WILL OF THE GRASS

CHAPTER 1
The computer wouldn't start. She banged on the side and tried again. Nothing. She lifted it up
and dropped it to the table. Still nothing. She banged her closed fist against the top. It was at
this moment she saw the irony of trying to fix the machine with violence.
She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried to think back to when
the girl had been younger but failed to pinpoint the exact moment when she had become a
little too big to pick up and carry. It hit her all at once. She was no longer a little girl and she
stood there speechless with fear, sadness, and pride all running through her at the same time.
Things aren't going well at all with mom today. She is just a limp noodle and wants to sleep all
the time. I sure hope that things get better soon.
A long black shadow slid across the pavement near their feet and the five Venusians, very much
startled, looked overhead. They were barely in time to see the huge gray form of the carnivore
before it vanished behind a sign atop a nearby building which bore the mystifying information
"Pepsi-Cola."
The day had begun on a bright note. The sun finally peeked through the rain for the first time in
a week, and the birds were singing in its warmth. There was no way to anticipate what was
about to happen. It was a worst-case scenario and there was no way out of it.
Debbie had taken George for granted for more than fifteen years now. He wasn't sure what
exactly had made him choose this time and place to address the issue, but he decided that now
was the time. He looked straight into her eyes and just as she was about to speak, turned away
and walked out the door.
He was aware there were numerous wonders of this world including the unexplained creations
of humankind that showed the wonder of our ingenuity. There are huge heads on Easter Island.
There are the Egyptian pyramids. There’s Stonehenge. But he now stood in front of a newly
discovered monument that simply didn't make any sense and he wondered how he was ever
going to be able to explain it.
You're going to make a choice today that will have a direct impact on where you are five years
from now. The truth is, you'll make choice like that every day of your life. The problem is that
on most days, you won't know the choice you make will have such a huge impact on your life in
the future. So if you want to end up in a certain place in the future, you need to be careful of
the choices you make today.
He picked up the burnt end of the branch and made a mark on the stone. Day 52 if the marks
on the stone were accurate. He couldn't be sure. Day and nights had begun to blend together
creating confusion, but he knew it was a long time. Much too long.
She closed her eyes and then opened them again. What she was seeing just didn't make sense.
She shook her head seeing if that would help. It didn't. Although it seemed beyond reality,
there was no denying she was witnessing a large formation of alien spaceships filling the sky.
I'm meant to be writing at this moment. What I mean is, I'm meant to be writing something else
at this moment. The document I'm meant to be writing is, of course, open in another program
on my computer and is patiently awaiting my attention. Yet here I am plonking down senseless
sentiments in this paragraph because it's easier to do than to work on anything particularly
meaningful. I am grateful for the distraction.
I haven't bailed on writing. Look, I'm generating a random paragraph at this very moment in an
attempt to get my writing back on track. I am making an effort. I will start writing consistently
again!
The answer was within her reach. It was hidden in a box and now that box sat directly in front
of her. She'd spent years searching for it and could hardly believe she'd finally managed to find
it. She turned the key to unlock the box and then gently lifted the top. She held her breath in
anticipation of finally knowing the answer she had spent so much of her time in search of. As
the lid came off she could see that the box was empty.
He stared out the window at the snowy field. He'd been stuck in the house for close to a month
and his only view of the outside world was through the window. There wasn't much to see. It
was mostly just the field with an occasional bird or small animal who ventured into the field. As
he continued to stare out the window, he wondered how much longer he'd be shackled to the
steel bar inside the house.
The house was located at the top of the hill at the end of a winding road. It wasn't obvious that
the house was there, but everyone in town knew that it existed. They were just all too afraid to
ever go and see it in person.
It was a question of which of the two she preferred. On the one hand, the choice seemed
simple. The more expensive one with a brand name would be the choice of most. It was the
easy choice. The safe choice. But she wasn't sure she actually preferred it.
Green vines attached to the trunk of the tree had wound themselves toward the top of the
canopy. Ants used the vine as their private highway, avoiding all the creases and crags of the
bark, to freely move at top speed from top to bottom or bottom to top depending on their
current chore. At least this was the way it was supposed to be. Something had damaged the
vine overnight halfway up the tree leaving a gap in the once pristine ant highway.
It was difficult to explain to them how the diagnosis of certain death had actually given him life.
While everyone around him was in tears and upset, he actually felt more at ease. The doctor
said it would be less than a year. That gave him a year to live, something he'd failed to do with
his daily drudgery of a routine that had passed as life until then.