The black pavement was slick with the morning rain. Small quiet rivulets had formed on either side of the street and they trickled past, flowing over small pebbles and decaying leaves and creating a substantial obstacle for the garden slug trying to cross its tumultuous current. The slug had come from deep within the wet soil of Mrs. Gunderfut's garden nearly three houses away. It had traveled down the sidewalk all morning, crossed its wide expanse, avoided the snout of an anxious dog, and made it up and over a fat fallen twig. It had traveled down the curb and into the street and was now attempting to cross a raging river, and while he may have stumbled briefly upon some bits of shed bark, he had managed to keep his slug footing, successfully navigating his way to safety.

"Sluggernut!" Daniel cried, "Got another one!" The boy's bike zipped down the wet street, its rubber tires hissing in the rainwater as slug guts spun round and round in the treads.

"Aw, that's four for you already," Daniel's younger brother Gary bemoaned his older brother's success, longing to just once show him up at his own game.

"Don't worry, Gar, you'll get one, you just gotta be faster than me!" And with that said Daniel pedaled harder than ever, leaving his younger brother behind in the damp mist. Never the one to crumple with defeat, Gary pedaled faster and harder as well. His shorter legs trying in vain to close the distance between him and what had become the foggy gray shadow of his brother far ahead.

Daniel's young legs ached with fatigue. He and his brother had pedaled their bikes for nearly two miles, taking them from their quiet neighborhood of small neat houses to the backcountry roads of looming farmhouses and barns with gaping maws. They pedaled past the farmhouse of the Hendlbeck family, whose son Donny was Daniel's age and mentally retarded. The school boys were unkind to Donny and had taken to calling him Dooder Hendltard to his face and most certainly behind his back as well. As Daniel pedaled past the farm, he turned his head to look at Gary, now only a few feet away, and contorted his face, crossed his eyes and groaned "Dooooooder!" Gary giggled, and why shouldn't he? It would be many years before the regrets of childhood began to emerge with reflection. "Doooooder," Gary howled in return, his neck extended upward, blue veins straining against his skin. Somewhere in the distance, behind paper-thin walls and rotting clapboard Donny Hendlbeck caught an echo and frowned. As the boy's bikes crunched and growled over the dirt roads the sun started to rise further in the sky, warming the spring morning and drying the remains of the rain.

Daniel came to rest by the side of the road. Gary coasted toward him and came to a stop as well, letting his bike fall wayside and eagerly collapsing into the stretch of grass between the road and the line of trees that walled in the woods. He looked up at the sky, only seeing a small patch between the tree tops, and happily tried to spot dragons and warriors in the forming clouds above.

"Do you ever wonder what it's like to fly?" Gary asked his brother.

"No, those are baby dreams," Daniel said as he picked at a scab on his elbow.

"I'm not a baby," Gary quietly muttered. He continued to stare into the clouds, further contemplating his fancies of flight. "Well then, what do you wonder about?"

"I dunno," Daniel sighed, abandoning his now bleeding scab. He looked at his brother and carefully weighed his answer. "What it's like to be really tough and really big."

"Like the Hulk?"

"More like Hercules, being green would be dumb."

Gary thought on this for a moment and then looked over at his brother. "I bet you'd be really good at it."

Gary's eyes returned skyward and the clouds once again caught his attention. "Think it'll rain again?" asked Gary, trying hard to be casual but fearful of the thunder and lightning that rain often brought there in the Midwest.

"Nah," Daniel followed Gary's gaze upward, "Those clouds pro'ly just got lost, they'll go soon enough when they see they're all alone." Gary smiled and Daniel shook his head, reminding himself that he should start hanging out with boys his own age, his brother was kind of a sissy. Still straddling his bike, Daniel looked toward the woods in front of him, eyeing the shadows that lay beyond the strong structures of trunks and limbs.

"Bet there's some great spots for forts in these woods." Daniel gestured toward the woods with a nod and Gary bent his head backward on the grass, looking at the trees upside down.

"We've never been in this part of the woods, Dan, we don't know what's in there." Gary glanced at his brother, spotting the spark in his brother's eyes that meant he was about to do something stupid.

"Exactly!" Daniel got off his bike and let it fall next to his brother's as he gingerly approached the line of woods, looking for an easy in but not seeing any. Gary got to his knees and watched Daniel poke around the dense line of trees and bush.

"There's not even a path or nothin'," said Gary. Daniel looked back at his brother and rolled his eyes.

"Then we make one, you goofball!" And with that Daniel let out a war cry and forged ahead into the darkness.

Click here for Sluggernut, Part 2