Mosaic, Part 1

Solomon lifted his eyes to a wall covered with his life. He sighed. Photographs of all qualities and colors smothered the wall like a mosaic. Solomon had lived an extraordinary life, a book that wasn't quite finished. Before him was the memories of his friend, Eli, his wife, Mae, and many more people intertwined with his existence. There were the now painful memories of his enigmatic son, and the golden, mystical, and beautiful memories of his perfect childhood. Weaving in, out, in between and through the photos, Solomon's eyes stopped on a picture of him and his best friend having a water fight. In that picture was wrapped a day of intrigue and an apparent defeat.

- - -

"Whew! That was a big one!"
"Did you finally get that tree down, Solomon?"
"Yes. It's the perfect size for the roof support. Did you collect all the leaves and green branches we'll need to disguise it?"

Together Solomon and Eli were constructing the perfect hide out. Since his sister Merry was having a whole bee-hive of girls over for her birthday party tomorrow, the two mischievous boys would need a place to hide from such a loathsome enemy.

Notching, binding, chopping and bending, Solomon and Eli finished their work. Eli even bent some live trees over the deep impression in the ground so the camouflage would stay green and wouldn't wither and die.

Then the hour arrived. The first guest was spotted bumping along the serpentine, lengthy, and dusty drive-way. Solomon was ready; he had collected a bag of snacks, binoculars, two "emergency" whistles, two flashlights, a compass, and hand-crafted wooden swords Solomon and Eli had made a week ago.

"OK. I think I have everything. Wait! We need some sort of long ranged weapon! Ah, yes, the stick shooters. Now where are they?!" Solomon scrambled around the house, glancing out the window at the every approaching doom. He tore the harmless weapons off the shelf and practically fell down the stairs. He yanked the back-door closed as the front-door was merrily opened by his sister.

Solomon slid under the tree and down into the fort, where Eli waited.

"Are they here?" quaeritated Eli.
"Yes. I barely made it out the door!"
"What's our first plan of attack?"
"I've been thinking about that. One of us needs to go and spy out the enemy while the other one stays here with the supplies. I know we both would rather spy instead of staying here, so I brought a nickel to help us decide."

A flipping of the coin proceeded, and then a barrage of requests for "best two out of three" from Solomon followed. Eli denied his friend's requests by slinging the binocular strap over his head, sticking one of the "emergency" whistles in his pocket and arming him self with a home-made stick launcher.

"Don't forget" Solomon reminded, "what ever happens, don't let them see you!"

- - -

Solomon fiddled with a stick in a patch of dust and sand. He wondered if Eli was having any luck at his post.

Eli's post happened to be a thick oak tree in the front yard. He fiddled with a arboreal army of ants. Disappointingly, he hadn't seen hide-nor-hair of Merry or her guests, except for one last family that and entered the front door just after he scrambled into the tree. Eli could hear the grown-ups laughing, chatting, and probably gossiping, but he just couldn't catch sight of the girls.

Solomon stopped drawing his nasty piece of artwork in the dust and froze. His ears were alert. There it was again! That was definitely Gertrude McKline.

"Gertrude. What a revolting name." mumbled Solomon as he crawled to the peep-hole in the fort. "Oh no." Solomon said as the words "they're around here somewhere" reached his ears. How had Merry and her friends discovered his plans? Answers would have to wait, it was time to move. Quickly, he gathered the back pack, crammed their supplies into it and bolted for a thicket of closely knit pine trees. From there he darted up a scrumptiously perfect climbing tree as his sister and a band of girls marched towards the fort. "I hope they don't find it! And if they, do, I hope they don't destroy it!"

- - -

"Solomon, what are you doing?! Be quiet!!" Eli whispered from his perch. Panting hard, Solomon explained the predicament. "Well then, we'll just have to surprise them right back..." Eli concluded while a mischievous grin spread across his face.

- - -

"To bad those outlaws weren't hidden in the Magic Forest, your Royal Highness." Anne Matthews performed an outrageously exaggerated bow after finishing her lament. Merry had elected herself queen of Lillia,  a magical country consisting of herself, Gertrude, Anne, Deborah, Abigale and Silvia. After all, it was her birthday, so she should get to be the queen today.

"I know. Perhaps we will find them another day and rid Lillia of such a pest." the Queen declared. All their sentences had to be well planned, spoken with a British accent, and stuffed with lurches in the tone of voice.

Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Lillia, they would find their "outlaws" sooner than they wanted. Solomon and Eli uncovered themselves from their arboreal hide out, followed by a armada of water balloons, emptied buckets of water, and squirt-guns galore. Squeals of terror reigned supreme over all other noise in the front yard. While the two boys dashed for cover of the trees, the parents emerged like angered bears from the house. 

"That was amazing!" congratulations came after a large amount of panting and grinning. "We did 'surprise them right back.'"

"It's really hot today, I wish...." Solomon was cut-off by a water balloon traveling at an alarming speed towards his head. 

- - -

The story seemed to freeze in place on the wall, perpetually incarnated as a black and white picture of Eli and Solomon having a water-duel. Gradually, a smile crept across Solomon's cracked and wrinkled face. And then he chuckled.