Simple Pleasures.

     It has become quite routine.

     First you crack open the package.  Then you fill the pot with hot water and fire up the burner.  Throw that slice of delicious sweet-cream salted butter in, followed by the rice and seasonings.  The seasonings themselves are so very delicious that I can't help but dip my finger into the packet a time or two and take a little taste.  I am, after all, only cooking for myself!

     Next the water begins to boil.  Stir it up good... really good.  Throw the top on and turn the heat down.   I smirk with a half-evil grin as an aroma of deliciousness begins to permeate the air within my home.  Phase one of my master plan is complete!

     Run upstairs.

     Surf the 'net.

     Run downstairs.

     Sure, it's a little early, but why not start on the salad?

     As I pile the leafy herbal mix onto the plate, I grab the large knife and pick the perfect sacrificial clove of garlic.  I can almost hear each of them calling to me, "Pick me!  Pick me!"  Sorry, fellas.  Only one of you today.  On second thought, you can never have too much garlic!  I greedily grab another clove.  Peel the roughage and mince away to my heart's content, my mouth salivating in anticipation of the incredible meal I will shortly be consuming.

     Onions, Tomatoes, and a host of other ingredients into the salad, topping it off with my favorite magical dressing.  Now for the final phase of my master plan!

     The Tilapia fillet is ready and the olive oil is heating up nicely in the pan.  Throw in some of that minced garlic... Ahhhh!  Nothing quite fills the air with such pleasant authority as sauteed garlic.  Next, I throw down the fillet and dress it up with those seasonings and spices that have become the staple of the majority of my cooking efforts.  Splash it with some lemon and admire the work of art that lies before me.

     Who says that art can't  be delicious?!

     My patience has paid off.  My efforts have been rewarded.  My incredible nightly feast is now ready to be enjoyed.

     Routine?  Sure, it's routine.  But for me, it's one of those rare things in life that remains ever enjoyable.  One of life's true Simple Pleasures.

     I lie back in my recliner and let out a satisfying sigh after finishing the last tasty bite.  Few things in this world compare to the feeling one gets after eating a meal that leaves you wanting more while offering a lingering taste to remind you of its awesomeness.

     I couldn't imagine enjoying it this much if I didn't make it myself.  If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that putting the work in to achieve something makes it far more satisfying when you do manage to achieve it.

     And you know what?  I wouldn't have it any other way...

Trying my hand at a first-person short story, part 3.

Toying around with plot twists and some dialogue.  This is part 3.

     With a mighty heave I launched the grappling hook at the large timber. Sailing through the air gracefully and true, it latched itself perfectly onto its target.

     “Amazing!” I thought to myself, “I thought it would take a few tries to snag it!”

     I gathered the length of rope and prepared to sneak back to the rocks I had been hiding behind, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement. One of the other patrolling islanders had appeared from around the corner on the other side of the temple and was heading in my direction! Slowly, very slowly, I crept backwards and knelt down to do my best to stay out of sight.

     Suddenly, he stopped.

     Did he see me? Thanks to the light from the pyre, I was casting a faint shadow, so perhaps he saw that? I quickly began to plot a quick escape in my head, but before I could think for too long I saw him move again. He was actually eyeing my hiding spot over by the rocks! Looking over I noticed that the tip of my spear was visible, and I kicked myself for being so inept and not properly stowing it. It appeared that my original plan had been thwarted by my own stupidity, and since I wouldn't be sneaking back over there any time soon, I analyzed the situation as rapidly as I could and tried to come up with a new plan.

     Almost instinctively I grabbed hold of the rope as tightly as possible and before I could stop myself, I yanked with all my might! The air cracked with a loud “pop” as the timber snapped out of place, followed by a dull groaning sound as the headpiece slowly began to lurch over. In an instant I saw that my plan worked, indeed the headpiece was going to fall from the temple as I had hoped, but I also realized that I was standing right in its path! With no time to spare I threw caution to the wind and dove straight into the nearby brush, hoping none of the islanders (who were now turning their heads and watching their precious idol “fall from the heavens”) would see me.

     Screams pierced the air followed by the resounding crash of the headpiece, and peeking up from the dirt, I saw it literally explode into a hundred chunks of stone. I ducked my head again as a huge cloud of dust and debris covered the area and flew towards me, and could hear the yelling and commotion of the islanders as they rushed over. Realizing that I might not have much of a chance to escape, I decided to use the dust cloud as sort of a cover to sneak away.

     Doing so with great haste, I managed to crawl through the brush to a nearby tree and, poking my head up, could see that every single one of the tribesmen had come to investigate what had happened. Being well out of the light and under the aural cover of their chattering, I made a beeline for the rocks I had stashed my gear at and crouch-ran over as quickly as I could. The plan had worked... sort of. At the very least I had a golden opportunity to rush over to the captives and free them from their cages, so I had to roll with it and give it my best shot!

     I grabbed my equipment and bolted towards the cages. I could see the look on the captives' poor faces. It was a look of both bewilderment and disgust. Surely they were suffering tremendously! No worries, however, because their suffering would soon be over, or so I thought...

     “You there!” I noticed that one of the captives was looking at me and was addressing me, “Just what in the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!” He was a large man, about my height and spoke with a thick Australian accent.

     Reaching his cage, I answered back. “Rescuing you. We don't have much time, as soon as I pop the door on these cages you two need to c-”

     “Do you have any idea what you've done? You're ruining everything!”

     I was shocked. “Ruining Everything? What are you talking about?! I came to rescue you guys!”

     The other captive, a short and rotund man with an olive complexion, fired back, “Imbecile! We're here to investigate this tribe and their rituals! To think we'd be so daft as to get ourselves caged up accidentally...”

     “Nobody else is supposed to know about this island or this tribe.” The larger Australian interrupted, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

     Astonished and a tad bit intimidated, I answered back, “I was shipwrecked here about five days ago. I've been trying to figure out how I was going to get off this island and when I stumbled across the temple and saw these islanders toss you into these cages, I hoped you might have a way out of here...”

     “We're not prisoners. We allowed ourselves to be captured intentionally. We're on assignment from a very prestigious magazine to investigate this tribe and publish a report on them, and this was the only way to get close enough to do it!”

     “That's right. Now you need ta' get your blimey rear out of here before they see you! Our float is on the far Northwestern coast and it has a radio. You can use that to call in a taxi or whatever you need to do, just get going before they see you! Go on, bugger off!”

     Turning around and looking over to where the headpiece had crashed, I noticed most of the tribesmen were still in a frenzy of confusion and shock. Some were kneeling on the ground and raising their hands up to the heavens, probably questioning their deity as to why this happened. Others were flailing their arms and making angry gestures at each other, chirping away with what were likely accusations in their tribal tongue. Suddenly, one of them looked over and spotted me.

     “Ma n'tukat!” He screamed in his unintelligible native tongue. “Grong Ma!”

     A few more of them looked up and saw me. “Grong Ma'a! Ouk m'grogk'rat!” They screamed as they grabbed their spears and began to move in my direction. Not wasting another second, I fired off a quick apology to the journalists and bolted off into the jungle. I could feel the ground shaking underneath my feet as the entire tribe charged after me, screaming at the top of their lungs. I had no idea where I was going in the dark but I certainly wasn't going to let that stop me from running as fast as my legs could possibly carry me.

     A spear went whizzing past my ear.

     “Damn!” I thought, “How am I going to get out of this one? What the hell was I thinking?!” I was clueless. It was now a matter of pure, animalistic fight-or-flight instinct. If they caught me, they wouldn't be throwing me into a cage with my new best friends back there.  That I was sure of. While running as hard and fast as possible, my mind raced trying to come up with some kind of idea. In the sheer terror of the moment, nothing whatsoever was materializing. “This is it, isn't it? No way I'm getting out of this one!”

     All of the sudden, an idea found me. It appeared in the form of me tripping on a limb, flying through the air, and breaking through the ground. I found myself falling for a brief moment, and then hitting the bottom of whatever I had just fallen into with a loud, reverberating “thud!”

     Consciousness slipped away and the world faded to black...

Thoughts so far?

I'll continue with part 3 of the story in a day or two, but for those of you who stumble across my little creative home here on the interwebs as it's just getting on its feet, what do you think of my efforts so far?  I've got plenty of ideas and topics to write about, some in this same jungle-adventure theme and some completely different, though I'm just going with the flow at the moment.  It's a lot of fun coming up with stories off the top of my head, but I've never taken a writing class and I hope I'm not butchering the actual grammar and story structure too badly...

Looking forward to comments and looking forward creating more content for y'all while delving deeper into this wacky and wondrous universe known as "storytelling"...

Trying my hand at a first-person short story, part 2.

Continuing my first short story.  This is part 2.  I'd recommend reading part 1 first...  ha!

     Reaching back and grabbing the spear I had fashioned from a bamboo reed and my pocket knife, I pulled it to the ready as the rustling got louder. It was dark and I was in an unfamiliar place, but I remembered to control my breathing and focus instead of allowing my nerves to get the better of me. My mind played tricks as I hunched over in anticipation of what was about to come charging out of the brush, and then suddenly I saw it!

     A lone coconut rolled into view and came to a stop at the edge of my camp. The rustling ceased and that was it. I realized the snap I heard must have been from a branch the coconut hit when it fell from the palms that towered above me. “Bloody hell..." I said with a snicker, setting down my spear and gathering the rest of my belongings, "Guess the joke's on me!”  With everything packed I threw the satchel over my shoulder and set off towards the temple, walking in time with the eerie beat of the islanders' drums. Clutching the spear in my other hand, I silently vowed to make quick work of any other killer coconuts that might try to ambush me...

     Slowly I hiked down the side of the mountain, keeping one eye on this mysterious temple that grew larger as I approached, and keeping the other wandering in my periphery out of caution. I could see the natives dancing around the large pyre they had built in the center of the grounds and I also caught sight of the two hapless folks who were locked up in cages. I was close now... Very close. I could very well be visible if one of them happened to look in the right direction, so I searched for cover. Remembering the rocky outcroppings and trees I saw bordering the temple from my camp, I picked out their silhouette and sneaked over to them.

     Crouching down and gathering a better view, I set my spear and satchel down next to me and began to go over the plan in my head. The large stone headpiece on top of the left side of the temple was my target. From the features I was able to make out at my distance, it seemed to show the face of some being, perhaps one of this tribe's ancient deities. During the daylight hours the tribesmen had been slaving away trying to make some type of repairs or modifications to it. There was a huge crack running across the bottom and it was being propped up by a few timbers.

     Being sure to avoid their patrolmen, I would sneak over to the corner of the temple and pull out the makeshift grappling hook I had created from a length of rope and a large iron hook I gathered from that boat wreckage I stumbled across on the beach. Out of sight, I would do my best to swing the grappling hook onto the largest timber that supported the headpiece, sneak around back to my hiding spot with the length of rope, and give it a mighty heave. With a bit of luck, yanking that timber out would be enough to cause the headpiece to roll over and fall off the top of the temple, making a loud enough crash to attract the attention of the islanders. With the captives' cages being on the complete opposite side of the temple, I should have just enough time to rush over to them, break open the cage doors, and grab their equipment which was piled only a few feet away from them.  Then the three of us would disappear into the jungle before the tribesmen knew what was happening.

     It was perfect.  I was ready.

     The drum beat grew louder.

     All of the tribesmen were now fully immersed into their dance ritual. Their efforts were so focused that it seemed as if they had become one with the movements of the flames from the pyre. It reminded me of the meditative, trance-like state one enters when practicing Zen.  For a moment it was both beautiful and fascinating, but I quickly snapped out of it and focused on the task at hand.

     Seeing the last patrolman disappear behind the other side of the temple, I knew the time had come. Picking out the spot where I'd throw the hook, I quickly grabbed it from my satchel and crouch-walked over. The coast was clear! Standing up and focusing on the large timber, I started to swing the hook around to pick up momentum for the throw. As I readied myself for the release I wondered, will this all be worth it? Will these two people I was about to rescue have the means to get us out of here? After all, if they were stranded also with no way of escaping this island, things would probably get a whole lot worse for the lot of us. Being stranded is one thing. But being stranded with a band of crazy native islanders chasing after you?

     Well now, that's a whole different ballgame...

Trying my hand at a first-person short story, part 1.

Toying around with some first-person action and building a little subplot.  This is part 1.

     Taking a deep breath, I let out a long, drawn out sigh as I gazed over the horizon. The late afternoon had become my favorite time of day on this island, when the overwhelming heat and humidity slowly began to fade. The gentle tropical breeze rolling up the side of the mountain danced over my skin, and the last drops of sweat scurried down my face until dropping from my chin to the ground. The sky would soon begin to dim and reveal the full beauty of the colors of dusk in the tropics. For the moment, however, all I could do was look off into the distance and pretend that I wasn't in the particular predicament which I currently found myself.

     "This is pretty much what I thought it would be like," I thought to myself, "when I used to dream about living a simple life on a tropical island somewhere..." But that really didn't make my situation any easier to bear. True that I had only been here for a few days, but being stranded with no apparent way out will do that to a guy, especially when your only company happens to be a group of ornery natives who just tossed a couple of other expats into a bamboo cage!

     Finishing my usual dinner of roasted crab legs and coconut milk, I laid back to take a nap. There wasn't much else I could do with the remaining daylight, but once the night fell, I knew what my plan was and I absolutely had to be well rested and alert to make it work. If what I had observed last night was a regular occurrence, there would be plenty of work to do if I wanted to have a chance at gaining entrance to such an ominous and dangerous place without becoming a permanent resident myself. Aside from the odd ritual these natives had performed, at least three of them were wandering the perimeter of the temple on what I could only surmise to be a patrol. Did they know somebody else was here? Were they gearing up their defenses for more unexpected visitors? I had my doubts. There happened to be a lot of dangerous wildlife on this island and none of these islanders strayed too far from their temple, so my guess was that they were protecting their sacred grounds from predators.

     These thoughts and others bounced around my head as I closed my eyes. I was well out of sight and safe for the moment, and I figured that I'd hear the sound of their drums and wake up once the nightly ritual began. I had everything I needed to try to rescue those two poor saps (and their equipment) and all my preparations were in place. Now it was just a matter of timing. If everything went according to plan, I could fire off the distraction, spring the cages, snatch the gear, and get these two to safety all in a matter of minutes. Then we could have the last laugh as we watched the islanders from a safe distance, scratching their collective heads and trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Afterward, hopefully my new friends would have some means at their disposal to get us all off this godforsaken island.

     It seemed like I hadn't been asleep for more than a few minutes when the chilling sound of drums began to pierce the air. Opening my eyes, I saw that it was in fact night, and the time had come to put my plan into action. Slowly I rose to my feet, getting in a satisfying stretch on the way up. As I gathered my things, an odd feeling shot through me. I could almost sense some kind of disturbance on the gentle breeze that continued to flow through the air around me. Slowly turning around, it was then that I heard rustling in the brush and the loud snap of a branch breaking on the ground next to my camp...

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The Great Adventure begins...

I've created this blog as a way to express many of the stories and fantasies which linger in my mind.  For a long time I've held on to a dream of becoming a writer, yet until now have never taken a step towards making that a reality.  I love to entertain people and bring them fun and excitement, and hope that through writing I can impart the same feeling of magic and wonder onto others that my fantasies bring me when I immerse myself into them.

I'm a huge daydreamer.  I've always dreamed of traveling the world, interacting with different cultures, and lending a hand wherever I can, but in my own unique way.  I'm pretty unusual (and a bit eccentric) but this has been a boon to my creative potential, or at least I'd like to believe as much!  I'm the kind of guy who could entertain himself for days on end with only a rock, a couple of toothpicks, and my own two hands if I just so happened to be trapped at the bottom of a deep cave in the middle of the jungle somewhere.  So, why wouldn't I try writing stories about crazy stuff like that?

I think it would be very satisfying (and a terrible amount of fun) to experiment with storytelling in the form of short stories.  One day I may try to write a novel, and some of these stories will tie into that particular theme while others will not and meander off in a completely different direction.  If things go well and my creative abilities and writing skills ring true, perhaps I'll make a lifestyle out of it.  If not, well... at least I'll be having a lot of fun.

I hope that you enjoy reading what I create.  Thank you for visiting and I hope you decide to pull up a palm frond, grab some coconut milk, and stay for a while!