THE 'V' ROOM

     Imagine a fairground.  Memorial Park, our fairground.  To all children in San Leandro.  A small city in California.  The big fort, a wooden made obstacle for the adventurous, climber!  The animal lovers enjoyed dolphin and seal teeter totters.  The pirate bridge was a eye catcher!  Shiny, braided armor constantly swaying you from side to side.  Daring you to cross to the plank slide!  Only for the imaginative, dare devils.
     The most daring of all, at least, I thought at the time, the sky scraping slide!  Stepping to the sky was breath taking!  Placing your Cheetah tennis-shoes on something the size and width of a loaf of bread, was your way to the top!  Being told, "Just go!  Don't look down!"  Of course, everyone would look down.  The last step was success!  You were in the cave of space. 
     Surrounding you were short, gray, steel walls.  Looking over, down the walls, you could see the whole world beneath you!  Sliding down this swirled, metal monster, immediately transformed into a non-mechanical roller coaster!  The ride of the century!  Until you grew past that stage.
     The final stage, the exploring of the, 'V' room!  Not knowing what to expect.  Only to imagine by stories told from those who'd already been.  Tackling the cyclone fence was like a smaller fort.  No problem.  Once on the other side, glaring down this mass of land, it appeared to be a mountain climber's dream.  The feeling was intense!  Grasping the earth for your down, slide to the bottom, felt like riding a huge, water slide!  This maneuvered intensity to thrilling fun!
     Nature's beauty set the atmosphere.  At the bottom, a clear stream.  It danced along the earth's bed.  Gently, as a Monarch fluttering in the wind.  In eyes view, a rainbow of berries.  All different shades of the night's sky.  Greeting you graciously to taste them.  Familiar sounds of children laughing, cars honking, the ice-cream trucks song, began fading away.  The everlasting, dancing streamed lured your every step.
     There it was!  Hiding in ivy vines.  Curiously, welcoming you to enter a stone-age world!  Autumn cold, dampness ruling the air, darkness crept within!  Towering shadows fought the sun's bright eye, which crept in the cave's mysterious, mouth.  The walls seemed to shrink with every step!  Darkness won the argument!  The shimmer of light disappeared.
     Silence of scarce breathing, rodents scampering, water whispering, odors of foul musk, lingered through the tunnel.  A flashlight provided dim light.  Curiosity kept you in step.  Determined to see, there it was, the 'V' room!  A 'V' shaped entrance.  It was bedded in slimy, moss.  A entrance to another dimension!
     Success filled the tunnel!  It was the 'V' room!  No person would enter the web of moss.  It was like a sacred shield.  It seperated you and whatever exsisted beyond.  You had to indent your intial in the moss.  That was your marking of bravery!  You were there!  Once you completed your initial, you were on your way back to civilization.  Anxious to gather with friends under the oak tree, to tell your story of the legendary, 'V' room.