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Huck Island: A Short Story

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Nose-ring boy then grabbed the lizard’s tail with his other hand and yanked. Half the tail broke off. The severed end wiggled and curled within nose-ring boy’s pinched fingers. He reached and brushed the still-alive tail up and down Benji’s bare leg. Benji jerked his legs and body, knocking into me and nearly pushing me off the back of the boat. Benji’s watch now exposed, green-haired boy snatched Benji’s arm and worked at unlatching the band from his wrist. Benji fought back, swinging his arm left and right. Nose-ring boy again attacked with the wigging tail. Benji swung his arm and knocked the tail from nose-ring boy. The severed tail flew forward and landed on the face of a little girl toward the front of the boat. She screamed and leaped …show more content…

I recalled this was the part of Huckleberry Island that led to Fort Christmas, a replica of the real Florida Seminole War fort. I stopped briefly at the other end of the bridge and looked back. No man in purple. I guessed we had put a little distance on him going down the steep path. Now on flat ground, we ran to Fort Christmas. The path curved again then widened, allowing us to see the fort’s entrance. The large wooden structure, built of cut tree trunks and rusty spikes, had always impressed me. We passed through the entrance, and the scent of wet poplar wood and pine hit me as it did when we played here. “Up here,” I said, pointing to stairs that wound up a rifling tower. The spiraling stairs were dark and cramped, forcing us into tight right turns all the way up the tower. At the top, there were a pair of toy rifles mounted to stands that permanently pointed the guns out narrow, vertical openings. The openings allowed us to peer outside and look up the path to the bridge we had crossed. Benji and I stood side by side on our toes and looked out the openings. Down below, the man in purple jogged toward the fort. He slowed and walked when he reached the fort entrance, wiping his forehead with the back of his

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