So I've gone digging through that vault that is my computer and I found the original draft for my first novel
The Year of the Elephant. Reading it gives me a headache because I think it's terrible. I couldn't stand to read it for too long. However, I wanted to share with you an excerpt from my first attempt at a novel. So here it is!
Taken from Chapter 10: Misery and Crocodiles.
After about another hour of wandering around, Sophia
and Emma finally found the downtown area where they were dropped off earlier
that morning. They didn’t have much time to enjoy the fact they were no longer
lost because it wasn’t long after they returned to the center of town before
they heard a blood curling scream from somewhere off in the distance.
“Help! Somebody!” They heard the faint scream of
someone somewhere off in the distance. Emma and Sophia froze dead in their
tracks. The scream sounded very familiar to them. They both turned to each
other.
“Doesn’t that voice sound familiar to you?” Emma asked
Sophia worriedly.
“It can’t be.” Sophia responded doubtfully, but she
already knew the truth. “Besides, he would be with Drake and we can only hear
one voice.” Just then Drake appeared from around the corner.
“Hey guys, I haven’t seen you around much today.” He
greeted them. They both shushed him and told him to be quiet.
“What did I do?” He asked confused. They looked at him
and were sad to see that Michael wasn’t with him.
“Where’s Michael?” Sophia asked him. “I figured he
would be with you?”
“He left to go to the bathroom a while ago but I can’t
find him anymore. I was wondering if either of you had seen him?” Drake
responded. Just then, they heard another scream off in the distance, but this
time further away.
“What was that?” Drake asked. Sophia and Emma looked
at him worriedly.
“Well, my suspicions tell me that is Michael.” Emma
told him. Drake shook his head.
“That can’t be him, it’s too far away and Michael just
left fifteen minutes ago.” They heard another scream and each time the scream
became fainter and fainter. They all looked at each other. “Ok, maybe that is
Michael.” Drake responded worriedly.
“We just can’t stand around here doing nothing.
Michael or not there is someone who is in trouble and needs our help.” Sophia
said. Just then Sophia and Emma set off running towards the source of the
voice.
“Wait for me!” Drake screamed after them as he tried
to run after them. They maneuvered left and right through the back streets of
the town trying to find the source of the voice, Drake following behind them
trying his best to keep up. A few times he almost lost him. Just when they
thought they got close to him, Sophia and Emma were greeted by silence when
they called out to the voice. At first they thought they had arrived too late,
but they walked two feet further and turned the corner into a dead end street
and they were surprised at what they saw.
Michael was
cornered at the end of the street surrounded by three crocodiles trying to fend
them off with a stick. Sophia and Emma stopped and slowly backed away three
feet. They realized that the crocodiles hadn’t noticed them yet so they did
their best to try to communicate to Michael.
“Michael, what happened?” Sophia asked him in barely
over a whisper. The crocodiles still paid no attention to them.
“I don’t know. One second I was coming back from the
bathroom and the next thing I know I was being chased by crocodiles.”
“They just followed you right through the center of
town?” Emma asked him.
“Yeah it was really weird. It was like I was their
only target.” A few seconds later Drake emerged from around the corner panting
heavily and noisily. He bent over on his knees trying to catch his breath still
completely oblivious to the crocodiles.
“You could have waited for me or at least could have
slowed down.” He said loudly still out of breath.
“Shut up!” Sophia, Emma, and Michael loudly whispered
at him all at the same time. Drake finally looked up and noticed the crocodiles
for the first time. He jumped three feet backwards and knocked over a box of
old metal parts which made a loud clanging noise on the ground.
“Sorry,” He said quietly trying to pick up the fallen
parts, but he just made more commotion. The crocodiles turned around, noticing
the other three for the first time.
“Great, now you’ve doomed us all.” Emma told him. The
crocodiles angrily stared at them for a few seconds, but then they turned back
to Michael. Sophia looked around, trying to think of something to do. She then
noticed that there was a large rectangular metal air conditioning unit right
about where Michael was standing.
~K.M.D.
