Same Planet - Different World PREVIEW EDITION (The First 12 Chapters) Read online



  Same Planet - Different World: FREE PREVIEW EDITION

  The First 12 Chapters

  by Ben Clabaugh

  Same Planet – Different World FREE PREVIEW EDITION

  Ben Clabaugh

  Copyright Ben Clabaugh 2013

  ISBN-10: 1938942205

  ISBN-13: 978-1-938942-20-4

  CHAPTER 1

  David Fuller gazed through the kitchen window across the pasture to the deep green of the tree line beyond. Heat shimmers arising from the yellow grass made the trees appear to bump and sway. With a sigh, he shifted his gaze to the yard next door, to the boy kneeling in the grass staring intently at the ground.

  According to his mom, the kid’s name was Shelton, he was twelve, like David, and he was ‘Just Darling.’

  Yeah, Just Darling, David thought. What kind of name was ‘Shelton’ anyway? And what did it take for his mom to call you ‘Darling?’

  He watched Shelton slowly reach out, pluck something from the grass between his thumb and fore finger, then drop it gently in front of him.

  David leaned forward, resting with his elbows on the edge of the sink and sighed. The clock perched on the window sill read nine o’clock. That would make it ten o’clock back home. Just about game time. He pictured his old friends, Tommy Greenbauer and Eric Lester, pedaling down the street toward his old house back in Indianapolis, ball gloves dangling from their handlebars. They had been his best friends, and summer had been their time. He sighed again.

  Ever since moving, his mom had been pestering him to go out and make new friends. David had mentioned (unwisely, it turned out) that there were no other kids on the street. Plus, since she had forbidden him from riding his bike past the end of the street, and since she now worked all day, everyday, there was no way he could go find some other kids.

  His blurted question, “What am I supposed to do, just stand there by the road with my thumb out and hitch some friends?” had cost him a week of dish washing duty.

  He heard her talking on the phone, over and over, saying how guilty she felt leaving him alone all day and how she just wished he had some friends like he’d had back home.

  Shoulda thought of that before we left, David thought bitterly.

  Then she heard that the family moving in next door had a boy David’s age.

  “Oooooh, you’ll have so much fun. I’m sure you’ll just be best friends,” she had gushed.

  She wouldn’t care if the kid pulled the legs off kittens or ate dog poop, just as long as she didn’t have to feel guilty anymore, he thought.

  David straightened and looked around. The emptiness of the house made it seem much larger and almost watchful. With a sense of grim resolve he patted his leg, calling Pete up from his splay-legged slumber on the cool kitchen linoleum. He squared his shoulders, stepped through the door, and walked across the yard.

  “Hey, uh, kid,” David said—he just couldn’t believe any kid would want to be called ‘Shelton.’ “What’cha doin’?”

  Shelton reached down, carefully selected a grain of dirt from the ground next to his knee, held it poised over an anthill for a moment before placing it gently down.

  “Helping,” he said. He brushed his hand on his knee and looked up. “My name is Shelton. And yours is David,” he announced. “And yours is Pete,” he said to the grinning golden retriever. “We already met.” Pete’s tail wagged.

  You’re not kidding, David thought and grimaced. He had watched from his bedroom window the day before as Shelton and his parents had arrived in their moving truck. David’s mom, followed by an enthusiastic Pete, stood waiting to greet them. As his mom met Shelton’s parents, David watched in horror as Shelton knelt down on all fours to sniff Pete’s butt–and Pete sniffed Shelton’s, tail wagging at full speed!

  At dinner that night when David offered what he had seen as proof that there was something wrong with the kid—that maybe he was retarded and so probably not the best kid for David to spend his time with—his mom said he was being ridiculous.

  Fine, David thought. I’ll go over there, meet the kid, and when he starts drooling all over the place or tries to eat my shoelaces, then we’ll see.

  He patted his leg and clucked his tongue. Pete returned to his side and sat, still grinning.

  He sure doesn’t sound retarded, David thought, but there was definitely something…. off about him. He had a look on his face that reminded David of his little sister, Janie, when she was about two years old. She would sit in the car gazing out the window, her face aglow with amazement and wonder pointing with one hand, pecking David relentlessly with the other asking, “Whassat?”

  David would come to see that expression on Shelton’s face almost continually, whether he was ‘helping,’ as he said, or getting pummeled on the playground at school.

  The thought of Janie, dead now for almost a year, brought an ache to David’s throat. He coughed to clear it.

  “Um, whaddya mean, helping? Helping what?”

  “The ants,” Shelton answered nodding toward the small mound of grit near his knees.

  “Yeah? My Dad pays me two bucks for every mound I get rid of from our yard,” David bragged. “I just sprinkle this poison powder on ‘em and they go nuts!”

  “No,” Shelton said, shaking his head but still smiling.

  No? David thought. No, what? He was already regretting his choice to come over.

  “No, really,” he said. “So far I got ten bucks.”

  “It’s okay,” Shelton murmured. David could not tell if Shelton were addressing him or the ants.

  David straightened up and looked around, unsure of what to say next.

  “Why not try a whole handful,” he ventured. “It’ll go lots faster.”

  Shelton slowly shook his head again. “Not up to me,” he whispered. He selected another grain and gently placed it near the crown of the little mound. As his fingers opened, a large, fat red ant scrambled up onto Shelton’s knuckle and two more traversed the back of his hand.

  “Hey, watch out!” David cried, stepping back. He’d accidentally stood on an anthill once before. He would never forget the feel of the fiery stings marching inexorably up his legs. It’d felt like he was being dipped slowly in an acid bath.

  “It’s okay,” Shelton repeated without looking up. He kept his hand where it was and laughed when several more climbed aboard and circled about before crawling back off.

  That does it, David thought, his skin rippling with goose bumps. I’m outta here!