There was nothing fun to do around the house and Doug was all alone. His friends weren't scheduled to come over for another hour and he wanted something exciting to do. It was a really nice day outside and Doug wished his friends would hurry up and arrive, but they had to go to summer school and wouldn't be out until noon. No one in Doug's family was due home until later in the afternoon and he had permission to go riding with his friends until six that evening. The problem was that Doug wanted to do something right away and he didn't feel like waiting. If only his friends didn't have to go to summer school.
Although Doug was only eleven, he was allowed to go out riding in the desert with his friends as long as there were at least three of them riding together. His parents thought it was too dangerous for him to ride alone out in the desert. There were a lot of things that could happen in the desert. Tires could go flat. Accidents could happen. There were a lot of things that could go wrong. Doug knew that his parent's rule about not riding alone was a reasonable rule. In fact, he knew that the rule was just good common sense, but he was so desperate for something to do that he decided to disregard the rule and just go out for a quick ride. His quad was sitting in the backyard, ready for him to ride it and he just couldn't resist.
"Besides, how could anyone find out?" said Doug out loud as he grabbed his helmet and key.
Doug's plan was to just ride out to a local mine and back. The mine was about seven and a half miles outside of town and he figured he could ride there and back in less than thirty minutes, if he rode really fast and didn't stop to catch lizards or do anything else to waste time. That would give him enough time to grab something to eat and drink after he got back from his ride and before his friends showed up. Also he had to remember to clean off the kitchen table which was cluttered with dishes, empty envelopes, and a couple spills including some applesauce which was drying into brownish little clumps. There were also some potato peels leftover from the preparation of the potato salad his mom had made before leaving that morning. Doug figured he'd get all that when he returned from his quick trip to the mine.
So, Doug went out into the backyard and started up his quad. The smell of gas and exhaust filled the air. Doug put on his helmet, snapped on the chin strap, and pulled on his gloves. He let the quad warm up for about a minute and then he took off. He rode slowly down a couple streets and then he was out into the desert. He quickly shifted gears and was riding along dirt roads at over fifty miles an hour in no time. He only slowed down once to cross the highway, but since no cars were coming he had to decrease his speed only slightly. Although Doug was a little on the small side for his age, he was really good at sports and he could handle his quad as well as a lot of kids who were quite a bit larger than him. Doug didn't try to do any tricks as he rode out to the mine, but he did get a little air several times as he sped on up to the mine. He left a lot of dust hanging in the air as he roared past cactus, lizards, rocks, and shrubs. He even thought he saw a tortoise for a second, but he didn't slow down to find out for sure.
The road Doug was riding on ended with a loop just past a mine entrance. A lot of sand and gravel flew into the air as he leaned into the turn and skidded around the loop and began the trip back to town. Before he was more than forty feet out of the loop, though, the engine suddenly died. Doug allowed his quad to coast to a stop and then he inspected it to see what the trouble was. He discovered that the gas tank was empty. This surprised him since he was quite sure that there should have been plenty of gas.
"I checked it last night and I know there was plenty of gas!" he said as he screwed the gas cap back on. Suddenly he remembered that his dad had gone out on a ride on his quad, but Doug had no idea that his dad could have gone far enough to use up that much gas. Doug picked up a rock and threw it at a boulder and said, "Why didn't he put more gas in it?" He knew he couldn't be too mad at his dad since his dad had purchased the quad for him in the first place, but, on the otherhand, his dad always said things like "If you make a mess, clean the mess," or "If you finish a roll, get a new one." Doug figured that in order to be consistent his dad should have replaced the gas, since he used the gas! At the same time, Doug realized that he should have checked the gas tank before riding off into the desert. There was a big tank of gas in the garage and it would have only taken him a couple minutes to put some gas in his quad.
Doug kicked a rock really hard as he realized that he was in a pretty bad situation. He had no gas. He had no water. He had no food. To make matters worse, it was a long ways back to town and it was already a really hot day and it would only get hotter for a few more hours. He sat down and thought about what to do.
"No matter what, I ain't walking all the way back to town!" he said out loud as he looked around at the walls of the canyon he was in. He followed one of the walls up to the top of a hill and an idea popped into his head. "What if I take a mirror up there and signal someone in town to come and get me?" He dug a small reflective metal square out of his emergency tool kit and began to climb up the hill. The way was steep and rocky. He slipped and fell a couple of times. One time he scratched up the palm of his hand fairly severely and another time he fell on his side and banged his hip pretty hard. As he climbed he noticed a few dried up flowers and some insects crawling on them. It crossed his mind that the insects might be attracted to the seeds in the dried up seed pods which drooped toward the rocky ground. When Doug made it up to the top of the hill he saw a hawk flying above him. At first he thought it might be a vulture and this caused him to imagine a ring of vultures flying over a carcus of an animal or something. Then it occurred to him, that a person could easily die in the desert and that the vultures wouldn't care if the carcus was that of a human or not. They'd eat just about anything, including him!
"I'm not going to die," he said trying to reassure himself that everything was alright.
Doug looked out toward town and he aimed the signal mirror at it. He did this for about fifteen minutes before he took a break. He studied the dirt roads leading to the mine. He was hoping to see dust trails behind vehicles speeding to his rescue, but instead all he saw was empty desert between himself and the town. Doug spent another half hour on top of the hill, shining his signal mirror toward town from time to time, before climbing back down to the ravine in which his quad was parked just below the entrance to the mine.
"It's too hot to walk all the way back to town," said Doug as his foot touched the gravelly bottom of the ravine. He realized that he was extremely thirsty and then looked around for the coolest place to wait for help. He saw the entrance to the mine and he walked over to it. He inspected the opening carefully and then crawled cautiously into the tunnel. He found that it was a lot cooler inside the mine. He walked about thirty feet further into the mine and found that it was even cooler. He sat down and rested against the side of the tunnel. He fell asleep after a few minutes. He had no idea how long he'd slept for when he woke up later that afternoon. He vaguely recalled a dream about birds chasing him and pecking at his head and back. This made him think of vultures again. He looked around at the dark walls of the tunnel and decided to get up to go take a look outside.
About ten feet before the tunnel opening he heard something rattling and saw that a rattlesnake, all coiled up, blocked the way outside. He froze for a moment and then backed up slowly. He looked behind him to make sure there weren't any other snakes that he might not have noticed when he passed by. The rattlesnake stayed coiled and Doug looked around for a stick or something he might be able to use to push it out of the way. He didn't find anything and so he decided to toss pebbles at the snake to encourage it to get out of his way.
"Hey stupid, you're in the way!" said Doug as he tossed a tiny rock at the snake.
The rock hit the snake and it reacted by rattling more furiously.
Doug threw another small rock and said, "Get moving you stupid serpant!"
The rock bounced right in front of the snake and the snake uncoiled slightly and appeared to look around for an escape route.
Doug tossed another stone toward the snake. This time he said, "Yeah, that's right, you'd better get out of here or else I'll start throwing big rocks at you!"
The snake was now completely uncoiled. It glided out of the tunnel and Doug followed a safe distance behind it and threw a couple more small stones at it to keep it moving. Once one of the stones actually hit the snake and it looked, for a moment, like it was going to recoil, but instead, after a brief pause, it continued slithering away even faster.
Seeing that his way was clear, Doug exited the mine tunnel and walked out into the hot desert canyon. By this time Doug's quad was shaded by the steep sides of the ravine and so he went over to his quad and sat on it. He pretended to drive the quad and then it occurred to him that he might be able to push the quad all the way back to town.
"It is mostly downhill," he said to himself.
The only problem was that although it was mostly downhill all the way back to town, it wasn't very steep. Also there were little uphill sections of the road along the way. Nevertheless, Doug tried pushing the quad. He figured that he wouldn't know if he could do it unless he tried. Doug released the breaks and made sure the quad was in neutral. He pushed the quad and got it to roll forward. He kept pushing with all the strength his seventy-five pound body could muster and was able to move the quad down the dirt road about two hundred yards before he got to a slight uphill portion of the road. He pushed as hard as he could, but there was no way that he could force the quad up the incline. It was just too heavy!
Doug kicked a tire and said, "Looks like I'm walking!" He left his quad and his helmet and started walking. He took off his shirt and carried it since it was so hot.
While in the canyon Doug could not see the town. He walked nearly a mile before he made it out of the canyon and then he saw the town laying over six miles beyond the mouth of the canyon. The sun was fairly low in the sky and he knew that it would be six o'clock soon and that he'd never make it home by the time that his parents had told him to be home. As he walked he tried to think of what he'd tell his parents. It was true that the quad had broken down, but would he tell them that he had went out by himself?
"Honesty is the best policy," he said to himself, but then a moment later the saying, "What they don't know, won't hurt them," popped into his head.
Doug found himself having a little argument with himself inside his head as he continued walking toward town. On the one hand, he thought, he should be completely honest with his parents and tell them everything. On the other hand, if he didn't tell them that he went out riding by himself, he wouldn't be punished. Both sides of the debate had compelling points and Doug couldn't make up his mind what he should do. There was one thing that he was certain of, though, and that was that he had to make it home before he could do anything one way or the other.
Doug walked on for well over an hour and he was less than a mile from town before he heard the sound of approaching off-road vehicles. He looked up and saw dust in the air first and then he saw two quads and one three-wheeler. They rode right straight for him. He waved his arms to make sure they didn't miss him. Doug was extremely happy when he recognized that the people riding toward him were his friends.
"Did you guys see the flashes?" asked Doug pointing toward the hill where he had used the mirror to send signals to town.
Doug's friends looked at him with puzzled looks on their faces and then his friend, James recalled seeing flashes. "Was that you?" asked James.
Doug acknowledged that he was the one who had made the flashing signals.
"Where's your quad?" asked a second friend, Patrick.
"I ran out of gas up by the mine," said Doug pointing up the dirt road.
"We were wondering where you were," said the third friend, whose name was Sawyer.
"We've been looking all over the place for you," said Patrick.
"We even rode all the way out to the dunes," said James pointing in the direction of the dunes.
"Do my parents know you're looking for me?" asked Doug.
"I don't think so. No one was home when we went to your house," said Patrick looking at Doug in an almost suspicious manner.
"Well don't let them know," said Doug.
"How come?" asked James.
"Cuz I don't want to get in trouble for riding by myself," said Doug.
"Don't worry, we'll say you were with us," promised Sawyer.
"Can you guys go get me some gas?" asked Doug.
"Does anyone have a hose we can use to siphon with?" asked Sawyer.
There was a pause and then Patrick said, "I do. I have some tubing in my emergency kit."
"That's right, I have one too!" said Doug realizing that he had the same emergency kit as Patrick.
Doug put on his shirt and got on the back of Sawyer's quad and they rode up the road until they got to Doug's quad where both Doug and Patrick got their tubbing out of their emergency kits. They compared the lengths of their tubbing and found that they were exactly the same. Sawyer positioned his quad next to Doug's quad and the boys took turns attempting to siphon gas into Doug's quad. Each boy tried at least three times before Patrick was able to get the gas flowing. It took a couple of minutes before there was ample fuel in Doug's quad, at which time, Doug jumped on his quad and got it started. The engine fired up right away and the boys put their emergency kits away and were riding down the road toward town after just a few seconds.
About a half a mile from town a sheriff officer in a big SUV waved for the boys to stop. She was driving up the dirt road that the boys were riding down.
"I have a report of some sort of distress signal coming from up in the mountains... a flashing or something. Did you boys see anything?" asked the officer.
"No ma'am," said James.
"We went all the way to the end of this road and we didn't see a thing," said Patrick.
"It must have been some aluminum foil or something," said Doug.
"Yeah, a bird probably got ahold of something shiney," said Patrick.
The officer paused and thought a moment about the explanation provided by the boys. "Thanks a lot, boys. That saves me a trip," said the officer. She backed up and turned around to drive back to town.
After she was a few yards away, Sawyer said, "A bird?" He smiled as if this idea was absurd.
"Well, sometimes birds get ahold of pieces of balloons or wrappers or whatever and they use them to build nests," said Patrick trying to explain himself.
"Anything's possible," said Doug.
"And you didn't hear her complaining," said James.
The boys continued the rest of the way to town. Doug thanked his friends for their help and then rode straight home. They all knew he was late in getting home and so they understood why he was in a hurry. When Doug got home he put the quad in the backyard and as he entered the house he loudly said, "Sorry I'm late, but I ran out of gas. Somebody didn't tell me that it was almost out!"
Doug's dad thought a moment. Before he could say something, Doug's mom said, "It's your responsibility to check the gas before you go and why didn't you clear off the table before you left?"
"I checked the gas last night and I meant to clean the table when I stopped by for a drink or something," explained Doug. Doug realized that he was really hungry at this point. He noticed a delicious smell in the house which really aroused his appetite.
"It's kind of my fault. I forgot to tell Doug that he needed some gas after I used his quad last night," said Doug's dad. Then he added, directing his comment at Doug, "But it's a good habit to check each time right when you're leaving just the same."
"So, how'd you get gas?" asked Doug's mom standing at the end of the hallway. Doug's little sister and brother were sitting on the couch next to their father watching and listening to the exchange between Doug and their parents.
"My friends got some for me," explained Doug.
"Sorry about that son," said Doug's dad as he got out his wallet and handed Doug some money. "Make sure you fill it up tomorrow! I think the tank in the garage needs filling too."
"Sure dad. Thanks," said Doug feeling very relieved that he wasn't in any trouble for what he had done. He could have been grounded or restricted from using the quad or, at least, he could have received a stern lecture, but instead his dad gave him fifteen dollars for gas. "Not a bad deal," thought Doug.