NaNo Novel thus far

Current wordcount: 2332

“It stinks in here,” Ricky said.

“Smells like an old empty shack,” Simon said finally turning around to blink at its shadowy interior.

Ricky knew the smell of old buildings and had to disagree that this was the same smell.

It reminded him of the smell of animals, and of sickness.  Like the way the dog house had smelled when the puppies all caught distemper and died.

Maybe some animal had been sick in the shack.  There was a large pile of pine needles and leaves in one corner.  Something like a raccoon or an old possum might have curled up there to die.

Or maybe even something bigger, like a stray dog or even a coyote.

He thought about digging around in the pile for a skull or any bones but decided not to.  It did not smell like dead things, but he would hate to stick his hands in the pile and into something fresh dead.

“This place is neat!” Simon said.  “I bet nobody knows its here anymore.  It’d make a neat clubhouse.”

“Did you know it was here,” Ricky asked.  “Is this where you were heade3d today?”

“No.  Never seen the place before.”

“How come?  Don’t’ you come hunting out here all the time?”

Simon walked over to the pile of debris in the corner and kicked some of it around.  A moth fluttered out of the mess, but nothing dead was revealed.

“Never been this far before,” he admitted.  “I think I got turned around somewhere.  I usually come out in the Deacon’s pecan grove.”

“You mean we’re lost!”  The youner brother had yelped.  Suddenly he felt like crying and really wished he had stayed home.

Neither boy had spoken again until the rain let up and they started walking again.

Now they stopped to rest under a large tree, night was coming on and Ricky felt like crying again.

“Don’t start that,” Simon said, “Its not like we’re lost in a jungle or something.  All we’ve gotta do is keep walking and sooner or later we’re going to come out in somebodys cow pasture or soybean field.”

“But we’ve already been walking all day and haven’t come out anywhere yet!”

Ricky sat down in the wet pine straw at the base of the tree they were resting under.  His bottom lip began to tremble.  He didn’t want to cry. Only babies cried and he didn’t want Simon to call him a baby, but suddenly he just coudln’t handle it anymore.

He begain to wail.

“We’re lost and I’m wet and I’m hungry and I’m thirsty and its getting dark and I’m getting cold.  I.... want.... to.... go.... HOME!”

“Get up and quit crying like a big baby.”  Simon said.  “We’ll get home, we’re not lost forever.  Tomorrow we’ll just spend all day walking back the way we came today and we’ll be home again.  You’ll see.”

“Tomorrow?  What about tonight.”

“Its getting dark.  If we keep walking in the dark we really will get lost.  So tonight we’re going to go back and stay in that shack.”

“It stinks.”

“But its dry isn’t it?  And warmer than sleeping out here on the wet ground.”

Still sniffing and very unhappy, Ricky followed his brother back to the shack.  He curled up in a corner far from the smelly pile of leaves and fell asleep with his tummy growling for want of supper.

2 comments:

Glynis Peters said...

Glad to see you are still writing, keep going you can do it!

Sandra Rose Hughes said...

Ooh, intriguing. I hope you will post again soon.