We live way out in the country. The neighbors are very few and very far between. The neighbors we do have are related to us. It was a Sunday afternoon in August. One of those steamy days when you could not be bothered to move, much less breathe. We had just moved into our Grandfather’s old farmhouse, and we had not met any of the neighbors.

Jodi and Arie, my sisters, and I decided to go swimming in the “Pond”. We were having a great time dunking each other, and throwing the beach ball around. Then we realized, we were being watched. Then it happened! Some guys were trying to steal our clothes. Jodi, Arie and I scrabbling out of the pond and properly thumped those fellows. We grabbed our clothes and ran for it. As we were passing a clump of bushes, a guy reached out and tried to grab me. He got my boot right across his midsection. We arrived back at the house, and decided that it was a fluke. It probably will never happen again, or so we thought.

The next day school started. We found out that our clothing thieves were riding our bus to school. As a matter of fact, one of them was our cousin Lyle. The guy that was hit with the boot was named Deke. According to Lyle, Deke had a large black and blue thing you called a bruise, right across his midsection. We received the dirtiest looks from the entire back seat of the bus.

When we arrived at school we made two very good friends. A girl named Sara and Deke’s sister Sonya. They were thrilled that the tyrants who had taken over the “Pond” were about to be deposed.

That weekend we invited Sara and Sonya to spend Friday night with us. It was supposed to be a hot and sultry weekend. Saturday morning we were going to go horseback riding, and in the afternoon we were going to retire to the “Pond”. While we were horseback riding, we saw the local tyrants making themselves right at home. I might add that they were skinny-dipping in our “Pond”. I thought to myself, “What can I do to make them absolutely miserable?” Jodi had a wonderful idea. We would steal their clothes. Sonya thought it was a great idea, but recommended that we leave them their B.V.D.’s. Jodi, Arie and I cautiously crept down the hill. We crawled right up to the “Pond”, and hid behind the bushes surrounding it. The guys were playing around, and certainly did not think anyone would steal their clothes. We took the clothes, crept back up the hill, and brought them back to the house.