The Trap
“Tell us again, gramps!” The kids yelled.
Grandpa sat puffing on his pipe, the crackling fire at the center of the ring of adults.
“I was on the dusty surface of Planet X in the Zarcoid Galaxy, trapped by a metal trap around my ankle…” he puffed as a dozen set of eyes watched.
“It was either capture, torture, and certain death at the hands of the Snorblads, or …” he made a slicing motion with his hand just under his knee.
The kids gasped in horror. They could not imagine chopping off an appendage!
Pipe gripped between teeth, Grandpa slid up his trouser leg, and showed the appendage.
“Yikes! Eww!”
Later, the kids shuffled off to bed, the old man’s son standing next to him. “You still tellin those old stories.”
“Yeppp,” the old man said. “It’s more exciting than telling them about a car accident.”