Dig, Part One

The tip of the shovel made an awful clanking noise as it struck something hard in the soil.

He frowned slightly and stared down at the ground. This is off to a slow start, he thought aloud. Drawing the top of his forearm across his forehead, he wiped away what had already become a significant amount of sweat. Not usually prone to sweating under normal circumstances, he had noticed lately that short bursts of intense exertion seemed to leave him soaking wet. He stared down and frowned a bit again.

Holding the top of the shovel with his left hand, he leaned awkwardly against it. He crossed one leg over the other for support and squinted at the sun while shielding his eyes with his free hand. A bead of sweat rolled down the front of his nose and he did his very best to ignore it, but quickly succumbed and wiped it away with a dirty hand.

Inhaling sharply, he set the tip of the shovel back down into the shallow hole that was forming. As he slowly let that breath out, he placed his foot on the top of the spade and kicked down. The metal scraped and groaned as it slid past small rocks and thick roots. He threw this lump of dirt on top of the pile that was steadily growing.

This was a crazy plan, they told him.

It didn’t make any sense.

He would just get hurt.

For the first time during this hot, humid afternoon, he smiled to himself. Because they didn’t know. They didn’t understand.

He wasn’t exactly sure where this path would lead him but he knew where he wanted to go. For the first time in his slow, dull life, he knew something he wanted. Monkey was going to do something real.

And so, he dug…