danny@danielredding.com:~$ cat writing/2026-09-03-The Three Little Getters Chapter 1.txt

The 3 Little Getters

A long time ago, at least last week, there lived a family on top of a hill in the woods.

One day when the children were out playing they decided to take their bikes down the hill to Scary Creek and ride along the road to get ice cream from the store. Off they went, at least 2 or 3 of them, but possibly many more. For no one knew how many children actually lived on the hill.

They quickly gathered speed down the steep hill through the wooded driveway and down to the road. Barely did any of them notice that they passed a small dark house that resembled a pile of sticks!
From that house someone, or something, looked at the children with beady little eyes. Those someone's saw the children's bikes. All the bikes were muddy. A few had mostly flat tires. Several had no brakes at all! But those eyes saw and wanted those bikes!

On the children went down the driveway to the lane. It looked more like a rally race than a casual bike ride. The children without brakes used their bare feet to turn and the ones without good tires slid in the mud anyway! Each bike had at least 1 child but several had 2 or 3!
One lead child, probably the youngest and most daring, showed the way forward and biked on down the lane with a wide grin showing a missing front tooth.

Well the children rode all the way down the lane, up the power line hill, down through the mobile home park, and across the railroad tracks. They waved and shouted to the one armed man, Jack, who lived in the shack next to the wishing well by the railroad tracks.

Around the corner and down the road they finally reached their destination! The ice cream shop! The children ran into the store, each fighting to be first, all yelling their orders at the top of their voices.
Chocolate! Peanut Butter! Vanilla swirl! Fudge Ripple!

The ice cream lady took one look at them and asked if they had any money to pay. "Money? What's that?" the children thought. They had never heard of or seen money before. A stranger, seeing their dlimma and their need for ice cream, handed the lady what must have been a large amount of money, because before you know it she was handing out ice cream to whoever asked! All the children thanked the man and shook his hand. For that is what the children thought you did to nice people. The man seriously shook each hand in turn and showed no disgust at all at the mud, grass, and other unknown items in the children's hands.

As quickly as each ice cream had been given it had been eaten and there were so many children that it was difficult to keep track of who had what. Some might have come up for a second helping but it was hard to tell because they all looked so similar! Before you know it the lady had to close the shop for she had completely run out of ice cream!

While all this had been happening no one had noticed that the beautiful bent and muddy bikes they had used to ride down the hill and through the lane and across the tracks had gone missing!

The children, having eaten all the ice cream one lady could serve, barrelled out of the store and grabbed for their bikes. But there was nothing there! Someone had taken them!

The tallest child looked at the youngest and smallest. "Where did you put my bike?" He accused. The youngest looked at the middle child and said "Why did you hide my bike?". They all quickly accused the others of stealing their bike. The middle child looked all around at all the bikes missing and all the children accusing each other and said "Someone must have stolen our bikes!" Each child looked around and agreed.

"Who would have done this?" one said. "We must find them" said another. They each ran off in a different direction around the store and through the park and around the gas station and through the repair shop. No sign of the bikes was anywhere to be found.

After what seemed like an eternity, at least 3 minutes, they gave up and decided to walk home. Up the road, across the tracks, waving dejectedly to Jack the one armed man, through the mobile home park, up power line hill, up the lane and back to their driveway up the steep hill. On the way they saw their own tire tracks of mud leading the way home.
By this point several of the younger ones were so tired they fell asleep walking and had to be pushed along by the others. The youngest and littlest had climbed the tallest and biggest and held on for a piggy back ride, also falling asleep.

As they trudged up the hill the youngest and smallest woke up and looked around. From high up on the tallest and biggest she saw the tracks they had left with their bikes coming down the hill. Then she saw something different! Part way up the driveway the tracks changed direction and went across the hill to the house that looked like a pile of sticks.

"Aha!" she yelled, pointing at the house.
"Our bikes must have gone that way!"

Then all the children saw the tracks and agreed. A few started running towards the house.
"Hold on" said the oldest.
"We have to be careful"
"These are thieves we're talking about!"
All the children wisely nodded their heads in agreement.
"We should take a quick look around" suggested one.
"Maybe they are in the yard" said another.

So the children tip-toed across the hill and around the house to the yard without being seen. They searched left. They searched right. But the grass was so tall it was hard to see anything.
"I'm getting lost" said one
"I've been lost for forever" said the littlest.
Then the middle child stubbed his toe "OW!" he yelled.
"Shush! We're sneaking!" all the other children said.
But the middle child said "Here's my bike!"
And all the children ran around in a frenzy stubbing their toes in search of their own bikes in the tall grass.

Then they froze as they heard a voice say, "you wouldn't be stealing my precious, sweet, darling's, new bikes would you?"
Quick as a flash they turned to the voice and saw Mrs Getter on the back porch of the house looking at them sternly.
The youngest spoke up and said "these are our bikes!"
"We rode them to the store and someone took them while we weren't looking!"
Mrs Getter looked confused but said
"My my, that is interesting. My sweet, darling, innocent getters told me they found them abandoned on the side of the road."
"How do I know they are really your bikes?"

The one with a missing tooth came forward and said "I can prove it!"
"Here's where I knocked my tooth out" and showed her the mark on her bike that perfectly matched her teeth.
Another came forward and said "Mine has my name on it!" And showed her the name scratched in the paint on the bar below the seat.
Each bike had a brand of some sort or another.
"I kicked this tire right here when I was 4!"
"My brother hit mine with a rock right HERE!"
"I put this can on the tire so I could slow down!"

"Alright" said Mrs Getter over the din of children yelling.
"I can see my darling little Getters must have been mistaken since I know they would NEVER intentionally steal from anyone!"
"I'll sort this right out and you all go on home with your bikes"

All the kids cheered and hopped on their bikes (or a sibling's) and rode up the steep hill back to their house.
They didn't see the beady little eyes following them all the way across the hill and up the driveway.

"We'll see about that!" the three little Getters said.