I skipped Rainbow Snippets this week, so I figure a WiP Wednesday is in order instead. 😁 So here’s a pivotal (unedited…so squint) scene from the story:
And in case that’s difficult to read in image form, here’s it is again:
It was gone. Leo stared at the path behind them. The wavering air…it was gone. The air was normal.
The woman hadn’t stopped screaming. Vinnie was panting—hyperventilating?—and snatching at bits of light green fabric that matched the stroller’s canopy.
“Oscar?” Leo’s voice came out in a squeak. Louder, he repeated, “Oscar?” He sat up and scanned the area. An unrelenting hand clutched his heart. Oscar was gone. The entire stroller, other than the handlebar was…gone.
Leo shoved his sunglasses to the top of his head. His breath caught in his throat, and he looked around again. He shouted, “Oscar!”
“No, no, no, no…” Vinnie chanted as he stumbled to his feet and spun around, fruitlessly looking everywhere…anywhere. “No, no, no, no…this isn’t happening.”
“Oscar!” Leo yelled again. His stomach lurched, threatening to heave because he knew it was pointless. Wherever they’d been, that’s where Oscar still was. The portal had snapped shut, cutting them off, but every cell in Leo’s body screamed in denial of this reality. “Oscarrrrrr!”
The woman stopped shrieking but sucked in rattling breaths behind her hands that now covered her face. Behind them on the path, voices broke through Leo’s focus.
“Oh my god, did you see that?”
“What the helljust happened?”
“They just disappeared…into…thin air.”
“What happened to the kid?”
“Somebody call 9-1-1!”
In the field, the people who’d been kicking soccer balls had stilled and were staring, wide-eyed.
Vinnie crumpled to the ground, hugged his knees to his chest, and rocked. Leo barely heard his words. “No, no, no, no…”
“Oscarrrrrr!”
“Where did it go? Where did it go? We’ve got to go back and get him! Where did it go?”
“Oscarrrrr!”The faintest of echoes was the only answer to Leo’s agonized plea.
Still no blurb, but in the meantime, here’s a HAIKU…
Oscar’s such a dear.
Pity what happened to him.
When are you, sweet child?
…and a LIMERICK…
There once was a family so gay,
who were going on their merry way,
when a portal appeared,
which they thought they had cleared,
but they lost their sweet boy that fine day.
Add to that the obligatory blurb question…
“Will our loving heroes find a way to rescue their sweet boy, or is he doomed to spend the rest of his life with the earliest of the USA’s primitive settlers? Or is there a third alternative?”
And you’ve got a general idea of what When Are You? is about.
The story will be at the short end of the novel range, probably between 40-50k words. It’s penciled into JMS’s schedule for early March, or possibly late February. I’ve written the words “The End,” but I concentrated on the story aspect for the first draft, and now I’m going through and adding/expanding scenes to boost the romance arc and flesh out some side characters. It should be done and ready for beta readers, hopefully within a week (I’ve got my regulars, but can always use another, if anyone is interested in giving a critique and has some time at this busy time of year).
I love the limerick!! 🙂
And I can’t wait to read the finished version…after I’m done being traumatized after my beta read!! 😀
❤️
LOL…I hope you weren’t still feeling traumatized at the end. After all, it was a very “Happy” ending. 😉😁