Ignatius In Hiding (A To Z Challenge)(250=1)

If you're here you're probably a blogger which means you write which means I WILL PAY YOU FOR YOUR STORIES. Write stuff, send it to me, get paid. That's the basics. There's a tab at the top of the page that has details. 

OTHER QUICK NOTES: As always, my A To Z Challenge entries have two a day: This post, a 250-word short story, and the one below it, a serialized story about X wanting to be a god and the other letters upset about it.

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AND NOW, your 250-word short story:

Ignatius In Hiding.

Ignatius has been (among others) the name of a Roman centurion guarding Caesar’s bedchambers, a merchant who introduced wheat to Turkey, three popes, one beatified young man who died of cholera in 1837, and, finally, this little boy hiding behind the big pine tree, fingers trembling on the bark of the tree, a bit of pine sap in his hair.

Is he wondering if he should climb up into the tree to hide better? 

He is.  

Has he eaten dinner? 

He has.  

Was that dinner corn-on-the-cob, a chicken drumstick deep fried and a biscuit? 

It was, but he gave one-half the biscuit to his dog, who is not named Ignatius.

Are there voices from the other yard? 

No? 

Perhaps two yards over? 

Yes, that is it.  

Are they calling for Ignatius? Or for someone else? 

It is too hard to say.  The shouts may not be for anyone in particular, or at least not for anyone here in particular. It may be that Mike Hargrove just batted in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. 

Are they children’s voices or grown-up voices? 

Yelling, it is hard to tell.

When will it be time?

Will he be found?

There are answers to every question everyone could ask every time someone asks.  Sometimes the answers are right there in front of your face, as close as the bole of a pine tree that is cool but sticky to a forehead.

Sometimes, the answers are harder to find.

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This, for new readers, is a 250=1 story. I write lots of those, and what it means is that every story in that category has EXACTLY 250 words, no more, no less, counting the title.  Having read this one, you can now:

A. Keep reading below to get into my awesome story about the alphabet being mad at X for making humans have an afterlife, or 

B. Click here if you want a list of lots more 250=1 stories.

C. Go back to writing something to submit to me and get paid, or

D. Spin the wheel again and hope for big money! Wait, what do you mean, I'm not Pat Sajak. I have the blazer on and there's Vanna over... where's Vanna? Where'd she go? Hey, put my wheel back down! I know my rights! I'm calling the embassy!