Sunday, October 16, 2011

Burst of Adrenaline (a guest post by Heather Borden)

As I nervously climbed over the cracking dead log, Dad looked through the binoculars and stared death in the eye. Only twenty feet away was an enormous hippopotamus, staring right at us from the shallow pond. Because hippos kill more people annually than any other African animal, we were certainly frightened. Slowly and timidly, the six of us scrambled over the fallen tree, one by one, to catch a glimpse of those threatening pupils.



Crawling carefully back out of the hippo's view, I suddenly heard splashing water and crashing bushes behind me. Turning around I saw Colin, Dad and Trevor panicking to rush out of there. When realizing what was happening, I dashed through the trees, sprinting for my life! The bunch of us fled in seconds. My heart pounded and my lips spoke prayers that we would come out alive.

Finally, at a safe distance away, we came to a stop. With stunned, pale faces we looked into each other's eyes with astonishment to find that we weren't dead. The hippo hadn't trompled us! In fact, it hadn't even chased us. Instead, it was merely swimming away from us. Beginning to giggle at ourselves, the adrenalin in our bloodstreams faded back to normal.

7 comments:

lisa said...

We had a lovely camping trip last week with Colin and his friends from school, Matt Sturm and Trevor Sherman. Back at home school, Heather and I were working on descriptive paragraphs. Heather's descriptions tell the tale of an adventure on a morning walk during our camping trip.

Thanks, Heath!

Trevor Borden said...

Sounds like a familiar story. Did dad lead the escape?

lisa said...

It DOES have a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? Different group... different animals... similar deal. Oh, dear! In regards to whether or not Dad led the escape, that was a matter of conversation afterwards. No one could quite remember how it all happened but Matt and Trevor were sure Colin overtook them and ran the fastest. It's not like we intentionally being quite that ridiculous. We were trying to get a view of the other hippo when Dad saw the other. Anyway... xo

Kleins said...

Heather, we love it!! Quite exciting time you had. We're wondering, would you have lingered longer if you hadn't heard the boys running?? :)

Anonymous said...

I think Heather should start to write her own book, like Wild Animal stories from East Africa.

Her account was very descriptive for sure. The only wild animals grampa is getting rid of these days is rats in the attic space.

Love, Gramma

Mama Mpira said...

Wonderful writing, Heather!

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Heather. I was right there with you, word-by-word! Especially with the giggling! Aunt Sharon