A Sledgehammer, Tampon Machine and the Risen Christ (Part 2)

...So I found myself surrounded by the quiet on Wednesday night enjoying the peacefulness and serenity that an empty college campus provides. Reading books for leisure and sipping coffee was never so enjoyable. However after the first couple days of this I began to get a little anxious. I was surprisingly ready for people to get back. Jacob and I had watched all the movies and television shows we could handle. We had played all the video games we wanted to play. But most importantly we were ready for the cafeteria to open back up. JBC had closed the food services so that the students working there could return home if they so desired for Easter. We had our fill of nasty fast food. We had given up on making our own food in the dorms years ago. Failed experiments with combining microwave popcorn and Taco Bell sauce packets, Wal-Mart brand saltines and homemade jelly we found outside a random door, and of course anything off of the island at the Wally.

Sleeping-in way to long accompanied by the stale smell of a guys dorm room caused a title wave of laziness to wash over me as I sat there in my dorm room Saturday afternoon. I had to do something productive. The thought of starting my homework entered my mind for a split second until it hit me. I ran down to Jacob’s room to find him in the same atmosphere as me. Lazily sitting on his bed sifting through an old milk crate of record albums Jacob greeted me with that familiar greeting, “Hey booojj.” (not a typo)

“A FORT.” “Do you want to build a fort today,” I said excitedly. Jacob’s posture changed from sleep mode to attack mode. “Holy Crap! Yeah man I’m all about that,” were Jacobs words. We decided we needed about ten minutes to get ready, you know steel toed boots, flannel shirts, beards. I mean we were building a fort for crying out loud. When we met back up ten minutes later neither of us looked like what I just described. I was wearing a pair of basketball shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes. Jacob had on sandals, a tank top complete with a howling wolf and of course his cut-off jean shorts. I noticed that Jacob was holding a twenty pound SLEDGEHAMMER. I didn’t even have to ask Jacob saw my eyes hit the sledgehammer to which he told me that he didn’t have any tools and he figured we needed some. I agreed and off we went.

There was only really one place for us to go, not because JBC lacked the location for potential forts, but because the place we decided on was too perfect. Johnson has an area down the hill from campus off in the woods were they dump large items of trash that are too big for normal trash pick-up. Items like furnaces, refrigerators, washing machines and stoves all make this their final resting places when they are no longer needed.

Jacob and I were in fort building heaven. We had everything two college seniors needed to build a fort, a lot of junk and sheer boredom. We quickly came across an old hay rack feeder which became the foundation/skeleton of our fort. We continued to sift through the rubble and found 10-12 sheets of tin which became the walls and roof we needed to complete this operation. We finished the fort by adding the essential door and fire pit, along with an old TAMPON MACHINE we hung inside for decoration.

We took a deep breath, wiped the sweat off our brow and looked on with pride in our new creation. So this is what God must have felt like on the 6^th day of creation. I haven’t been back to our fort since I left JBC for the last time, but every Easter as I celebrate the RISEN CHRIST I will remember our fort. And it was very good.