Excerpts from my Books
Growing up on the
Appalachian Trail
As he was making his way back to the trail, he noticed
something wiggling between two rocks at the edge of
the stream. He approached it carefully. It was a large
grey squirrel who had wedged his rear foot into the
rocks and could not free himself. Megalo couldn’t help
but laugh at the sight. The squirrel was in some distress,
and became extremely frightful at the sight of Megalo
looking over him. Grey squirrels are part of the Black
Bear’s diet.
“Oh, please don’t eat me, please, please, please!”
screamed the squirrel.
“Slow down, little buddy,” said Megalo. “It looks like you
have a problem.”
“ Well, yes, I do”, said the squirrel. “I was chasing an acorn that had dropped from that Oak tree into the stream and was just about ready to grab it when my leg got wedged between these rocks.”
“Can you swim?" asked Megalo.
“Not very well,” said the squirrel.
Megalo sized up the situation. He said, “ Ok, I am going to put my front paw just in front of you. You grab it with those sticky little feet. Then I am going to use my back paw to move this rock, I hope just enough to free your back leg. “
“Well, I don’t know,” said the squirrel, “that rock is pretty big, but if you think you can, I am ready.”
And with that, the squirrel jumped and grabbed Megalo’s front paw. Megalo wedged his back paw between the rocks and pushed. Nothing happened. “This is harder than I thought,” he said.
“Yes, well, it is a big rock,” said the squirrel.
“I can do this,” said Megalo," hold on.”
He then gave out a ferocious roar and pushed with all of his might. The rock moved just enough for the squirrel to free himself. He latched on to Megan’s front paw and scampered up to the top of his shoulders. Megalo chuckled because it tickled. Rock by rock, he crossed the stream back to the Trail. He sat down on the edge of the Trail. The little squirrel jumped off. He came around to face Megalo.
“Thank you! That was quite an engineering feat, not to mention how strong you are.” Megalo blushed.
“Oh,” said the squirrel, “and thank you even more for not eating me.”
Megalo stammered and said, “Ah, ah, I don’t eat red meat.”
“ Well, thank my lucky stars!” said the squirrel.
The Paperboy Chronicles
We arrived at Cathbads' at 6:30 pm. From across the street,
we could see that the house was lit up. There were several
cars in the driveway, but the garage looked dark. We crept across
the streetto Cathbad's backyard. The hemlock
trees gave us good cover. Gently, I tried the back door to the
garage. It was unlocked. I peeked inside, but no one was there.
We hustled in. The back door was almost directly in line with the
stairs to the loft. There was a small space to the left of it, then the
garage door, which was closed. There were no animals in the garage.
We looked around and could tell the place was set up for some event. All the chairs had green cushions and were perfectly spaced around the low, round table, which had a white, round tablecloth on it.
The pulpit was moved closer to the round table and had a solid red sash draped over it. I looked up. The same wreath was on the wall, but someone had woven holly branches with red berries through it.
The sticks are wrapped in some delicate green foliage. The garage had a heavy, wet smell as if it needed a good drying out. Mariko tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the round table. On the table were twelve amulets shaped like different dogs arranged in a circle, one in front of each chair. The amulets were tied to a leather strap about the length and width of a shoelace. Each amulet was different.
I looked closely at them all, and I swear one looked just like Joey. My butt cheeks were tighter than a snare drum. I motioned the girls to go upstairs.
The loft was empty. I put the bag with the fire stairs in it down and opened the window. Cold air rushed in as if looking for a place to hide. It shook the curtain.
"Eddie, we'd better close it," whispered Lauren.
I could see the black curtain moving. I nodded and gently closed the window. The loft looked over the whole setup.
Lauren pounded me on my back. She moved closer, inches from my face. Her eyes were wide open, terrified.
"What happens if someone presides or looks over the proceeding from up here?" she asked. I hadn't thought of that one.
"We'll be in trouble," I said, "but they won't murder us. At least, I don't think they will."
"Too late! Now we're committed," said Mariko.