The Attack

A true story from my childhood. Something scary at the time but funny now.

          Here is a traumatic and very embarrassing story from one summer of my childhood.

          I was about seven years old, and my dad, my sister, my brother, and I were heading up to our cottage for the weekend. Our cottage is in Quebec, a good hour away from our house. The ride was just the same as usual. My brother, Alex, and my sister, Jess, were fighting, my dad was ignoring them, and I was watching Sparky, our dog, show his telltale signs that he was about to vomit. I screeched in disgust and called for my dad to stop the car. He slammed on the brakes, and pulled Sparky out of the car and put him down. We were on a small road that nobody ever comes onto seeing as it only leads to two cottages, mine and someone else's. We were about ten minutes from our cottage now, so after we got Sparky back into the car, we did not have far to go.

          Once we arrived at the cottage, my siblings and I hopped out of the car and rushed to the front door, waiting for our father to hurry up. He grabbed his luggage from the trunk and came to unlock the door, but told us to grab our bags before we could get in the door. We all groaned and walked towards the car. Alex grabbed my bag for me, and carried it to the room I share with Jess. Alex is six years older than I am, and Jess is five years older than I am. We all quickly agreed to go swimming before it got dark outside. I slipped into my one piece, flower covered, suit, with some help from Jess.

          I rushed out to our deck that looks out on the water and smiled. I waited for my siblings to come out because I could not go swimming alone. Jess was the first to come out, and she told me that Alex would only be a few more minutes. While we were waiting dad came out with our bird feeder in hand. I beamed at him when I saw it. I loved to put it up for the birds.

          My dad walked over to me and smiled, "Hey, Chick," This was his nickname for my sister and me; "do you want to put this up?" He asked.

          I jumped up and down, "Yes, yes, yes!" I screamed.

          He laughed and lifted me up to the branch we put it on. Alex came out just then, so the three of us rushed down to the water after saying 'bye' to dad.

          We swam for a while, picked water lilies, and tried to catch frogs before deciding to head back up to the cottage. We raced up the small hill to our deck; Alex won, Jess came in second, and I stumbled along in last. Dad tossed Alex a towel, which he quickly dried off with before tossing it to me. I dried myself off with some help from Jess, before she began drying off herself.

          I don't exactly know how it happened, but I was watching Jess, and then next thing I know I was attacked by a hummingbird. I froze and started crying silently. My feet unfroze and started walking backwards trying to escape the bird except it just kept pursuing me. I backed straight into our closed cottage door and started crying even more. Not once did the bird stop its attack. The thing was just too fascinated with the many flowers on my bathing suit. Jess, who had been laughing hysterically finally came to my aid and 'shooed' the creature away. I rushed into the house and into my dad's arms; he was trying to keep from laughing aloud, as was Alex.

          So, there was my story, I hope you enjoyed it. Only a few weeks ago did I stop thinking about how much I was afraid of hummingbirds. I think they are gorgeous birds, but I just don't like them. I am no longer afraid of them though, thankfully.

Author's Note

Let me know what you think. Be honest.