Chased into the Woods Like a Dog, at the End of the Dark DaysteemCreated with Sketch.

in #life5 years ago (edited)

I have to find shelter! The thought raced through my head. Barren shelter. The sort of shelter that a patch of grapevines affords, or a nook in a wide, hollowed out tree. It was close to dusk, and there was a friendliness to the fogginess of a rainy day drawing to a close. Quick, quick! Somewhere!

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I didn’t know how close he was on my heels. I was pretty sure I had run away with at least a minute of distance between us, but I couldn’t take any chances. A bramble scratched at my thigh as I hurried from the wide-open land toward the safety of the woods. I just can’t take any chances.

I needed a place to hide, ASAP. Some vague little nook that would let my pursuers pass, leaving me safe and unnoticed.

The woods always looks to me like a home away from home. The low branches of an old live oak are like an inviting living room, with comfortable ferny seating. Old stumps are convenient step stools. Fallen trees make for borders, sectioning off land like fences. Each fern and low-lying plant makes for a pretty, mysterious sort of floor covering—they are lovely like an ornate rug, but always seem to be hiding something. The palmettos make for less welcoming ground. They are more like an over-full shed, harboring a rattle snake or two.

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I am excellent in emergencies. I have freakishly clear thought processes. The most rational step presents itself in the forefront of my mind, despite the panic of adrenaline. The palmettos weren’t an option. To move into their tightly packed dry fronds would be like sounding an alarm that no ears would miss within an acre. To the east the woods was taken over by muddy land and knobby roots sticking up to trip a woman being chased. Everybody knows from movies what happens then.

What would my pursuer expect me to do? To run, far and as fast as possible. I looked to my left, and there was a thick tangle of muscadine vines that had swallowed up the ground and any plant near it. It was a maze of vine, and with the tall grass, it made for a good cover. I dropped low instantly, keeping my eyes just above the level, watching for any approaching movement. I had enough leeway to shimmy around a corner of vine, to evade notice. My heart palpitated.

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I focused my eyes on the cleared land just beyond my sanctuary of vines. There was no movement but the tops of the sugarcane blowing in the wind. All was eerily still. I let out a deep breath, not feeling all was well, but grateful for the moment of peace.

Amid the tangle of vines some small, inconspicuous wildflowers bloomed, and the bees buzzed around them. Sweet, cute little honeybees make for good companions in such a desperate place. That was not all though. Many little spider webs were woven there, with spiders with shiny green abdomens and bright orange eyes. They sat stoic in their webs, unmoved by human troubles. They would not even sway should I be found. The bees at least might fly from their place, if only momentarily. I was nothing but a human flicker of life, in a place full of life in every direction. We were all valuable.

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Then, I heard it. A distant sound pounding the ground, but drawing closer. A dog barked, charging forward alongside its human companion. I felt my heart racing again, watching. There was nothing to be done. It was too late to run any farther. There was nowhere to go. I immediately knew my choice to be faulty. The dog would find me, no doubt about that. I didn’t even want to look.

Instead I looked down at the long blades of grass, sprinkled with crystal like drops of water from the shower earlier. A rain shower, so separated from human activity—so above it all. I hated to nudge those grasses, and make them drop their beautiful crystals, once the chaos started.

And then, the sound of human noise filled the air.

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“Found you!” Shouted the boy gleefully as Big Dog shoved his wet nose in my face.

Nobody takes hide-and-seek more seriously than Mama.

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Beautiful, as always!

Thank you. Long time, no see, I think? It seems like you've been gone a while. Miss seeing your posts.

You just can't win when there's a dog involved!

You can run but you can't hide. Actually you can't really run from a dog either. All you can do is lay down and prepare for Big Dog to step on you while he rubs his wet nose all over you and slurps your face.

Not too bad, come to think of it :)

I can think of worse ways to go.

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What a wonderful story! You're so good with words and you're always posting wonderful photos. 😘

Thank you. Sometimes a story just hunts me down ;)

You're lucky to be hunted by stories this nice 😁

Haha! howdy ginnyannette! I can see why you'd be very serious about hide and seek, especially the hide part but that's hard to do with Big Dog's nose! wonderful writing and photos but what's the next to last picture?

That is part of a palm frond with rain water. It is a bit freaky looking, isn't it? ;)

haha! yes it looks like some bloody body part! I thought it was great for the story. Until Big Dog showed up and we knew that you didn't branch off into writing serial killer stories.

Bid Dog always changes the mood.

haha! yeah he changes my mood just by seeing one of those great pictures that you put on!

Haha, you had me tricked @ginnyannette. I was waiting for a big ugly coyote with long sharp fangs to appear and run by leaving you in safety!!

That would be a scary thought. I'm glad I tricked you ;)

This story needs some !popcorn

!Popcorn, where are you? Popcorn might still be mad it me. We had words about it laughing at me choking a few weeks ago. (Well, I had words, it just had gifs.) My comment was about me choking on popcorn and it kept giving me gifs of jolly popcorn eaters. How thoughtless :D

Oh look @blaclux, there it is! It does look a little bit grumpy though. Let it go, dude. Move on ;)

See? Is not angry t you! It gave you popcorn!

I'm relieved.

!gif lol

See @ginnyannette? We even have a gif bot! ahahahaha

I'll try not to argue with this one.

I love it! I had no idea where you were going with this one!

Ha, I see to have gotten a few people this time ;)

And I can see you enjoying it! Nicely done! 😃

First time I’ve seen the word nook in a sentence without cranny!

I love the word nook. There is just nothing nook-ier.

I'm a little concerned about whatever the thing in photo #4 is, because I can't identify it and it looks rather violent.

Ha, I could see that. It is a piece of palm trunk (you know the top part that falls away) with some of the pits from the palm fruit.

I recognize it now. At first I thought it was some kind of bizarre animal skull cross-section and I couldn't figure out how it fit into the story, unless it belonged to a dog that you had previously murdered while playing hide-and-seek.

I use the dogs as my home security system, so they need not worry -I need them ;)

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