I think NaNoWriMo broke my ability to write. :/
LOLFR... well, yeah, I guess it can do that. I guess it can...
)
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"Curiosity Killed" (1279 words)
“While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.” – Stephen Covey
Sydney held the Morton salt can under her arm just like the little girl in the yellow dress on the salt container. She casually walked down the steps of the front porch towards her brother.
“Did you keep an eye on him?” Sydney asked her brother.
“Yeah, Sydney. Really, he’s not going anywhere at his rate,” replied Wyatt. Yet he kept his eyes fixed on the snail. Sydney looked over her brother’s shoulder. The snail certainly wasn’t in a hurry. But when the snail looked up, he seemed to peer into the faces of the two siblings with his four antennae, and it looked like he was smiling.
“Should I do it or should you?” asked Sydney.
Wyatt still hadn’t looked up. It was like he was hypnotized. “Let’s both do it,” he answered. He swung his arm behind him and cupped his hand. Sydney poured some salt into his hand and then she sprinkled a little onto her own palm. The salt settled within the creases of her palm.
“On the count of three?” Wyatt asked.
In unison, they both said, “One, two….THREE.” They both sprinkled their salt on their victim. They were silent as they heard the snail sizzle and writhe in agony.
Then Wyatt started backing up and jumped up and down. “Sydney did you see that?! I can’t believe it!” It was hard to pinpoint the expression on his face. It was a mixture of confusion, excitement, and maybe, fear. Before Syndey could reply, they heard the voice of their mother’s boyfriend, Buzz, from inside.
“Hey! Cut out the racket!” they heard Buzz bellow.
Buzz kill.
“So what do you wanna do now?” shrugged Wyatt. Sydney didn’t really have an idea, but Wyatt followed along as they traversed the creek and its various bits of empty chip bags and beer cans littered along the pebbles. They rolled down hills, stared at the clouds, and sat in the shade.
“Do you think we’re allowed to go inside now?” asked Sydney after she tracked a fly with her eyes, trying to grab it in her first, twice, but to no avail.
“Maybe, I think Buzz is gone. To work,” responded Wyatt.
The two kids hummed as they headed back to the house.
“Whoa! Wait, look at this!” said Wyatt as he stopped in his tracks. Under the toe-side edge of his right shoe was a thick line of ants moving to and from an ant hill just inches away from Wyatt. Sydney shifted closer, and in what seemed like no time at all, the two started to feel the grit of the sidewalk press into their knees as they scrutinized the ants on all fours.
“I got an idea,” said Sydney quietly.
“What?” asked Wyatt, turning his head towards his sister. But Sydney was already running into the house. Moments later, she was back outside, and had not even noticed whether Buzz was still around, or whether her mother arrived home. Sydney ran towards her brother, armed with something in her hand. As she came closer, Wyatt saw it was a magnifying glass.
“Cool!” said Wyatt with a smile, ready for anything spy-related. But he still had to ask, “What’s that for?”
“My friend Brian said that an ant burn up into flames if you hold a magnifying glass over it,” said Sydney.
“Let’s see if he’s right,” stated Wyatt, thinking this was a very smart suggestion. So they tilted the magnifying glass back and forth and attempted to track a single ant in the mob. But it was too hard. Those little buggers were fast. Then they tried to isolate out a single ant on Sydney’s hand while Wyatt tried to fry it, but as soon as the ant was scooped up, he grew so frantic that it was impossible to keep up with him. When Wyatt tried to hold him down, the ant finally fell off of Sydney’s small hands, probably relieved to follow pheromones once again.
“This is so hard,” Wyatt said through gritted teeth. Then he kicked the ant hill. The soft brown sandy earth transformed into a swarm of erupting ants. Instant chaos took over on that little sidewalk square.
“Wyatt!” Sydney loudly whined. “You’re screwing everything up!” She tried to pull away the magnifying glass but Wyatt held on tightly. So she pushed him back until he loosened his grip and yanked the magnifying glass away. Wyatt instantly exploded in loud tears.
But over the tears, both the kids heard Buzz burst out of the front door of their house. He stomped down the walkway and around the front lawn. Both kids watched Buzz come closer and Wyatt’s tears even halted as he watched, confused as to why Buzz walked like there was poop in his pants whenever he was angry. Buzz passed the cylindrical barrel of Morton salt tossed absent-mindedly on the grass. And as he neared the kids, he squinted to get a closer look at the knocked-over ant hill. When he finally stopped in front of Wyatt and Sydney, Wyatt resumed the crying.
“Come here you…” he growled. He roughly grabbed the corner of both of their T-shirts at the shoulder, and carried them back inside. This annoyed both kids, because they were willing to follow him inside without being hooked by Buzz’s fists, but they didn’t dare object.
Buzz pulled out two wooden chairs from the kitchen table and plopped the kids down. Then Buzz himself squatted down and looked at both of them intently.
“Now you two think about what you did,” he said seriously. Sydney nodded. Wyatt shot a glance at Sydney and then looked back at Buzz and then nodded too.
Buzz went back outside to pick up the salt and he gave a half glance at the garden that had more than one upside-down snail shell. He also tried to arrange the ant hill into somewhat of a cone and brushed off a few ants that accidentally clambered up onto his hand. Buzz came back into the kitchen, slammed the salt on the counter, glared at the two kids, and huffed. Although there was no need to single them out of a crowd, he pointed at Sydney and Wyatt, and reiterated himself, “You two stay there and think about what you did.”
He stormed off. You could barely hear the buzz of the game he was watching behind the closed door. Wyatt and Sydney didn’t say anything and they both looked down at their laps. What did Buzz do outside? It really doesn’t take that long to pick up a salt container. Was it really that big of a deal that Sydney accidentally dropped the salt that she used that morning? Wyatt pouted. He tried to remember what happened, and built up in his head how hard his sister had pushed him, and how she yelled at him. She always acted like he did everything wrong. Just because he was younger. She was the worst sister in the world. It wasn’t fair that he had to sit there too. But wait, then why did he have to sit there too?
A few minutes later, interrupting their thoughts, Buzz came out and said, “Now did you two think about what you did?”
“Yes, Buzz,” Sydney said quietly.
“I couldn’t hear you.”
Sydney cleared her throat from her few minutes of silence. “Yes, Buzz,” she said again.
Buzz turned his head towards Wyatt. “Yes, Buzz,” Wyatt said automatically.
More calmly now, Buzz stood up and said, “Okay y’all. Now go on. Be
nice kids.”
