TMI: The Chase
The story of a stubborn young teen’s continued battles with a relentless, cantankerous beast
Shawn Alleyne, known as ‘Speedo’ to all of his family, friends and those in his small, tropical community has always had a love for all animals.
He was a helpful young boy who could be seen helping his neighbours with their sheep, caring for the rabbits and even knew how to milk a cow.
For such an animal lover, Riley's farm - which was the biggest and most animal populated farm in his community was something he had always dreamed of running wild on, so naturally when his Grandmother Clotelle told him they were going to the farm, Speedo was incredibly excited.
His dream was coming true!
In his excitement about seeing the different animals and playing with them, there was no way for him to know that this day would bring him face to face with what would become his arch-nemesis, Chaser, an old, boy-hating goat that would love nothing more than to ram him with his sharp horns.
“A few other lambs had noticed the little lamb eating the green plums while receiving light pets and were about to come over for a closer inspection, when out of the corner of his eye Speedo spotted a grey flash coming his way, the thundering of its hooves softened only slightly by the lush grass.
Alarmed at the sudden danger, a frightened scream tore from his lips.
He dropped the branch and scrambled away from the gate, barely registering that it was a loose goat charging at him as he instinctively and swiftly ran away from the abrupt danger.
There was a loud bang from where the incensed goat had rammed his horns into the thin metal sheets where Speedo had just been, the sound hanging ominously in the air.
Screaming as he recognised that this animal meant to ram him, Speedo hastily scooped up some of the white, uneven pebbles that were laid around the cages and threw them in the direction of the terrifying intruder.
He was already running as fast as he could towards the farmhouse, and didn’t check to see if any of the pebbles had actually landed on target, instead, spurred to higher heights of pulsing fear at the enraged bleating just behind him, he ran all the way back to the house, yelling and screaming, the sounds of hooves driving him faster and faster.”- excerpt taken from The Chase.
Within the book The Chase, written by Ashlee Cox, Speedo’s character is portrayed to be that of a typical, fun-loving Caribbean teen.
He’s polite, well trained by his grandmother, has a wide curiosity, but can be very persistent and stubborn, which makes his ongoing feud with the goat reach even greater lengths as neither will back down.
Meanwhile Chaser fancies himself a guard of sorts, thinking it’s his duty to keep strangers and those loud, bad boys away from his kin and the other animals on the farm, but no matter how often he chases and warns them away, they just keep coming back.
This grey goat is cantankerous, stubborn and loathes Speedo the most, since to him he was someone who broke onto the farm and tried to hurt his kin.
One day, Chaser has had enough of Speedo’s shenanigans and attacks.
Spurred by a burning rage he chases the young, screaming boy not only off his territory but up a hill, intent on teaching him a serious lesson once and for all with his sharp horns.
“‘Damn Riley! And his blasted goat -demon! ’
Speedo thought acidly, pumping his arms and legs harder.
In his heart, he knew this was no ordinary chase, this was not a drill or a display of irritation like normal.
The fear he felt was too real, Chaser’s persistence too sharp and he knew, with a sinking, terrible feeling in his gut that this time Chaser was really incensed enough to hurt him if he caught up to him.
This instinctive revelation caused a shiver of pure fear and desperation to wrack his body, icy cold terror invading him at the thought of the real pain he would feel if Chaser actually caught him this time.
Triggered, Speedo understood with chilling clarity that if he was going to actually survive this encounter with that relentless animal, he was going to have to live up to his nickname.
Chaser was out for his blood and he really was running for his life.”- excerpt taken from The Chase.
Will this feud between beast and boy finally have a winner?
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