Sweet Days

PILLOW FIGHT

The pillow fight was unlike any regular pillow fight, which usually took place in the daytime when the targets were plentiful and very accessible. The bigger kids usually had a mischievous smile on their face and a partially maniacal laugh just under their breath as they targeted the smaller, less old slobs (kids who they planned on annihilating in the first few seconds).

I could see the forlorn look in the eyes of those who volunteered to risk their lives because of pride or some mental injury that they had suffered in the cornfield or under the apple trees. Those Participants realized that their life expectancy just went down from 75 to 80 years to about five or ten minutes. Anyway, that’s a pillow fight by sight.

Again, I needed to explain part of the structure of the farmhouse. There were four bedrooms upstairs. The largest one was probably about twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide. The only windows in the room were at the north end. We set up the props needed to prepare the stage for what must have been some of the greatest pillow fights in man’s history. We put the double bed frame in front of the windows. To get the lighting correct, we nailed two or three layers of sleeping bags over the top edge of the window draping them over the bed frames. We brought all the mattresses from the beds upstairs and strategically placed them in the middle of the room on the floor. We then covered them with all the blankets and sheets that we could find. At that point, everybody chose a pillow.

We made sure the lighting in the room was correct, not only had we covered the windows as earlier mentioned, but we didn’t even start the games until dark. Also, we waited for mom and dad to go bye-bye in the car.

"Then, the games began,"someone would say as we watched mom and dad head out of the driveway.

We took the light bulb out of the cold room (it was nicknamed this because it had no heater duct running into it). We did that, so the light bulb would'ent get smashed when the game commenced. The only light we had was in the hallway just outside the cold room door.  All of the participants would enter the chamber at the same time except one warrior. He would shut the door and weight on the outside for a few minutes so everybody could hide in the pitch-black room. At that point, the last fighter would enter the room closing the door quickly right behind him.

“Remember, nobody could touch the last guy when he entered the room because he was a sight target. That warrior would have twenty-five seconds to disappear into a black hole, in that pitch-black room, my brother Jim reminded us before we all entered the chamber.

That room could accommodate about eight warriors at a time. None the less, the door was closed, and the room was so dark that I could not see my fingers right in front of my eyes. Not only was that room pitch-black, but it was also dead quiet I could hear my heart beating.

Total blackness and silence ruled the air.  Then two warriors crossed paths the silence ended abruptly replaced by the sound of pillows hitting flesh smack, whack, smack, crack, ouch! The first encounter.

Now there was movement in the room and the confrontation that had just taken place marked two warriors giving away their position. As they huffed and puffed from working to gather their breath, they separated and tried to disappear into the darkness. When a fighter got slammed real good, he began searching for the middle of the room to the safety mattresses, blankets, and sheets to cover themselves up until their acute pain subsided that allowed them to participate in the game later. Smash! Slam! Wham! Ouch! At that point, at least four warriors were swinging their pillows wildly at each other in the blackness. Many swings had connected as heavy breathing, the sound of pillows slamming into flesh, as well as the OOOS! OHS! And Ouches! That Permeated the air.

If you’ve ever had the wind knocked out of you, you know that a horrible sound escapes out of your throat something like “Harumph” and then “Hauuuu Hauuuuuooo ah ah.” That sound was a common sound in the cold room after dark.  Then the warriors separated to recuperate total silence filled the air once again.

So far I had not come into contact with anybody and avoided the battles. I moved around the black room as silently as possible. Then it happened, I bumped into something or someone. The hair on my arms and head began to stand on end; a bit like it does after rubbing an inflated balloon on your arm the static electricity tingles.

For a very brief moment, about .0063 milliseconds, my field of view changed. The blackness of the room became white. I took a direct hit in the face with a thick feather filled pillow thud. I was quickly dazed. I began swinging my pillow mid-air as soon as I realized what had happened. But my weapon, a feather pillow failed to make contact with anything but air. My attacker must have moved back to avoid the nearly instant reflex of my swing.

I was one of the bigger kids in that black pit … so like a twister I began to spin and moved forward my arms were stretched out forward my pillow gripped firmly in my hands ready to take out anybody I came across. My position was no longer a secret. Like a cat’s sixth sense, I was being stalked by an enemy warrior I knew it.

Still swinging my pillow, I slammed into someone wham-bam with a successful barrage of pillowing I heard that sound again the sound of knocking the wind out of someone I thought it was Jim.

As I separated from that warrior, I began taking hits from two directions Slam! Crash! Wham!  Now there were three of us involved in a pillow swinging frenzy I took an elbow to my face.

“Ouch!” I said with a chuckle.

Another player moved in I was surrounded and taking many hits those slams were not coming from great warriors they were not powerful their hits did not hurt too much. I began swinging my pillow very hard I heard a few “oohs,” “ouches” and light gasps for air. “Awe, success,” I got off seven or eight good shots my opponents broke off the battle and disappeared into the blackness. The four of us took some heavy blows during that struggle/foray. The other four pillow-snipers waited in the darkness until the clash was over so they could move in on one of the battle fatigued huffers.

The waiting warriors realized that the best time to engage the enemy soldiers was before they get to the safety of the mattress pile in the center of the room -rest up a bit and come out swinging.

It was hard to maneuver with confidence in total blackness, although we had been in the dark room for an hour our eyes did not adjust well because with the door shut there was no light source not even a crack beneath the door. I felt totally lost. I had no reference point, other than the floor beneath my feet. Finding the center of the room was my real quest. Because of the last battle, I had been in, my heavy breathing/gasping for air had given my location away I needed the protection of the blankets/sheets on the mattresses once underneath them nobody wanted to waste energy trying to hit you when you're covered up. Even to me as one of the bigger kids in the black room, I felt the dizzying swirls in my head due to too many strong warriors pillows hitting their mark my head/body.

After resting up a bit, I crawled out of the blankets and began moving across the room once again I crossed paths with somebody- somebody big and powerful I took a direct hit in the face from a warrior who turned out to be my brother Jim. I could tell by his laugh, and he nearly knocked my head off.  I swung back as hard as I could he said ouch! I was sure he was holding nothing back when he hit me, I wasn’t when I hit him.

“I just hoped he saw imaginary white, just like I had just before impact,” “I hoped he was dazed too as I was. During this barrage I took an elbow, I think, or it could have been a knee, to my nose as well as many other direct bodies hits at that point I began searching for the center of the room again, however, my search was short-lived. Out of nowhere, an invisible warrior stalked me down. Bam, whip, slam, Ua, Ouch! Then the unthinkable happened. I lost my pillow, but it was not all bad as I made a trip to the mattress in the middle of the room. I crawled deep under the blankets and sheets staying still until I got control of my breathing and licked my wounds.

 While laying there in the blankets the room became filled with silence “Without a pillow I either had to surrender and leave the game or silently search out a hiding warrior and confront him head first without a weapon,” I thought as my breathing became a bit less labored. “I only hoped I,d find one of the smaller kids who would not be able to take me out. Plus I needed to find someone I could overpower so that I could get his weapon.  I made my decision. I crawled out from the sheets /blankets once again the search was on.

Slam, wham, crash, ouch, oh. I found someone or more specifically they found me. This solder was dominant. However, I was stronger.  After he had hit me two or three times in the face I was in a daze, I tackled the enemy warrior, and we wrestled in the pitch-blackness for a few moments. In the background, I could hear…Slam, crash, wham! All accompanied by, that funny sound escaping out of somebody’s throat/airway as his diaphragm worked to keep up with his need for air….Harumph, Haus, Hauuuuuooo, ah ah. Then the door was opened.

The light flooded the room. I had thought I was in the northwest corner of the chamber. In my mind, at least, that’s what I pictured. In reality, Jody and I were fighting over his pillow in the southeast corner of the room. How disorienting that black room was it was unbelievable. Rick one of my younger brothers opened the door that was the end of the game that night.

I don’t remember how many of us got the wind knocked out of him that night, but I had a bloody nose for a while. I should have checked it after the elbow or knee got me, but I was already in a daze by then. Many of the warriors had bruises, cuts, and abrasions on their hands, arms, and faces. Nothing big enough for stitches, though. But we joyfully headed for the band-aids after the game, though, and it took a couple of days sometimes to recuperate. On the bright side, nobody killed anybody during our world famous pillow fights in pitch-blackness with invisible warriors targets. Man, that was pillow fighting at its best. Wouldn’t you agree?