The bat hunt

There stood the old train station. A big and grey building with, what seemed to me, millions of people rustling in and out of the great stone walls. My mother was holding me by my one hand and my little bag was dangling from the other. I had my ticket in my pocket and my heart full of anticipation.

My mother was dropping me off at the train station and my father was picking me up to take me to the countryside. They did the exchange almost every weekend, and I never really noticed that they hardly spoke to each other.

I loved going on the train. I loved looking at the wold whizzing past me from the big windows. Houses and people, roads and cars would turn into trees and rivers, fields and gardens. And after I had counted 11 stops, it was time to get off. My father took me by my hand and we walked the old bridge across the river and entered the trees. I was excited and skipping along because tonight we were going to catch bats by the river.

My father's house was old and a bit tired but full of life around it. Big trees turning into a forest at the end of the road and a river running past the house just 17 steps away, I had counted. Bim the old wolf dog and Snowflake the fat cat were sunning themselves in the garden as usual. Bim jumped up and ran towards me knocking me over with his affection, Snowflake dangling around my ankles. For me that was freedom, being in nature, having animals around me and no buildings obstructing my sight to stop my thoughts. There I swung from the trees, swam in the cold river, ate berries from the forest and was one with nature, wild.

The preparation for the bat hunt was simple, an afternoon nap and a big white sheet. Warm clothes for the chilly end of summer night and some tea in the thermostat that my father and I would drink while we waited. We went down to the river where the old silver willow had stood for hundreds of years, inside it a hollow nest for the bats to keep warm. My father spread out the white sheet and we sat down to wait. I cherished those moments there in the stillness of the night. The river crawled past us singing the fish to sleep while the stars got stuck in the darkness of the water. I would wonder about the world inside the water, how different it was to our world on land. Different animals, a different kingdom where us, humans, did not rule. We were just allowed to visit until our lungs needed another gush of air.

I would ask my father endless questions and he always knew the answers, he knew so much about nature, not so much about the nature of humans. And then, a bat would land on the white sheet. Quietly my father and I would crawl closer, take one end of the sheet and close it on the bat. Just for a moment we caught him. Just for a moment we laughed with joy and victory and then we opened the sheet and let the creature take off into the night to be free and wild again.