The problems was that he was a bully to us younger scouts - stealing our food, popping our tents in the middle of the night, sending our underwear up the flag pole, shaking the outhouse while we were inside.
Now I don't want to sound like a baby, because those things when done in the right spirit are downright funny, but "Fred" didn't do these things in the spirit of fun. He just wanted to terrorize us and try to make some of the younger scouts cry.
When he stole "Kenny's" sleeping bag and dropped it into one of the outhouse holes -- well, that was going too far. But what could three 12-year-old scouts do to get back at a 6'0 tall muscular 16-year-old?
"Why don't you tell on Fred?" one of the scouts asked Kenny.
"No, way!" said Kenny. "Don't you remember what he did to Larry when Larry told on him? Whenever there wasn't an adult around, Fred would punch Larry and call him a baby. That's why Larry stopped coming to scouts."
I knew what Kenny said was true, but I have never liked bullies. I vowed to get even with Fred. Even if it meant getting beat up.
We were at a week-long scout camp located on the Oregon coast. The camp was beautiful situated right next to the Pacific Ocean. A small lake was just a stone's throw from our campsite. Because of the ample rainfall, everything was lush and green. The berry bushes and undergrowth beneath the old-growth forest grew several feet over our heads.
This was perfect for a game called "Sentry".
The rules of "Sentry" are pretty simple. In fact, they are a whole lot like "Hide and go seek" except with a manlier sounding name. And we always played it at night.
A base was chosen for the "Sentry" to protect. We would all scatter and hide while the "Sentry" came and looked for us using a large high-powered flashlight. If he caught us and identified us by name, then we were out. When one of us made it back to the base without being caught, we would get a point. The one with the most points at the end of the night won.
We were having fun until Kenny sidled up to me holding his ribs.
"Fred just punched me in the ribs" said Kenny holding back the tears. I could tell that he had had the wind knocked out of him. He was taking in large gasps of air.
"Yeah" said Leroy. "He chucked a rock at me and caught me right in the head."
The lump he showed us looked swollen and tender.
Sure enough, when I looked over at Fred, he had an evil smile on his face confirming what Kenny and Leroy said was true. He drew his finger across his neck and pointed at me. I knew I was next.
"Let's stick together" said Leroy. "Safety in numbers."
As we went to hide, we realized that Fred was following us. We picked up the pace and tried to find a good hiding place, but all the good places had already been scouted. We needed someplace that Fred would never think to look.
As we walked along the trail, we realized that Fred was closer than we thought. We found a large tree and stepped behind it. It wasn't a great hiding place because it was right next to the trail, but it was the best we could do with Fred so close.
As Fred got closer, we edged around the tree to stay out of his flashlight beam.
Suddenly, Leroy disappeared with a yelp! One moment he was standing there next to me, the next minute he had vanished into thin air!
Fred must have heard the yelp because the flashlight beam froze on our tree.
Fearing Fred would find us. Me and Kenny stood perfectly still.
"Pssssst!" came a hiss right beside my right foot.
To say I jumped is putting it mildly. I almost started to yell when I heard a "shhhhhhh!"
"It's me!" said Leroy somewhere right below us. "I've found a hiding place!"
Kneeling down, I felt around where Leroy's voice was. There was a large hole in the ground that went under the tree we were standing next to. It was the perfect hiding place for three scared scouts.
As quickly and as quietly as we could, me and Kenny slid into the hole. Wild ferns hid the hole from view.
"I know you're there you little punks. You might as well come out and get what's coming to you" said Fred.
As he got closer, we realized that there was a small hole that looked out onto the trail above us. The hole was just big enough to fit a hand through, but not large enough to expose us.
The hiding place was excellent! Fred wandered back and forth trying to find us. We could hear him cursing as he realized that we had given him the slip.
"It's only going to be worse if you don't give yourselves up. I swear I will make you hurt!" Fred said.
All the time, I kept getting angrier and angrier.
We waited in silence until Fred came walking by again. We could tell by the light of his flashlight that he was getting closer. He stopped in front of the tree. I could see his shoe through the hole.
I quickly made up my mind.
Without making a sound, I reached through the hole and grabbed his foot. With all my strength, I began to pull it into the hole.
The surprise was complete. Fred tripped and fell giving me more leverage to pull his foot partially through the hole.
"Ahhhhhh! Help, help!" yelled Fred at the top of his voice. Fred began to kick his foot to get it loose. One of the kicks caught me right on the cheekbone, but I held on for dear life. My fellow scouts realized what I had done and grabbed his foot to help drag it in, but with a mighty kick fueled by fear, Fred got away still screaming at the top of his lungs as he ran back to camp.
We waited several minutes before returning to camp. All of the leaders and most of the older scouts had heard the commotion and were now listening to Fred.
"...it must have been a bear because it grabbed me and started pulling me into it's lair" Fred was saying.
Nobody paid any attention to us that evening. But once in a while, uncontrollable laugh would issue from our tent. For several hours the leaders and older scouts hunted through the bushes with flashlights looking for the "bear". If only they knew that the bear had the giggles, they might have found it.
Fred continued to try to terrorize us for several months, but suddenly we were no longer afraid of him. Whenever he tried to pull something on us, we would look at each other and start to laugh as we remembered the night Fred got mauled by the bear.
