One Thing At A Time
By Charlie Evans, 10
A February 2024 Monthly Story Challenge Winner
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Chapter 1 • Ideas out the window
“Nope, not this one,” Swit said as he threw a crumpled up ball of paper that was his best idea yet, into the trash.
He had tried so many times to write. He wanted to be a writer, making stories that people could enjoy, laugh at and love. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make anything that he liked. He was 3 weeks into summer break, and tried to write for at least 30 minutes every day.
“I can’t come up with anything,” Swit said exasperatedly as he pounded his fist on the ground. He then got up, figuring there was nothing else to do, grabbed his palm sized dog TVOEXS, and stomped down the light brown wooden stairs where his mom was waiting for him.
“Breakfast’s ready!” said Swit’s mom, as he tramped down the stairs, brightening up when he saw his dad flipping chocolate pancakes onto plates. He ran to the table, his younger brother zipped past him and quickly threw himself onto Swit’s chair.
“Hey! Onthros, that's my spot!” Swit said angrily as he set TVOEXS (Tvo for short) in his little dog bed.
“Hey Ony, give Swit his chair back,” said Swit’s dad, carrying the gold-rimmed breakfast plates with pancakes and setting each one down with a small “tink!” noise.
The sun was rising behind the mountains, splattering the sky with various hues of reds, oranges, and yellows. Swit’s family lived in a big house on the edge of a small city. Their house had an upstairs, ground floor, and a basement, like most houses. Swit had a mom, a dad, and 6 siblings. Swit was the oldest, 12 years old. Followed closely by Quano, who was also 12, but was a week younger than Swit. Then came Trinth who was 10. Then came the triplets Senye, Benye, and Fred (in that order) who were all 7. And finally Onthros who was 6. The field of plants behind their house was coated in a golden sheen, and the small part of the city in front of their house was bustling with activity, even this early in the morning. Onthros reluctantly gave up Swit’s chair, flopping onto his own chair “THAT IS THE EXACT SAME AS MINE” thought Swit furiously. A bit later the rest of Swit’s siblings skipped in, playing a game that involved jump ropes and pillows (The jump ropes they had to improvise)
“Wheire ais moi ponceks,” questioned Fred in the weird accent that he had inherited from their great-grandpa who had an accent that sounded similar.
“Ony ate them all,” joked Swit,
“Inotherus yae shud hiv sabed os sam,” (Which translates to: Onthros you should have saved us some) said Fred, who always believed the most obvious lies.
“I did not!” Onthoros said indignantly,
“Swit,” Swit’s dad said, giving him a look.“Fred. How do you not understand when I lie to you with the most unrealistic lie ever,” laughed Swit. “OWWW!” Swit yelled suddenly, as he got slashed in the face by the “jump rope” that was actually a cord’s plug. “I’m gonna kill you tw-mmmmmf” Quano put his hand on Swits mouth, and snaked one of his weirdly long arms around Swits chest, holding him tight.
Despite Swit being older than Quano, Quano was both stronger and taller than Swit (a fact which Swit disliked.) Swit was still thrashing but to no avail. It didn't hurt, it was the fact that Quano was holding him without much reason.
“Calm down,” Quano soothed. It was so annoying! Thought Swit as he thought of something. Swit suddenly stopped thrashing and went perfectly still, like a cat waiting to pounce. “Okaay” Quano stopped holding him and turned around like nothing had happened. I swear, Swit thought,
“Senye. Benye.” Their mom said meaningfully
“Sawy”
“Sawy” they said, without looking at him. Their dad came out of the kitchen with more chocolate pancakes,
“I saved these,” their dad said, bringing three pancakes into the kitchen.
“Thonk do cokei oop apbive” said Fred, reaching out to grab one.
“You still working on your story?” Questioned Swit’s mom, sitting down.
“Not really. I stopped that one, didn’t like it,”Swit stated, plopping another pancake onto his plate.
“Nope, you ravenous pancake monster,” said Trinth, snatching the pancake off of Swit’s plate.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Photo: Steve Johnson of unsplash