Midnight Adventures

This is an unfinished essay that I've written for my Advanced Composition class. Any comments, feedback, or input is welcome :)

Midnight Adventures

I sat at my dining room table with Josh, my boyfriend, beside me. Tired after a long day of classes and work, I attempted to finish up a paper for my Advanced Composition class. It is always hard to concentrate around him because I would rather talk to him than do homework. He told me about geocaching, a new thing he had heard about. I had heard of it before, but had never given it much thought, because I didn't know that anyone in this area did it, or that there would be any nearby. I was surprised when he told me there were geocaches in my neighborhood. Homework forgotten, I grabbed an old sweatshirt and some sneakers and we headed out in his truck with nothing but a couple of flashlights and an iPhone for a map.

We arrived at the first location and excitedly read the clues. We then began to look around. His iPhone alerted him that we were near while I dug around in what I thought could be holes. It was late, and the air was dark and cold. The soft, damp dirt stuck under my fingernails. “I hope you're not stuck on this one too long,” the hint said. I gave that some thought and wondered if it was a play on words or meant more than it seemed to at first glance. I picked at the big, shiny numbers and was overjoyed when the magnet fell off into my hand. I held it up and shouted to Josh that I had found it. “Good job, baby,” he said. We wiped our noses as we huddled in front of the warm air blowing in his truck and decided to look for another one.

The next location was not far away, and we soon arrived. We walked back and forth along the side of the road and leaned over the cold metal railing of a small bridge, trying to see the back side of it. I started to make my way down one side, moving the opposite direction of Josh, but the dark loneliness of the night and the strange sounds I heard caused me to quickly return to his side. “Here it is,” he said as he held up a magnetic key holder. We both signed it and replaced it, then moved on.

The next geocache was simple and we found it together immediately after reaching the site. It was midnight then, and we had to be at work and school the next morning. But, pleasure triumphs logic sometimes when you're young and enjoying yourself. We drove into town and read the directions for another one.

This last one took us the longest. We parked where we could but knew we would have to walk a while. I clasped Josh's hand and tried to keep up with his long strides. Walking around behind a school in the middle of the night didn't seem like the best idea to me, but I knew I was safe with him. I glanced inside through the glass doors and looked down the long, empty hallways that glowed red from the exit signs. An eery feeling tightened in my chest as I tightened my grip on his hand.

We walked past the school and the playground that by day is full of life and laughter, but in the dead of the night it more closely resembled a graveyard. The odd shapes of slides, swings and jungle gyms jutted out like gravestones and seemed as if they wanted to whisper dark secrets of the fights and feelings hurt, the broken bones and broken friendships that had happened there throughout the years.

As we continued, we searched up and down beside the wooden fence, shivering and stepping on and around bits of paper. “We need to be on the other side,” Josh decided, so back up and around we went. The ground on other side of the fence was scattered with trash, which was understandable, considering we were in the backyard of WalMart. We searched along the fence line and underneath trees. By that time we were really cold and tired, but still enjoying the hunt. “There it is,” he said as he reached for a small, green plastic container lying peacefully beneath a lone pine tree.

Our adventures were over for the night then, and we went home. That night I learned a lesson in spontaneity and a a new way to have fun with someone I love.