“Shortcut”

12″ x 12″ acrylic painting on canvas panel.

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When I was a little girl there was an acre or so of dense underbrush and trees between our house and the nearest one to the east. Since I liked nothing better than friends to play with and being a little bit too lazy to take the road nearby, I took a shortcut through the woods to spend the day playing with my friends who lived there. On either side of the woods it cleared quickly revealing well-kept lawns.

On the edge of the woods on our side, was a mound…..a large mound….about 6′ long and 2′ wide….overgrown with grass and weeds. I always wondered why Daddy left it there in our otherwise well-kept lawn, so one day I interrupted his work in his studio (he was an artist), and asked him.

He put down his paint brush, looked me straight in the eyes and told me the “truth”. The mound was the grave of the infamous pirate, Peg-Leg Pete and he dare not disturb it and I should be careful to do likewise and  always go around it…..never, ever step on it.

I was convinced. I took his advice.

Late one evening I was running through the shortcut, trying to get home before Mama got really aggravated at how late I’d stayed over at my friends house…and not paying attention.  I ran very close to Peg-Leg’s grave. Suddenly a big form with arms outstretched rose up out of the grave and chased me the rest of the way home.

I don’t remember if my big, teen-aged brother got in trouble for hiding under a pile of leaves on top of Peg-Leg’s grave, or not. I was too traumatized to care. After that I took the road route to play with my friends…..for a while, anyway.

My pirate adventure was only one of my brother’s tricks played on me, my sister, and our friends. But I got my revenge; I got his room when he went off to Texas A & AM.