Penumbra- A short story
Penumbra Chapter 1 Shards of terracotta clay fanned out across the yellow dirt, skipping into Choya bushes and under what was left of the exploded boat. A disquieted critter, maybe a lizard, skittered from underneath the wreckage and into the treacherous thicket of cactus in the failing light. I dropped my Red Ryder down on the boat shell and shook my head. “Not making that mistake again” I muttered to myself. It didn’t matter if the mysterious critter had a diamond ring around its little tail. Nothing was worth going anywhere near a Choya bush. With gnarled, green limbs covered stem-to-stern in inch-long white needles stretching over 6 feet tall, Choya was called “Jumping Cactus” for a reason. If you so much as brushed into it, the inconspicuously barbed white needles would latch into your skin or clothing. Your well-intentioned response would be to pull away, which takes an entire segment of the vicious cactus along for the ride, turning one puncture into dozens. I wince, memo...