Flash fiction by Eric S. McMurtrey
Colin and Amanda listened in from the fringes as Summer, Ben, Kemal, Katrina, and Herman all spoke animatedly about the day’s travel plans. The group stood in the band of light offered by the supply truck’s oversized headlights, for the most part too absorbed in their own discussion to notice the beautiful sunrise over the mountains to the East.
Truth be told, Colin was less than half-listening, at best. The bulk of his attention was focused on the cranky old Army Truck that idled unevenly a few feet behind him. On first sight, he would have pegged it for being a World War II era two and a half ton, but on closer inspection he decided it was likely twenty to thirty years newer. If it had been in better shape, it actually would have been kind of fun to work with. It was built to be almost indestructible, had great power, and a ‘multi-fuel’ engine that would burn anything from peanut oil to diesel fuel if the proper adjustments were made.
It just didn’t always run the best, especially first thing in the morning.
Katrina broke away from the group and approached Colin with a disapproving look. “Colin, I was not seeing you
at breakfast this morning.”
“I wanted to get a jump on inspecting the vehicles, especially ‘Leapin’ Lena’ here,” he said, gesturing over his shoulder.
“Still, you need to eat,” Katrina answered, hands now on her hips.
Colin grinned and nodded toward Amanda. “Amanda said the same thing when she brought me a bundle of bacon, a pancake,
and some O.J.. It’s in the truck, and I promise I’ll knock it back as soon as we’re moving.”
As if on cue, Summer approached them looking a bit frazzled. “I think we’re ready to go. Colin, if you…”
Colin smiled as he interrupted, “No problem. We won’t hold up the show if we’re bringing up the rear.”
As if to fill the void left by Summer as she turned and hurried off to the crew bus, Katrina seemed to become all the more cordial as she clasped Amanda’s hand warmly within her own. She began, “Amanda, I must ask a favor of you.”
Amanda smiled. “Absolutely anything.”
“Our Colin needs watching out for, yes?”
Her smile widened and she glanced at Colin, who didn’t seem to know what to make of this. Conspiratorially, she answered. “Yes… Most definitely.”
“Good,” Katrina beamed. “I leave it to you, then, but see if you can fatten him up a bit. He is just too skinny.”
Amanda giggled.
“Be safe, you two,” Katrina said with a final smile before turning to board the crew bus.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Rick McCluskey // Feb 25, 2008 at 10:14 am
I’m not sure where this is going, though I am curious. There’s a lot going on and the references are intriguing.
When do we get to see the rest of it?
2 Lisa Adamowicz Kless // Mar 4, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I agree with Rick, that this is an intriguing excerpt. By the way Katrina speaks, I’m deducing that English might not be her native language. So that adds a bit of interest for me–where is she from? What is she doing with this group of people? (More importantly, what IS this group of people doing)? I hope that you share more of this at a future meeting!
3 Eric McMurtrey // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Thanks for the comments…
It’s from a work that never will be done, to be honest. Here’s a preceeding section:
As the headlights from Colin’s pickup tuned up the cobble driveway, his stomach lurched. He looked onto the hill in front of him, and saw lights burning in what must have been a hundred windows on the Schaffer’s estate.
Suddenly it was all very real – the commitments he’d made, the trip he was going on, the cause he was dedicating this part of his life to…
It was happening.
Not really having any idea what to do, he pulled up in front of what he assumed was the front door. A friendly-looking older woman was standing on the front step with her arms folded, so he put the pickup in park and got out to ask if she had any idea where he was supposed to go.
He had barely gotten two steps away from his vehicle when she met him with a broad smile.
“You are Colin, Summer’s friend,” she stated with a heart-warming accent.
“I am,” Colin said, smiling.
“Welcome… Welcome… ” Katrina said. She took his arm and led him up the stone steps toward the door. “Summer has told me much about you. How was your trip?”
“A little long, but just fine,” Colin said. He stepped through the doorway and stopped in awe.
Katrina stopped, and looked where he looked, and for a moment, saw things as he saw them. When he finally came to himself, he met her gaze, eyes still wide.
“I am a very lucky woman,” she half-whispered. Her smile returned, and she patted the arm she still had locked around her own. “You must be very tired. Come… We will find you a room.”
As they waked through the wide hallways with the marble and hardwood floors, Katrina pointed out artifacts on tables, paintings on the walls, and even stopped once at a bookcase to show him a leather-bound volume that was her husband Herman’s memoir, published in German.
As Katrina walked, talked, and explained, the mansion slowly turned into a home – a collection of things from her life. Colin listened intently, and understood very well how hard she and her husband had worked to have these things. The late hour seemed to escape them both, and it was more than an hour later before they stepped back outside and started around the pool toward the guest house.
As they neared the door, Katrina said, “The others should be asleep by now, so we must be as quiet as possible, but I wish to tell you…”
Colin stopped walking at turned to meet her gaze.
“I am happy you are here – for Summer, and for Herman and me.”
Colin nodded. “The pleasure is mine.”
Smiling wider than she had all evening, Katrina gave him a quick hug. “We shall have a wonderful trip, and find incredible things.”
She opened the door and led him inside. The room was dark, illuminated only by moonlight, but seemed instantly cozy. They appeared to be in a living room that opened onto a small kitchen. A hallway left on one side of the room, and a narrow staircase on the other.
Carefully, Katrina moved through the darkness to the stairway and began to climb. The hallway was narrow, with two doors on either side and one on the end. Both doors on the right were closed, and the first on the left was open with the light on.
Katrina and Colin had just gotten past the first room when the door at the end of the hallway opened and a pretty blond-haired woman stepped out. She was a bit shorter than Colin, and he guessed she was getting ready for bed, dressed in a cotton tank top and pajama bottoms. She turned off the bathroom light, and grinned as she padded toward her room on bare feet.
“Amanda dear, you should be asleep!” Katrina whispered.
“I know… I know… But I wanted to write to my Dad and tell him how wonderful everything is,” Amanda smiled. She squeezed past Katrina in the narrow hallway. Colin, being much bigger, presented a bit more of a challenge to get by. “Umm…”
“Oh… Excuse me,” Colin whispered as he backed out of her way.
“Sorry,” Amanda grinned sheepishly as she slipped past. Before she stepped into her room, she extended her hand to Colin and whispered, “I’m Amanda Karnes.”
“Colin Pennington,” he said as he shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Amanda smiled warmly.
“Enough! Enough! Off to bed for both of you!” Katrina whispered. She gestured to the room with the open door. “Colin, your things are in here.”
Colin stopped in front of Katrina and said simply, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. We’ll talk much in the morning, Yes?”
“Yes. Good Night.” Colin smiled. He turned and disappeared into his room.
As Katrina turned to leave, she found Amanda still peeking out the door to her room.
Smiling in her motherly way, as she passed by Katrina whispered, “Bed!”
4 Lisa Adamowicz Kless // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Well, now you really have me wanting to read more (again), Eric! It’s a shame that it’s something that might never get finished. I understand how that happens though, when one starts writing something and then you just sort of come to a complete standstill. Hang onto it, though! You never know when inspiration might strike and you’ll want to pick up the pen (or start typing!) again…
5 Eric McMurtrey // Mar 10, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Well, here’s the honest lowdown. This was… ‘Practice’. A friend of mine and I did this as a ’story-around’. She created the characters, set some basic background for what was to transpire, and began the story with a couple of pages. From there, I’d do a couple, and then she would, and so on and so forth.
Perhaps not rather productive, but… It was a real hoot. Somehow, life took over and we lost interest, but it was fun while it lasted…
If I go digging around, I might just have a tidbit from the other direction in the timeline that is my work to post…
*Searches Frantically*
“Colin, we’re being watched,” Amanda whispered tensely. Her binoculars still to her eyes, she watched a barely exposed boot heel behind a mound of overgrown sawgrass. Whoever was watching them was trained in such things – that much was certain. “How much longer?”
“Well, she’ll move now, but I don’t know if it’ll hang together very long.” Colin frantically finished tightening the last bolt on the universal joint he was working on.
“We’re either going to have to know that we can move, or we’re going to have to deal with our friend,” Amanda whispered, still crouching behind the tires. She watched Colin wriggle out from underneath the truck with a ratchet in his hand. “If my guess is right, he’s not going to let us get very far.”
“Any suggestions?” Colin asked. “This is a little bit more your field.”
“I’ll betcha anything his buddies are waiting on down the road to trap us. If we go that way, we’ll be sharing hostage rations with Summer and the Schaffers before we know it. If we try to back out of here, that guy’s going to cut us in half. I’m really not interested in tangling with him, but I don’t see any other way.”
Colin eyed the 9mm pistol Amanda was holding warily. The silencer she’d screwed onto the end of the barrel made her intentions clear.
“Colin, he’s going to kill us if we give him the chance. He’s going to have a radio – if we don’t get him, he’ll call for help, and then we will have problems.”
Colin looked as though he was about to be sick. He looked off into the distance for a long time, unseeing, before he answered, “Alright. What can I do to make this work?”
Amanda tried to smile reassuringly. “Don’t think less of me for what I’m about to do.”
Words wouldn’t quite come, so Colin nodded slightly. He took the binoculars Amanda handed him, and slipped between the tires so he could watch their enemy.
Carefully, Amanda moved further to the back of the truck, then crouched low so most of her body was hidden by the rear bumper and trailer hitch. She closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath or two to calm her nerves. It was odd, but the voice of her D.I. in boot rang back into her ears… “In this business, you’ll come to a time when it’s going to be him or you. Learn what I teach you, and I’ll make sure it comes out being him.”
Amanda opened her eyes and rested her arms on the bumper. She sighted down the barrel, and decided it was going to be a heck of a shot at this distance. Raising the barrel a fraction of an inch to correct for the trajectory, she took a final deep breath, and slowly squeezed the trigger.
It happened in a heartbeat; she knew she’d been successful. The muffled ‘frump’ of her gun’s discharge, the red cloud that had briefly enveloped the sawgrass, and the way the boot heel tensed and then lay unmoving…
Colin’s touch on her shoulder startled her back to reality. When she turned to look at him, her eyes had lost their sparkle.
He smiled half-heartedly… “Hey… We’re still here…”
She just looked at him, with a tear forming in the corner of her eye. “Umm… We should get his gun…”
Colin sounded more confident than he felt. “You stay here. I’ll go…”
“Colin?”
He looked into her eyes and saw things he’d never hoped to see. Her tears were an unmistakable doorway to her anguish, and for a moment, Colin just stared, not sure what to do. Finally, in the most natural of actions in the most unnatural of circumstances, he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle embrace.
6 Eric McMurtrey // Mar 10, 2008 at 8:08 pm
One last piece, just for the heck of it…
Again, a preliminary setting…
A warm breeze ruffled through her hair as she took in the scene around her. The cloudless night had left her a sky full of stars, and the moonlight shimmered gracefully on the pool in front of her. Except for the wind rustling softly in the palms, it was absolutely quiet.
She laced her fingers together and swept her arms above her head, stretching all the way onto the tips of her toes. As she did, another gentle wind brushed over her stomach and legs in a gentle massage.
Her eyes closed as she settled onto her feet, and she breathed slowly in and out.
She smiled.
Even she couldn’t believe she’d been so stressed only an hour before.
Seconds… Minutes later (She wasn’t sure which…) She tugged at the knot on her sarong and the lithe fabric fell away. She deposited it next to her towel, then turned back to slip into the water. An involuntary gasp squeaked out as she felt the cooler water, and she quickly rolled onto her back
She floated along almost effortlessly looking up at the stars. She’d always wanted to study more astronomy, but just couldn’t seem to get around to it. She cast about looking around for the one constellation she actually knew – Orion, but didn’t seem to see the distinctive stars in the sword or belt anywhere.
Silly girl…
She suddenly realized the constellations wouldn’t be in the same place from the other side of the world. With a hint of a sheepish smile, she contented herself to stare at the distant cloud of stars that made up the bulk of the galaxy.
A flash of movement off to her right caught her attention, and she rolled onto her feet to stand with just her head above the surface of the water. She squinted through the water still in her eyes, and decided it was a stray cat on the prowl for its evening meal.
With a few short strokes, she swam to the edge. Readjusting her bikini, she leaned against the cool tile and watched.
Mr. Cat was trying hard, but she was fairly certain he’d go hungry for a bit.
After watching until he decided to seek other hunting grounds, she kicked back off of the edge on her back. Suddenly glad she was alone, she stood up on her feet and made a vital readjustment to her bikini which she had dislodged again.
Not long after, she noticed a man walking along the sidewalk that surrounded the pool area. More carefully, she swam across the pool to see if she could see who it was. She settled with arms folded on the edge again, watching.
Even through the dark, he looked distracted. Or… Focused?
Colin?
“Hey!” Summer called, just loud enough to be heard. “You’re supposed to be in bed!”
The man turned, and for an instant, Summer thought she’d mistaken who he was. He didn’t seem to recognize her at all. He hesitated noticeably, then turned slowly and walked toward her. As he approached, she half-smiled. Even in Turkey on his ‘day off’, he was wearing black jeans, striped shirt, and work boots.
“I thought you were out with Amanda?” Summer asked as he approached.
“We found a little dinner,” Colin said. “She wanted to write to her Dad once more, and…”
“And?” Asked Summer.
“And… I needed a walk.”
“Nothing’s wrong, I hope,” Summer said.
“No, not really. I always get tight before a game.”
“Go get your suit and come in with me,” Summer said. “It’s pretty relaxing. I’ll wait for you.”
Colin shrugged. “Nah… I should get to bed anyway.”
Summer looked down, maybe just a bit self conscious. “Colin, I’m going to freeze to death if I get out of here now, but… Do you have a second to talk?”
“Of course,” he said. He turned and found a chair, and pulled it closer to the pool’s edge. Once he was settled, he asked, “What’s up?”
“I was just wondering what your thoughts about all this are?”
He grinned just a little. “Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“I’m not smart enough or daring enough to try to pull something like this off. That’s why I drive the truck and interpret the GIS stuff. It’s… It’s what I can do.”
“If you’re going to be a part of my team, you’re going to stop underrating yourself,” Summer said with a touch of fire.
“Summer, there’s no dreamer in me. I’m about the here and now - the ‘is’… Not the ‘what might be’…”
Summer knew her friend better than to risk embarrassing him, but she also couldn’t resist the opportunity to see how things were going with Amanda. “Even where a girl might be concerned?”
Colin’s gaze suddenly focused in the distance.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t any of my business. It’s just…”
Colin looked down into her eyes, and their gaze locked. Slowly, he smiled. “I can’t keep anything from you, can I, Squirt?”
“No.” Summer said quickly.
He pursed his lips. Finally, he answered, “I like her.”
“That’s good,” she said in a motherly way. Not wanting to press her luck any further, she stifled her grin and changed the subject. “What about the rest of the team?”
“Kelli, Isaac, and the rest of the kids are all right.”
Summer grinned. “Kelli is all right?”
“She knows her stuff,” Colin said. “She may be kind of… Well… Never mind.”
“Colin Pennington, were you going to call one of my team members ‘ditzy’?” Summer asked.
“No, I wasn’t, to be honest.” Colin said. “I was just going to say that she was kind of into Ben.”
Summer was suddenly sullen.
“Oh… Relax. I said she was into him, not sleeping with him…” Colin said. After a pause, he added, “Yet.”
Summer slapped water toward him.
Colin smiled. “And?”
Summer rolled her eyes and sprang out of the pool.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you, Big Sis?” Colin asked as he handed her a towel.
She stopped drying her hair long enough to ask “Do I really need to?”
Colin shook his head and handed her another towel, which she tied around her middle.
“Not really,” Colin said as he fell into step beside her. “I’ve known you long enough to be able to tell when you’ve fallen in love.”
7 Joe // Mar 12, 2008 at 10:06 am
Just how many gems do you have stored away, Eric???
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