The Adventures of Pen and Sharkie: Gateway - Chapter 1

Pendleton Latcher was not happy.

As his father drove down the highway towards his grandmother’s house, he made every effort to letting his parents know just how unhappy he was. He rolled around in the backseat of the family car, groaning and sighing very loudly everytime he suspected that his parents had forgotten him.

“Yes, Pendleton?! Do you need something?” His mother finally asked, turning around to give him a very exasperated expression.

“Yes, I want to go home!” he whined, deflecting her icy stare with a woeful frown.

“Pen, we are going home. It’s just a new home,” she stated for the 20th time, “Sit up and put your seatbelt on right.”

Pen groaned but sat up and put his seatbelt over his shoulder, shifting into a slouch and folding his arms defiantly over his chest.

“I don’t want the new house, I want my house.”

“Technically it’s not even a new house,” Pen’s father interjected, glancing back at him in the rearview mirror. “The house we’re moving into has been there for about a hundred years. It should be fun to explore.”

“A hundred years?! You’re moving us to the middle of nowhere, to a house that’s probably filled with bugs, on farm land filled with dangerous animals that could kill me, or worse! Does that sound like the kind of place you want to raise a child?! It’s not safe!” Pen pleaded desperately, in a futile effort to persuade them to take him back to the house he grew up in.

-x-

“Pendleton, we’re moving to your Grandma’s house so we can spend more time with her and help her with the farm. She’s been having a hard time since Grandpa died last year so we’re moving in to help her take care of everything,” Pen could hear the strain in her voice as she tried to remain calm. “We’re almost there Pen, just look out the window until we get there. The scenery is beautiful!”

Pen groaned and slumped against the car door, watching the trees fly past.

This whole situation was ridiculous. It wasn’t his fault his Grandma couldn’t take care of the farm! It wasn’t his fault his Grandpa had died! None of it was his fault!

Yet there he was, getting further and further away from the only life he knew, the friends he grew up with, the school he’d always gone to... Pen wanted to cry but wouldn’t let himself since it wouldn’t do any good anyways.

“There it is,” Dad said, pulling Pen out of his thoughts.

Pen looked up and pressed his face to the window. Ahead, on the right side of the road, in the middle of a long stretch of purple flowered plants, was a very beaten looking farm house, and the bright red roof of the barn a little ways behind it.  Pen had visited the farm once before, but he was too young to remember any of it. Rolling his eyes, he slouched down again, muttering under his breath.

Yup, his life was ruined. There was nothing that could fix it now.

-x-

The car rolled up the gravel driveway and came to a stop. Pen folded his arms angrily across his chest and slumped further into his seat while his parents climbed out of the car. He could hear his grandma greeting them through the car door, but refused to look out of the window to see her, or the house, or any of the horrible farmland he was being forced to live on. Pen tightened his lips in anger. It just wasn’t fair.

Pen jumped as someone knocked on the window. He looked up to see his grandma’s face smiling back at him. Wrapping her knobby fingers around the door handle, she opened the car door slightly.

“Penny, are you going to come in?” she asked gently, still smiling. Pen’s face flushed with irritation. He’d almost forgotten that his grandma called him that. It was a girls name, why did she insist on calling him that?

“No,” he responded flatly.

“Why not?”

“Because I want to go home,” he said, feeling tears well up in his eyes but refused to let his grandma see.

“Why do you want to go home?” She adjusted herself so she could talk to him easier.

“Because I miss my friends! I miss my house, I miss my room, I just want to go home!” Pen whined, his chest quivered with a sob.

“Penny,” grandma started, “just because you move away doesn’t mean you’ll never see your friends again. I’m sure they’ll still come visit you. And your old house isn’t going anywhere, I’m sure it’s new owners wouldn’t mind letting you visit it every now and then.” Pen looked up towards her smile. Her words didn’t make him feel any better about moving, but it helped a little.

“I have someone for you to meet,” she said with a smile.

-x-

Pen looked up at her as she stood up and put her hand in her mouth, making a quick, high pitched whistle. A few moments later, a fluffy sheep dog and and a puppy rounded the corner of the house.

“Hello there little guy,” she said as she bent down and scratched the puppy’s ears. Grandma smiled at Pen.

“This is Sharkie. I just got him a few days ago. He’s new to the farm too so you two will be able to explore it together.”

Pen looked down at the black and white puppy. It looked like a teddy bear with pointed, floppy ears. The little dog stared up at Pen for a moment with it’s huge brown eyes and it’s tongue lolling out before it started sniffing around his parent’s car.

Pen shifted back in his seat.

“I hate dogs,” he said.

It was true. The only dog he had ever really met was one of his neighbor’s. It was a very small dog, smaller than the puppy, who only looked intimidating because of it’s crooked teeth and wild eyes. Iit barked constantly, snapped at anyone who walked past the house, and, to make things even worse, was named Chuckles, which Pen had decided meant “demon face” in some foreign language.

As far as he was concerned, all dogs were evil.