Stephanie+D

__A War Worth Waging.__

A week had gone by and still the magic hadn’t subsided. Pennsic was filled with magic, just brimming with it. You could ask any of the 13,000 people who camped there this year; Pennsic is a whole other world. The air there is sweet; it fills your body with freedom and liberation. After rotting in mundane-ia (The normal world) for a year you are let loose in a place where you can be whomever you’d like. I was Stephanie McGregor, the Baron of Settmour Swamp’s daughter and a member of the order of the tiger’s cub and Bronze tower. For these two weeks I resided in this other world. It was small in comparison of say, Africa but huge for what it was.

The dirt roads weaved its way through camps of all sorts and sizes. Some had towering gates and ships at the front, and some just used sheet walls but there were colorful canvas tents in every single on of them. There was a food court up the hill that had the aroma of feta and spinach, garlic, Chinese food, and meat and surprisingly all those scents together didn’t make for an awful stench. It smelt of freedom, everything here was freedom. The bands playing on the corners of all the market places sounded like freedom. The markets were elaborate and filled with street performers and small little buildings and tents with everything under the sun on sale. It was freedom.

The people who walked around only added to the excitement. My garb was nothing special, just tunics and simple dresses but other people walked around in gorgeous and elaborate garb that, I’ll be honest, made me jealous and cringe at the same time. I personally applaud them because the August sun glares down on Pennsic full force which gives me even more pride towards the East Kingdom. We are in war with the Middle and all week men fight bravely and “die” in the war in full armor. How no one has died of heat stroke is a mystery. Why this is our idea of fun is one also.



This all wasn’t really my favorite part, the people were. My best friends Jessica and Mike got in the start of the second week. I hadn’t see Jessica since we met about three months ago and already we knew everything about each other. Mike I’ve known since I was about six or seven. We met one May at a much smaller camping event that the Swamp holds called Quest. He and I became very- close- assume what you’d like but above everything he was my friend and I was excited for his arrival even if he would now be a depressed stoner. His girl friend dumped him while I was at the first week of war and he decided that he would take a medicinal approach to healing his “broken” heart. The three of us had some crazy times at Pennsic like, our rock fight in the castle at the battle field.

Our adventures at this coffee shop called Inner Vagabonds where Jess flew forward in laughter knocking the table over and throwing her head back and hitting her head hard on a plank of wood.

There is also the story of the creepy woad guy who offered me free body paint telling me that he saw me across the market place and thought I had a beautiful canvas. He invited Mike and I to a private party, and me to his private studio for extensive body art in which I would need to wear minimal clothing. I believe his brush went far enough the first time he gave me woad.

Another adventure was The Settmour Swamp Pennsic. Every year was a theme; this year was the Spanish inquisition complete with our very own comfy chair and pillow. In the spirit of the inquisition I had a paddle while I worked the beer pit. Mike and Jess stood with me there because it was the most exciting place at the party. I’m convinced it was just me because when Mike worked the gate a woman flashed him to prove she was twenty one. I’d choose boobs over drunken men but they do have their own brand of excitement. The rules of the beer pit were that you must bob for beer using your mouth. If you use your hands I’ll smack you with my paddle. It seems that a lot more men enjoyed that than I expected. The most special men to drunkenly hit on me belonged to the king. The king himself was passed out after an epic game of beakers with Gwen. They came over and their creepy aura could be felt a mile away. Their words were slurred so what they told me was a hard to hear and harder to remember. I do remember, however, that they bobbed for beer for us got very close. It would seem scary but I knew I was safe. The day before I was taught the Bhethire way to fight, it was a dirty and cheap style of fighting involving a massive ring that could make steel bleed.



Besides, the water in the beer pit was Pennsic water. It was from the sink set up in the camp. The water out of there was as brown as the beer it’s self; the jokes on them.

All two weeks were amazing; sadly it’s not all fun and games. Sooner than expected it’s the last night of Pennsic. Mike and are sitting by the camp fire in a solemn silence. When we leave here we won’t set eyes on each other for another six months, that fact weighed on me like stones on Giles Cory. He was a beautiful boy whom, to be honest I adored, but he is part of this world. The SCA was a world of it’s own, a perfect world where there is no school other than an education I accumulate in the streets, there is family here. An entire camp that bands together to make sure I was being fed and protected from guys like creepy woad man and bar tenders who want me to drink even though they know I’m sixteen. There are best friends in this world too. The ones I go shopping with and destroy the hay on the battlefield with, the kind whose camp I can invade and I’m are welcomed with open arms, and there are loves in this world. The kind who I can throw rocks at and wrestles with and have that not be seen as a fight but flirting. I meditated on this fact while half falling asleep on Mike’s knee and half staring into the sky. The sky was different here everything was so clear, every star was a gem in it’s own spotlight. I suppose that’s something that attributes to the freedom here. At home the sky is gloomy and dark, like a dome was placed over my head but here it looks like we could sore up and explore the universe. The sky had no limit so I never really thought I had one either. Mike and I moved to his tent (don’t worry nothing vulgar will follow after this) we simply lied down together and I listened to his heart. With every beat another moment passed and I fought so hard to hold onto the moment. I can still remember our last night at the previous Pennsic. We started at the fire pit same as that night. His face was illuminated in the orange glow of the fire and of sleeplessness and I just watched him. He was navigating himself through thought when he turned to me. “We should sleep” he said. “I know.” He lifted me up from the ground and held my hand as we walked to his tent. Before getting there he stopped and pulled me into his arms. The air was freezing but his body was warm enough for me not to care. I shook uncontrollably with cold and sadness as two little tears found their way down my cheek. “I love you” He whispered “I love you too.” I didn’t want him to see me cry the slightest bit so I lifted my head slowly to look at him. He nudged my chin up and kissed me, very slowly like he would never let this end. It did though, last Pennsic ended and so did this one. The day after felt like a dream, a horrible awful dream that I prayed I would wake up from. My mother brought me to the mall for school shopping. The air conditioning felt like air of another planet on my skin. My jeans and tee shirt made my skin crawl, actually everything did. The posters in the mall, the clothes they sold, the cars, the soccer moms buzzing around Macys. It all made me want to barf. Where did my perfect world go? I am emerged in commercialism now. Not a world where I ran barefooted through the roads to the sound of drums and bag pipes In my mind a war was being waged. I needed to keep the memories of war fresh but at the same time I can’t keep living here praying to wake up, praying I don’t puke all over the Wal-Mart brand clothes on Stepford moms trying to save for their prized children who own Uggs at the age of eight. I am dangling in between two worlds trying to make sense of both of them but it is a war worth waging; though I don’t keep the world forever I keep the memories.