Synopsis

Imagine, if you will, an eleven-year-old boy with an imagination so powerful that he uses it like others would use a compass. Our hero, Jimmy Hamilton, loses his fort on three separate occasions all in the span of one summer. He must battle both his wits and unwanted squatters. He comes to discover each new unwanted tenant proves more difficult to evict than the last. His plans have a modicum of success but each come with unintended consequences. Adding to the mix of that imagination and his antics to win back his fort, the prettiest girl his age, a baseball diamond, a groundhog, a snapping turtle, and the town vagrant and Jimmy soon finds his summer adventure is more than he bargained for.

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Excerpt

“Hey, check it out,” Chad gleefully expressed. He held his half-eaten apple out for the other three to see.

“What’s that?” Kevin asked. Dave and Jimmy knew right away and shuddered.

“Dude!” Dave moaned amusingly.

“Is that a worm?” Chad spat.

“That’s half of him,” Dave tried to explain. Chad seemed to clue in on his misfortune. He quickly realized the other half of the worm was in his mouth, and his face paled. He slowly stopped chewing. His face became scrunched, and his cheeks began to bulge, as he was ready to blow. The next thing anybody saw was bits of apple and what may or may not have been the other half of that worm flying at them. Everybody but Chad started laughing as they picked pieces of apple and worm from their faces.

When his nausea subsided, Chad joined his friends laughing about it. As he smiled, tiny bits of worm could be seen in his teeth. His friends grimaced even more.

“Wha-aat?” Chad asked. No one said a word. Chad finally dropped the apple that housed half of that worm, and it rolled with a lopsided jaunt until it teetered to a stop near the edge of the tree fort floor. The worm slowly made its way out of the half-eaten apple. No boy knew whether the worm was backing his way out to see what happened to his ass or whether the worm was inching along blindly without a head, but they all looked on, curious as ever. A lesson was to be learned here—if only they knew what it was. Puzzling over it, they continued watching the worm’s predicament.

That’s when Chad felt the desire for a little retribution. He stepped back and reared up before charging the half-eaten orb. “Say goodbye, Mr. Worm!” His friends cheered him on.

A split second later, he planted his left foot, or so he wished. Instead, his foot slipped on a small piece of apple. The foot he was going to kick with hit the apple just as both feet slid out from underneath him. Chad reached out his arm in a desperate lunge for the railing that wrapped the fort, but he missed the post and slid right off the tree fort floor. Chad was gone.

A dull thud echoed when Chad’s body hit the ground. Then three heads peered out over the edge of the fort and down at Chad. His body lay twisted, still and quiet. The other children from the party all rushed over and formed a circle around the body.

“Is he dead?” Kevin wondered.

“Don’t know. Chad, you dead?” Dave hollered. Jimmy went ghostly white. Surely Chad would be fine. But what about his fort? All Jimmy was concerned about at that second was his fort and how he would surely lose the fort for something like this.

“Get up, Chad,” Jimmy wished, a little more than to himself. His friends looked at him curiously. “Get up before my mother comes out here.”

“Should we see if he’s okay?” Kevin asked.

“Chad!” Dave yelled. Chad began to squirm like a live frog thawing out from a very cold winter.

“Cool, he’s alive,” Jimmy said. “Let’s climb down and get him up.”

Getting down from the tree fort was much easier than climbing up. They could have taken Chad’s alternative route, but it didn’t appear anyone wanted to go that way. So, they all shimmied down the rope, one after the other. And instead of using the ladder rungs nailed to the tree, when they reached the end of the rope, they just let go, dropping to the ground. It wasn’t any more than a six or seven foot drop, but it was pretty cool watching them drop from the sky like some sort of fire jumpers or something. When they were all on the ground, they pushed their way to the forefront and stood over Chad’s writhing body. Jimmy heard the screen door open and knew it was now or never for Chad to get up. Jimmy grabbed his arm. Chad moaned in protest, but it was too late. Jimmy’s mother, along with Mrs. Spencer, were making their way through the small crowd.

“What happened?” Jimmy’s mom cried.

“He fell,” one of the onlookers said. Jimmy’s heart sank. His mother looked directly up to see where Chad had fallen from. Jimmy followed her gaze. It was obvious.

“Chad, are you all right?” she asked him.

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Hamilton. You smell nice,” he said as if he was unaware of the situation. Everyone giggled, everyone except Jimmy, of course. Mrs. Hamilton blushed and then went back to tending to Chad, making sure he wasn’t seriously injured. He was not. In fact, the only thing different about Chad was his now incredibly acute olfactory senses. It was weird, but from that moment on, Chad had a superhero-like sense of smell.

About the Author

Paul Jantzen grew up in typical Americana. If you asked him what town he grew up in, he’d say Anytown, USA. He has a proclivity towards anything nostalgic. That disposition led to his writing novels. His award-winning debut Novel is titled Sour Apples: A Novel For Those Who Hate To Read.

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