“Callie, look a deer,” my father said.
“Come on, Dad. There isn’t a deer out there,” I said in a clear voice.
“Hush. I’m serious. There is a deer out in that field,” he said in a small, but easily heard tone.
“There is no deer in that field,” I told him once again.
“Yes there is. Have you gone blind?” he asked me.
“Dad, I’m serious, I do not see a deer!” Just then something caught my eye. A flicker of white is what I saw! “Well, I guess there is a deer in that field,” I told dad.
“Well then,” said my father.
“What?” I asked.
“Well shoot it,” he said in a quiet tone.
“Oh yeah,” I said, a little embarrassed. I picked up my gun. I had the deer in my scope, but then I noticed I was shaking. Then, I realized it wasn’t me shaking it was my dad. I looked at him.
“Oh, sorry,” he said while removing his hand from my shoulder. I had the deer once again in the scope. Seconds later, which seemed like eternity to me, I pulled the trigger.
“You got it!” my father yelled.
“How do you know?” I questioned him.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you hit him,” he said. “Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go track down that deer,” yelled my dad as he started to walk into the field.
We went up to where the deer was, and sure enough, there was a big puddle of blood. I was shaking like crazy.
“Are you okay, Cal?” my father asked.
“I got a deer,” I managed to get out of my mouth.
Suddenly my dad jerked in the direction of the woods and we went in the green forest to track down the deer I had shot. It took awhile and a lot of snagging my hair on the branches of trees, but finally we managed to get in the same area where the deer had died. We didn’t know it and it took us about thirty minutes to find it.
Finally my dad said, “Congrats on your first deer.” I looked at him with a surprised face thinking, “What the heck are you talking about?” Then he pointed and I saw my deer.
When we reached the deer the first thing that came to my dad’s mind was to make me call everyone on the face of the earth while he gutted the deer. Everyone was excited to hear the news. After I would hang up, I could see the person I was talking to call everyone they knew to tell them about my deer, even if they didn’t know me. That thought made me smile.
“Are you ready?” my dad asked.
“Yup, let’s get this four-legged creature to the pickup,” I said with a huge grin on my face.
“It’s called a deer, Callie,” he said.
“Well, come on,” I said as I headed for the clearing ahead.
Once we got out in the field my dad put the transportation tag on the ear of my deer. Meanwhile, my uncle Denny and my cousin Hunter were watching me drag my little button buck out of the field. I think Hunter was a little discouraged, but mostly happy for me.
When we got to the pickup, dad put my deer in the body of the truck. We hopped in the truck and drove downtown to get the deer tagged. In seconds, it seemed like we got there. But, before we got out of the truck dad told me, “I’m really proud of you. You did a great job.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“This stays between you and me alright. I was twenty-four when I got my first deer,” dad said. I laughed. “Oh now, stop it,” he joked.
“Come on, let’s go get this deer tagged,” I said.
“Sounds good. And one more thing, good job,” he said again.
“Thanks,” I said. Quickly we hopped out of the truck and went into the tagging station to tag my first ever deer.
