarily. The man was a white supremacist he hated Marcus because Marcus is black. That is part of the reason he attacked him.

            After everyone calmed down we went back outside, packed everything up, and threw it all in the bus because we just wanted to get the hell out of there. While we did that, a man came over and put some bandages on Marcus’s arm. Some people reassured us that no harm would come to us and that we could stay if we wanted to. We told them that we had other things to do. We got all of the stuff packed, said goodbye to our friends, and left. Once we were driving, we asked Katsura why the man came over asking who threw rocks at his old lady. Katsura said he was throwing rocks and one hit the lady in the leg. He was only throwing pebbles, so I didn’t understand why they got so mad. I asked Forest what happened to the man’s glasses. He told me that he smashed them into little pieces and threw them into the river. In some strange way this made us feel better.

We drove back down the dirt road, and I put on a movie to get the kids’ minds off of what had just happened. We were on our way to the nearest town to take Marcus to the hospital, because during the conflict the man with the knife had cut his arm. We got off of the highway at the first exit that said hospital on the blue sign. We followed the little blue signs and found the hospital. We had to drive around the hospital a couple of times before we found the entrance. We drove Marcus up to urgent care and dropped him off. Mom gave him her cell phone so we could get in contact with him, and so he could call us when he was done.

We went to pizza hut and got some pizza. The lady there was a rainbow, so she gave us three pizzas and four orders of chicken wings for 20 dollars. She was really nice. After three hours we were starting to wonder why Marcus hadn’t called, so mom called him. He told us that he was going to come out because he didn’t want to wait any longer for a doctor to see him. Mom told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen and came out anyway. We gave him the left over pizza and some chicken wings.

            When he was done eating we went to CVS and got various medical supplies for his arm. We got a hotel room for the night so everyone could get a shower, and so that Marcus could get all the dirt off of his arm so his wound wouldn’t get infected. After he was done showering I bandaged up his wound. We all got into bed and tired not to think about the horrible things that had happened to us that day.

There should be a punishment for threatening the lives of innocent children, and attacking them should require a substantial punishment. A grown man or woman should never lay a hand on a young child under any circumstances, and an innocent mans life should never be taken away for defending the lives of innocent children. Especially when they are helpless against 20 other adults surrounding them, yelling at them, and threatening there lives. People should be put in jail for theses kinds of things.