Stories tagged “explorer”
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Murky Part I
She knew she was far away from home, but she promised herself she’d push a little further each day. Momma would be so mad if she knew how deep she was going into the Florida swamps, but the alternative was mind numbing boredom around the house. T...
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Murky Part II
She scratched her name into the dirt at a tree’s base with a stick: BREE. She frowned at it. The letters were crooked and one of the Es was bigger than the other. Bree had never been good at writing without lined paper. Still, the name was there. Thi...
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Murky Part III
She wondered how deep the swamp lagoon was and what she would name it. She liked rockets, so maybe she would call in Launchpad Lake. She told herself she could bring the spaceship she made out of a milk carton tomorrow and see if it would float. A ligh...
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Murky Part IV
In a moment of crisis people say that the brain switches into “fight or flight” mode. This means that as a large, monstrous Florida alligator was lunging out of the water toward nine-year-old Bree, its wide open mouth about the size of Bree’s ent...
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Murky Part V
Eventually the giant gator’s aggression settled and he sunk back into the lagoon. Bree used this opportunity to drop from the tree and make a quick exit. The next day, she brought a small yellow plastic box with her into the swamp . When she popp...
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Murky Part VI
Bree watched The Alligator Prince eat from her tree. She could no longer see the meat in his mouth, but he was thrashing his jaws, so she assumed he must have still been chewing. “You’ve ruled here alone for a long time, haven’t you?” she asked...
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Explorer
About this time, you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this. You see, I’m an explorer. Much like those men and women on Earth before it was fully explored and mapped, I travel to places no one else has gone before in hopes of findi...
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Murky VIII
The kingdom had been invaded. Adults crowded around it in thick clumps. “The biggest damn alligator I seen,” a man said to his video camera. “I’m tellin’ you, was bigger n’ my goddamn house!” Bree scrambled between sets of legs to find he...
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Arid Hills
The sun beat down on my back and neck as I walked up and down the Arid Hills. I was dehydrated and hadn’t eaten or drank since midday yesterday. I walked for another mile or so, focusing only on the shifting sound of my boots on the dry, cracked ...