ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine March 2014 | Page 36

EXCERPT FROM THE SHEPHERD
Travis Luedke
Chapter One
Thursday, September 9th, 5:15 p.m.
Shit happens, life happens, but for some reason it happens to me
a lot.
I was kinda hoping life would give me a break – maybe crap on
somebody else for a while.
Yeah, right.

rule number four: No children over the age of fourteen allowed.
For the record, Justin is sixteen.”
Returning to the action, I caught Tommy’s upturned face lit with
excitement, and then slid the view up the playcenter to Justin.
“There’s the big man, putting on a show for his new best
friend.”
It kinda stung in a way I didn’t like to admit, that Justin was
doing all this for Tommy. A couple months ago, Justin was my
best friend, my idiot. Or so I had thought.

I mean, look at Justin Shelby. I’m sitting here in my car, in the
McDonald’s drive through, and what is he doing? He’s climbing
up the side of the damn playcenter. Probably faded on
prescription pills he stole from his mom. This guy is begging for
life to hit him upside the head. But it never does.

But Tommy was cool. Popular and wealthy, he also happened to
be one of the biggest arrogant pricks in my class, and Justin’s
ticket into the ‘cool crowd.’

And then there’s his buddy, Tommy Schroeder, goading him on.

“Always trying to prove something.” I shook my head.

“Do it man! You’re almost there!”

Tommy and I don’t get along so well. It’s a Rachelle thing. One
of those life things that happens to me so often.

One of the wrestling elite of Moses Lake High School, Tommy’s
mere presence inspired Justin to new hei ghts of idiocy. Justin
scaled the side of the outdoor playcenter like Tom Cruise in
Mission Impossible.
Justin skated religiously, a regular at the downtown Moses Lake
skatepark across from the Aquatic Center. Like most of us
skaters, he was thin, moderately athletic, and had a strong sense
of balance from endless hours busting his ass on the concrete.
Climbing the playcenter wasn’t any more dangerous than the
skate tricks we recorded and posted to YouTube.
He quickly reached the apex, damn spider monkey. He stood
exalted atop the dome of the airplane-shaped plastic toy. An
elementary kid inside gawked up at him from the Plexiglas
window.
“This is classic!” Tommy whipped out his cell phone and started
recording.
Looked like a good idea to me, so I did the same. You never
know what folly you might catch on video. I mean, this was live
action stuff. I could be ten seconds away from a viral Youtube
video, Gangnam Style.
Tommy encouraged Justin’s antics with loud catcalls.
proclaimed his status as king of the hill, arms held high.

Justin

“Yeah bitches, hell yeah!” Justin yelled and hooted at the top of
his lungs, pumping his fists in the air.
I narrated to my potential audience of millions, “This is a
flagrant violation of the rules.” I panned my cellphone camera
over to the placard by the entry gate and zoomed in to catch a
clear shot of the playcenter rules. “There it is folks, rule number
three: No climbing outside the playcenter. And we can’t forget

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I should just keep my mouth shut and catch some choice video,
but you know what they say, the observer always affects the
observed …
“Hey ass munch, get down before you break your neck!”
Justin’s head whipped around to the sound of my voice, causing
his body to sway with the sudden movement. As soon as he
spotted me parked in the drive-through a nasty smirk bloomed
across his face. In a moment of sublime inspiration, Justin
dropped his pants with a show of lily-white butt cheeks. He
obviously hadn’t seen me recording with my cell phone.
Tommy noticed me too. “How about a double McAss burger
Mikey?”
He loves to call me Mikey. He knows I hate it. No one but
Tommy calls me Mikey.
The girl delivering my cheeseburger held her hand over her
mouth to cover her braces as she giggled and snarfed at the sight
of Justin’s naked rump shaking back and forth while he taunted,
“It’s a full moon tonight Mikey. Hope you enjoy the view!”
Perfect. Now Justin’s calling me Mikey. God I hate that name.
“It’s Michael, asshole! And thanks for the killer video. Goin’
straight to Facebook.” I held my cell phone out the window for
him.
Justin looked back over his shoulder in surprise, attempting to
pull up his pants at the same time. The knee-jerk reaction
caused him to lose his delicate balance atop the apex of the
plastic airplane. He fell onto his right side, and slithered down