by Paul Tenoire

Created on: November 01, 2010

Angels in the wind…

Danny focused his aim on the soda can he had placed on the log.

In his hand he held a rock. Not a big one, not a small one. Just right.

Mom and Dad wouldn’t be home for another few hours, so there was plenty of time for some throwing practice. It didn’t cost anything and it sure beat doing homework, even though he had to walk all the way out to the park to do it.

Squinting one eye, he took careful aim and flung the rock as hard as he could. It hit the can hard, knocking it off  with a loud clank.

“Not bad, not bad…” he said to himself.

He went over and picked up the dented can and put it back on the log. It rocked back and forth a bit, as if dazed from the blow, but eventually it stopped moving.

Danny walked back to the starting point and grabbed another rock.

It was a very calm day. Not a single breeze was blowing. The sun lay low on the horizon, its bright rays shining through the trees, making Danny squint a bit.

But no matter. Squinting  would just make him better at hitting tin cans.

Suddenly,  a big kid appeared from somewhere in the woods. He was a foot or so taller than Danny and much heavier. (Most kids were heavier than Danny, ‘cause Danny was as thin as a rail.)

The big kid had some sort of long scarf in his hand. He walked right up to Danny without so much as a hello.

“Hey, did you see that movie last night on TV?” the big kid demanded .

Surprised, Danny said, “What movie?”

“Oh for God’s sake, you dope,” growled the big kid, “the movie about the people who lived in dinosaur times.”

“No, I didn’t see that movie. What about it?”

“It was great! The cavemen all had these slings to throw rocks at the animals they were hunting. See, I made one just like it.”

The big kid showed him the scarf he was holding and then proceeded to clutch both ends in one hand. Then he stooped over and selected a medium-sized rock and dropped it in.

“Now,” he said to Danny, “all you have to do is swing it around your head and when it’s going really fast you fling the rock, like this!”

The big kid let the rock fly and it smashed into a tree, knocking off some little pieces of bark.

“Wow, that’s a good sling!” said Danny.

“Yeah, well there’s more to it than just that. See, the guys in the movie would go to war and they would fling

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