Member-only story
Eli Introduces KitKaT
A new friend who is neither human nor capable of speaking
WSMS10 • Wynn & Stillbolt — Mountain Stories Series™ • Stillbolt Spark™
The backpack zipper caught halfway down.
Eli pulled again with his right hand. His left stayed against his chest, the sore finger in the support they had put on it when Abigail took him to have it checked that afternoon.
The backpack slid off the chair instead.
Abigail caught it before it hit the floor.
“Here. Let me hold this end.”
He got the zipper open. His football jersey was inside, rolled around itself, with a smear of field mud on the sleeve.
“How was the rest of school?” she asked.
“Fine.”
It came out too fast.
Abigail set the backpack on the chair. “You don’t have to tell me all of it right now.”
Eli looked at the shirt. He had dropped a pass. That part had happened. So had the boys laughing afterward, and one of them doing his stumbling run again outside the changing room, where there…
