Monstrous Mountain

Chapter 3 - Francine

This is dedicated to Zebra28 and Scifiromance because they both commented on every chapter, sometimes twice, voted, and encouraged me to continue this. Unfortunately, you can only dedicate a chapter to one person. So I'm mentioning here that it is also dedicated to Scifiromance. And sorry that it took so long to upload. Hope you enjoy!

Francine Burrows sighed as she finished hoeing the row of corn that she was working in. She looked around the rest of the field that had to be done before dinner – it was as far as she could see. Not only did she have to finish this field, but she also had to milk the cows, feed all the animals in the barn, as well as muck the horse’s stalls. Plus, she had homework to do, extra homework that no one else had to do.  

Francine was considered by her teachers as a genius, by her fellow classmates as a show off, and by her parents as an unenthusiastic farmer who spent too much time reading. She looked in interest at the car coming up the lane, any distraction was nice. That was odd, she thought. The car resembled that of the school supervisor.

Francine still regarded cars as a luxury. No matter how inexpensive they were, her parents considered them unnecessary. True, they had bought a tractor, but that was only because they did not want to do most things by hand. Ruefully, Francine looked over the land she was expected to turn over, so that the growing corn plants could have as much water and help as needed.

She wished that there was a machine that could be cheap enough, gentle enough, and would work well enough. Then she wouldn’t have to do it by hand, which normally takes hours. She could just breeze down each corn row, pulling or pushing the machine as needed, with hardly any effort at all! Francine sighed and looked off into space as she imagined the free time that she would then have, time that she could use to further her studying.

She was brought back into reality as a bell rang, startling her. She was so far away from the farm in her mind that it took her a moment to realize what it was. It was the dinner bell, used when it was time to eat, but they were too far away to hear a shout. But it wasn’t dinner time; Francine quickly looked up at the sun to verify that fact. The sun was too high in the sky for it to be time to return to the house. Besides, Francine wasn’t hungry yet.

 She started hurrying to the house, thinking of the possible situations that would cause the dinner bell to ring when Francine was the only one out working, she was close enough to hear a shout, and it wasn’t dinner time. A few worst possible situations came into her mind, but she dismissed them.

Then she remembered the car that had come up the lane earlier. Maybe something had happened about school, if it was the school supervisor’s car she had seen. By this time, she had left the corn fields behind and was coming close to the house. The back door was hidden from this angle, so she couldn’t see who was standing there, if anyone was.

When she neared the corner of the house, she slowed down and checked to make sure she looked presentable, if there was any company. She was walking round the jutting corner, and bumped into her mother. Francine stared in surprise, her mother nearly never left the kitchen; she was cooking nearly all of the time. Most of the rest of the time, she was either cleaning the rest of the house, or taking care of a fussy baby. Her mother, Matilda, quickly recovered herself and called back to the mysterious visitor:

“Francine is here, she’s on her way!”

Francine shot a questioning look at her mother before finishing the turn. There she saw that she was correct, it was the school supervisor, Mr. Blomple. Even though she should have been happy that no one was hurt, she was still worried about what he had come out here to tell her. Francine and her family lived a couple of miles outside town, through imposing forests, with much wildlife, and a few swamps thrown in there for good measure.