NaNo Day 1

I'm off to a slow start, thinking about skipping ahead and working on some future chapters, but the story as it stands right now is at 904 words.

Chapter One
Halloween and Swing sets

Fall. Autumn. Halloween. Pumpkins carved into jack o lanterns, and leaves raked up into big piles to be jumped. Later they would go trick or treating. After that they were going to build a bon-fire and roast hot dogs and make s’mores.

Halloween was her favorite holiday, because she got to be whoever she felt like being. Sometimes they would get to go home for her to change costumes.

Bryant did not like having to go home though, so they might not get to do it anymore. He said that having to go home for a costume change took away from candy getting time and that just was not acceptable.

All that was later though. Right then she was trying to get a kitten to quit wiggling so she could dress it up in her doll’s witch costume.

She was also watching the movers take things out of the big truck across the street.

Ms. Callabra used to live over there.

Ms. Callabra had a small white dog that barked a lot. The dogs name was Muffy, and Ms. Callabra boiled chicken to feed her. The house always smelled like boiled chicken, and Muffy was always barking.

Sari had not liked Muffy very much, but she had like Ms. Callabra. She was a little woman who always wore a blue dress and had a lot of big hats. Sometimes she would go over and play dress up with Ms. Callabra’s big hats. Her favorite one was blue, like Ms. Callabra’s favorite dress, and it had a big purple bird on the front of it, with big purple feathers on the back of it. It looked that the birds tail was poking out of the back of the hat, and it always made her smile when Ms. Callabra wore that one.

But one day the ambulance had come and taken Ms. Callabra away. Mommy had told her that Ms. Callabra had been taking Muffy outside, and had fallen down the steps.

Sari had fallen down the steps before, and it had just skinned her knees. Mommy had put a scooby doo band-aid on the scrapes and it had been all better. She offered to take Ms. Callabra one of her band-aids.

Ms. Callabra had never come home. The dog pound had come and taken Muffy away, and the house selling people had come and put a big sign in front of the house.

FOR SALE, meant that Ms. Callabra was not going to be coming home again and that had made her sad for a little while.

Eventually the house selling people had come and taken away the sign, and now the big truck was there, moving different things into the house that used to be Ms. Callabra’s house.

Sari was very interested in the things coming out of the truck. Most of them were boxes of stuff, so she could not really tell what they were. There was some furniture too, some of it looked fun. Not like Ms. Callabra’s old brown sofa.

She was looking for things that might mean the family moving in had a kid. She hoped the new neighbors did have a kid. A little girl, her age.

She did not really see anything that would mean a kid though. Just brown boxes and furniture.

She finally got the witch dress buttoned up the kittens back, and the witch hat on its head, the elastic strap keeping it in place.

“There,” she said, sitting the kitten down. “Now you are a little witch. You have to go knock on all the cats doors tonight and say, ‘trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.’ If you do that then all the kitty people will give you candy.”

Sari tilted her head to the side, her short brown hair falling over into her face and her forehead wrinkled in furious childhood concentration as she thought.

“No,” she told the kitten. “That is not right. Kittens do not get candy because it might make you sick. They will give you mouse tails. You like mouse tails right?”

“MEOW!” The kitten said, then it ran a few steps and shook its head. The witches had twisted sideways, pressing the kittens ear flat to the side and making it look very, very funny.

Sari laughed as the kitten ran away, its black tail waving in distress from the back of the dolly witches dress.

Then the most amazing thing that had happened all day happened right at that moment.

The men who were taking things out of the big truck took out something that meant one hundred percent that there was a kid moving in next door. They brought out a swing set!

Sari had learned a few things in her life, and she knew that grown ups just never did get on swing sets. Even Bryant almost never got on the swing set any more, and he was only just almost grown up.

She loved her swing set. Daddy had built it for her, and it was HUGE. It had a metal slide, and a tree house, and swings and monkey bars. It was the best swing set ever.

She used to have one like the one coming out of the truck next door though. It was all metal, and the side was plastic, and if you swung too high it would tip and tip and even fall over.

2 comments:

~willow~ said...

lovely! right now it seems like a whimsical childhood tale, not quite the "dramatic/teen angsty novel" you threatened, LoL! Thanks for sharing! I'm no ready to share any of mine yet.. maybe after tonight, when it flows better... we'll see... :)

Anonymous said...

That does sound like the best swing set ever. I totally need a swing set now. With a tree house and monkey bars and swings.

I think I might actually succeed. If I don't run out of steam after the first week. I look forward to subsequent chapters. Go for the win!