Chapter Thirteen of The Shasta Caper is now online.

Chapter Thirteen

"Sherelle Matilda. You still put a lot of bang into that shake." Samuel said, pretending she hadn't noticed the jolt of energy. She had, but she was very shy about talking about it with her brothers listening in, though both felt something up.

"You're so handsome and courteous as always." She told him back, hiding the gleam of knowing on her lips as she turned to Jacob. "You know the cows haven't been milked for two days. What in hell's name were you thinking, big brother?"

He hunched down, cowering a bit behind Jimbo, who smiled. "Sis, it's not like that. Someone had to go out and bury the pieces."

"Pieces?" I asked.

Jacob looked at Samuel. "Don't ask and then you won't have to tell."

Samuel didn't have to ask. It had to be the man they had machine-gunned down. "Won't the Sheriff be coming looking for him eventually."

Sherelle put an arm around Jacob's waist and leaned into him. "The Sheriff likes out blueberry and raspberry pies a lot, don't he, Jacob?"

"Oh indeed he do." Jacob said with a grin.

Samuel said no more. 

Later, they sat around the dining table, which was made from Joshua trees burnished to a high polish. It was about ten feet long and four wide, supported by eight legs made of highly polished iron that had been hand made.

"I don't remember this." Samuel said, eyeing the beauty of it.

"Jacob's shy about his work." Sherelle said with a wink. "Like someone else I know well."

He blushed, then turned to Jimbo, who was polishing off the four steak that had been over the barbie out back. 

Jimbo swallowed his food with a big gulp from a huge bottle of ginger ale, then burped. "She's got you pegged, Sammie boy."

Samuel blushed again and then yet again when she nudged his leg with her right foot. This time there was no WHAM, which made him both embarassed, curious and puzzled.

She put her chin in the palms of her hands that she cupped together and smiled. "Not everyone has all the goodies, Sammie."

He never got a chance to ask her what that meant, because a horrible howling came from out back.

Jacob got up, his face turning red with anger. "It's them damned ghosties again. They always wake up, just when we're getting ready to go to bed. It's like clockwork. None of us has gotten a good night's rest around here for days now."

Jimbo got up stretched, then eyed Samuel. "Let's go earn our meal, partner."

Samuel nodded and pushed away from the remains of his meal. Vegetarian. Soy meat with flakes of coconut and Stevia on top, a mild soy sauce pooled around its base. He had made it himself. Even Sherelle had had some, as well as Jacob, but Jimbo was having none of it. He was strictly a steak and potatoes man. Occasionally, a lamb.

"Take me to your leaders." Samuel punned.

Jacob eyed Samuel with disdain. "If that's the best you can do, then we're all damned to hell."

They went outside through the back door, closing it behind them. Samuel noted that the back porch was cleaner than usual.

"Me." Sherelle admitted. "Since I graduated from the University of Texas, I've been bored as hell. Nothing to do out here, except milk cows and rope horses. And the occassional dude."

Again she nudged him, but with her elbow. Still no WHAM!

Now Samuel was really puzzled.

They took a short path behind the barn and there stood a two story outhouse with three seats inside. All spanking new.

"We overhauled it nicely, don't you think?" Jacob asked.

"You going to the bathroom or moving in?" Samuel asked.

"Both." Jacob quipped.

Jimbo cuffed his younger brother and he was cuffed back. Both young men grinned at each other until the howl came from the haunted outhouse again.

As they neared the outhouse a flare of blue light shot out its moon shaped windows, casting the desert ground about it in a bluish glaze of unearthly color. The walls of the outhouse began to shake, then expand like something alive and breathing.

"Samuel, if you would do the honors?" Jimbo asked.

Samuel hesitated. "Looks like a Category One haunting." Samuel said.

"All the more reason to clear it out. I'm not going to the bathroom in any haunted house. Day or night!" Sherelle reasoned.

Samuel took a deep breath and slowly went up to the wall of the outhouse. A horrible scream came out and the wall seemed to leap at him as he reached out a  hand to touch it.

WHAM!

Chapter Twelve of The Shasta Caper is now posted on Imagination blogger

Chapter Twelve

The Seven Hills of Rome. And they were climbing one. Late afternoon. Sun was burning down on them, lapping over them like a hot clay fire. Claudius wiped at his brow, then tossed the sweat to the ground.

Ignatius smiled at him. "Got a good sweat worked up, brother?"

"No thanks to you. Or rather should I say, thanks to you." Claudius said.

Their sandals were having a hard time keeping a purchase on the rocky knoll they were mounting. They had promised each other to make it before noon, but it wasn't working out that way. They wanted to look at Rome from above and draw it.

Which brought up another problem, they had forgotten to bring any drawing materials. Claudius laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"Here we are on an afternoon hike to draw Rome, but without a single thing to draw upon or with."

"Well." Ignatius answered. "We have the dirt to draw upon and rocks to make our marks. I'd say we're not totally at a loss."

Claudius laughed again, then threw himself down on a lion shaped boulder that had been carved by Dinaus, a famous sculpter from Greece. "At least we shall draw in style."

"Yes, I'm sure Dinaus would love knowing our sweaty butts are annointing the flesh of his great work." Ignatius said with a grin.

Ignatius sat down next to his brother and studied Rome, which was nestled in the lap of the seven hills. "I wonder how Caesar is doing these days."

"I'd imagine not so good, considering Brutus having stabbed him."

"Suppose not." Ignatius muttered, unhappy with his thoughts.

"What's wrong, brother?"

Ignatius grunted. "It's just that I don't understand why anyone would ever betray the one they love."

"Did not the Christ get betrayed by the kiss of his disciple?"

"True enough, but this is not religious. It is blood of blood."

"Perhaps, but sometimes the closer two people are, the more difference that truly engulfs them. Who's to say?"

They were both silent a long time, until a hawk came screaming over head.

"One day I shall fly like that hawk." Claudius declared.

"Well, if I throw you down the hill, that day shall be now." Ignatius declared.

Claudius laughed. "That'll be the day."

Ignatius rose and grabbed Claudius by his shoulders and wrestled him to the ground. "Two out of three and we'll see who can fly further?"

"You're on!" Claudius declared, and immediately threw Ignatius from him.

WHAM!

Chapter Eleven of The Shasta Caper is now posted!

Chapter Eleven

"Watch out!" Jimbo cried out as the four by four nearly struck a lone sheep grazing in the middle of the almost pitch black dirt road they were bouncing along on at eighty miles an hour. Jacob floored the truck and skirted around the sheep, who just kept on eating, as if nothing had just happened and it had almost become lamb for the dinner plate.

"Damn sheep is always getting out."

"Hoover?" Jimbo asked.

"Who else. Too dumb to suck its own Momma's titty, so does that surprise you?"

"Nope." Jimbo replied.

Samuel smiled. It was just like going home again to his childhood. Even though he had grown up in a suburban area, still his late teen years had been spent with Granpa Evans and his kids. Granpa always had all his grandchildren on the ranch, either playing or helping and sometimes both. Kicking hay into the barn loft, shearing the sheep for wool, feeding the cows, brushing the horses down before they went into their stables at night, repairing broken ropes, leather gear, shoes and on and on. Fond memories. Hard work, but all in good fun. Good hard work is not a bad thing, Samuel thought as he mused about the past. It's dirty hard work that corrupts the mind and soul. He finished with.

And that's what God seemed to have laid out for him to do, clean up the corruption, save the weak, help the helpless. And sometimes, unfortunately, help a few of the incorrigibles on their merry way to hell. Or what they thought was hell anyway. 

Samuel knew better, but he didn't want to think about it. He didn't savor the more violent side he had to deal with at times, but sometimes he had to use force to meet force, as unpleasant and unsavory as that felt to his soul.

BUMP!

The truck skidded several feet, and Jacob yelled like a madman. "Sonuva bitch, Mabel, you gotta do that, don't you. Don't you!" He screamed joyfully.

Jimbo looked over at Samuel and shrugged. Little brother was written all over his shrug.

Samuel's grin vanished when Jacob swore as loud as a thunderstorm and hit the brakes. They slid forward about twenty feet and stopped just inches shy of a barn door that had been left open and had decided to swing into their path at that moment. A very pretty young lady stepped into view, coughing from the dust the truck had stirred up, then come around as Jacob jumped out.

"You coulda greased my bumpers!"

"What a sweet thing to say to a sister, Jackie?" She said in a very smart Southern accent.

Samuel and Jimbo climbed out and Jimbo went over to her and gave her a big hug, then swept her over towards Samuel. "I'd like you to meet my very best friend, Sammie."

"We've met." She drawled, but put her hand out anyway.

Samuel hesitated.

She gave him a coy look. "Not afraid of another Whammy, are we?"

Samuel sighed, then took the hand.

WHAM!

Cool robot.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Ten is now posted on Imagination blogger

Chapter Ten

WHAM!

Samuel sidestepped the bullet as easily as if he it were his dancing partner. The bullet passed him and struck a passenger in his chest, who had stood up in confusion and fright. 

Jimbo was on the Tall Man before he could fire again and took him down, binding his arms behind him with plastic, then tying his arms to his legs.

"My husband is dying!" Screamed a panicked passenger, throwing herself down on her elderly husband to comfort him. 

Samuel ran to the fallen passenger and pressed his hand to the wound on his chest, where blood was flowing freely. The man was in his late sixties, and not likely to survive such a traumatic event, but Samuel did not give up on him. He allowed the spiritual energy in his soul to flow forth through his hand and into the man's wound. The man was in so much pain that all he could do was moan at first, but then he began to grow silent.

Passengers gathered around to watch and were in awe as they saw the wound begin to close at the same time as a beautiful green glow emitted from Samuel's palm to surround the man's chest. The man's eyes closed.

The woman screamed and began to weep at her loss.

Samuel put a hand on her shoulder. "He's alive."

She gave him a look of total disbelief, then when her husband opened his eyes and said, "Damn! That really hurt, Mabel. What's all the noise about?"

He sat up and the passengers broke into applause and cheers.

Samuel rose and they cheered even more. He got claps on the back, handshakes, and kisses from the women. He smiled, but walked away from the attention back to where Jimbo held the captive murderer.

Samuel looked at the man and shook his head. 

"How in the hell did you dodge my bullet?" The Tall Man demanded. "I shot you point blank!"

"Let's just say an old friend showed me how." Samuel said, then helped Jimbo throw the man onto a couch in the business section.

The jet turned around and landed back at McCarran. 

Before the reporters could latch onto  Jimbo and Samuel, or the curious police, Jimbo had them on a different jet, a straight flight and they made up their lost time and arrived, tired and beat, but safe and sound.

As they got off the Jet Blue passenger plane, a Texan even bigger than Jimbo stepped up from a side seating and swore till he was blue in the face, then stopped before them and gave Jimbo a big hug, then Samuel.

Jason smiled at Samuel. "Don't take it personal, we're a friendly bunch."

"Friendly, hell, brother. You're just glad you get to go home and sleep while we solve your problems."

"You mean...your problems." Jacob told Jimbo.

Jacob talked to them all the way out to his Texas red four by four. They rode silently for about ten minutes, then Jacob let it all out.

"It's the strangest damned thing, Jimbo. This guy I've never seen before, comes onto our ranch, steals the horses, then comes back to be shot. Doesn't make a damned bit of sense."

"I should never have let you have the use of my weapons." Jimbo growled.

"Hell, Jimmie. If you hadn't, we'd have torn him apart limb from limb with our bare hands."

Samuel laughed. "Okay, okay, now can we have the truth here."

Jacob looked at Samuel. "Can't I ever pull anything over on you, Sammie?"

Samuel waited.

"Actually, it wasn't a man, it was some kind of alien."

Samuel waited.

"All right. All right. A coyote got one of the horses."

Samuel continued to wait.

Jacob threw his hands up in frustration and if Jimbo hadn't grabbed the wheel the next moment they'd have run off the road.

"Thanks." Jacob said, then took the wheel back. "Samuel, we got a serious problem we need help with."

"What this time?" Samuel asked.

"And it better be good, because we have a case we're hot to solve."

"Oh, it's good all right. You remember Granddaddy's old outhouse. The three seater?"

"Yeah."

"It's haunted!"

Samuel broke into laughter.

Free books!

Rally over to Smashwords to pick up the free books I've posted there. My Holiday gift to everyone!

John


I just made available free copies of the first stories from the Baker Street Adventures, Perihelion, Lord When, Young King Arthur and many others on Smashwords.

 Escape to Adventure, Volume One: The Dreamers Awaken;Cartoon, Episode One -- Shades of Gray The Portal is Opening; To Hell and Back, Episode One: The Demon Lord; War of the Worlds, Volume One, The Forever Friends; Time Swirl A Binky Adventure; Young King Arthur Dawn of the Light Episode One, The King of Threads;  Perihelion, Episode One: The Convolution; and Journey to the Center of the Earth

Just click on the above links to grab some free reads!

My Christmas present to everybody!

Funny and cute CGI Short "Rollin' Wild."