Lost Trails

She stared transfixed at the bloated body. She waited for it to move, but she saw no signs of life. It lay propped up in an odd position, as if reclining against a pile of branches. There was no one to call for help. She was alone with it, him? There was only the sound of gas escaping from decomposition. She was frozen in place. She needed to move away and get to an adult. She hadn’t encountered a horror like this in her whole entire life. She couldn’t look away, so she’d have to reason with this monster. The whole area smelled so strange, too different.

Her uncle snored again, and it woke him up with a start. Phew, it's just Uncle John in his lazy boy. That was a close one. Her imagination nearly swept her into another world. Her mom sure has been gone a long time. Maybe she's stuck fighting monsters or guard dogs. She must have run away and left her here forever…

“Brit!, he called out, “She’s doing it again!”

“She's so weird, Claire, get in here! Leave your Uncle John alone”, Aunt Brit called from the kitchen.

She shuffled to meet her strange fate with her heart fluttering nervously. Aunt Brit gestured her over, and it seemed safe enough. Then she got a swift smack on the bottom. She squealed as her aunt told her to behave herself or she was going straight to bed.

“Why can't you be normal?”

Claire just stared at the floor and waited until it was safe to move again. Why wasn’t she normal? She didn’t have a clue. She was new. New to this house, and new to the world, but she was supposed to know something that everybody knew, and they wouldn't tell her what it was. They just gave her swats and groundings. A sadness and frustration bloomed in her chest and smothered her with shame. She would try harder to not catch anyone's attention. She thought they didn't like it when she started off daydreaming, but she couldn’t help it. Her mind pulled her away and surrounded her with adventures.

She knew they were going to tell her mom and she'd get that look on her face. That yuck look that everyone got when they looked at her. Why was she like this? How could they bear to live with no adventures? They didn't like to hear her, or see her, but she wasn't allowed to go outside. She had to sneak around and pretend to be normal. She wanted to be outside to have real adventures in the sun, and to climb trees. There might even be turtles if the creek gets water running from the rain.

She spotted a turtle in the neighbors' driveway, but they had just run it over. Why do they always get run over? She wanted to save just one, but she was always too late. She was on the lookout for a snake too. She did find the shed skin of a scorpion under a piece of wood. They might be there again, but she was stuck in this strange house forever with the different smells that were sticking to her. Her aunt kept getting out the paddle and swatting her for not being normal. She wished she could understand, but she didn't want to be dead inside with no adventures, like they were.

She didn't want to be normal. One day she would be able to show them all of the wonderful adventures they could have. You can have an adventure anywhere at any time. All she had to do was get through to them. She would keep going and show them; she would save them.