Project Update

By the end of this weekend warrior project, I learned a lot about how to build a table and how not to build a table. I have done some small projects since but the itch to try something big again is creeping up on me. My wife has become a fan of my new hobby asking for things like a coat rack and essential oil holders. It took me by surprise when the little requests culminated into asking for a 7ft dining table with a butterfly leaf. The first thing I did was look up what a butterfly leaf was. After staring at her in disbelief that she thought I could do something like that I began to think, just a few short months ago I had never built a table, now I had one upstairs. Why not give a dining table a shot.

A problem I have with the bigger projects is, that I don’t have the room or many of the tools to make working with larger pieces of lumber easy. So, I took the opportunity to explain that without a table saw, cutting the lumber for a dining table would be difficult. To my surprise she gave me the go ahead to purchase one with in reason. My dreams of a SawStop were burst but I did settle on a Ryobi job site saw. Now, I know it’s not the best of the best but remember, all I had a was Black & Decker circular saw, so I think it’s a step up.

I am now searching for hardwood types and researching builds and design idea on Pintrest before diving into this project. I think it will be fun, I just have to slough off Perfectionism and begin. I will keep ya’ll up to date

So, without further ado and a little nervous trepidation here is the first part of Chapter one to my working novel, Whisper Out Loud. Below the snippet I’ve added a song I listen to to help energize me and put me in a better mood. I hope it does the same for you. Thanks for reading and keep finding ways to develop yourself.

Chapter 1

Olly Olly Oxen Free

Mother Nature slapped Sydney Austin square in the face.  She rubbed her cheek while cursing the assaulting limb, determined to keep searching as the hunt dogged on into late afternoon. She drew close to her quarry on several occasions only to have it scamper off again into the woods, a disorienting obstacle course in all directions.

The mature pines were easy enough to maneuver through, but the saplings and thick curtain of foliage slowed her down.  It didn’t help that gnarled roots piped along the ground, jutting out in sporadic intervals from the blanketing under growth, inviting her to sprain her ankle with each dubious step.

Hide and seek seemed much more dangerous than when she was as a little girl, some twenty years ago in the suburbs of Atlanta, darting around houses and mailboxes, not along the edge of the Nantahala National Forest.

“Addy!” She cupped her hands around her mouth, only hearing a faint giggle in return. “Come on Addy, it’s getting late.  We gotta start heading back. Aunt Steph is expecting us.”

“Nu-uh, just one more time.” The light voice piqued with a giggle, “I bet you can’t find me.”

“Okay, but stop running.”  Sydney took a step towards a sprawling shrub. The rustling within hinted where Adalyn, her six-year-old daughter, might be hiding. 

Sydney lunged at the foliage arms out like a line backer waiting to scoop up her child, “Gotcha!”  A Brown Thrasher kicked out from the shrubbery, eliciting a yelp from Sydney as she ducked. The brown speckled bird skimmed just above her head, squawking as it took flight to the forest canopy.  She tracked the bird until it disappeared.  Placing a hand on her chest, she regained her composer.

“Okay, you win. Come on out.” The only answer was from the wilderness, its timbre alive with chirps and cheerful whistles.

“Addy?”  Still nothing. Sydney felt uneasiness swell inside her like a balloon.

“Adalyn Austin, I’m not playing anymore, come out where I can see you this instant.”  Sydney began to walk along the wild hedge row, the balloon inside her nearly bursting as the shrubs ended at the edge of a granite out cropping, falling some twenty five feet to a rock-strewn bed below.

“Addy?” dread pushed sweat out of Sydney’s pores.  The stifling air felt heavy in her lungs. She knelt down, leaning over the edge as small bits of debris broke loose.  “Adalyn!”  her plea echoing down the cliff, trailing off to die between the towering pines below the ridge line.  She stood and turned in a circle.  Her pulse pounding in her head as her eyes dilated, darting from tree to tree.  “Addy!”

She took several deep breaths, squeezing her eyes tight. After a few deep breaths the she calmed down, the scent of pine and honey suckle stirring in her nostrils.  With her eyes still closed she thought she could hear something beyond the sounds of the wilderness, away from the cliff, a kind of chortle that accompanies children at play. 

The sound stoked her, pushing away the deprecating thoughts invading her mind.

“Addy!” Sydney called with renewed fervor as a rustling of leaves caught her attention. “Addy, com’on we aren’t playing anymore.”  Daylight was bleeding away. The dipping sun causing the lofty trunks to reach out, grasping the rugged terrain with long shadowy fingers.  

“I win?” the young girl’s voice piqued.

Relief flooded Sydney as a smile grew on her lips, “Yes honey, you win. Now, where are you?”

“Over here mommy, over…” the serious game of Marco Polo ended with a pitched squeal, causing a flock of black birds to take flight from an overhead branch.

“Addy!”  The scream was born from the deepest part of her, heralding through the woods like that of a roaring beast.  She was a mama bear whose cub who was in trouble. 

The woods in the area were thick, unhampered by hikers. The closest trail crawled over the mountain side eight miles to the east.   Disorientation was common. Landmarks were swallowed up after only a few steps off any path and sound ricocheted off trees like a pinball off bumpers. Sydney was in full tilt as she tore through the forest in the last direction she heard her daughter.

Her right cheek seared with pain as she burst head long in the midst of an immense overgrown briar patch.  She writhed among nature’s barbed wire, the long prickly vines decorated with small white blossoms.  Sydney picked at the vines, contorting her body in awkward gestures as not to take anymore brambles to the face, or any other tender areas.  Removing spurs with her thumb and fore finger, she forged ahead. It was now more than ever she cursed her fashion sense that had her wearing a sundress to play in the woods.

Her languishing was not solely from the thorns but the swarming mosquitoes as well.  They dive bombed any portion of her bare skin that presented itself.  Swatting at them became an exercise in futility as the pesky blood suckers were innumerable, and each swat brought with it the bite from the prickly vines that surrounded her.

“Mommy!” The single cry pierced deeper than any of the thorns.  Adrenaline erupted, coursing through her veins.  She surged through the last few yards of the thicket.  The briars brutally snagging at the sleeveless sheer fabric that covered her shoulders, chest, and back, before tapering at her waist and flowing freely from her hips. Large swaths of the material were reduced to frayed ribbons.  Red lines were rend across her arms and legs.  Fresh blood seeped and stirred with the rivers of sweat that flowed freely from her pores.  The wounds were clear but the pain was all but nonexistent. 

The sound of her heart drowned out everything except for the cry from her daughter.  It consumed her mind.  The surrounding forest passed in washed out streaks of greens and browns as she ran with reckless abandon. Sydney never saw the weathered tip of jutting granite that caught the top of her foot.  With an awkward lurch, the sky, trees, and earth blended into a wash. Her body tumbled, rolling over and across slick beds of leaves and loose soil.  Her plunge down the embankment was halted with a sudden jolt. 

Disoriented, she lay on her back with her head propped up.  The trees around her climbed toward the darkening sky like imposing ebony spires against the fiery heavens. 

Addy, was her last thought as she slipped through the tethers of consciousness and a black ink consumed her.   She closed her eyes and her body went limp.