Morning all. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I ended up pulling weeds between rainstorms but as the garden is really starting to come along I feel pretty good about it. I am worried that I will end up with luxurious carrot greens while the actual carrots rot, but I won’t know until they are pulled out of the ground. So just fingers crossed it will all even out. For now, let’s jump into the morning prompt. Timers set and off we go.
I know something is about to happen, I just don’t know what. Abd the what happens will determine what this story is, so a bit of thought is needed. But I like Frank.
Monday, June 16th: The silver flashed in the sunlight.
The silver flashed in the sunlight. It winked and shifted and gleamed. Frank rubbed his eyes and then looked again. The sight hadn’t changed. A river of flashing sliver moving across the lower ground.
“Um, Lucas?” Frank said. “You might want to come see this.”
“What is ‘this’,” Lucas asked. The comment was snarly, irritated before he even learned what was going on. Frank allowed himself a soft sigh as he listened to Lucas clomping over in his heavy boots. This trip was not going well.
“Well, what is it?” Lucas demanded looking at him. Frank pointed, certain anything he said, in any tone would just set Lucas off. Again.
Lucas turned to look. His annoyance faded as he studied the sight. “Carly,” he called. “You gotta see this.”
She sighed and walked over, Christing, Justin, Tracy and Suzannah all following. They all lined up on the ridge and looked. The twisting molten silver of a river didn’t change.
“What is that?” Carly asked.
Justin pulled a small pair of binoculars from one of the many pockets in his trousers. To Frank they looked like his Granny’s opera glasses, but he knew enough to keep that thought locked inside his head.
Justin studied the river in closer detail than they could make out. “It’s fish,” Justin said. “Loads and loads of fish.”
He passed the binoculars to Carly. She looked through them. “Cool,” she said.
The binoculars were passed from hand to hand, everyone getting their turn. Well almost everyone. When Lucas was finished, he passed them back to Justin who put them away instead of handing them to Frank. He looked to see if Frank would make an issue of it, but Frank knew he would. He kept his gaze forward studying the river as though he hadn’t noticed the slight.
He could tell it was fish now that he knew. There were birds over head now. While Frank hadn’t head a sound, they seemed to have gotten some sort of notification about the shoal of fish and were dive bombing the river, each coming way with a glittering prize. There were a lot of birds but he somehow didn’t think they would make much of a dent in the river of silver.
It was a migration of some sort. ‘Spawning,’ Frank thought. The others lost interest and moved away. Even though he could have happily watched for hours, even without the binoculars, it was clear they were all ready to go. Luckily his gear was already packed. He slung his pack onto his shoulders and followed the others. They hadn’t bothered to wait for him. He didn’t really think they would.
The only reason he hadn’t been left behind at this point was due to the fact that out of the group, he had the most experience camping and hiking. He knew how to pace himself and not go full out so that he was left behind. He knew where the trails branched and could see the signs of where people passed. He had lagged behind the rest sometimes, but always caught up.
He knew that Lucas was pushing them when they raced ahead, but he also knew that with his steady pace, he could maintain his speed while they would have to take breaks. He knew Lucas didn’t care much for him. He hadn’t thought it was that bad or he wouldn’t have agreed to come on the trip in the first place. He just thought it was a minor dislike or a general rivalry. Lucas seemed to view any other male he came across as either a subordinate or a rival. What Frank couldn’t figure out was if the rest of the group felt the same way or if they were just following Lucas.
Ten til Midnight 