Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:25:32 +0100
From: Harry Anders <harry@harryanders.com>
Subject: Little-Harrys-youth-3

'LITTLE HARRY' IS FOR SALE...

so please have a look at it and buy it. It costs only $ 19.95, and it's
helping lots of people to cope with their feelings!

Please copy this link into your webbrowser:
   http://www.harryanders.com
and buy the book. Thank you very much!

============================

LITTLE HARRY'S YOUTH

The end of chapter 2  said:

When they eventually calmed down, they told me that everything has his own
'price' or 'value'...

When you buy something, you have to pay its price with those small pieces
of paper. When you are doing some work, you are paid the value of the
amount of work you did. They can even punish you for doing stupid things,
by giving you a 'fine', an amount of money you have to pay to the 'state'
or to the police officers in the country. The money in other countries has
other values. For example 10000 LEI here represents only 4 DOLLARS in a
foreign country that's called 'America'...

I had to think this over for a long time. Everything sounded logical, but
where was the catch? Supposed I was hungry and living in the woods, and I
had lots of that money. How could I buy food with those little pieces of
paper in the middle of nowhere? What was the 'value' of money when you
couldn't reach any store or market to buy something with it? With that
money you were FORCED to live near other people who used that same kind of
money, or else it didn't represent any value at all. That 'money'
ultimately did cost you your personal freedom...

At last I couldn't keep my eyes open any more, and my Mom tenderly put me
to bed in our caravan. I closed my eyes, and was gone; nervously dreaming
of having to work for huge piles of greenish money that represented only
the value of an old and wrecked caravan... until I woke up and silently
crept in between my parents. That helped, and soon I was in a deep and
dreamless sleep.

-----------------

Chapter 3. A mad porcupine, police raid, and a badger.

Every day we went into our woods to set up our traps; until slowly, nearly
imperceptibly, the amount of caught animals diminished. More and more
snares turned out to be empty when we looked at them in the morning, and
soon it was clear to everybody we had to change our tactics.

The older children gathered us in the small clearing, and told us:

"From now on we will work individually. You all know how to set up a trap
and make a snare, so that shouldn't be a problem. Fall is nearing; and the
animals are more and more wary about hungry predators, so they will be
easily chased away by our sounds and not come back. We will split up here
every day, and sneak around without making any sounds to set up our traps
as far away from our camp as possible. The younger children will be guided
by one of the older ones, until we are absolutely sure they are able to
fend for themselves. Be careful, and don't get lost!"

Of course I looked for Micha, but another small boy had already attached
himself to my friend. I could see Micha wasn't exactly pleased with him,
but he couldn't reject the other boy without being very rude...

Biny went to me, smiled, and tenderly took my hand; but one of the older
boys told her to leave me, as she was too young to be able to guide
me. Looking very disappointed, she walked to another girl and moped a bit.

At last all the younger children had found an older one to guide them,
except for me. Why did nobody choose ME?  Suddenly I felt very disappointed
and an outcast, and nearly started to cry. Didn't they really love me? Or
was everybody too afraid to have to guide his or her too immature little
prince? What should I do now?

I decided to be PROUD of myself, as my Dad had told me. I dried my eyes,
straightened my back, and went to Micha. At the same time Micha
straightened his back, and came to me... We met each other halfway, and
sheepishly grinned at each other.  Micha took my hand, and guided me to the
other boy who didn't look too happy:

"I can easily guide TWO younger children. Do you want to accompany us?"

I merely nodded, getting tears in my eyes. Micha was my FRIEND, and he
didn't let me down!

"This is Jonno, and he's six years old. Jonno, you already know Harold, our
four-year-old prince..."

Jonno looked at me with his brown puppy-dog eyes, and pushed himself
against Micha without saying a word. Well... maybe he had lost his tongue,
or he didn't know what to say. I decided not to push it, and just grinned
at him. He didn't grin back.

The older boys had made sort of a plan, and told all the couples where to
go. We would look at our old traps first, and then set up our new traps as
far away as possible and in absolute silence, to finally meet again at the
waterfall for a talk and maybe a swim.

All the children swarmed away, taking different courses to reach their own
traps as soon as possible. Micha took us directly across a dense forest,
and soon I didn't have the slightest idea where I was or in which direction
we were walking. How did Micha know his way every time again?

Jonno and I followed Micha as closely as possible, until suddenly Micha
turned around and stopped:

"You two will have to stop behaving like a mad porcupine and making so much
noise. The animals can hear you from far away. Walk as if you are a hunting
cat, sliding noiselessly, avoiding all those crispy branches, even
breathing without any noise. Do you understand?"

We were both very impressed, and merely nodded.

Micha turned around, and silently disappeared into the forest. We didn't
hear anything but a slight scratching sound where he touched the
branches. Soon even that was gone, and now it looked like we were
alone. WOW! I wanted to learn that too!

I started to slide noiselessly towards Micha, but was soon taken aback by
the sound of a mad porcupine following my footsteps. Jonno followed me very
close without looking around, and now and then nearly bumped into me.
Feeling rather angry, I turned around and hissed to Jonno:

"Don't make such a noise! I can't hear myself because you're sounding like
a mad porcupine. Slow down a bit!"

I started to walk again, but within two seconds the mad porcupine followed
my track and wasted all my fun. How COULD he. That way I would never be
able to learn how to slide noiselessly like a hunting cat...  I stormed
forward to Micha, who was waiting for us a couple of steps away:

"I can't learn how to slide like a hunting cat with such a truck full of
rattling bricks following me. He's waking up all the animals."

Micha soothingly put his arms around me, and caressed my back:

"I know. Not everybody can be the youngest natural trapper in our
woods. But being better than Jonno doesn't necessarily make you a better
human being, you know... Please be patient with him, and eventually he will
learn how to sneak around too."

Suddenly I was ashamed of myself. It wasn't Jonno's fault he couldn't
slide. I had to learn to be more tolerant of the others...

In the meantime a blushing Jonno showed up, looking at his feet:

"Sorry, but I'm doing the best I can, and I'm a bit scared too..."

Now I was even more ashamed, and turned around to face him:

"I know you are, and sorry for my outburst. I think I'm too impatient
sometimes."

Micha's face lit up, and he nearly squashed me:

"That's the spirit! I'm glad you're such a fast learner. Now I have another
idea: I will teach you how to sneak around one by one. One of us will walk
away a couple of steps, and the others will try to near him on their own as
noiselessly as possible. How does that sound?"

"Yeah, that will be much more fun! Let's go."

Micha decided that I should go first. He pointed out where I had to go, and
I tried to sneak away like a hunting cat...

Immediately I discovered that I sounded like a rattling truck myself. I did
my utmost best to slide like a cat, but simply couldn't avoid those nasty
cracking twigs and rustling branches. How did Micha do that? And was it
really ME who had criticized that poor Jonno so much? Now I was even more
ashamed, and promised myself to make it up to Jonno as soon as I got a
chance.

After another couple of frustratingly loud steps, I kneeled down and
waited. Soon Micha and Jonno would follow my soundtrack...

I heard a rustling sound nearing me, and a branch cracked. I squatted down,
and made myself as invisible as I could. A moment later Micha passed by;
looking around everywhere, but he didn't see me. I started to snicker, and
of course now he saw me and silently accompanied me, with little fun lights
in his eyes. He motioned me to be silent...

There was the mad porcupine! Stamping forward, nearly tearing the bushes
apart... and crying. He passed us without looking around, until Micha
called him. Now he stormed at Micha, and buried his face into Micha's
chest, sobbing loudly.  Micha threw his arms around him, and tried to calm
him down:

"Shush, shush, don't make so much noise; you're chasing all the animals
away! What happened?"

"I... I couldn't find you, and I was afraid nobody would be able to find me
again in this creepy forest..."

"So you panicked. Well, you're not the first one; and you certainly will
not be the last one! Now calm down and dry your eyes."

After a while Jonno pulled himself together, and promised us to try to
better his life.

From now on we both followed Micha as noiselessly as we could, to have a
look at our old traps first. Micha obviously knew the way, and took us
across the dense woods directly to my snare. How did he do that? I wanted
to learn that too!

I was happy to have caught a small hare, and proudly put it into the string
bag Micha carried on his back. Micha had caught a marmot, and Jonno's trap
turned out to be empty. We took our snares with us, to set up our traps in
new places further away.

Micha put his arms around our shoulders, and warned us:

"From now on we will have to be very careful not to make any noises that
could chase the animals away. I will go first, while both of you will
follow me at a small distance. Be careful to keep a close eye on me, and
look out not to get lost in the dense forest."

Jonno shivered, and looked at us with fear in his eyes:

"I don't want to get lost. It's too creepy here, and I want to go home..."

We tried to convince Jonno to join us as we went to our new places, but he
was too scared and started to cry. At last Micha allowed him to go back to
our waterfall and wait there for us. Together we brought him back to the
ravine. Feeling very relieved he went down the path, nearly skipping, and
swaying the string bag containing our caught animals.

Micha and I looked at each other's eyes, and both of us saw the relief in
the eyes of the other. I was a little bit sad for that poor scared Jonno,
but at the same time I was glad to leave our mad porcupine behind. Now I
could really train myself in sneaking around noiselessly like a cat...

Micha ruffled my hair; and seemed to feel around for a moment, pointing
into a direction:

"There's where we are going today, to set up our new traps. Let's go!"

His voice sounded happy, and his eyes beamed. We started to walk together,
both trying to slide noiselessly like sneaking cats.

At first I made a lot of unintentional noises, but after a while I learned
how to avoid dry branches and look out for hidden potholes. Now I walked
beside Micha without making any sounds at all, and suddenly Micha proudly
smiled at me.  He put his arm around my shoulders, and whispered into my
ear:

"I think I'm making more noises than you are doing. You're a fast learner,
and I'm very glad to have you as my companion."

Was I, a four-year-old baby-trapper, really outdoing a fourteen-year-old
boy who had been crossing our woods all his life? I could hardly believe
it, but I felt as if I had done this many times before. Maybe I had been a
real trapper in one of my past lives? Who knows...

We set up our new traps along some tracks, in dense shrubs at the far end
of a steep ravine; and noiselessly crept back until we reached the woods
again. There we sat down at the edge of the ravine; and I positioned myself
between Micha's legs, leaning into him. In silence we enjoyed the beautiful
sight of a small stream, meandering along the bottom of the ravine and
disappearing into the far distance, while Micha kept his safe arms around
me all the time. We cuddled for a while, both being content with our
friendship, until at last we decided to go back.

Again Micha led the way through the dense forest, now and then stopping to
feel around. I followed him, curious about what he felt, but I didn't dare
to ask him about it and maybe chase the too wary animals away with my
voice.

We returned to our waterfall, where a happy looking Jonno greeted us,
accompanied by a few other children who had decided to leave the forest
early too. Fortunately for him he wasn't the only one who got scared!

Soon all the other children returned, carrying a couple of caught animals;
and we went to our waterfall to spend the rest of the day frolicking
around, until our stomachs started to grumble and we went to our campfire
to try to fill them.


From now on the days were shortening, and the weather became colder. Soon I
had to wear a couple of clothes in the morning, to protect my body from the
cold. That was quite an adventure, as I wasn't used to wearing any clothes
at all. The sticky things started to itch after a while, and every day I
waited impatiently until the sun finally had warmed the air sufficiently
and I could shuck them, until the evening cold forced me to wear them
again. The other children also complained about those sticky things they
were forced to wear, so fortunately I wasn't the only one.

From now on we caught nearly no animals at all. They seemed to have
retreated into hibernation, or hid deeper into the mountains. Now and then
we caught a lethargic marmot or a stray hare, but that was barely enough to
fill our hungry stomachs with.

Early in the morning a couple of men and women left our camp, to try to
find some work in a nearby 'gadjo' town. At the end of the day they
returned, sometimes carrying a few pieces of that paper money when they had
found work and had been paid for it. When they had gathered enough money,
they went back to the town to buy there cheap food and used clothes. Many
times they took some older children with them, but every time I wanted to
accompany them they told me I was too young and too small, and had to stay
behind.

I so wanted to have a look at those strange gadjo towns...

One morning my Dad gathered everybody around our campfire, and told them
with a sad voice:

"We don't have any more food, and we don't have any more money to buy
it. I'm not happy with it, but we will have to go to a few gadjo towns to
beg there for food and money, to be able to stay alive. A few men will take
our children to a nearby town to beg. Other grown-ups will visit a town far
away, to try to gather some clothes, and maybe more valuable things, to
sell for money to buy the things we need to survive the winter."

I jumped up, and was very excited. Finally I was able to see a gadjo town,
for the first time in my life!

Unfortunately my Dad looked at us with sad eyes, and went on:

"All the children who are below the age of seven will stay in our camp,
attended by a couple of older women."

I was MAD at him! All my friends were allowed to visit a gadjo town; and I
had to stay behind, only because he thought I was too young?  I pounded
towards my Dad, and angrily pulled at his arms:

"I want to accompany my friends to that gadjo town! They all know I'm a
valuable asset to our group, and I am a Prince. I was the only one who
caught a pig this summer, I'm the chief cook, and you know I can fend for
myself. I think I'm no longer a toddler!"

"Harry, Harry... you're only four years old, and you are the smallest boy
in the group of children that's allowed to go into our woods. I know you
can fend for yourself, and you are very bright, and you are no longer a
toddler, but you have never visited a gadjo town before. Begging and
gathering things can be very dangerous, as all the older children can tell
you from experience. You will have to wait until you are at least seven
years old, just like the other children. Now go back to your place, and
stay there."

I stamped away angrily, entered our caravan, and slammed the door shut. Why
had I to wait until I was at least seven years old to be able to visit
those interesting gadjo towns? Couldn't I just skip those
nasty... counting... one, two, three years of my life?

I heard Michail's truck pull up, and of course my curiosity won from my
anger. I left our caravan; and saw the older children enter an attached
caravan, while a couple of younger children climbed into the back of the
truck. The youngest children stayed behind, looking longingly at them with
teary eyes. The combination left our camp, soon followed by a couple of
cars filled up with several grown-ups, and our camp went silent again.

A few women started to prepare some leftovers over the campfire, and I
joined our toddler-group reluctantly, to have my share of the food because
my stomach rumbled too. Nobody uttered a word; maybe they all were too
disappointed and angry themselves.

After the scanty meal I sauntered to our waterfall. There I sat down for a
long time, moping and feeling disappointed. Why did I have to be such a
small runt? Even for a four-and-a-half-year-old boy my body was still very
immature. I threw some pebbles into the water, trying to hit the same place
twice. The other children would have lots of fun in that gadjo town by now,
while I had to bore myself to death here...

My eyes started to tear up, but I wiped them dry with a tuft of grass. I
was NOT a cry-baby!

One of the women appeared, seemingly a bit worried about me:

"Why don't you join the other children and play with them? We are missing
you..."

"I don't feel like playing with those toddlers. I was always with Micha,
and together we had lots of fun. HE didn't think I was too young to set
traps on my own, and I even beat him at sneaking around. I wanted to be
with Micha today..."

I nearly started to cry, but suppressed my tears so she wouldn't think I
WAS a toddler. Fortunately she didn't see my teary eyes, and together we
went back to the small group who was playing hide and seek around our
caravans. I slumped down onto our wooden bench, and moped.

A few toddlers asked me to join them, and after a while I gave in.  To be
honest, during the remainder of the day I had more fun than I could have
imagined that morning. I seemed to be really good at hiding myself, and
every time the others had a hard time in finding me, even when most of them
were older than I. Still, in my eyes, they were only toddlers; and I outdid
them all...

One by one our cars returned, filled with several goods the grown-ups
immediately stowed away in our special hiding places along the ravine. They
gathered around our campfire, and started to tell how they barely escaped a
mistrustful police officer who in vain tried to arrest them. They all ran
away into different directions, and waited until they were sure none of
them were followed any more. Then they sneaked back to the cars they had
parked somewhere else, and drove home.

In the afternoon Michail's truck-combination reappeared, and all the
children left the truck and the caravan, carrying several bags filled with
nicely smelling foods. The bags were emptied onto a big platter, and soon
everybody started to munch on the delicious gadjo things they had
gathered. For the first time in several days we could fill our empty
stomachs to the brim, and that felt wonderful!

After the meal the children started to tell their stories about their
adventures in the gadjo town, where they were chased away, spit at, and
called names; but fortunately they were also helped and fed by a couple of
nicer people. The best place to beg seemed to be the 'market', where they
sometimes got paper bags filled with the most delicious things, as there
were brownies, cakes, hotdogs, rolls, and even loafs of real bread.

I felt delighted by the food, but also a bit sad; and got tears in my eyes
by thinking about all the adventures I had missed today...

That evening we had a feast around our campfire. The violin players played
wonderful melodies full of joy and longing, several people started to
dance, the children climbed from lap to lap to be held and warmed, and
everybody had lots of fun.

At last I was too sleepy to keep my eyes open, and went to bed in our
caravan. I felt my Mom kiss me goodnight, and was gone; dreaming of gadjo
towns where I chased away all the nasty inhabitants by spitting at them,
and went home carrying lots of paper money to buy bags of foods and nice
new clothes for all of us.


The next morning the rain poured down, and prohibited us from visiting our
woods. We huddled together next to our smouldering and hissing campfire;
under a provisional shelter a few grown-ups had built from a few stakes and
a piece of plastic. Everything felt clammy and damp, and now and then one
of us shivered involuntarily. We munched on a few delicious gadjo
leftovers, and played silly games to dispel the boredom.  Fortunately the
raining in our mountains never lasted long, and after a while the sky
started to clear up a bit.

Suddenly a bunch of police cars entered our camp, and several police
officers left their cars and looked around with strained faces.  One of the
officers approached our group, and pointed to one of us:

"Where is your leader? Bring him to me immediately."

Before we could answer him, Michail jumped out of his caravan and went to
the officer:

"What is the problem, officer? What are you looking for?"

"You KNOW what's the problem, and we want you to take us to your leader
immediately."

"I AM your leader, and I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking
about."

"I will refresh your memory. Yesterday a couple of your gypsies raided one
of our towns, and stole everything they could lay their hands on. Now we
want to ask you a couple of questions..."

"We went to a nearby town yesterday, and begged there for money and food,
because our children were starving. However, we did NOT steal or thieve
anything! I'm very offended by your accusations, and I want you to
apologize for even thinking such a thing."

I listened to their conversation open-mouthed. Inwardly I grinned, because
Michail didn't really lie. He WAS the leader of this conversation, and he
DID go to a nearby town yesterday, to accompany the children. Neither he
nor any of the children did steal or thieve anything! I wondered what those
police officers would do now; being clad like clowns in their strange
costumes, and looking so almightily...

A couple of our men had surrounded the officers by now, and I saw my Dad
keeping a small distance. HE was our real leader, but nobody had to know he
was. He winked at me, and I winked back at him. We understood each other
without words.

The officer who questioned Michail looked very angry now:

"Now let us see what you've gathered yesterday, and remember we don't have
all day's time."

Michail went to his truck, and the officer followed him with a distrusting
look on his face. Soon Michail returned, carrying a couple of paper bags
filled with the foods the children had gathered, and another bag containing
some money.

"That's everything we've got from the begging yesterday, except for some
foods we already feasted on this morning."

"We will find out whether that's everything, or not. Now you, and you, and
you, you will enter our cars and remain there until we are satisfied."

The officers pushed several men into their police cars, and told them to be
silent. My Dad was amongst them; and again he winked at me, telling me to
keep the secret a secret and do nothing to give him away. I grinned at him,
and winked back.

Everybody had to leave his or her caravan, and stay outside in the rain. A
couple of officers entered our caravans without wiping their feet, and
started to search painstakingly through our belongings. Of course they
didn't find anything of value, and now they were really angry.

A nasty looking officer pointed to one of the girls:

"You, you tell us where your parents have hidden the stolen goods. Where is
your secret place or hidden cave?"

"We don't have such a thing, sir. Everything that belongs to us is here,
and we don't hide anything."

She didn't lie, as of course the stolen properties didn't belong to us, and
we didn't have any HIDDEN caves. They were just caves, but you had to look
very careful to be able to find them...

Suddenly the officer turned to ME, being the smallest child in our group,
and tried to smile:

"Little boy, please help me. I am looking for the things the grown-ups
brought here yesterday. Where did they put them away?"

I looked at him in disdain, and straightened my back:

"I am NOT a little boy! I'm already a REAL trapper, so you have to speak to
me accordingly. You have already looked at all the things the children
brought from the begging. What more are you looking for? Can't you just
leave us alone, and start to catch real crooks?"

I knew my eyes shot daggers, and the officer looked very surprised. He
tried to say something, but I stared him down. I could feel him starting to
be very nervous now, and inwardly I laughed. Today I won the staring
contest with a real police officer. Wow!

After several seconds the officer turned around, red-faced, and without
saying another word. All the officers entered their cars and drove off,
taking our men with them. After a few seconds our camp went dead silent,
and as on purpose even the rain stopped.

A few grown-ups raced to their cars, and followed the police officers
unnoticed; trying to see what would happen to our men and to our beloved
King, my Dad. If necessary they would defend him with their own lives, but
for the moment they didn't want those police officers to know they had
caught our real leader as well...

All the children were devastated, and slumped down onto the wooden benches
surrounding our campfire. What would those police officers do to our
fathers and uncles? Would they torture them, or press them to confess?
Would we ever see them come back?

Many children started to cry, and many grown-ups had tears in their eyes as
well. Several of us remembered our stories from the past, telling about
cruel witch-hunts when our people were tortured and hung because they had
done nothing except for trying to survive...

We waited during the remainder of the day, just sitting or talking
softly. Now and then a couple of children went into the woods to have a
look at their traps, but they returned very soon and empty-handed. They
looked at us questioningly, and we shook our heads. No news...

One time Micha and I went into the woods together, to look after our
traps. Nothing was in our snares, and we replaced them carefully.  Micha
threw his arms around me, with tears in his eyes:

"I'm so sorry for you, and I really hope your father will return soon. I
know how it is to live without a Dad..."

I knew Micha had lost his own Dad a couple of years ago, due to a slipping
caravan tumbling into a steep ravine. We cried together for a while, until
we silently returned through the dense forest to our camp. The others sadly
shook their heads...

The sun disappeared slowly behind the mountains, and we ate a couple of
delicacies from the paper bags without being hungry. It was no fun to munch
on those delicious things while at the same time our men probably were
tortured, or worse...

Suddenly we heard a few cars nearing our camp, and we rose to our feet to
have a better look. Fortunately they were our own cars! The doors opened;
and a couple of men stumbled out, looking very tired. They were back home!

I wrestled through the turmoil until I had found my Dad; and octopushed
myself onto his chest, sobbing loudly. He threw his arms around me and
tried to crush me, but I didn't mind at all.  MY DAD LIVED AND WAS BACK
HOME.

We gathered around our campfire, and Michail started to tell how all the
officers thought he had to be our leader. They took him into another room
and questioned him, and he told them everything about the begging in the
nearby gadjo town without lying. The other men were separated and
interrogated in other rooms, and they all answered the same thing: they had
done nothing questionable.

The officers couldn't prove anything, and after many hours they let the men
go, after warning them to be very careful in the future. The next time they
would put them in jail for a very long time.  The moment our men left the
police station, our waiting cars pulled up and took them safely home.

Again we had a big feast, and now the gadjo things suddenly tasted more
than delicious! We all filled our stomachs to the brim, and danced and
frolicked around until the sun started to peek through our mountaintops.


I slept until the sun was shining abundantly, and saw I still wore my
clothes. The last thing I remembered was Michail tenderly taking me from my
Dad's lap and putting me to bed. Obviously he didn't bother about
undressing, or he was too sleepy himself. I washed my face in the little
sink, and heard my parents snoring in unison in their double bed. Lazy
slackers, but I loved both of them with all my heart!

I left our caravan, and looked around. A couple of children and grown-ups
had already gathered around the smouldering campfire, and were roasting
marshmallows from one of the paper bags. I joined them, and saw Michail
feeding his little sons small pieces of roasted marshmallow, helped by a
beaming Micha. Both boys opened their mouths wide, to receive the next
piece.

My friend Micha surely loved little boys, and all the little boys seemed to
love him too. I crept next to Michail, rose up, and opened my mouth...
Micha grinned, with fun lights in his brown eyes:

"Look, there's a little stray birdie! Do you want a piece of marshmallow,
little birdie? Or do you want your diaper replaced?"

Grrrr...

My parents joined our group, yawning and looking sleepy. I climbed onto my
Dad's lap, and he threw his safe arms around me, while my Mom tried to comb
my hair and clean my face with a tuft of grass. Women...  Micha laughed at
the sight of my sour face, and asked:

"Do you want to join me, to have a look at our traps?"

I hopped off my dad's lap, grabbed a buttered roll from the pile to munch
on, and together we went through the bushes.

This time I tried to lead the way to our traps, helped by Micha, and soon
we saw the end of the steep ravine. We sneaked nearby...  I saw a strange
animal track on the ground, and whispered into Micha's ear:

"Look, there's an animal track over here. Do you know what animal that is?"

"I don't know for sure, but it looks like a fresh track. Let's follow it
and try to catch the animal."

We sneaked along the clearly visible track, that seemed to disappear into
the bushes. We rounded the bushes, but couldn't see the same track coming
out of them, so the animal had to be hiding somewhere within that thick
shrub...

Very careful not to make any sounds I crept into the shrub, following the
track. The track disappeared into a hole, from where two glowing eyes
growled at me. I hadn't the slightest idea what kind of an animal it was,
so I crept back and asked Micha to have a look at it.  Micha crept into the
shrub, sniffed the air, and crept back:

"I think it's a badger, a very dangerous animal with huge claws that's
afraid of nearly nothing. We best leave it alone."

I was a bit disappointed, but understood we didn't have a chance to catch
and kill it.

We left the badger, and looked after our traps. This time I had caught a
small fox, while Micha's snare was empty. A fox was far from being the
tastiest animal on earth, but it had a nice fur that could be very
usable. We set up our snares along other nearly invisible tracks, while I
proudly carried the fox around my neck. We left the bushes and turned
around...

Something growled at us, and we saw the badger look at us from a small
distance with mean eyes. I was in awe, and thought it had to be the most
beautiful animal on earth, having a dark fur decorated with a white band
going all the way from front to rear. The badger stared at us for a while,
growled again, and resumed its way scrabbling into the bushes along the
same path we just had left.

Suddenly the hell broke loose. The bushes moved wildly, while the badger
desperately tried to free itself from my snare. Micha and I looked at each
other, and both ran towards the raging animal, nearly tripping over our own
feet.

The badger rolled around wildly in its efforts to get rid of that
strangling snare around its neck, and tried to bite it. Fortunately I had
attached my snare to a very rigid tree branch!  The badger jumped up and
down, rolled around, planted its big claws into the tree and the
surrounding branches, biting everything within its reach, but it couldn't
free itself. It stopped when it saw us, showed us its sharp teeth, and
growled.

Micha looked around, found a heavy branch, and smashed its top a few times
to make a sharp point at the end.  He hesitated, and looked at me with
caring eyes:

"Do you mind me taking over from here? It's YOUR badger, but I doubt you
are able to kill it yourself, and it can be VERY dangerous."

I nodded my consent, and Micha started to poke the badger with the
branch. The badger reacted immediately, by trying to bite it. Micha poked
again, and again the badger reacted, thus strangling itself more and more,
until at last it seemed to give up and just stared at us. Now Micha
carefully positioned himself in front of the badger, and pointed his branch
to its head. He pricked it a few times, until the badger didn't react any
more, and suddenly planted his branch deep into an eye of the badger with
all his force.

The badger screamed, started to shudder, and was dead within a minute.

I felt a pang of compassion for the beautiful animal, but knew this had to
be a relatively painless dead compared to being strangled slowly. I thanked
the badger in my mind, and to my surprise I felt its spirit congratulate
me. Or did I make that up myself?

Now we had to transport my badger to our camp. Micha took one side of the
animal and I took the other side, but the badger was way too heavy for the
two of us. We couldn't even lift it off the ground. We sat down next to our
animal, panting, and waited until our breaths returned.

"What shall we do now? Go to our camp and ask the others for help?"

In unison we decided to return to our camp and ask the others to help us.
I led the way back to our camp, proudly carrying my fox around my neck, and
helped by a beaming Micha.

We entered our camp, where everybody congratulated me with my fox:

"Look at that beautiful fur! Do you have your lucky day today?"

"Wait until you're seeing the next animal! Ten minutes after I set up my
snare again, I caught a real BADGER!"

"That's impossible! You must be dreaming! I'm sure you are pulling our
leg..."

"Just follow us and help us carrying it, because the animal is way too
heavy for the both of us."

"Is this for real, Micha? Did this little devil really catch a real badger
in his snare and kill it?"

"He did..."

The whole camp followed me through the dense forest to my badger, on the
way confessing they were a bit jealous of my success:

"For the first time in five years one of our children is able to catch a
badger. It's nearly impossible, as normally a badger is way too strong and
always freeing itself after a while. You were very lucky to kill it in
time, before it tore the whole shrub out of the ground."

"We saw it scrabbling into the shrub towards my snare, and then the hell
broke loose..."

"You bet! I've heard of a badger that gnawed a whole tree into pieces to
free itself. How did you kill it?"

"Micha took a branch and sharpened it. He pricked the animal until it was
bored and just looked at us. Suddenly he threw his branch into the animal's
eye, and within a minute it was dead."

"That's the only way to kill it, getting into its brains. Micha, how did
you know you had to do that?"

"I didn't really know; I just thought that would be the best solution."

They saw my badger with their own eyes, and congratulated us for having
caught such a beautiful animal, while Micha shared in the success story
with beaming eyes and blushing slightly. They slapped our shoulders for a
long time.

A couple of grown-ups attached my badger to a thick branch, took the branch
onto their shoulders, and in procession we returned to our camp.

Michael helped us to skin the badger and prepare it to be roasted. I went
into the bushes, and gathered lots of nicely smelling herbs to spice it. In
the meantime a few older boys had skinned my fox, and they handed me its
nice looking fur to be tanned.

Now I had two furs; a beautiful one from my badger, and a nice looking one
from my fox. With a proud face I handed them to my Dad, who promised to ask
Mom to needle something nice and usable out of them, maybe a pair of fox
boots to wear during the winter, and a real fur coat from the badger's
skin.

I nodded my consent, and felt PROUD.

============================

Thank you for reading this chapter of 'Little Harry's youth'.

My FIRST book, 'Little Harry', is for sale! It costs only $ 19.95 ...
Please visit my homepage  http://www.harryanders.com
and buy it. It's helping lots of people to cope with their feelings!


I love your emails, please send them to  harry@harryanders.com .

Maybe I will not be able to answer all of them, but be assured I will
certainly read them all!

Here are some excerpts from all your wonderful emails:

* That was beautiful.  Thank you for a heartfelt and wonderful chapter.  I
can't wait to see what happens next.

* I like your story very much, it's kind and cute. I thank you for your
work, it's good for the soul.

* I love this story and I can't wait to read more of it.  You have shown us
love that has no limits and understanding that can't be understood by
everyone.  Please keep up the great story.


I wish you lots of Love in your life, and Peace in your heart.
And thank you, Nifty, for hosting my stories.

Harry AnderS, alternative writer.
I'm living in The Netherlands, and my native language is Dutch.
Please have a look at my site: http://www.harryanders.com