Junior Year Box Set

I took out one of Lou’s turkey calls and made some noise. Someone a few fields away did the same. I heard a ‘pop, pop’ from whoever was hunting to our north. Then I about shot myself when I heard a turkey call right behind me in the woods. My caller sounded like a yelp. The wild turkey behind us made more of a ‘kee-kees’ noise. When Duke heard the birds, he suddenly got interested. I grabbed his collar to make sure he knew to stay. I saw one in a tree, and then it dropped down to the ground, and I lost sight of it. Then seven turkeys slowly moved out of the low brush, not more than twenty feet from us. There were two toms and five hens.

I raised my shotgun. It was then that I saw Frank hadn’t raised his. I looked at him, and he shook his head. I remembered the first time I had shot a pheasant, I’d felt guilty. I lined up on the closest tom and squeezed the trigger.

BOOM … BOOM, BOOM … BOOM, BOOM.

I had taken four turkeys. The other three took flight and flew right at the blind where the three girls were hunkered down. I was impressed when it sounded like a simultaneous shot, and three turkeys cartwheeled out of the sky. One of my turkeys wasn’t dead, and Duke was about to come unglued. He was a retriever and needed to do his job. I let Duke go do what he was bred to do, and he bolted to where the live turkey was. He made sure it was dead and then brought it back to me. It was almost too much for my trusty hound. I had a big smile on my face as he gamely hauled the big bird to our blind. He got a lot of loving for that.

Duke dropped the bird when he was told to, and then I sent him after the other three. Lily had captured the whole event on video. Then I heard more shots. It sounded like every blind was shooting at something. Then I realized that the farmers north of us had pushed the birds to our farm. It would have been easy to take more birds, but four was more than enough.

When the excitement was over, we began our trip back to the farm. Duke rushed over to check my dad and then came back to me. When we got back to the farm, we found we had taken twenty-three birds. Mr. Hass told us we could take them to the local butcher and he would prepare them for us. The butcher would even smoke some of them if we wanted. I was okay to hunt but was a wimp when it came to butchering. I voted for taking them to town. Besides, twenty-three turkeys were more than Uncle John’s smoker would hold.

Zoe strutted up to see what I had. She scowled when she saw I had four. She had taken three, and Brook and Halle had each shot one. The most anyone else had gotten was two. Of course, when they saw the video of the seven turkeys that walked right up to us, my skills as a hunter were discounted. Halle said even she could have taken them if they walked up to her. I had to agree that her shooting hers out of the air was more impressive, but I didn’t tell her that.

When we were done, I told everyone I needed a nap. Duke wouldn’t go back to my uncle’s farm, so I let him join me. He was a good nap-taker.

◊◊◊

Brook came and woke me when it was time for our adventure. I took a shower and came downstairs. Duke had abandoned me to hang out with Zoe. She seemed to have an affinity for anything with fur, and they hit it off. She seemed to instinctively know all his secret places that needed to be scratched or rubbed. I could tell if I left him in her care for very long, I would be replaced.

I grabbed some leftover ham and biscuits for a quick lunch, and then we took the Charger to the airfield. I didn’t think it should really be called an airport, because it didn’t have a terminal or public flights. When we pulled up, it was apparent that Range Sports had taken over. There seemed to be three very distinct groups. Lou was with his engineers. They were all huddled around the wingboard, checking it out. I wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or not. Were they worried it might break like the jet water board had? That little accident about killed me!

The photographers and videographers made up a second group. I saw them attaching cameras to the airplane, helicopter, and chase car. It looked like they planned to film this from several different angles.

Then there was everyone else, which included my family. My mom had Don Maier, Range Sports’ jump specialist, cornered. Devin had apparently made a hasty retreat. I figured I had better go save Don before he experienced my mom’s wrath. She saw me and the expression on her face said she wasn’t happy.

“They want us to sign a document that says they’re not responsible if you’re injured or die,” Mom said.

“Where’s Kendal?” I asked.

She was on the phone with someone, whom I assumed was Tom. She saw me and held up one finger to let me know she’d be done in a minute. I couldn’t see how I could help, so I left to get ready.

I found Brook already in her jumpsuit. I think she was as eager as I was to get this started. I put mine on, and Devin found us.