WHO IS TORMENTING THE GUARD?
WHO IS THE VOLUNTEER FOR THE BRAIN CHIP?
WHO IS THE VOLUNTEER FOR THE BRAIN CHIP?
An excerpt from Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the
Catapult
By Ada Brownell
Gorilla, the
guard, sat on his jacket, leaned against the castle wall, and snoozed. His huge
hairy chest and bulging stomach swelled up and down as he breathed in the
Indian summer air. The guard had taken off his shirt.
His lunch sack
overturned. Fries and part of the extra hamburger spilled out. The metal
knight’s armor that had been used inside the castle as decoration lay beside
him on the rocky ground, among the boxes from which he’d taken robot kits.
Gorilla’s foot
with the broken toe rested on a large rock.
Old Norton crept
from the trees behind the man, a smile emerging behind his scraggly white
beard. A box jiggled in his hands. His worn shoes halted behind the huge guard.
Working nearby, Darin Baker watched Norton
open the box. A half-dozen mice scurried toward the overturned sack.
Norton stole
away so quickly he almost stumbled over a dead tree branch.
One mouse,
barred from the feast by the others, ran up the large rock and across Gorilla’s
bare foot. The snoring halted. His eyelids flicked open.
“Help!”
He jerked his
leg and bumped his toe and groaned.
Two mice climbed
over his stomach and surveyed the territory like Indian scouts.
Gorilla rolled
over to get them off and landed on two other mice. He rolled again, and the
mice he’d almost squashed with his behind scurried in circles with dizziness.
The guard
finally got up and limped to a big rock, trying to go around the mice and climb
up on it. One mouse, however, zoomed over his bare feet before he made it. A
deep scream bellowed from Gorilla’s cavernous organs.
“Help! Who did
this? Who put these mice here?”
“I’ve been
working here all the time you’ve been asleep,” Darin said. “I didn’t do it.”
“Well, somebody
put them here, and you probably saw it.”
The mice still
scurried about, darting in and out of the lunch sack, sniffing to find more
food, occasionally finding crumbs they’d missed.
“What’s going on
here?” Kermesis asked as he strode toward Gorilla. “What are you yelling
about?”
“Mice attacked
me!” Gorilla scanned the ground, and every time a mouse came near, he bellowed
again.
“Mice are all
over in the forest. They’re probably hungry and smelled your leftovers.”
Darin feared
Kermesis would ask if he saw anyone bring the mice. Darin would never betray
Norton. He’d take the blame first.
“Darin ought to
be in the dungeon!” Gorilla grumbled.
“Darin is the
best stone layer we have. This wall and castle were supposed to be done
yesterday!”
“But Darin broke
my foot! Then he brought all these mice in. We can’t run this place without
discipline!”
“Kermesis, I
didn’t have anything to do with these mice.” Darin walked toward them. “But I
will scare them away for you.”
He reached down
and dumped three mice out of the sack. When they scurried toward the rock where
Gorilla stood, the huge man hopped and yelled again. Darin ignored him and
grabbed a small branch off a nearby tree and swept the creatures into the
forest.
“Darin.” Pride
shone from Gorilla’s dark eyes, “You might be interested to know my robot won’t
be no ordinary robot. I’m combining three kits to make a Super Robot Guard.
Remember that old show ‘Home Improvement’ you probably saw in reruns?”
Darin
remembered.
“Well, I’m doing
the ‘Tim Taylor thing.’ I studied electronics and built a robot in college. You
might have seen it at the State Fair. That robot couldn’t do much, but this guy
will. He’ll keep track of all of your electronic bracelets and can zap you from
fifty feet.”
“Sounds
creative.”
“It is, and it’s
been loads of fun. I think I’ll have it ready in a week. Next time you do
something, I’ll send this robot after you.”
Kermesis ignored
the big guard. “Darin, we have a volunteer to have the epilepsy gadget
connected to his brain, and a surgeon volunteered to implant it.”
“Who
volunteered?” Gorilla asked.
“Jimmy Roberts.”
“Jimmy Roberts!”
Darin felt ill. “He’s mentally challenged. He probably already has seizures if
he doesn’t take medication.”
Kermesis ignored
him. “He would still be a good subject, because we could see if saying
religious words will trigger a seizure. The surgeon said we can bring in
patients and give them a drug where they won’t remember anything about it.
We’ll just drop them off at home, and they’ll be unable to preach Christianity
again.”
“You know a
seizure could kill Jimmy—and even other people you nab off the streets We don’t
even know for sure how brains will react to the device.”
“We’re going to do
this, and you’re going to help us, Darin—sooner or later.”
Darin rubbed his
beard, hating the bristles as they brushed against his hand. Would it hurt to
insert the brain chip in Jimmy? Perhaps he could keep the program set at
seizure control instead of tweaking it to cause a seizure.
Then pain ran
through Darin’s stomach. The project needed
tested, perhaps on animals, and then, if it looked promising, there would be
lengthy clinical trials with patients. Besides, when the radicals had the chip
design and the wall was finished, he probably would have no value to his
captors. Would they kill him then?
©Ada Brownell
January 2013
BOOK SUMMARY
Joe the Dreamer: The Castle
and the Catapult
By
A.B. Brownell
Free April 11-13
Enter
an area where people are missing and radicals want to obliterate Christianity
from the earth. After Joe Baker’s parents and 30 other people mysteriously
disappear, he finds himself with a vicious man after him. Joe and an unusual
gang team up to find his mom and dad. The gang is committed to preventing and
solving crimes with ordinary harmless things such as noise, water, and a pet
skunk instead of blades and bullets. Joe reads the Bible hoping to discover
whether God will answer prayer and bring his parents home. In his dreams, Joe
slips into the skin of Bible characters and what happened to them, happens to
him—the peril and the victories. Yet, crying out in his sleep causes him to end
up in a mental hospital’s juvenile unit. Will he escape or will he be harmed?
Will he find his parents? Does God answer prayer?
No fantasy. No wizard, but suspense that
sometimes makes you smile. Christian payload. Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and
the Catapult http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
or https://www.createspace.com/3962829
The book is also
available at Barnesandnoble.com, and is listed at Goodreads.com
To
learn more about this author’s books: http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com
Stick-to-Your-Soul-Encouragement
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