World Of Silhouettes

Seventeen

                                                   *A FLASHBACK FROM SCARLETS CHILDHOOD*

"Scarlet, What do you think you are doing?"  I whipped my head around. Mom stood there, a weary look on her face. 

"If you scare me like that agin . . .," I said.  The matches in my hand shook from surprise. "I am making a fire so you can cook yummy food, Momma!" My seven year old voice said. She shook her head and smiled. 

"Scarlet, you don't need matches for fire. Let me show you how to make a bow drill." After three hours of trying, I figured it out. I made a fire. 

"See, my Daughter is so smart now! Isn't she? You made Momma a fire!" 

"Yeah!" I smiled. 

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The laces on the boots serve perfectly. I tie them onto the stick and smile. Perfect. Within a few minutes, the fire is done. I whoop with joy. 

"See, Mom," I say to the sky, "I still got i-" thunder cracks over the horizon, making me screech and fall onto my bottom. My head bumps a tree and I wince. Great, now I have a tremendous headache. 

Before I know it, I feel a drop of rain. Then another, and another. I shriek and jump up. 

"The fire!" I run around, unsure what to do. The rain pours and completely extinguishes my fire, within seconds. 

"Great!" I yell. "Thanks! Its not that my fire is water-" Thats when I realize just how stupid I truly am. Water. I, Scarlet Winterton, am just about the biggest idiot to walk this earth.

"Its water!"  I open my bag and grab the plastic container the jerky stick remains in. I pull it out and stuff half the jerky in my mouth, so it doesn't fall onto the dirt. I use the container as a bottle, watching rain pour in the container. I smile and lean against the tree, watching water dip into it. After a while, with memories of my Mom, I fall asleep. 

Something pinches me awake. Nature alarm clock. "Ouch!" A small ant crawls on my hand. "That stung," I say. I let the ant crawl onto the ground. "I should squish that piece of. . . absolute. . . ugliness. . . like me." 

My neck hurts so badly. Oh,gosh, sleeping against the tree was not the best idea. Instead of moving, I stay there. My clothes are somewhat damp and my hair clings to my neck. The motivation for me to move, is water. I crawl over to it and smile. everything is damp. The bushes have water dripping down them, my container, completely full.  I take two sips, and will myself to stop, trying to conserve my water. Four days left and I have about enough to last me today, most. 

Instead of drinking any more from the container, I opt to wring water out of tree branches. Slow work, but well worth while. The thought comes in for me to drunk my urine, but I decide against it. I am not nearly that desperate. Doubt ill ever be. 

"Its time for me to go hunting." I say. "Why am I talking to myself? Im talking to myself. Oh my gosh, I'm crazy." I giggle and take the shoelace I used to start the fire. Its worn and torn, but a shoe lace is a shoelace. 

"Since I don't want to waste too much energy on something that mostly likely won't work, I'm going to make the simplest trap ever." 

I grab a large flat stone and find a small stick to place under it. The stick is barely five inches tall. I put it under the rock, tie the shoelace around it and shake my head. 

"Gotta use the other lace as well, I guess." I take the other lace and sigh. My boots feel loose and uncomfortable now. I tie the strings together and smile. "that bait goes next!" I take the jerky, bite a piece off and place it there.