...think, I'll take a seat under this tree

Walking for a few more minutes down the path, I see a tree. Lots of loopy willows hanging low and lots of different insects to see inside the leafy looms of the willows. I wanted to sit under the shade, because the heat was making me feel like sitting down.
When I went to sit down, some gooey stuff fell out of the leaves and gunked up my arm. It might be sap, but I don't know what it is. I am not sitting here.

Beatles

Three of them on a branch in front of me caught my attention. I wanted to carry the biggest one home with me, but I had forgotten my camera. Still no sign of the big children. Make my own fun, I said to myself.
I tried to think of a song in my head.

Back to the path...

A little robin was hopping on the path. I am not used to seeing a robin on the path with me, they are usually flying or flitting. This one wanted to make my acquaintance, but was afraid to because I was holding Indiana's paw. Squirrels and robins don't get along, I found out.
The robin looked at me and said "Are you with him?". Yes I am. "Why?" she said and then flew off. I guess I am not going to get to know this robin and Indiana today.
We walked and walked for about 5 or 10 minutes and still I didn't see my brothers and sisters. I was starting to wonder if I was going to be stuck playing tennis with mom for the rest of the day; because I wasn't sure if I was brave enough to go out of her sight and around the lake and find them or not find them and still find my way back to her. It was a big decision for me.

Eight is about wondering...

Wondering why the birds fly. Wondering where the tadpoles go when I can't see them. Wondering where my brothers and sisters went and why didn't I choose to go with them initially?
I am stuck and I have to make my own fun.
Thankfully, Indiana squirrel and I will find them or have a good time trying.

City parks are full of

urban wildlife, but with all of its splendor and urban shelter and bliss,there were absolutely, positively no deer in the city. It was my imagination that the sound of the cars on the city street were actually a flock of deer. I would have to go to the country to find that. My mind had actually felt for one fleeting moment that I was in the country. The fact that deer could have crossed the highway and come all the way to Freedom Park made me giggle and that giggle actually gave me the courage to cross the path and continue on my way to find my brothers and sisters and go outside of my comfort zone, out of the view of Mom on the courts.
Not quite free, but striking out to find my own path to fun. The fun that can come from my own mind. The fun that is not initiated by an elder sibling or grown up. Indiana couldn't tell me what to do, he was there to tell me what not to do.
I am awake now and off I went.
I am on my last adventure of my eight year old self. I hadn't known that 8 was going to pass so quickly and that 8 was going to take me from my junior self to my major self. This was one of those rights of passage for me. Walking away from my mom's fun and not at the other children's beck and call. It is Indiana, a friend of mine and me enjoying a day at the park.

I heard a noise over my head...

and when I turned around, an entire flock of deer were galloping by. They were not on the path and they were not even touching the thicket. I cannot imagine where they were going.
If I were a deer, I would have followed them and I wanted to. I was sitting on the rock and the sound made me get up and go on my way again. I said good bye to the pollywogs and the geese and took Indianas hand and went on my way back to the path.

I took one step off of the path,

to the right and there in the thicket, a little gray bunny was collecting berries for her family supper. "Hi, you're Ethan, Mr. Squirrel's friend, aren't you?" Yes, "I don't think you will be comfortable in the thicket, you'd better go back to the path." I will be alright and right down to the creek he strutted, without as much as a second thought.
I'm nearly nine, he thought. Its time I start doing things without the rest of the brothers and sisters having to vote on it.
The creek was a wild and eery place with a world of wildlife all its own. The creek wildlife has everything it needs right down there and never needs to go up to the path for anything. I had no idea that Mr Squirrel, himself had never been down to the creek, before and this was his first adventure down there too.

No one would've guessed that Ethan was afraid of wandering off by himself. It really wasn't wandering, He knew that Mom was on the courts and the other kids were on the path, he had permission and this kind of fun and adventure was something he had absolutely never done before.

A school of pollywogs swam close to his feet and he certainly wanted to shed his shirt and join them in the cooling water, but he dare not go that far, regardless of the heat he was feeling. He drank in the sight of them wiggling together in the water and kept the thought in his mind to draw on his sketch pad when he got back to the car.
Frogs and flies and diamond needles and beetles and fish and alot of different kinds of worms and lizard things were down there and he didn't have any idea what most of them were. As long as he wasn't bothering them and just sitting there watching they were fine. 20 minutes past quickly and he was sitting there and watching the interplay of the stream and the wind and the birds and other wildlife. Amazed.

Mr. Squirrel wouldn't leave me,

I noted, as I was wondering at the determination of Mr. Beatle going around and around on that trunk of that tree. Where am I going? I thought, am I going around in circles like the beatle on the tree? I am trying to find my older brothers and sisters, they have gone on before me and I am trying to find the path that they took. I can't see them and they can't see me.
With that I started down the road. There was only dirt under my feet at first. The thicket was to the right and beyond that was the marsh and the river. I dare not go to the river, no matter how curious my mind is to know what wonders are there near the water. Mother said to stay on the path and I would find the brothers and sisters just past the patch of trees.
My mind wants to wander down to the river and see the frogs and the herrons that are sunbathing and swimming. That is not good. Who will I listen to right now?

Mr. Beatle stood on a tree

purple and Black, with six long legs. He wouldn't talk to me with Mr. Squirrel in tow. I was shocked.
"What are you doing?", I asked. I am looking for the other side of this tree, he stated, matter-of-factly. With that statement of fact he left me and kept walking around the tree.
He got back around to me and greeted me again as he went around the second and the third time. He never seemed to realize that I was the same guy he met up with when he went around the first couple of times. I know that he finally gave up looking for the other side of the tree, or he figured out that he had past it several times without noticing, because he wasn't there when I came back.

Mom, almost hit Indiana

with her serve. Tennis players don't like wild animals coming on the courts while they are playing.
Ethan was so scared to leave the courts by himself, it was not funny. He wasn't yet familiar with the Charlotte squirrels. They knew him, because he was a boy and hadn't chased or bothered them in the whole time he was at the park.
15 minutes, it took for Ethan to leave the courts. To the left there was the thicket and then the path into the park, to the right was the overpass that was a complete no-no for him to go alone. Mom had given him permission to go to the left, but he was too afraid to take her up on it.

An Hour of Tennis at the courts

was more than enough for him. The other children were out exploring and in the sweltering heat. It was only for his mother's pleasure, that Ethan stayed out on courts.
"Can I go now?, Mom?" breathed out the desparate fellow.
It was ten days till his ninth birthday and he wasn't planning to play any tourneys between now and then.
Why was he even out here, he thought, I don't even like tennis. Mom would be disappointed to think, I thought that. "Can I leave, now?"
"Okay, Ethan, 5 more balls and you are done, I think you are really developing and getting the hang of this huh?" said mom, between barking out instructions,"Are you having fun yet, or is it still a chore?"
Ethan would never have told his mother what he really thought about tennis. He just stood at the T and waited for his last 5 balls. Once this was over, his real adventure would begin. He missed 3 of the 5 and mom was more than disappointed, but he was satisfied to have hit 2, dropped the raquet and ran to the gate.
Freedom Park is a big place and he looked to the left and to the right of the gate, there was absolutely no sign of the big kids anywhere. What would he do?
First, he yelled back, "Mom, where are they?" I don't know. A big bubble of disappointment built up in his throat. Mom said, they are somewhere on the path. You can walk that way and I'm sure you'll see the group in a minute or so.
That was so far outside of Ethan's comfort zone, but he was not going back onto those courts.
This meant he was going to have to make his own fun.
Out of the bushes, as though he could feel the bubble in Ethan's throat, came the boldest little squirrel.
I am Indiana Squirrel and I am here to go on an adventure with you Ethan. Ethan took Indiana's hand and they went on an adventure in Freedom Park that prepared Ethan for being 9 years old, like very little else that he had ever seen.
That night when he went to bed, he was a very different sort of fellow. Courage and an appreciation for wildlife was a very new thought.
A bold explorer and a couragious naturalist, came back from that walk, 10 days before 9.