June's Notes: Lost In A Corn Maze

Have you ever been lost in a thick green maze of corn? What about a dead, brown one? I was invited to join a homeschooling field trip to Froberg's Corn Maze in Alvin. Several families participated and we all managed to get lost in a scrawny corn field. (You would think from looking at its sparsity that we could see the exit from the entrance, but not so.)
We met in the parking lot of the market and rode in a wagon that carried us across a field and deposited us at the beginning....of the long journey ahead of us. One port-a-can stood near the entrance. I made it my goal to steer clear of that. Our young and sassy tour guide told us that we must obey the rules and that she was not above kicking us out if she needed to. Nice. I heard that part of what she said, but failed to hear the rules themselves as I was sitting up near the tractor motor that drowned out her sweet voice.
We all had useless maps in the shape of a pumpkin, a spider, and...well, something else unidentifiable. Each maze led to the other. But no one was following anyone in particular and each group thought they were on the right trail...fools that we are. I was reminded that we must stay on the path and not cross the puny strings that roped off the fields. There were dead ends marked by hay bales with signs that said, "ha ha wrong way." I saw those signs waaaay too many times.
Our group stayed together most of the time and so we stayed lost most of the time. The teenagers ran wildly this way and that and we caught a glimpse of them now and then. The little ones cried from starvation and weariness. We were like Jews in the wilderness. I stopped with my nephew Owen and niece Aubrey to shuck a cob of corn still hanging on the brown, dead stalk. We did not pull it, but unwrapped it until we found yellow. A voice told me that it was against the rules. I ignored it.
Soon it was clear that we were just going in circles. As the others started down a repeated path, I chose to break the rules. I cheated. I was not alone in my cheat. Rowan Green, an intelligent five year old - wise beyond her years - followed me. Her mom Shiloh came, too. She said she was following her cheating pastor's wife. Another nice. We jumped over two ropes and in two turns and we were out! Our joy was met by a table full of teenagers sarcastically remarking, "Y'all cheated?" I replied with a bold 'yes!' and then told them to go find the other lost Jews. My son Lee was holding baby Ivy and asked how we could get lost. I ignored him, too.
The girls fell on the ground in a dead faint upon exiting, vowing to never enter a corn maze again. Though I did not join them in the dirt, I silently made that vow, too.