FWG- Flash Fiction -300 words

BACKWOODS ELIXIR

The Summer the state took me away from my parents, I went to stay with my Grandmother in a squalid trailer on Log Cabin Road – Uncanny, I know.

I was new to the area, didn’t have any friends and wasn’t good at making them.

I spent most of my time gallivanting through the woods. I could walk for hours, barefoot if I had too. I’d done it before – Nothing new to a poor boy like myself.

My Grandfather’s old walking stick helped me to clear the tree debris from my path. 

The day I discovered a creek with a rowboat on the other side, oars and all – I decided to go on a downstream adventure. I was so excited I could see the hairs on my arms stand up.

Like any good outdoorsman, I didn’t trust the unknown. I journeyed across the murky water by letting the cane feel the dirt floor in front of me to insure each step was safe. I didn’t want to be swept away

Every time it found the bottom, muddy water erupted to the surface.  Strange thing was, it sparkled. I looked closer and realized it was mixed with small flakes, Gold shavings!

I scooped up all I could and ran back to my Grandmother!

“Old Momma, we can finally leave this piece of nothing! Look what I found! – Gold!”

My Grandmother began to chant and cast what appeared to be a spell upon the substance. 

“Oh child, that’s not gold.” She waved her hands in the air and turned her body around in circles causing me to feel dizzy.

She took a solution out of her herb cabinet, added the gold and then forced me to drink it along with her.

I gagged, disgusted by the taste and smell.

“This here is drinking gold. We can’t get rich off of it. But, we can become immortal.”

“Take it back! I don’t want any part of this.” I screamed.

My Grandmother’s wrinkled old hands grabbed for her own throat as she violently shook all the way to the ground.

I was next. Oh, the tales these folks told. Immortal was never an option for either of us.