Okay since I did a little brain dump post, I’m feeling ready to write.
And the part I want to write is where we left off way back on post 24. A Visceral Reaction.
PS I’ve been trying to figure out ways to make the story easier to follow through the different blog posts, but the best I came up with is a page with the story kind of in order. Having done that, I also would need to remember to update it each time…which…we will see. I am not sure how well my brain will be working once the school year starts up. It’s already tending to wander to to do lists and scary classroom scenarios.
You might just have to read all the posts to get the full scoop. Or maybe I should do some sort of thing where I can e-mail the full draft to people?
Okay. Story #1. Noah just got left behind in the dust of flannel shirt guy’s truck. Go.
We left off with flannel shirt Tim driving away from Noah, the person in the truck Beth actually knew. Now what?
Noah knew Tim had a temper, but this was something else. Noah was worried. And dirty now that he had been thrown onto the side of the road. He nearly toppled into the ditch and would have been in the same shape as Beth. He hoped someone friendlier than Tim would have come to help him. He couldn’t imagine being tiny like Beth and being in the back of Tim’s truck. He knew Tim wouldn’t hurt her, but Noah didn’t think Beth knew that.
Noah decided to call Alec.
“Hello?” the phone was answered quickly, like Alec had been waiting for a call. Probably from Beth.
“Hey, man, it’s Noah.”
“Yeah, hi, Noah. What’s up? I’m kind of in the middle of something.” Waiting to find out what the hell was up with Beth tonight. Alec was getting increasingly anxious.
“Yeah, uh, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. So me and Tim, Tim Busey…” Noah paused a minute to see if Alec knew who he was talking about.
“The principal?” Alec replied.
“No, his son.” responded Noah.
Oh, wow, thought Noah. Wasn’t he…in jail?
“Well we were driving and saw Beth in the ditch pretty close to your house. She’s okay though. Well, I helped her out and got her into the truck, but, well”
In the ditch? Oh, Beth. What is going on??
“I got out of the truck for a minute,” Noah said, omitting the part where Tim had hit the brakes like a crazy person, throwing Alec’s wife to the floor with her hurt ankle.
“And when I did…Tim likes to play these jokes. He has a weird sense of humor. He drove off. So, I’m not sure…” he trailed off, trying to form his words, his thoughts really. Where the hell did they go?
“Okay…are they on their way here? Are you sure she’s okay?” Alec replied, agitated. This was nuts and he was getting tired. He had to be up early in the morning to deal with the irrigation system. Beth knew that and was supposed to be headed straight home after the meeting. Only the meeting clearly didn’t go as planned.
“Uh, no, they aren’t on their way to your house. Tim thought she should go to a hospital.” The words came out and immediately Noah realized that things were probably worse than he thought. Tim had been gone too long. “Mind if I give Tim a call? I’m sure they will turn around soon. I know it’s late, Alec and I’m sorry. He’s just playing some kind of weird joke…”
But this wasn’t true, was it? This had gone too far to just be a joke. It had been at least five minutes and the truck was no longer visible.
“Yeah, Noah, please give him a call right now. What the hell! The hospital? I thought you said she was okay.” Alec was usually a pretty laid back guy. But he was tired and grumpy and now extremely worried. A joke where he drove away with an injured woman in the truck? What was this guy’s problem? And wasn’t this the one who was in jail?
These thoughts were all jumbled up in his head and Alec didn’t even remember the end of their conversation, but just sat with his phone to his ear trying to figure out his next move.
Did he have the principal’s number? He had the school’s number and that would be where he called. Did his mom have the Busey’s number? Probably. But what would he tell her?
‘Hey mom, Beth is in the Busey kid’s truck and I need their number to get him to bring her home. Well, he’s not a kid anymore and he must be out of jail. Oh and Beth isn’t answering my calls, so I can’t call my wife to even check on her. Don’t worry though, she texted me.’
No, Irene might even know about the school board meeting where Beth had clearly lost her temper. He didn’t want to deal with his mom right now. What about
I need to write more of a backstory with Noah. I want to know why Beth would trust him, why Alec’s dad trusted him with the farm for so many years, despite his relatives being shady.
Writing Anxiety
I’m also growing increasingly self conscious of my punctuation game. I know how I want things to sound, but I’m finding that I might not know where to add a comment or semicolon or dashes. Although I do ignore some of the rules for effect (see the last sentence with the “or”s), I’m realizing that probably some of the punctuation should be correct. Oy.
Thankfully my mom used to be a professional proofreader. For real. I wonder if she would help me out. And if she would be honest about what she thought about the story?
