Way back when in elementary school, there was this wonderful swath of desert between the classrooms proper and the various kiddy-sized fields. My most recent memory of it was of how small it seemed, but back in the days of glorious recess there were rolling hills and gullies galore to explore. And there were also the forts. I remember asking another person who had gone to Sunrise if they remembered the fort wars we used to have, and was gruffly rebuffed, their existance denied.
      Then I started to wonder if I was just making up memories, just to have something pleasant to associate with elementary school. But unless there was a shared hallucination, Xuemei remembers them too! In all their ludicrous detail, to boot. Forts were usually centered around a large mesquite or palo verde, although I remember a couple at the base of steep slopes or hidden in a copse of desert broom - that last one would take on a weird enigmatic quality, where girls and boys might go in the shadows of the branches when the "snow" was falling from the desert broom. One fort had a tall lookout tree that was easy to climb, while another was a giant among mesquites and actually often contained a couple of forts at a time, each maintaining a close watch on the other. Of course, there were any number of small forts that would shift mercurially with each recess from small palo verde to small palo verde.
      Groups of us would stake out a certain area every recess, brandishing our variegated clubs and setting up traps. We would set cholla segments in precarious positions, ready to silently drop on the unwary intruder who brushed a stray branch, or create elaborate stick and rock traps that would fountain sand when stepped on properly. Apparently, Xuemei was even set to stripping mistletoe of its gooey berries so the sticky mess could be snuck over to other forts and used as a messy medium for the sabotage of sitting-branches or rocks.
      Every once in a rare while, there were even abortive wars. I can actually remember one of the sand-traps improbably working during a rush of girls through a fort I was in; the sudden cloud of dust scattered the girl's charge and left us cheering and coughing as they ran off. Mostly there was peace of sorts, as we plotted out patrols or sent someone to spy on the condition of forts across the desert. We were actually usually occupied setting the boundaries of and fortifying our own areas each recess over again, and exploring what resources we had for traps and prestige (one fort was known for its high ground and shady, be-mistletoe'd tree, while in another there was an unfortunate diaspora of scared kids from an unearthed nest of spiders).
      Once, however, there was a rivalry that actually built up, and forts on one end of the desert actually stayed coherent for a while. As best as I can remember, I think I was in the fort that had the lookout tree at the time, and somehow we got pulled into defending the fort at the top of the steep slope. Several combined forts stood spread along the slope, yelling and waving our sticks at the opposing kids who were loping over the hill before us in a spread-out charge. Ironically, I remember the person who disavowed any knowledge of the forts as the one who exhorted us in a countercharge across the slope as they flanked us from the high-ground/mistletoe fort. As I turned to follow him a plastic baggy full of sand cometed passed my head; luckily, it did not bludgeon me, but its open end dropped a cascade of hot sand into my face and down my shirt. The last thing I remember of the incident was blinking my eyes furiously to clear the dust from them and standing fast midway down the slope, beating aside another kid's slashing cuts with a mesquite branch. I don't really remember whether we won or lost, but you know what?
      Those were good times.