The Bag

By Thorn Osgood

Glo has been out of high school for three years but has remains friends with some of the high schoolers. Living in dysfunctional families—as she had while in high school—she allows them to spend time at her place, hoping they will miss some of the pitfalls that could prevent them from graduating high school. When their prospects for summer jobs crash, she takes them on an exploratory hike through the woods that changes everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MindWingsAudio
• Release date: May 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781611146189

Thorn Osgood

Thorn Osgood was born in Thomasville, Georgia, and grew up in South Florida. During her grade school years, her father read her stories that fed her imagination. Through the years, she has traveled many times to that special place in her mind to imagine fantastic yarns and what ifs and she has finally started to write them down. Thorn currently lives in Crawford County, Georgia with her Mittelschnauzer, Raskoph.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Glo turned over slowly and opened her eyes. She squinted at the sun, shining much brighter than she expected through the window blinds. Then a thought popped into her mind. Today was Monday. She jerked to the other side of the bed and looked at the clock. It was after nine. We’re all going to be late! She brushed the last remnants of grogginess from her face, her feet hit the floor.

She went toward the front room of her trailer. Her foot caught . . . Perry! she yelled and stumbled forward, careening into Jubal who was roused just in time to catch her, plopping her into his lap.

What the fuck’s goin’ on? Jubal shouted, looking around.

Sorry, Glo said quietly. I stumbled over Perry. She looked at the others and said, It’s time for those of you that have summer jobs to get up and get going.

It was mid-June 1993, and school had been out a couple of weeks. This was the first weekend since last summer that they’d stayed over at her place on a Sunday night. She pulled herself off Jubal and stood up.

Sometimes it’s really annoying having these kids, hanging around. Then she recalled how she had seen most of them around school before she graduated in 1990. They had been withdrawn and antisocial. They hadn’t interacted with the other kids. It was the way she had been in high school herself—something she still hadn’t completely overcome. But she’d decided to talk to them, and one by one she had succeeded in making friends. It was why they were hanging out here. That thought always brought her back from whatever pissed-off mood she was in.

Carol Ann and Paula stared at Glo as if she were speaking a foreign language but didn’t respond.

She studied the girls a few moments, her thoughts rifling through the past. Paula had introduced her to Carol Ann and brought her along when she came over to Glo’s place. Carol Ann’s family had mostly turned their backs on her, and she had become closed off.

Paula reminded Glo of herself: neither of them had parents, but Paula had an older brother she lived with while Glo didn’t have any siblings that she knew of. Paula was expected to graduate with the next senior class. She considered herself more mature than the girls in her class, and chose to set herself apart. Carol Ann would be a junior in the fall.

My job with old man Jackson is finished, Marvin said. He only needed help cleaning up his garage.

Marvin simply didn’t have the patience to get along with most people. Raised by his grandparents, he had mostly taken up his grandfather’s way of thinking. This fall would be his last year in high school too. He smoothed his T-shirt over his lean torso, and pulled his well-worn ankle boots onto his huge feet. He pulled a wide-tooth comb from his back pocket and combed his short do, then got up, and went to the kitchen.

What about you two? she asked, turning to Jubal and Perry. You all told me you were working.

Marvin filled himself a cup of water from the sink.

She had met Perry through Jubal, another senior, in the fall of that school year. Perry was picked on a lot at school, basically for being shorter than five feet tall and Mexican. His father was Mexican and his mother was white, but he had been branded. When one of the altercations occurred, during Jubal’s junior year, he happened to be on the scene and intervened on Perry’s behalf. From that point on, when outside of his classes, Perry made it his business to hang with Jubal. When she invited Jubal over, Perry came along.

That bastard, Conyers, fired me, Jubal replied and slumped to his side against the couch. His stringy blond hair hung to the side of his lean, narrow face. He was due to graduate next year too if he could stay focused. His parents were functioning drunks and hit the booze hard every day after work—too caught up in their own doings to worry about what their son did or where he was.

Because . . . Glo started.

He caught me smoking weed on a break.

She sighed, shaking her head in disgust. You would think you have enough time for that when you’re not working.

What about you, Perry? Aren’t you helping at the quick-stop?

I was, only as a fill-in, though, but they’ve stopped calling. His voice was soft and she could hardly hear him. He was extremely introverted.

What’s the real reason, Perry? She was sure there was more to it than that.

The manager said I was eating too much of the merchandise. He cast his eyes down as he spoke.

He loved snacks. It’s not like you’re starving. Can’t you control yourself until you get off work? His body was average size, as it should be, but his snacking habit would change that if he didn’t stop.

The job was crap. Snackin’ was what made it interesting. His voice grew quieter as he stared at the floor.

She could feel her temper rising and took a deep breath. I’ve got an idea. How about we take a walk in the countryside? We can go somewhere we’ve never been or wouldn’t ordinarily go.

Nods came from the guys. The girls seemed to toy with the idea and then agreed.

Glo knew why they came to her place. It was mainly because she didn’t yell at them or make them do anything. Plus, and this reason was a huge one, they could smoke cigarettes and weed. She knew it was not the healthiest way to live, but if they were at her place, they weren’t getting into real trouble.

We’ll leave in ninety minutes. That’ll give you time to get cleaned up. There’s tea if you want it, and I’ll take a box of saltines. Get your own water bottles. She pointed to the empty plastic bottles in the basket by the front door. She didn’t have much, but she shared what she had.

We’re taking off. We’ll be back before it’s time to leave, Paula called, heading to the door with Carol Ann following.

Glo watched them go.

Three years ago, she’d finished high school. She had no blood relatives that she knew of and had grown up in foster care. As an infant, she’d been left at the county hospital’s emergency doors and had gone to foster care from there. On her eighteenth birthday, after graduation, she’d left her caretakers to make it on her own. She went by the school from time