Bugs - Day 2

“Ouch!”

Timmy tried to open his eyes and then realized they were already open. It was just dark – way dark – just like that time he feel asleep, hiding in his parent’s closet and woke up after the sun had gone down.

“Ouch!”

Something was sticking him in the back. He tried to turn around to see what it was, but he couldn’t move. In fact, he couldn’t move anything – he was stuck. Consciousness began to return fully and Timmy realized he was actually laying down, held fast to the ground by sticks and bushes.

“Help!” Timmy yelled, but the sound that came out of his mouth was soft, weak, and lonely. This scared Timmy more than being stuck. “Help me, I’m stuck!” Then there was more silence.

“What in the world…”

Timmy remembered following the ants into the woods. He remembered being scraped by that stupid sticker bush and wiping the blood from his arm on his pants. He remembered hearing something deeper in the woods and kind of remembered going to see what it was.

Next thing he remembered was waking up, stuck.

As Timmy’s eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he started seeing the dark was not as dark as he first thought. He could make out some of the tree branches that pressed up against his face, but beyond that, nothing.

“Hey!”

A drop of something hit Timmy on the side of his face. He instinctively stuck his tongue out and tasted the liquid.

“Water”

“Oh great.”

Bugs - Day 1

"Mommy, can I go out and play?"

"Sure honey. Just stay close. It looks like it might storm later."

"Thanks, Mommy."

Slam.

Heavy steps on the back porch -- well as heavy as a slender, 8 year old boy can make on his way to his next adventure.

"Man, looks at those ants."

Timmy loved ants. He loved all bugs, but especially ants. These were the little ants that didn't bite. He loved the big ones more, with their big pincher jaws, but the little ones were enough to grab his attention on this muggy August afternoon.

The ant trail took him out of his backyard into the woods. Timmy loved the woods. His mother didn't, ever since that thing happend earlier in the summer. Timmy wasn't allowed to go into the woods since that thing happened, but ant trails were ant trails, and they lead into the woods, and hey, he was just an 8 year old boy.

Timmy was a smart boy. Timmy knew a lot of things. But Timmy also didn't know a lot of things.

Timmy didn't know that the storm his mother mentioned would be so bad. Timmy didn't know that the ants he was following would lead him down such a dark pathway. Timmy didn't know that a pair of eyes had been focused on him ever since the back door slammed shut. And Timmy didn't know that the next five days would change the world around him so dramatically.

"Ouch!"

and the adventure really began.