Helping hand

I went over my parents house yesterday. It's the second time I've gone over in the past two weeks and that in itself is shocking. Last week I helped my mother lay down plywood. Yesterday we put down ice and water shield and then felt paper over a roof that really should have been torn up.

It's so bad we had to be careful where we stepped, or we would have gone through. Rotted to the core!

It was nice helping out. It always makes me feel good to do things and help out when I can. Especially because my dad is in a wheel chair. That's another subject for another day. They only call me when they need something though. Don't get me wrong, I love to help them, but it would be nice to have my parents call me up and say, "Hey George hows the writing going?"

They never mention my writing. I've told them many times, but for some reason it doesn't register in their minds. Funny thing, isn't it.

Back to helping them out. I love to help my Mom, but my dad on the other hand is a stubborn pain in the ass. A drunk as well, but those two, (stubborn pain in the ass and drunk) are synonymous. I don't particularly like helping my father. If anything goes wrong he blames everyone else but himself. He himself never makes a mistake and never has.

I wish I could never have made a mistake in my whole life. What I want to know is, deep in the depths of his mind, does he really buy his own lies? Does he really know about the mistakes that he has made. Is that why he drinks and drinks? So he can forget them. Does he drink to quiet that voice inside him. The voice inside all of us. The voice inside me too. That voice that helps me write. It can be a dark voice, a depressing voice sometimes, but that voice gives me the edge I need.

I don't want to suppress that voice, I want to nurture it.

How the heck did I get here anyway?

I'm Back! Hopefully!

Well, I'm back to my blog. This time, I'm going to stick with it.

Okay, let's see what I have to say.

Last week I went into my daughters class to talk about my writing. It went well. Her teacher had a couple parents come in and talk about how we come up with our ideas and how we approach it.

So, I decided that I would take a story from begining to end. A short story from scratch.

So I did, and this is what I came up with.

Vines of Wisteria

By: George A Ingram Jr.

"Come on, let’s go!" Connor said then looked over his shoulder at Angelina. It had been his idea to go through the woods and now he realized it had been a mistake. The underbrush was thicker than he had thought. Sharp thorns snagged their clothes and the tangle of vines slowed them down.

Connor could hear the Bhorg as they closed in behind them. By the sound of it, he guessed there was over a hundred heading in their direction, and there was no chance to resist. Connor stopped and doubled over to catch his breath. His lungs burned. "Their close, I can hear them."

"They won’t stop until they capture us!" Angelina said, urging them forward.

Connor knew she was right even though he hated to admit it. He had gotten in over his head and wondered how he thought a ten year old boy could save a world. He was one boy, what could one boy really do?

“We need to keep moving Connor.” Angelina tugged at his arm again.

They were running now, pushing through the tangle of thorns, blocking their faces from the scratchy vines that clawed at their eyes like a flock of crows. Connor looked ahead, and through the trees he could see sunlight. It looked as if the forest opened up and just maybe they could out run their enemies.

The Bhorg, a fat blob of a beast, resembled a wild boar on two legs. Their teeth protruded up from their bottom jaw, and their slimy snout oozed clear putrid mucus. From the looks of their bodies Connor could tell they weren’t built for speed, and that fact might be their only hope. But that was only if they could get to open land to out run them.

“Look.” Connor said, pointing ahead. “I think it opens up.”

“Keep moving.” She replied without looking.

The sound behind them was increasing. It was a roar of snapping limbs, grunts, and the clatter of metal against armor.

The thought of dying reminded Connor that he missed his family. For the first time, in the last four days he regretted coming here. He missed his Mom, Dad, and even his pesky sister. It had been almost four complete days since he had traversed here, and it had taken him all four to find Angelina. But now that he had freed her from the cage, she wasn’t any better off.

“Come on Connor!” She tugged at his arm again.

Connor looked up and realized they were almost clear of the underbrush. With one last push they tumbled out into the open. That was when he realized things were much worse.

Stopping only a few feet from plummeting to their death, they were standing on the edge of a cliff. It was the largest natural gap Connor had ever seen. Barley able to see the other side, it looked like a gap of nothingness. What Connor had thought was an open field was nothing but open air. He looked down where his feet balanced only inches from the edge. It was miles to the bottom. The Grand Canyon, which Connor hated because of his fear of heights, was nothing compared to this.

Connor turned in the direction the Bhorg was coming in. He turned again, stepped closer to the edge and looked over. There was no ledge or even a crevice they could climb onto. Just sheer rock.

Connor turned to Angelina. “What now?”

Angelina looked calm. She gazed out at the open air and smiled.

This frustrated Connor even more. He huffed over to where she stood. “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you see what were up against?”

“You’re the one that’s supposed to be saving me!” She shrugged her shoulders.

“I guess I should have just left you in the cage then….to fend for yourself!”

“I would have been better off!”

Angelina crossed her arms and turned to face the cliff. The wind blew at her hair and fluttered it around her shoulders. She was pretty, but Connor didn’t want to admit that. He watched her for a moment as she stared off into the distance, then he shook his head and turned. Girls were weird!

Connor needed to face the fact that there was going to be a battle right here on this ledge. If he was going down, he would go down with honor.

From behind him he felt Angelina’s hand in his. He turned, only to see she was smiling again. This angered him. “This is serious!” His voice was nervous and heightened in the fear of what was to come. How could she be so calm? “Why are you smiling? Were going to die you know!”

“No Connor, we aren’t.” Angelina pulled him close to the edge.

The Bhorg was close, within twenty feet and Connor knew at any moment they would burst through the thicket and attack.

Angelina pulled him close, and then hugged him.

For a split second, Connor thought she might kiss him.

“Hang on!”

Before Connor could react, Angelina jumped off the cliff taking him with her. The ground disappeared under their feet, and Connor realized he would much rather of been kissed. He felt weightless only for a second and then gravity took hold of them and pulled them down like a boulder.

“Hang on!” Angelina screamed again.

Connor did as she said, although he wasn’t sure how it would help. His back was turned to the earth so he couldn’t see how fast they were dropping. However, he could see the cliff where they had been standing safely on solid ground, and that was disappearing rather quickly.

Then a puff of white downy feathers filled in the air above him and Connor felt the struggle of gravity against his grip. He held tighter, trying to make sense of what was happening. It only took a moment for him to realize that the set of delicate wings above him was Angelina’s. She was flying, or trying to.

He looked up at her face, only inches away from his and he could see how difficult the extra weight was for her to carry. “Can you do it?” He screamed over the rush of air.

“Yes…… I can.”

Connor held on tight and remained as still as possible. Her wings stretched out over six feet in both directions and flapped against the air above him. Her white preened feathers looked soft to the touch, and Connor was tempted to reach out and touch them, but he didn’t. If he had, it would jeopardize her concentration. For a moment he wondered how close they were to being splattered against solid rock, but then decided he would rather not know.

Just then Connor felt the gravity shift. Instead of the weight pulling at them, they were pulling against it. Angelina’s wings filled with air and flapped gracefully against the current that blew under them. They were gaining altitude now, they were flying. Connor looked up at Angelina’s face and saw she was smiling again. They were going to survive! At least for now anyway.

The end (for now anyway)

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

George