Scarlet Thunder by Sigmund Brouwer

Author:Sigmund Brouwer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2008-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

chapter thirteen

For me, it started with a bad dream. I was in a swamp. The water was up to my waist. My feet were stuck in mud. I watched an alligator swim through the waving grass in the water. It got closer. I couldn’t run because my feet would not move. The jaws opened wide. I screamed. The jaws closed on my stomach.

The pain was so real that I woke up.

I blinked for a few seconds, expecting to still be in a swamp.

I wasn’t.

I was in a rented motor home that I shared with Uncle Mike. We had decided to spend this week living like the pit crew and filming them in their everyday activities. So we too were parked in the infield among the dozens and dozens of other motor homes that housed the different racing crews. The rest of the film crew was in a motor home parked beside ours.

Still blinking, I was rattled by how real the dream had seemed. So rattled that it took me a couple more seconds to realize the alligator was still clamped on my stomach. Except, of course, there was no alligator.

I had stomach cramps. Real bad stomach cramps. So bad that I heard groaning, and it didn’t even feel like it was coming from my mouth.

When I heard the groaning again, I realized that it came from another part of the motor home. The part where Uncle Mike slept.

I looked at the clock beside my bed. The red glowing numbers showed 1:30 AM.

My stomach cramps got worse. I groaned too. I almost felt like I was going to throw up.

I heard Uncle Mike get out of his bed.

I didn’t say anything. I was afraid that if I tried to talk, all my insides would come out of my mouth in a big explosion.

Uncle Mike staggered through the motor home in the darkness. I heard a bang.

“Nuts!” he said. Probably his toe. There was a step in the motor home that I had already hit twice.

Uncle Mike hopped around.

So did my stomach.

It hopped and flopped. I got that feeling you get when you know you’re going to blow. The feeling that says you have exactly 2.5 seconds until the geyser hits. The feeling that says you had better use those 2.5 seconds to get someplace other than the bed where you are lying beneath the covers.

I bolted upright. I hit my head on the low ceiling.

In the darkness, I saw an awesome display of circles of light. But my head hurt so bad I didn’t feel like applauding. And my body was already in full motion.

I shoulder-checked Uncle Mike, who was still hopping. He fell across the table. I didn’t stop to apologize. I was down to 1.5 seconds.

I ripped open the bathroom door. I fell to my knees in front of the toilet.

As I was throwing up, I became aware that not all of the horrible sounds were mine.

Uncle Mike was using the sink to do the same thing.

It just made me throw up harder.

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