Rabid Recall: CH2 - Happy's Trails

Second prompt.
In your chapter, there has to be a tree, tell me about colors and an animal.
Remember to highlight the sentences that relate to the prompt words in bold, ALL CAPITALS or in color.
Due on or before October 19, 2009; 11:59PM WDC time.
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Rabid Recall

Chapter 2 - Happy's Trails

by Indelibleink

Shaun and his new pal, Happy, had quickly become virtually inseparable over the past few weeks. It was pretty much the classic "boy and his dog" relationship: Happy cheerfully greeting Shaun the moment he arrived home from kindergarten, and then the two spending essentially every remaining moment of the day together. This really was viewed as good news by Shaun's parents. Elizabeth, who gave birth to a healthy baby girl just a few days after Happy's arrival, had her hands full with the new addition, Carrie Ann. At the same time, Ed had assumed some additional duties at his job in an effort to offset the additional expenses that invariably accompany a new baby. Not only that, but, now having completed the first week of December, Christmas expenses also loomed large. The guy overlooked in all of this was Larry.

Larry had never been able to shake off effects of the "stare-down" that Happy had laid on him on Shaun's birthday. Larry and Shaun had never been very close; a three year difference in age for kids in Shaun's and Larry's age group might as well be a million years, especially from Larry's perspective. But it was clear that the addition of Happy and Carrie Ann had caught Larry smack-dab in the middle, and no one had seemed to notice. It wasn't that Larry didn't have any friends. His best friend, Styles, lived next door, and another pal, Tony, a few houses down the street. When at home, though, Larry had sort of become the "loner," and, while he didn't mind spending some time with his brother, that also meant spending time with Happy, and the rapidly growing Lab truly creeped Larry out.

Larry was laying on the living room couch, watching television, when Elizabeth, calling from the kitchen, interrupted his his favorite Friday afternoon program. "Larry! Please go up and get your brother. I need to talk to him." Larry pretended not to hear his mother; sometimes the "deaf" strategy bore fruit. "Larry, please! I'm feeding your sister, and I have a kettle that's about to boil over. I need your help."

"All right." Larry realized that the "stall" wasn't going to work, so he arose, and ran up the steps as fast as possible, to minimize the lost moments away from the television. As he entered his brother's room, he tripped on Happy's oversize rag doll, almost fell into his brother, who was painting with water colors on the floor, and drew what sounded like a "warning" snarl from Happy.

"Mom wants to see you right now, Shaun," gasped Larry, winded initially from the run upstairs, and secondly from trying to avert a water color/canine disaster.

"Sure, Larry. But I need to dry this part of the painting, I spilled water on it. Hold the rag down on the paper so the water doesn't wreck it. Please!" Shaun turned and looked at Larry, and Larry could tell it was really important to Shaun. "Okay, Larry?"

As Larry was about to answer, he was overcome by a sense of uneasiness, and he glanced around, just in time to catch Happy's piercing stare shoot through his brain. "I'll do it, but only if you take him with you," motioning towards Happy.

"Sure...Thanks, Larry! C'mon, Happy," Shaun spit out the words in rapid succession, and took off out the bedroom door. "What do you want, Mom?" Happy took off right behind his buddy, but made sure that his and Larry's eyes met once more before he disappeared outside the door.

Larry shuddered for a moment, continuing to press down on the rag on the painting. After a few more seconds, Larry felt that he, and the rag, had done all they could, and he carefully removed the rag from the painting. He gasped yet again, this time in reaction to what he saw: Not the sloppy, haphazard mess that one might expect from a five year-old, but an incredibly gripping artistic depiction of a beautifully posed, fully grown Labrador Retriever! The painting was of such clarity and detail, with a vivid array of amazing colors, that Larry touched the painting softly and drew his index finger down to see if the paint would smear; for this had to be a trick! As Larry slowly moved his finger in the paint, he felt a surge of heat; heat as intense as if he placed his finger directly on a frying pan. He grimaced in pain, and looked at the tip of his finger, revealing a large blood blister, but no paint. He looked at the area on the painting which he had smeared, and watched dumbfoundedly as the blemished area began to mend itself. He then looked on in shock as he noticed how the painting's background behind the lab had changed: from a pleasant, farmland-type setting, to one of storm clouds, shrouded figures, and a feeling of evil. His line of sight met with that of the animal's in the picture, and he felt like he was going to throw up when he saw the lab, now in an attack-like pose, staring right at him! "Mom!" Larry sprang up, and flew out the door and down the steps. When he reached the bottom of the staircase - about to make a left into the kitchen - his eyes caught a strange sight: that of Happy staring at the TV. What was on the television now was not what Larry had been watching. It appeared to Larry to be like one of those "Sunday morning preachers," and the guy was speaking using biblical words and stuff. It was weird, too, because the preacher seemed to be staring right at Happy while he was talking. Suddenly, as if the TV guy and Happy had suddenly become aware that someone else was observing them, they both slowly shifted their heads toward, and then their eyes upon Larry! Completely horrified, Larry tried to move. He couldn't. He tried to scream. He couldn't.

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There was a knock at the back door. Elizabeth called for Shaun to get it as she was still feeding the baby; having just resumed after having her chat with Shaun. Not getting a reply, she then tried Larry. Nothing doing there either, she figured he must still be upstairs, too. So she removed Carrie Ann from her nipple, apologized to her baby quietly, and buttoned up and walked to the back door. Peering through the window, she recognized Styles, and opened the door.

"Hey there, Styles, how are you? I haven't seen you for a while. C'mon in. Hold on, I think Larry's upstairs..."

"He's not upstairs, Mrs. Clemens. He's in the back yard up in the apple tree. I was walking over to play and shouted up to him but he didn't answer. I thought we weren't allowed to play in that tree, right, Mrs. Clemens? I didn't want to get him in trouble, but since he didn't answer me I thought maybe he was mad at me. And how come...is he making a swing or something?"

Elizabeth was now beginning to get an uneasy feeling about her son being up in a half-dead tree that he'd been forbidden to climb since it was discovered to be dying last winter. "What do you mean by...'swing', Styles?"

"Because he's got a rope, Mrs. Clemens...a real long one. So I thought he'd be making a..."

Elizabeth screeched, "No! Larry! Stop!" as she recognized the noose now hanging from one of the larger branches of the apple tree. "Styles, watch Carrie Ann," hastily thrusting the infant into the startled lad's arms. "And stay here!"

Elizabeth opened the back screen door with such fervor that the closer hinge snapped. She ran in a full sprint as her eldest son now realized his mother was rapidly approaching him. He turned his back and methodically slipped the noose over his head, and adjusted the knot for the appropriate "fit."

Larry Clemens looked to his brother's bedroom window one final time, before breaching the threshold of eternity.






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word count: 1339            cumulative: 2471