Falling on Bears

The incident that I am about to relate to you is as bizarre as the cracks-in-the-ceiling incident, and happened before that traumatic terror. This incident inspired in me a fear of the ground. It all started when I signed onto a rough-it summer program for teenagers with emotional difficulties.
I was bored and looking for something to do during my vacation. Scrolling through various options posted on the Web which were keyed to pop up in response to my search for something to do locally, I spotted an eye-catching set of before and after pictures. The before picture showed a kid who had smushed his face into the lens with the caption underneath, “Feeling the need to be important and aggressive?” The next picture was of the same guy walking along calmly and confidently with the caption underneath, “Then try The Roads of the Wild program, to find out until where your abilities stretch, and to get your self esteem from wherever it went.” I went through the asking-the-parents procedure, and then I called the number below the advertisement.
That is how I found myself signed up to a rough-it program for a week as a trial run, and not because of any mental problems. I chose it because it was local and cheap, and I wanted to gain some outdoors experience. Unfortunately, I forgot that others would be coming as well, who did have some problems. The program after all, was meant to attract those of aggressive ilk’s desperate parents to sign up their kids for “improvement”.
I was the only one who had volunteered, and the only self-possessed kid there. The other two guys were growling, jumping up and down, and generally behaving like aggressive morons. Fortunately, they didn’t have enough self confidence start a fight. Unfortunately, their disposition caused the disaster of which I shall relate.
On the first day of the program, we camped out on Mt. Washington. Our supervisor, a burly guy around fifty years old had gone to collect some fungus to show us which fungus was edible and which was poisonous. He’d been gone barely fifteen minutes when he came running back, quite upset, babbling something about bears. This was a great mistake, for my group immediately jumped up and ran off in the direction he had come back in, possibly to prove that they weren’t scared of bears. I followed behind at a cautious distance; curious to see if they would be eaten. I believe the supervisor ran off, probably because he realized that he had caused a major disaster. I should have done the same.
After around seven minutes of jogging around, we found the bears. They were standing still at the foot of a cliff, so still that we thought that they were statues until it was pointed out that they were blinking. I asked my fellow observers, “Why are they standing so still?” However, they weren’t listening. They appeared to be excited about something, about some insane idea that had popped into their silly heads. Then they did a ridiculous thing, so stupid and brainless that I was left speechless.
The aggressive apes jumped off the cliff, onto the motionless bears. From their point of view, it made complete sense. The bears would provide a soft landing so they wouldn’t be harmed. They obviously didn’t think about what would happen to them afterwards, like being seriously savaged by some incredibly angry bears. I wisely decided not to follow them. It is better to be safe than sorry, after all.
As the falling fools landed on the helpless bears, there was a great SNAP. Wow, I thought, those bears certainly don’t get enough calcium. However, the sound wasn’t of bear’s bones breaking. The sound was of the branches covering the bear trap breaking. Apparently, bears are smarter than you might think. The unfortunates below were not moving, for they had noticed that they were standing over a deep hole and did not want to fall in. The branches over the hole were strong enough to hold their weight, but not their weight and the force of the idiots landing. It was not a pretty sight, due mostly to the sharp stakes at the bottom of the pit. I threw up, an understandable action in these circumstances and with that scene below.
I have revealed my reason for being afraid of the ground. These days I always check the ground or floor that I walk on or am about to jump on. I check to make sure I won’t go splat, and to ensure that there are no hidden traps with sharp stakes at the bottom. Bears don’t scare me though - not any more than they used to any way. After all, they had the right idea, at least up to the point when they would be blown away. I leave you with the message to be careful, especially in such unusual circumstances like those in which I found myself.