PART
TWO.
In
Part One of this tale, the reader was left stranded in the night with three
young campers in the cab of an old, broken-down pickup truck, which is stalled
precariously on the edge of a deep mountain ravine. Sniffing around outside the truck is a large
creature of some kind that cannot be determined in the thick darkness of the
moonless night. While the campers have
firearms back in the open bed of the pickup, they have no guns with them in the
cab where they cower, hiding from the dark creature.
Of
course, the tale doesn’t end there. The
story is just getting started. The scene
has been set and hopefully the reader’s expectations have been prepared for a
journey with these young campers into the unknown. The reader knows the best part of the story
is yet to come. The campers must conquer
or be conquered. It is the expectation
that the campers will find a way to conquer that keeps the reader reading. The reader should now be gladly on board and
excited for the ride--hungry for the rest of the story. Oh, the beauty of suspense!
Suspense
is like an unsatisfied hunger that keeps the reader reading until the end of
the story, where the hunger will be satisfied.
In the best stories, where the reader identifies with the main character,
the reader relishes both the hunger, while it lasts, as well as the eventual
satisfaction of that hunger at the end of the story. And, sweet is the satisfaction of a hard-fought
winning battle and a tale well ended. After
carefully building suspense, be sure to resolve it thoroughly. A cardinal rule of storytelling is: Do not gloss over the ending!
Especially
in young-adult literature, when the reader has bonded with the protagonist, the
young reader will expect that no matter how great the odds against success, the
protagonist will find a way to succeed.
Of course, the protagonist must win by pluck, not luck, and even a twist
ending must not be a random win.
A
decision to resolve the suspense of the central plot with the protagonist’s ultimate
failure is not satisfying to younger readers, and it is a sure strategy for
permanently driving such readers away.
While frustration and failure are an important part of act two, the
reader is looking for success by the end of act three. A young reader wants to be immersed in a world
of new beginnings and exciting transitions, a world where anything is possible
and hope is a guiding star. A world of
despair, overwhelmed by failed dreams and missed opportunities, is for an
older, more jaded audience—and it has few fans even there.
Literary
suspense is the result of proper plot development, and a writer has many tools
to use in developing a storyline that will capture the reader’s imagination and
carry her along towards an anticipated salvation or destruction. Tools like point of view can put the reader
in a character’s mind, building an empathetic bond. Repetition of seemingly innocent facts can
build tension. Foreshadowing creates
curiosity, and the list goes on. Make
the reader hungry for more information, and then slowly, carefully feed and
starve the reader as the tale unfolds.
In
our current tale of three hapless campers, facing a live predator, we want to
know literally who will feed and who will starve?
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“Man,
that thing is big!” Jay pointed out in a
hoarse whisper.
All
three of us were now peeking carefully over the dashboard at the big, black
shadow in the night, sniffing around the dying red embers of our bonfire.
“Hugh,
do you still have some firecrackers in your pocket?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,”
he said, nodding his head in the dark.
“Open
your side-vent window and drop a lighted firecracker out there.”
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| View of Panamint Mountains as seen from the Slate Range |
Without
a word, Jay fished out his box of matches.
He and Hugh had been lighting firecrackers all day and had the process
down to a science. Hugh held a
firecracker down close to the floor, trying to minimize the glow of the burning
match that would be seen from outside. When
Jay had lit the fuse, Hugh slipped it through the window vent, dropping it to
the ground.
All
the while, I was watching the prowling, black pillar of darkness in front of
the truck. As soon as Jay had struck the
match, the thing turned to stare back at the truck, seeming to stare directly
at me in the cab. A couple seconds
later, the firecracker sounded with a bright flash and a satisfyingly loud bang
that echoed off the mountain.
Instantly,
the black shadow sprang away from the truck and disappeared into the night, bounding
up the trail into the mountains. After
listening to silence for a minute, I said, “Throw a few more firecrackers out
there to make sure that thing is not sneaking back towards the truck.”
Immediately,
Hugh and Jay went to work tossing a series of lighted firecrackers out the
side-vent window. Again, the bright
flashes and loud bangs were satisfying.
Bravely
rolling down my window about a foot, I stuck my hand out with the flashlight. Clicking it on, I shined the light up the
trail in the direction the shadow had run, and then down along both sides as
far as my light would reach in each direction, looking for any movement or for
a pair of light-reflecting eyes watching my flashlight.
Seeing
nothing and feeling bolder, I quickly stepped out my door, and reaching into
the back of the truck, I handed rifles and ammo into the cab to Jay and Hugh
before jumping back in to shut my door and roll up my window. Once we had all loaded our guns, I had Hugh
reach out his window, shining his light up the trail again and from side to
side.
Finally,
I stepped out my door and began shooting up the trail into the darkness. I wanted that black shadow to know we were
not toothless, and as I listened to the ping of the bullets that ricocheted off
the rocks up the mountainside, I hoped the creature was getting the message.
It
wasn’t long before we heard the coyotes start up yelping and howling
again. Apparently, they were no longer
nervous, but we were. We decided to stay
close to the truck during the night. Jay
chose to sleep in the cab with the windows rolled down just a crack. Hugh and I spread out our sleeping bags in
the back bed of the truck, but we did more tossing and turning than
sleeping. Thinking it couldn’t hurt; we
periodically tossed out a lighted firecracker.
If we heard a noise nearby, one of us would sit up to shoot into the
darkness.
During
the night, Hugh and I decided that the big black shadow must have been a
mountain lion, but it was the biggest mountain lion we had ever seen.
It
was a long, miserable night, but it gave me time to think. With the first light of dawn, I gathered up
the random tools that Jay’s dad had left lying around in the back of the
truck. Before long, I had the dashboard
off so I could look down behind the cab’s console panel. There it was—a foot-long piece of melted wire
that had shorted out against the truck’s interior frame.
Next,
I went to work removing one of the rear taillights, where I cut out a length of
heavy-duty wire long enough to replace the fried piece of wire behind the console. After twisting the replacement wire into
place, I turned the ignition key. With
the first try, the truck started right up!
Everything worked now, except the rear taillight of course.
 |
| Available Housing A Fixer-Upper |
We
were ready for the adventure to continue, and it did. We didn’t see any more large shadow creatures,
and the truck didn’t break down again, but we had great adventures throughout
the week with all kinds of interesting findings and happenings, but that’s a longer story
for another day.
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