Draft excerpt from my short-story "The Enduring" ...
With winter nearing, Elijah occupied himself with the woodpile, often supplied by Malcolm, easily handling the maul, sing-songing a string of thoughts while splitting logs.
“Chop, chop, the chopping block. Mock me, sucker, I’ll knock your clock. No way, no way, you’ll get away. Chop, chop, the chopping block.”
He’d also unchain the dogs and daily walk with them in the woods, feeling like he set them free, himself free, feeling connected to something along the trails and long-abandoned logging roads that would settle him.
“Free, free, run for the sun. Dogs are gunning it on the hunt. This way, that way, anyway now. Free, free run for the sun.”
#
It wasn't entirely unexpected, a day in that looming winter that etched itself in Malcolm's mind as another defining moment in his life. It had a particular eerie vibration that chilled him, that he could feel sweeping across an ancient upcropping of tree-covered bluestone shale like a wild spirit in the wind. Still it seemed sudden, the sisters sensing it too, electric. They looked up at the sky, low dark gray clouds moving much more swiftly than the gray masses above them. Heralds of foreboding.
Both the sisters and Malcolm heard the vehicle coming up Claw Valley Pike, the tires in the loose gravel and dirt, coming from the direction of the Pennsylvania border. ...
Title - Scooter
Key Characters:
MADELAINE KRUTCHER - Hate this thang, what, quad cane, fallen again, don't they know I'm a Red Hat girl, damn legs swollen again - cat tripped me, Snookie lick my face, Nippy, you're ignoring me - want me to have a motorized wheel chair, little ramps on my hardwood floor - feel me, feel my skin, feel it all - nobody touches me - I'm the nice one with cute little dogs, lots of cats, and here I am fallen by the litter boxes, full, elbow in one, doctor says at my age, what, 68, need a health care worker, if he's a man OK, otherwise, skip it. Rhonda comes to clean, but not this week, only when she wants. Drink, drink, drink, drink, I need a drink, a man, Horace is gone, other one too, husband, what was his name. .. age makes you forget but how could I forget that. .. Rusty, Rusty was lusty, dead too. Oh. .. can't get up. Oh no, not Rusty, Russell.
BILLY DAISY - Floating, didn't need a license for the scooter in this state, feels like riding on rubber, frame liquid, flowing, rocking, rolling, what speed, who could tell, so high, shimmer shimmer, up to Cliff's and Samantha's, cooking it, smoking it, out again, book me, fuckers, I'm out again, nobody I am, nobody but the scooter under my legs, swirling. Could see that little lady down in the hollow from the yard where Cliff shot golf balls into the hollow, using an iron, where the hell did he get them from, he called them goof balls, funny man. Little lady on the back porch with a bottle, must be vodka, got to pay her a visit. Place might be warm, this one's cold, electricity water turned off, candles, love the flickering, what they doing now those two. Little lady want a visitor? I'm the one the swat team snared when I tried to kill myself after I scared off my lady friend in that house by the state park, shit, one year is all they took from me, then rehab, what fools, what a joke. Little lady, I got a rap sheet, I'm bad, you want bad?
RHONDA STILLMAN - Calls me her friend, tightwad bitch doesn't pay me enough to clean up all that cat crap, but she's a worry the way she's started carrying on, in a way I got to keep an eye on her, but I got enough troubles, don't need hers, she'll get what she wants, can pay for it, but what neglect, how could she not see that, downsliding like she is.
CLIFF BREADSWORTH -
SAMANTHA JENSON -
NEIGHBORS (to be named) -
SHELLY ROSE - neighbor - Madelaine worries me, no doubt needs groceries, bright lady bright eyes bright humor (is it an act? There's a dark side) - what a mess her place fine furniture, could be elegant, probably was once, wants to know about the revolver in her drawer.
CAROLYN CORTRIGHT - next door
ROBERT SKILLEN - property owner where meth couple lives
Firefighters etc -
EMTs -
Police -
