Bigfoot Day, Ninja Night excerpt

This is an excerpt from chapter 4 of BIGFOOT DAY, NINJA NIGHT. This book is for kids ages 8 - 12 and is full of humor and suspense as a group of kids sneak off into woods.

So there we were. Lost. Deep in the dark forest. Monsters lurking. Mosquitoes buzzing. Spiders watching. Blood dripping. Dried poop stinking. Or something else . . .

“Okay, who let one?”

“Not me.”

“Not me.”

“It wasn’t me, either, and it’s different from this stuff that’s dried on me,” Sydney smiled as she said this. Nothing gets to that girl. I think she’s happy to be lost.

“Maybe it’s the creature.” Callie said this like she knew the creature personally and, well, it’s just the creature. Yeah, that’s all, the creature just had a little gas, no biggy.

I wasn’t falling for it. I made a face. I turned. I sniffed. I turned again, sniffed again. I picked a direction. There was nothing stinky to the left so that was going to be our new path. The others followed like the little lambs they are.

“Hey, let’s sing.” We just ignored Sydney on that one. Way to not be cool.

“I don’t get why it’s so dark,” Callie said as she stumbled along, last in our miniature parade. “It’s only a little bit after one. Maybe. I think.”

“Yeah,” Austin agreed. “We just had lunch before we came. We haven’t been out here that long.” He really stretched out the word “that” when he said it. We haven’t been out here thaaaaaaaaaaaaat long.

I wouldn’t be making a big deal about how he said it, but it was just that when he was stretching out the word I heard another sound. A sound that could have been someone else trying to mimic him. Not an echo exactly. Just the “aaaaaa” sound, like a sheep’s bleat or a bubble stuck in your throat or the witch in “The Wizard of Oz” before she says “my pretty.”

“Aaaaaaaaaa.” There it was again.

“What was that?” I asked. I glanced back and again everyone was swinging their heads all around. I knew that they had heard it, too. I could imagine all their arm and leg hairs popping out straight with goose pimply fright. Our parade line was tightening up fast as Austin crowded up closer to me and Sydney reached for Austin and Callie closed in on Syd.

“The Bigfoot,” Austin breathed.

“Mr. Two-toes,” Sydney said at the same time.

copyright 2010 by Debra Chapoton BIGFOOT DAY, NINJA NIGHT