I dreamt this story a few months back, and adjusted it a little the next morning. Tell me what you think.
The boy awoke with a start. He looked up at the stars twinkling through the trees, wondering what had awakened him. Trees? When he fell asleep he’d been in lying in his sleeping bag next to the fire in the clearing with all the other boys. He sat up quickly and looked around, and then realized what had happened.
Earlier that evening the other boys and been remembering great pranks of the past. One of them was to wait until the first person in camp was asleep and then very gently pull his sleeping bag out away from camp. Who would have thought he’d be the first one asleep?
The boy thought for a few minutes, looked over at the fire pit in the center of camp, and then chuckled to himself. It was one of those big steel rings set into the ground. He closed his eyes and concentrated carefully for a few moments. When he opened them, the fire pit was once again next to his sleeping bag, but in his new location, rather than in the camp site where all the other boys were still sleeping.
He chuckled again and curled back up in his sleeping bag. Let them wonder about THAT in the morning.
Sounds like a great idea for a short film! Maybe I’ll make it for you!
This strikes me as a good intro for a longer story. It begs for backstory now: who is this kid and how does he do that?
I like it! ‘Twould be nice to know more of the backstory, as Alan notes, but on the other hand explaining it might spoil the fun.
You have any more such stories lurking in the back of your mind?
The lack of back-story appeals to my enjoyment of this sort of story read in sci-fi rags and stuff. Part of the fun is musing about all those possibilities yourself.
I think something up like this every couple years, but usually forget them.
There’s one idea I have that I’ve had knocking around in my head for a couple years, but haven’t been able to make a good story out of it.
Oooh! At first I was disappointed that you jumped right into the plot and gave it away. And then…I read to the end. Wow!