The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Beware the Knock at the Door

Bart and Prissie's plan for the camp retreat wasn't as clear as their purpose.

They both knew they wanted to create a place where anyone and everyone, no questions asked, could retreat. Folks could come to visit or come to stay. The could come to recharge or find a way to redirect their lives. Youngsters, oldsters, or anyone in between could come. They had no idea who would come or even if anybody would come. Nor why someone would come. Their purpose was to be there as needed, to be a surrogate family or a friend.

When Bart was a young boy he had dreams, too. They didn't quite work out. When he needed someone to talk to real badly, he happened upon a place and met a kind, non-judgemental person who was willing to accept him, "Just as I am," Bart would sing when he reminisced about it. Bart didn't tell his story to anyone other than Prissie. There was no one else in his life to tell it to.

His favorite 'life lesson' he told Prissie, "The second best thing my older friend taught me was to be self-sufficient. The first? Was to depend on God. Contradictory perhaps. But not in my mind. I work like the outcome depends on my efforts, but pray like the outcome is determined by God's blessings. My older friend taught me all the skills I hope we will need to build our camp. But we need God's help to provide us with the materials we will need."

Prissie had a grandma who loved her when her own mother didn't have or wouldn't take the time. When Bart and Prissie were little, families were big by necessity. Farms needed more workers in the fields and homes needed more hands to take care of the homestead

"You build it and when they come I'll make sure they have clothes on their bodies and food in their bellies. As long as God supplies, of course," Prissie added.

"Amen to that!" Bart said clapping his hands together and looking skyward as if he were going to pray.

Bart and Prissie realized from personal experience that a place where someone could experience unconditional love ranks among the greatest.

"Everyone needs a family when they don't have a family," Prissie preached.

Neither, however, were sure if anybody would come, or if they could find them even if hey wanted to come.

Both were hard workers. Even at an age when their friends were content to knit hats and darn socks or whittle whistles and carve out wooden toys for grandkids, Bart and Prissie could swing an axe, push a homemade wheelbarrow up a muddy hill and hunt, catch, clean and cook their own dinner with homegrown vegetables to go with it.

Bart and Prissie both knew which end of a shovel did the most work. They laughed at one another when they found themselves competing to see who could cut the most firewood AND haul it inside.

Bart had learned a lot about building things: houses, fireplaces and the little room out back with a hole under it that everyone needs now and then, especially after a few big meals.

Prissie knew something about building, too: hearty meals, warm clothes, blankets, and gardens.

The two were a perfect match. The only thing lacking was a family of their own. So, they loved each other. And they prepared for who might come to join them: The tired and discouraged digger. The hauler who had been worked to a frazzle, then cheated out of his payment. The gold seeker who didn't just come up short, but also had all of his savings sapped out of him by an unscrupulous partner.

Bart built the house. Prissie build the home. Bart prepared the ground for a garden. Prissie sowed and watered. Bart built the kitchen and made the utensils. Prissie prepared the game she herself had sometimes hunted, killed and cleaned herself.

They had no calendar to go by and they didn't bother to count days. Instead they decided to count seasons. One cold winter. One mild winter. One snowy winter. One wet winter. One frosty winter. One winter so cold, and the snow so deep, they stopped shoveling the snow off their roof to keep it from collapsing and instead dug a tunnel in and out of the house. Going to that place with the crescent moon on the door first, of course.

Six years had gone by and Bart and Prissie had seen no one and heard from no one. Yet, they kept working at their retreat center till there were two places for guests - one for the males and one for the females. Bart was particularly proud of the large dining hall and kitchen he built. It could sit up to 50 people. At one end he carved a cross into the wall. A cross bigger than a man. A cross that had a story behind it if anyone were to ask him he would say. He and Prissie both hoped they would be asked. For now, however, they just hoped someone would come.

After Bart and Prissie celebrated their sixth year working on the camp they each celebrated another milestone. Both were born in December. One on the 15th and the other on the 18th. During the 6th winter, both turned 70 years old. Prissie went first and three days later Bart joined her. Bart loved to tease Prissie for those three days that she was older than he.

"Hah! You're in your 70s old lady and I am still in my 60s," he said with gusto loud enough to melt a few snowflakes off the windows.

This year, however, Prissie didn't laugh and Bart was puzzled as to why.

"What's wrong P?" Bart asked with his goofiest voice.

No reaction.

"Can you tell me what's bothering you?" Bart tried again with all the tenderness his old tired bones could conjure up.

"Well, we've both turned 70. We still have no family. We've been at this for over six winters and we've seen nobody."

When the two of them didn't talk to each other, their next favorite conversation partner was God. Both had many conversations with the God who made the hills, dumped the snow, poured the rain, and caused the flowers to bloom and the creeks to be a never ending source of refreshment.

Then, as if the director had cued them up, both said, "Maybe we should pray about this dream of ours together ... more often."

Again, in unison both spoke, "I agree." They smiled at each other.

As unlikely as it may seem and without prompting one another, a third time, each reached out to hold the other's hands and each closed their eyes and began praying, "Our Father who art in heaven ..."

A very loud, "Knock! Knock! Knock!" startled them, interrupting their prayer.

There was somebody at the door.