The end of kindergarten was celebrated with a big sleepover. Being all grown up, we of course did not go to bed straight away.
We embarked on an adventure. Our goal was to find a treasure chest somewhere in the forest. Even though it was the beginning of Summer, night fell quickly. And soon our walk went to being well-lit to twilight. None of us were scared, I promise! The adults accompanying us did try everything to scare us, to make the whole experience a bit spooky, we all giggled and were far from serious.
A man carrying a burning torch, that I did not recall seeing before, joined our chaperones. He whispered something that we probably all overheard about there being bears or witches within a cave not so far away.
I don’t remember if we were scared by then, but we surely huddled together a bit closer. The boys started saying that they would trap whatever lived within the cave, but they were just as worried as us girls. Something kept us from believing the story of the stranger.
Night started slowly to fall when we reached a cave, we were meant to go inside. The man with the torch led the way. And I think that we were greeted by a witch, but we didn’t take her seriously, she made too much eye contact with our educators, who did not seem to scared at all. Our experience with Saint Nikolaus being played by the neighbour with the missing finger, had taught us to be sceptical.
After leaving the cave we were surprised by another adult making the sound of a ghost.
We had seen through the adults’ plan, they set everything up so that we would be a bit scared. It didn’t work, not the cave, not the witch, not the ghost, nothing of all that worked.
Suddenly the night around us was pitch black. One of the women accompanying us took out her weak flashlight and looked at her map, “we are lost, I have no idea where we are”. Her voice was calm, but we all sensed her underlining terror. Something was up, now the real witch and not the pretend one would come out of her cave in these fairytale lands to hunt us down. This time the adults were not trying to scare us, they were trying to hide their own fears. It was a scary moment. Was it done on purpose? If it was it was the first time that evening that they had managed to pull their act together.
Rather scared we advanced slowly, trying to find our way. My worst fear was to lose the others, to lose the adults and be on my own in the woods. Maybe I could be saved by dwarfs?
A familiar voice greeted us from the dark. We had arrived at our destination, the treasure chest. Each one of us received a chocolate bar, a little bell, a tiny white stone and a piece of cinnamon. All of these treasures, except for the chocolate bar, still exist in a box somewhere at my parent’s house. Each time I open it I am greeted by a smell of cinnamon and a memory of my childhood.
The word to use for this week’s #BlogBattle was CAVE, this is the memory of an event that happened a little over 20 years.
#BlogBattle is a weekly event hosted by Rachael Ritchey, head over to her blog to read the other posts and vote for your favourites.
© Solveig Werner 2015. All rights reserved.
Solveig Werner 
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