…and then she remembered

Been a good while since I posted.  A lot happened the last week of Nanowrimo.  I’d planned to stay up Saturday June 30 and write until 11:59 when Camp ended.  There was one problem with that idea – we got a major blackout that lasted for 9 days.  It happened on June 29.  Dang Murphy and his law. 

It’s not that I would have won, because I wouldn’t have.  My story went nuts, I lost control of it, and in the end had only written a 30,000+ novel.  I think one of the biggest problems with the story is that it could have been written between 25,000 – 30,000 words with ease.  Trying to stretch that sucker into 50,000 words was totally beyond me.  So that’s how Camp Nano June ended.

Camp Nano August starts in 8 days.  This time around I’m doing things differently.  I’m creating scene and transitions cards (3 x 5) for the entire story.  That way I can line them up and see where I’m going, and get that full 50,000 word count without too much suffering.  lol

If I don’t like something, I can either change the card or switch locations.  Since I’ve kicked all the cats out of the cottage (except Jeffie the Cat at night) I can lay the cards on the floor.  Definitely couldn’t do that when the cats were in.

Anyway, the name of the story this time around is, “The Crazy Knight of Titchfield. Yip, same town, and still part of the Pickles and Piper Mystery series.  I’m also editing the June novel.  That’s almost an entire rewrite.  I’m making scenario cards for it as well and see if I can salvage that sucker.

That’s where I am now.  Oops, left out one.  I’m also writing short stories.  One that’s in the first edit stage is, “There’s a Dinosaur in My Creek!”  It’s a lot of fun.

So that’s it!  Off to work on those scenario cards.

Prison Break…

 

At this point in the story, the kids have been arrested.  The precinct secretary, Penelope Snickett has helped them escape.  They’re now hiding in a tunnel under the old zombie circus in the woods.  The cops have shot both of Penelope’s rotties, and now there’s more animal trouble:

…they froze in their tracks.  The dogs were barking wildly overhead.  "Something’s wrong," said Pickles.  No sooner had the words left her mouth, then they heard the scream of a cat above the noise of the dogs.  Piper immediately burst into tears.  First it was Penelope’s dogs.  Now, it was Zaboo, her beloved cat with the creepy eye.  She sat on the floor crying uncontrollably.   The dogs were going berserk.
"Someone kill that cat!" yelled an officer.  "Oh my gosh," screamed another cop.  "He’s killed a dog!!!"
  Piper stopped crying.  Everyone was looking up at the ceiling of the tunnel listening to all hell breaking loose as Zaboo was getting his revenge.  First they had taken his owner.  Then, they had disrupted his breakfast.  And now, his lunch was missing.  That was something you just didn't do to the Zaboo.
  The cries were now coming from nothing but the humans.  The dogs had fled for their lives.  Someone shot. There was a scream, "You shot me!!!  You shot me, you Idiot!!!"  One of the officers had taken a bullet to the leg, as another cop tried to defend himself from Zaboo and his creepy eye.
"That’s the scariest looking cat I’ve ever seen in my life!" cried an officer.  "What’s wrong with his eye?" 
Another horrible scream filled the air, "My eye! My eye! He got my eye!!!" 

"Run for your lives!!!"  Less than a minute later, there was silence.  Zaboo had taken on the entire Titchfield police force, and won.

How Pickles could single-handidly wipe out the entire Amish community...

[Piper and Pickles are on their bikes heading for the Amish community.]

A look of horror crossed Piper's face.  "You're gonna get cheese and plan on eating it in public?

"Yeah, why not?" asked Pickles.

"Have you forgotten you're lactose intolerant?  With one bite, you could wipe out the entire Amish community in a matter of minutes."

Pickles raised her nose in the air and sniffed, paused, then replied, "It smells like petunias."

"You're a real sicko, kid."  And with that, Piper blasted ahead of Pickles to avoid being downwind, something no one should ever be of Pickles, even if she hasn't had cheese.

Chapter 4 smidgeon

[A tiny piece from the next chapter]


"Ok, if we're going to do a bit of sleuthing in the Amish community, we've got to have a way of going in without looking suspicious," said Piper.

"Or a jerk," replied Pickles, as she stared out the window at the passing buggy.  "I bet they get tired of people staring at them like they're a chimp in the zoo."

"You mean like you're doing right now?" laughed Piper.

Pickles face turned beet red.  "I'm staring at the horse.  It's beautiful."

"Nice save, chimp-face."

Chapter 3 Newspaper headlines and the zombie bird

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Pickles in a ridiculous tone.
"Nuttin'." replied Piper, equally as ridiculous.
Piper continued flipping through her latest collection of newspaper articles.  Glancing through the titles, she suddenly bolted upright.

"Pickles!  Look at this!" she said, pointing to her title list.  "Look at all the recent Amish posts in the paper."

Pickles looked down.  "So, a house was caught on fire, a couple kids have drowned, one kid was shot by accident, they have a better immune system then the rest of us, I don't see the big deal."

"I do," said Piper.  "Everyone of those headlines are about the Amish that just moved into our area."

Pickles looked out the window towards where the Amish had set up their own little community.  "That's some pretty rotten luck for such a short time.  Are you sure your dad hasn't heard anything or even suspected anything?"

"No.  But I think we need to ask him what he thinks."

"Let's go over today.  First, we nearly get trampled to death by three teenage boys..."

"Who didn't say excuse me or look behind to see if we were hurt," growled Pickles.

Piper nodded and continued, "Then we're nearly picked off again by an Amish buggy with a guy at the reigns that I swear looked like he was half zombie."

"So what's your point?" asked Pickles, a little bit annoyed that Piper seemed to be taking forever to get to the point.

"Just this.  I haven't been asking why or what if!"

Pickles sat with a stupid look on her face.  "Fine, I'll show you what I mean.  If we take today's events and look at the headlines again we might see a piece of the puzzle that will help us solve the mystery."  Piper said happily, with the sound of victory in her voice.

"What mystery?" asked Pickles, still confused.

"Don't you think it's odd that those boys looked like they were running for their lives?"

"No.  They probably stole something from that Amish guy and he was trying to get whatever it was back." replied Pickles.

"That's a possiblity, except their hands were empty.  You could see their hands as they were running away." said Piper.

"They could have ditched the stuff while they were running."

"Possibly, but highly doubtful.  Why would you try to steal from someone who obviously had their horse hooked up to the buggy, and could chase you down in a heartbeat.  If they had ditched the stuff, it would have been as soon as the Amish dude saw them."

"Which would then mean, the Amish dude wouldn't have chased them," said Pickles, butting in and finally feeling like she was in the game.

"Exactly!"  said Piper.

"So what are we waiting for?  Let's start asking questions."

Pickles unlatched their white board from the ceiling.  It opened like a door and hung freely against the trunk of the tree.  It was time to do a bit of mind mapping.

"I know this is going to sound like I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but we both know I'm better at spotting details more than you," said Piper.  "Dad has always played detail games with me, so I can tell you exactly what someone looked like."

"I'm not arguing." smiled Pickles.

"Alright then, here we go.  The Amish dude looked like he was part zombie.  What if that stray bullet to the girls head, wasn't an accident."

"Maybe.  Aim for the head!" laughed Pickles thinking back to when she was shooting arrows through the head of the zombies at the carnival, not realising they were actually zombies.

"What if the drownings weren't an accident.  What if they were trying to kill the zombies, and didn't know you aim for the head."

Piper had made another good point.

"That would explain why they're seeking out more education," suggested Pickles.

"The problem with that," said a voice from below the tree house. "Is the title is "Former Amish..."

"Can I come up now?" asked Piper's dad.

Pickles dropped down the rope ladder and Piper's dad made his way up.  He looked disappointed that the girls didn't have any pizza to offer him.  So, he quickly whipped out his cell phone and ordered some with extra cheese and falafel.
---------------------------------

As always, Zaboo made one of his famous appearances in the morning.

"ZABOO!" yelled Piper's mom from the kitchen.

She yelled so loud the girls could hear her from the treehouse.

"Wow.  Zaboo must have found a really special treat last night," groaned Pickles, not quite awake yet.

Piper quickly climbed out of her sleeping bag, nearly ripping the zipper off.

"I gotta see this!" And slipped down the emergency exit rope.

Sara, Piper's mom, was too grossed out by the strange looking thing that layed on her kitchen floor.  Zaboo sat beside it looking quite proud.

"How on earth do you find these disgusting things?" she whined in disgust.

Piper burst through the door.

"Zaboo!  What'd ya find this time!"  Piper's excitement came to a dead halt.  There on the floor was a half-rotting Blue Jay.  Piper's jaw gaped open as she stared at the zombie bird.  "Oh no," she whispered, and slowly backed out the door.

"Pickles!" called Piper.
"What?" groaned Pickles.  "I want to sleep."
"Get up, ya lazy bum! We've got a serious problem here."
"I'm sure you can deal with one of Zaboo's gross little treasures on your own."
"Pickles, he found a half-rotted Blue Jay."
"So, he found a road-kill.  Big deal."
"Pickles.  It's a zombie bird."

There was silence.  The word zombie was slowly making it's way into her half-zombied brain.  "Zombie, zombie, zombie," she repeated, as though she'd never heard the word before and was trying to figure out what it meant.

Suddenly it dawned on her.  "OH MY GOSH!!!!  CALL THE POLICE!  CALL THE MILITARY!  CALL THE VET!"  Pickles then set the world record for getting dressed, and practically jumped out of the treehouse.

Chapter 2 Zaboo's breakfast gift

It was evening and Pickles and Piper were having a sleepover.  Pickles didn't think Piper should be left alone.  They shared their near death experience with Piper's parents that evening at the table.

"So, have you heard of any strange stuff going around?" asked Pickles.

Piper's dad was the police chief, if anything was going down, he was most likely on to it.

"I haven't heard a thing," he said, staring down at his plate and wondering how Zaboo's toy mouse had gotten in his soup.  He picked it up by the tail and tossed it across the room.

"Doug!" yelled Piper's mom. "You're cleaning up that mess, not me!"

Doug laughed as he looked down at Zaboo with his mouse.  "Don't think I'm gonna have to.  Zaboo's pretty much cleaned it up for me."

The girls laughed and Piper's mom shook her head.  She hated messes.

"Have any boys been in trouble lately?" asked Piper.

"No," replied her dad.  "In fact, we've had very few arrests lately.  Makes for a bit of a boring town."

Just then, Doug's phone rang.  "Dang.  I spoke too soon." He grabbed his coffee, keys, and jacket, said good-bye and left.

The girls headed out to the tree house to spend the night.

Chapter 1 - Knocked Flat and Nearly Squished

"Look out!"  Pickles and Piper tried to dive out of the way but it was too late, the three boys knocked them flat and kept on running.

"What the heck was that?" cried Piper.
"I don't know, but when I catch up with them, they'll regret the day they nearly killed us.

Before they were able to pick themselves off the ground, a black buggy with a wild looking horse came blasting around the corner.  The girls screamed, and rolled out of the way just in the nick of time.

"What the???" cried Pickles.  "That freaking Amish nearly killed us!"

Pickles was fuming.  Her face was even redder than her bright red hair, which is saying something.

"Let's get 'em, Piper!"

Pickles shot down the road like a bullet.  Suddenly she realised that she was running alone.

"What the heck are you doing back there?  They're getting away!"

Piper was still sitting in the same place looking stunned.

"Piper?" called Pickles.  She'd finally come to her senses enough to realise Piper must have gotten hurt.

"Crap!" she said, and raced back to see if Piper was ok.

"Should I call an ambulence?  Your mom?  Your dad?  The vet?"  Pickles was beginning to panic.  She wasn't exactly known for being the best person in a crisis situation.

Piper still sat quiet and white as a sheet.

"Ok, Piper, you're scaring the crap out of me.  Say something."  Pickles was reaching ultimate panic stage.

Piper slowly looked over at her.  "Didn't you see the driver of the buggy?" she asked quietly.

"No, I was too busy trying to keep from dying."

"I swear.  He looked like he was part zombie."

Pickles wasn't sure what to say.  Unlike herself, Piper wasn't one to exaggerate.  "Are you sure?"

Piper looked at her a bit irritated. "No, Pickles. I always go around seeing zombies.  It's a side-effect from our last mystery with the zombie Clowns."

"Sorry. It's just, how on earth could there be zombie Amish?"

"How on earth could there be zombie clowns!" replied Piper.  "No, wait.  That actually makes sense."  Piper thought a bit more.  "Come to think of it, it makes sense about the Amish too.  They creep me out."

Normally Pickles would have argued with her about  the Amish creeping her out, but looking at the state of her friend, she decided not to.

Piper was finally coming to her senses.  "Hey, wait!  I'm pretty certain I saw a piece of flesh fly out of the buggy.  Maybe we can find it!"

Piper and Pickles searched along the road.  Suddenly, Pickles caught sight of what could be a piece of rotted flesh.  She made a run for it.  Unfortunately, a crow saw it at the same  time.

"Get back here you stupid bird!  That's evidence!" cried Pickles, as she dashed after the two-winged criminal.

"Drats!" said Pickles, disappointed beyond words.  "I guess we'll never know what it was.  But it did look like the piece of flesh Zaboo brought home that time."

"Well, if we ever see any zombie birds, I guess we'll know how they go infected." said Piper.

"Depending on how old the flesh is," reminded Pickles.

"Yeah, but that's some pretty fresh flesh," said Piper.

Pickles started laughing.  "Try saying that three times real fast."

"Pretty fresh fless.  Pretty flush fresh.  Pretty...forget it." laughed Piper.