The tree had died and there couldn’t be any doubt about it. It had hung in for a few years, sprouting a few green branches every summer, even though the rest of the tree stayed bare. But that spring even those last, surviving branches hadn’t come back. Now the tree was just a wooden skeleton … [Read more…]
I can’t remember what the adults were doing, all I remember was that they weren’t around. It was a gang of kids that gathered in the dirty wasteland between the houses. We had all moved into a new subdivision, and though the houses were done, the yards hadn’t been finished yet. Between the houses, there … [Read more…]
Newton was the first one to go inside. The animals had been circling around the place for months, wondering what was going on inside, if anything. Of course, they had a whole forest to work with, so the tower was interesting, but hardly the most important thing on their minds. The last couple had left … [Read more…]
I don’t imagine anyone likes having bugs on them. So I’m not sure how unique my problem is. Though I really hate it. And I worry about it. The idea haunts me, and when I go to bed at night, I have to check the sheets to make sure there’s no bugs. The idea of … [Read more…]
Thorpe had been reading for several hours, hoping that he’d be able to just doze off. It was two in the morning, and still absurdly hot in his tiny apartment. The book was good, and though he’d hoped that he’d start dozing off, it never happened. He just kept reading and mentally complaining to himself … [Read more…]
Jacob was alone in the playground. He sat on top of the play structure and just looked around for a while. It was a weekday afternoon, and everyone else was at school. Jacob was staying with his dad, however, and his dad saw school as being like a kid’s work. So, when Jacob had felt … [Read more…]
Nathan didn’t know how long he’d been ignoring the growing light beyond his eyelids. For all he knew, it could have been seven in the morning or noon. Finally, however, he knew that he’d have to get up. His headache wasn’t getting any better while he lay there. He opened his eyes to the blinding … [Read more…]
It was around two in the morning and Daniel was awake. It always happened that way. He would fall asleep at ten or so, but then he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. He didn’t want to wake his parents or his sisters up, so he just … [Read more…]
On that morning he just kept lying in bed. He generally forced himself to get up as soon as he woke, but that morning he decided that he’d just have a bit of a lie-in. He knew that he’d have to resist lying around the next morning. It would be habit-forming, and he didn’t want … [Read more…]
As Jack lay down to go to sleep, he heard what sounded like a man behind him clearing his throat. It sounded like it was coming from the other side of the bed, and so with some alarm, he sat up and turned the bedside lamp back on so he could see what was happening. … [Read more…]