Mark T. - "I Learned a Handy Trick"

In a couple of minutes we came to the creek I had heard earlier, which we followed, ending up at a small clearing. “This is the spot,” he said, dropping his bags,” Let’s wash up and then I’ll prepare some dinner,”

When we got back to our camp Simeon told my mom to go get firewood, and asked me if I wanted to help him cook. I said yes, guessing if I didn’t cook I would have to go with me mom into the darkness of the forest.

“What are we going to eat?” I asked, looking around camp and seeing only Simeon’s small bag, which would not hold enough for one full meal.

“Oh, I don’t know what do you want?” he said, moving his hand as if opening a lock, and pulling out of thin air the bag my mom packed before we left “There is quite a variety.”

I stood there awestruck, “How… how did you do that?” I stammered.

“It’s an old Egyptian trick, I find it quite handy. Here let me show you,” he said, explaining to me how to draw things out of the Duat.

After fifteen minutes of explaining and several tries, I finally managed the trick. By that time mom was back and Simeon had a fire going.

Simeon scavenged two cans of Cambell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, a can opener, and some bread and threw them to me, tossing the bag back into the Duat. He opened the soup and poured it into a pot, which he set among the searing flames of the fire.A couple of minutes later, the soup was ready.

Throughout dinner, hungry yellow eyes stared at me from the black darkness of the forest, making me nervous. I didn’t eat much, and the food I managed to eat was tasteless.

Soon it was bedtime, Simeon reached into the air and pulled out three sleeping bags, handing one to each of us. I unrolled mine and got in.

As I lay there under the stars, I thought about my day. So much had happened : I had a Hydra and a Cyclops try to kill me, a stranger with a pterodactyl had taken us on a ride, and now I was in a land I never even knew existed with my mom and a guy I met a couple of hours ago. Can’t wait for tomorrow I thought, letting sleep take over. Turns out I could have waited for tomorrow. In fact, I really wish I had slept through the whole day.