Me and Bobby don’t go there no more, not after what we seen in the woods behind Bobby’s cousin’s house, the one with the crooked walk and all. We didn’t mean to find nothin. Didn’t want to find nothin anyways. Was just lookin around, maybe, throwin rocks. Bobby said there was a river for fishin.
The woods was always dark even when it was light out. Couldn’t really see nothin. Bobby never had a hat. Bugged me, way he squinted with his face bunched up. Bobby said it would take a quarter hour to get to the river, but we walked a long time, more than fifteen minutes. Bobby kept his face bunched up all the time. Should have just brought a hat.
Bobby said there was a river for fishin, but we didn’t find it. Bobby said the tracks we saw was probably bears or something, but I ain’t seen a bear with a paw like that before, not the way it was all bent around. Ain’t seen no animal with bent-around feet. Plus, the mosquitoes came out, so we had to start back anyways, so we wouldn’t get eaten alive. Bobby said we should have just gone to the river, but I don’t like mosquitoes. He didn’t even have a hat to swat them with like me.
Should have just brought a hat for the mosquitoes, but I swatted away the ones around Bobby, too, best I could. Not like I could get them all. Took the focus off those tracks, anyways, for a bit.
Ain’t seen no animal with bent-around feet, but Bobby said it was just a bear. But then the woods made noise, couldn’t even see nothin in the dark, until we got to Bobby’s cousin’s house, all bunched up like Bobby’s face hiding in the trees. Air ain’t supposed to be still like that either, so I threw rocks.
I was just standin there, throwin, while Bobby looked around. Ain’t find his cousin or nothin, but one of my rocks found a body half-buried in a pile of leaves. Bobby and I dug it out all messy, thinkin it was garbage clothes tossed out or somethin, like maybe a hat.
Ain’t never seen no animal with bent-around feet, but Bobby’s cousin probably had a crooked walk from his bunched-up toes, bunched up like Bobby’s face and all. At least on the foot he still had. The other leg was missin, and Bobby’s cousin didn’t have no fingers on his hands neither. Chew marks on him too, like a big crow was just eatin. Eye sockets open but empty and everything.
Didn’t want to find nothin, didn’t mean to anyways, but Bobby and me found Bobby’s cousin’s body buried in leaves. I told Bobby it was probably a big nest, but he said we had to start back. Couldn’t find Bobby’s uncle and didn’t have a hat, mosquitoes were still out anyways.
Bobby don’t go there no more. Not after what he seen in the woods behind his cousin’s house. Bobby said the tracks we saw was just bears or somethin, but I know a bear can’t make chew marks like that.
There ain’t bears in those woods. But there’s still some bits of Bobby’s cousin, the one with the crooked walk and all, left in my teeth.
***
This story was a personal writing challenge in which a thought from one paragraph was carried into the next offering soft repetition. The end of the story surprised even me.
How do you challenge yourself to write? What methods do you use?
Happy writing!
<3 Fal