The Chores

The Chores

By

Mary L. Underwood

Published by Mary L. Underwood

and NetBound Publishing

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 by Mary L. Underwood

Cover by Mikel B. Classen

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

The Chores

Come on, Greg called in a strangled shout from where he and the others had disappeared through a thick stand of bushes. Elizabeth tried again to fan a swarm of tiny, gnat-like, biting, black-flies away from her face. Hurry up, he added. Greg sounded annoyed.

Elizabeth didn’t particularly care if Greg was annoyed or not. She was annoyed. Elizabeth sighed and pushed forward in what, she was sure, was a futile attempt to catch up with Greg and his friends before they reached the ghost farm. The truth was, she didn’t really care if she caught up with them or not.

How had she allowed the others to talk her into this, anyway? She didn’t actually want to go tromping off through the woods in search of some old, abandoned homestead that was supposed to he haunted. Elizabeth didn’t believe in ghosts. And she hated bugs, which this place seemed to abound with. A particularly sharp stick jabbed into Elizabeth’s leg and she winced. Actually, she knew exactly how she had gotten talked into this. She was trudging through this bug infested, God forsaken woods, looking for a ghost she did not believe in, following people she didn’t particularly care for because there was nothing else to do. Her parents, who were suffering from some sort of mid-life crises, had decided they needed to leave the city and get back to nature.

Unfortunately, they had dragged her with them.

Elizabeth’s parents had each taken a leave of absence from their corporate jobs in Chicago and, in Elizabeth’s personal opinion, they had also taken a leave of their senses. They had decided to collaborate together on writing a novel. It was a stupid idea. Neither of them had ever written anything she was aware of. The idea that they could write a novel was just plain dumb