Excerpt: Anything But Civil

As the door to his room closed, he looked over at his PS3. The only thing that got him through pre-Algebra was that beautiful machine. Now, Gettysburg is standing between him and the world’s largest online auction site.

He shook his hands out by his side, cracked his neck, and sat down in front of his computer. He pulled out Mr. Howard’s rubric and sat it beside the keyboard. He grabbed pens, pencils, crayons, and a few sheets of looseleaf paper. He powered up his computer, and opened up Microsoft Word. After several minutes of staring at a blank screen, Ethan types, “Mr. Howard’s Stupid Project.”

“I have no idea what I’m gonna do for this project. This history stuff is sooooo boring.”

“Did someone say history was boring?”

The unexpected voice from behind Ethan startled him so badly that he toppled out of his chair. He scrambled up to a seated position and crawled quickly away from the stranger now standing in his bedroom.

The stranger appeared to be about Ethan’s age, with short blonde hair. He was wearing baggy cargo pants that were rolled up several times over his canvas high-top shoes. Several gadgets were attached to a belt around his waist, and he was holding a very strange object in his hands.

A spyglass.

“W-wh-who are you? Wh-why are you h-here?”

“I am Captain John Q. History. I’m here to answer your call.”

“Oh, boy…”