Odd Prompts: The Great Outdoors
A snippet of a work in progress
All three of them, the big man, the slender boy with a tousled mop of brown hair, and his smaller brother, fit easily on the bench seat of the truck. Bil watched raptly as his uncle put the key to the ignition and turned over the engine.
“I’ll teach you in good time,” Uncle Tom caught his intent stare. “But first, we will start with the basics.”
With their uncle narrating his movements as he drove the truck away from home, John lost interest and instead stared out the window. The horizon was so far away, beyond the rippling grasses bending in the ceaseless wind. They were mostly golden, with streaks of rust or dark browns from time to time. The scattered trees dotting the plains were an odd shape, like an open umbrella. They didn’t look like trees in most of his books.
The roads weren’t smooth, not like the space station’s corridors had been, and John found that he was holding onto the door handle when they went jolting over some stretches of the dirt track. Bil, bigger and older, was too intent on his driving lesson to be anxious. John looked at his uncle’s profile, seeing that small smile that seemed to indicate he was happy, and found that he relaxed after confirming all was well.
Looking back outside, he saw that in front of them, the road took a wide curve, and beyond that was a smear of silver against the horizon.
“There is is, boys. That’s Lake Omiokun. It’s not an ocean, not salty. But it’s not a small lake, for sure. They used it as a marker when planning the settlement from space.”
John now clutched the dashboard, drawing himself up and forward as much as he could, as though he would be able to see more if he were closer to the windshield.
Their uncle drove off the road, instead of following the curve. John gasped, but then saw that there were two lines through the grasses. Someone had driven this way before. The truck hissed as it passed through the grasses, which John was very curious about. He twisted and peered through the window, downwards.
“You can roll the window down, John.” His uncle’s calm voice made the boy start a little. “We aren’t kicking up much dust out here.”
“I don’t…” John started to protest.
“I know!” Bil leaned over his little brother. “That’s a crank. See?”
When turned, the crank lowered the window glass. John let his brother do it, and poked his head out when it was down. The wind on his face made his eyes water for a moment, so he blinked. The hissing was louder, and now he could see that it was the grass, rubbing against the metal of the passing truck.
“What did you learn?”
John could hear the smile in his uncle’s voice without even looking. “There are so many noises on a planet. The grass…”
“Grass on Ade has a pretty high silica content. You’ll want to wear long pants if you go running through it.”
John recalled their brief natural history lesson earlier in the day. “And watch for snakes?”
“Very good.”
They were close enough now that John could see the silvery water was interrupted by lines of white.
“Waves!” he blurted, hanging his head even further out the window, along with one shoulder.
“Lake Omiokun is big enough to have waves. During a storm, it will have real breakers.”
They drove out of the grass, and onto sand, moving slowly along towards the water. Bil was asking about gearing, and John was looking at the flock of white birds that wheeled overhead, with harsh cries. Finally, Uncle Tom brought the truck to a stop.
“Sand’s firm enough here to park. Never park on the dry sand, if you lose momentum it’s awfully hard to get going again, and you’ll get stuck.” He opened his door to get out, Bil sliding over and out right after him.
John stared through his open window at the long beach that went on and on, with just a hint of a curve before the horizon took it. The breeze ruffled his hair, and there was a smell of something he couldn’t identify in it.
“John?” His uncle’s quiet voice broke his focus. He was standing by the truck door, and his hand was on the handle. “You coming out here with us?”
John knew his eyes were very big. He felt cold, suddenly, even though the sun was still high overhead.
“If you aren’t ready yet…” His uncle turned his head to look at Bil, who was crouching to look at something in front of the truck. “But there are shells on the beach. And sandpipers, or something enough like them the first settlers called them that.”
John looked towards the water, then back at his uncle’s tanned face. Uncle Tom’s blue eyes were kind, and calm. He nodded.
“All right then.” Uncle Tom opened the truck door. John swung his legs out, looking down at the sand. It had been almost white where it was dry, here where it was wet and firm, it was brown. It was easier when he didn’t look up to see there was no roof over his head any more.
Tom held out a big brown hand, and John put his small pale one into it. That helped, too, a warm grip on him. He wasn’t going to fly away. Slowly, they walked together towards the water.
When they reached the point where the little waves came running up to their toes, they stopped. John lifted his chin, just a little, and listened. The waves whispered over the sand. Bil came dashing up to them.
“Hey!” He called, his voice excited, “There’s a crab over here!”
John let go of his uncle’s hand. “Where?”
This week’s prompt, “The waves whispered over the sand” came to me from Becky Jones. I prompted Fiona Grey with “The baby alien had no whiskers.”
If you would like to find out more about the More Odds Than Ends prompt challenge, and play along with us, you can find it here. It’s a weekly creativity challenge for getting the imagination moving again. I’d had to take a hiatus, but I am back to writing and mean to stick with my daily discipline.