Sharon and the Hornets

            Phillip was the patient one in our family.  He really wanted to be a good brother, and he spent a great deal time teaching Julie and Sharon how to fish and skip rocks and generally have fun up at the cabin.

            One day he was fishing down at the creek with Sharon.  Julie was a little ways up the creek, playing in the water.  Sharon’s line was getting tangled in the bushes.   Phillip untangled it and told her to come get it.

“Don’t walk through the tree, though,” he warned her.  “There are hornets in it.”

Sharon wasn't very old, maybe four or five, and she didn’t understand what Phillip was telling her to do, so she did the exact opposite.  She walked right through that old tree.  As she pushed the leaves out of her way, hornets swarmed up around her.  Sharon screamed, Julie screamed, and Phillip realized what was happening.

            “Jump in the creek!”  he shouted at the girls.  “Get under the water so they can’t sting you!”

            Sharon was jumping all around, but not into the creek.  She was so terrified that she couldn’t think.  All she knew was that she was surrounded by hundreds of hornets, and they were stinging her!

            Phillip grabbed Sharon and pulled her to the creek, but the hornets followed them both, now stinging him as well.

            Upstairs, Mom, Linda and I heard the shouting.  Immediately we thought of rattlesnakes!  Quickly we ran to the top of the hill and called down to the creek. 

           “What’s wrong?  What’s the matter?”  mom yelled. 

            “Hornets are stinging us!” Julie called up, as Sharon kept on screaming and Phillip kept on yelling at her to get under the water. 

            Mom couldn’t understand what any of them were saying, but she knew whatever was wrong, it was bad.  She almost ran down the steps at the back of the hill, almost falling as she jumped from rock to rock, sliding down the hill at the bottom, then climbed through the tree and ran to the creek. 

            By this time Phillip had succeeded in getting Sharon away from the hornet’s nest.  There were still some angry insects flying around, but mostly they were gone. 

Quickly Mom helped Sharon out of the creek and half pushed, half carried her up the hill to the cabin.  Gale and Linda met them as they climbed up the rock stairs, and helped get Sharon up onto the back porch.  Her poor face, arms, and legs were red and puffy where the hornets had stung her.  Mom pulled off her shirt and hornets flew out.  She removed Sharon’s pants and found more hornets inside the pant legs.  She was covered with welts!

 Phillip had been stung, too, but not as badly.  Since Julie had been farther down the creek, she hadn't been stung at all.

            Mom put Sharon in the bathtub and rinsed her off, then applied calamine lotion to all the stings.  She sure did hurt bad, but thank goodness she didn't have an allergic raction to all those hornets!  Phillip hurt too, but he was the hero of the day, and even some angry red welts couldn't diminish his pride over the fact that he had saved his little sister.