Boris, Natasha, Liz and Jake are walking along the creek, enjoying the great outdoors on the Christie campus grounds. Although there are still leaves on the trees, more are on the ground.
Jake says, “I can’t believe how warm it is still.”
“So where is this surprise?” asks Boris.
Natasha lightly punches his shoulder, “Stop buggin’ her, Bo. We’ll see it when we get there.”
Liz knows there is no way any of them will capture any wildlife in their photographs today. Jake isn’t bad but Boris and Natasha are simply too loud. City slickers.
Every critter for miles is holed up somewhere else, hiding until these large noisy intruders go away.
Still, Liz can’t help but grin. She’s actually having fun here.
She can’t wait to show them. Her friends. People she has stuff in common with.
Now that was something worth coming to Christie for. Imagine, people as interested in photography as she is. Heck, Jake is way ahead of her. For such a young guy he knows so much. And he’s on top of all the digital stuff, too.
Boris and Natasha run ahead, throwing leaves at each other. Liz starts snapping shots of the leaf fight. Hah.
Liz doesn’t notice Jake backing up behind her, taking pictures of her taking pictures. But when she does she whirls around to catch him dead on, camera obscuring much of his face but none of his intensity.
Natasha runs on ahead again, leaving Boris far behind. As she crests the hill she stops, and Liz knows she’s seen it. Snapping on her lens cap, she tells Jake, “Come on!”
Liz turns and runs up the slope after Natasha, her long legs easily outdistancing Jake and passing Boris. Jake jogs over to Boris then drops into a walk beside him.
“Aren’t you curious?” Jake asks, since Boris hasn’t increased his walking speed at all.
“I expect whatever it is will still be there when we arrive.”
Jake nods, and they continue up the sloping path. As they reach the top, they can see the hill follows the creek down the slope to a little valley. Beside the meandering creek at the bottom they can see Natasha under a huge old oak tree. She is pushing on on an enormous tire swing suspended on a thick chain from one of the massive branches. A humongous tire.
The tire twists as it swings and they see Liz spreadeagled inside, arms and legs outstretched to hold on to the inner lip.
Boris grins and snaps off some shots as they start down the hill. “Good surprise. Think it’s a tractor tire?”
“Monster truck maybe.” And Jake realizes that even Boris will probably fit in that thing.
Cool.
