I started writing Weird World to help myself break procrastination and get into the habit of writing long-form fiction every day. I haven’t come up with a plot or direction yet. So far the story is organically developing into a children’s chapter book with supernatural and mystery elements to it. Here are the first three chapters.
Chapter 1: House on the Hill
The town of Krinklefield is a typical suburb. It has neat rows of nearly identical houses. Everyone drives a nice, moderately expensive car on the moderately clean roads to their moderately well-paying jobs. Rush hour starts promptly at 8:30 AM each morning and everyone rushes home at 5:00 PM each afternoon.
Krinklefield is just one unremarkable suburb in Northern Virginia, about thirty miles outside of Washington, D.C. where the President of the United States lives in his big white house. There’s a lot of old history in the area. There’s a battlefield near the town. It’s just a big, open field of grass. Sometimes people say they see ghosts there.
The typical family in Krinklefield consists of a mom, a dad, two children, and a cat or a dog. Jorlan McAllister has one of those typical families. His particular type of typical family has a dog and a big sister. His dog’s name is Feephee and his sister’s name is Kaylee. His parents loved misspelling normal names so that they looked odd. Maybe it was because their own names are so average. Dad’s name is Robert and Mom’s name is Susan.
Near the big park in Krinklefield, there is a wooded area. Deep inside the wooded area there is an abandoned house on a hill. If you stand in the middle of the soccer field in the park and look at the hill behind the left corner of the field, you will see lots of trees and the white siding of the house. You can’t see it in the summertime, but in the winter when the branches are bare, you can definitely see it from the soccer field.
One balmy summer afternoon, Jorlan and his best friends Nolan and Amit, decided that it would be good idea to visit the house. Well, maybe it wasn’t a good idea, but they were bored. School had been out for over a month, their parents were working, Kaylee was staying with her friends, and there was simply nothing to do. It was Nolan’s idea, really. He’s the one who said, “let’s check out the old abandoned house.”
Amit immediately shot the idea down. “But we’re not allowed to go there.”
“Come on, nobody lives there. What, are you afraid a monster’s gonna get you?” Nolan teased.
“Monsters are not real,” Amit replied.
Jorlan rocked his soccer ball back and forth under his foot and looked out into the empty grassy field. It was hot out in the field with no shade. “Well, it is kinda boring out here. How ’bout we take a walk in the woods then? We’ll just turn around and come back if we see anyone.”
“I heard there’s a river in the woods,” said Nolan.
“Yeah, let’s go find the river!” said Jorlan excitedly.
Amit sighed.
Chapter 2: Rustling in the Woods
It had gotten noticeably more breezy once they got onto the hill. The summer leaves rustled in the wind as the boys walked beneath them. It also felt cooler under the trees. It sure beat kicking the soccer ball around under the baking sun in the field. As they walked, they talked about other kids they knew at school. Like how Beth Montgomery laughed so hard once that she peed in her pants. Or how last week when they played baseball with some other friends, Dave dove for a ball–right into fresh dog poop. Or how Casey Bart was moving away because his dad was in the military and they had to move to Germany.
The boys stomped through the woods, picking up sticks, peering into strange holes, and throwing acorns at squirrels along the way, until they came across a babbling brook. It was a small stream carrying water down the hill. Nolan dropped the two sticks he was carrying and ran toward it, shouting, “The river!”
“The river” didn’t look like much. When you think of rivers, you think of lots of water with boats and bridges going across them. This was just a ditch with water flowing through it. “You call this a river?” Amit said.
Nolan was already squatting next to the water reaching for pebbles in the water. “Don’t you see the water? It’s a river.”
“It’s barely a trickle of water!” said Amit, underwhelmed.
“Look!” interrupted Jorlan. “I think that’s the house!” He pointed up into the trees. In a distance, you could barely make out white and red colors through the shrubs and tree trunks. It looked like it could be the side of a house.
“Do you see that?” Amit said.
“See what?” said Jorlan.
“There’s a flashing light.”
Then Jorlan saw it. In the direction of the house, but much closer to them was a bright flashing light. It looked like it was up on the tree branches. “What is it?”
“It looks like maybe a piece of metal in the tree reflecting the sunlight.”
Jorlan started walking slowly toward it to get a better look. Then it stopped flashing. “Hey, it’s gone.”
“Where did Nolan go?” said Amit.
“Nolan?” said Jorlan. “Nolan?” he said again, this time louder. “Hey Nolan, where’d you go?” He looked at Amit, who stood motionless with a look of fear on his face. “Dammit, Nolan. Where are you?”
“Do you think he went to the house?” Amit said cautiously.
Jorlan looked at Amit with a look of frustration. “Now we gotta find him. Come on.” He hopped over the tiny stream and looked back at Amit. “Come on, Amit.”
Hesitantly, Amit followed, also hopping over the stream. Jorlan kept walking, calling out intermittently, “Nolaaaan. Nolaaaaaaan.”
Amit followed closely behind. “We’re in deep trouble if we can’t find him,” he said with a sigh.
Chapter 3: Inside the House
When Jorlan and Amit got to the spot where they saw the flashing light, they looked up and scanned the treetops. No sign of any flashing lights. Not even anything that might have reflected in the sunlight. They looked at each other, then looked at the white house in the woods.
The house was only about a hundred feet away now. Jorlan stopped to assess their situation. “Nolan?” he called. “Nooolaaan.” No reply.
Jorlan studied the house as Amit stood restlessly beside him. The house had wood siding covered in old layers of peeling white paint. Brown ivy snaked up the brick chimney. There was a hole in the roof. Then just behind the house, Jorlan caught a glimpse of the flashing light again. It was coming from up in the trees behind the house. “You see that, Amit? There’s that light again.”
Amit didn’t respond. Jorlan turned to where he was standing and he was not there! “Amit?” he called. He frantically spun around, looking in all directions for any sign of his friends, but he was now all alone. The front door of the house was open. Did Nolan and Amit go into the house?
Jorlan trembled in fear as he slowly walked so that he could look into the open door from a distance. Maybe he didn’t have to actually go into the house to see if Nolan and Amit were in there.
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