Thursday, January 5, 2017

My Sister Turns Into a Bug by Natalie

I was lying on my bed when I heard Alison scream. Five seconds later Mom came barreling down the hallway holding a dagger. Whoa, back up. Mom has a dagger? I leaped off the bed just as I saw my little brother, Finnick, sprint down the hallway, his bubble tape trailing behind him. Apparently he had stuck it to something in his bedroom? That’s not relevant, I ran down the hallway. I arrived at Alison’s room just as Mom kicked down the door.
“Cool!” said my little sister Emma, standing at the door. “Can you show me how to do that?!”

“Alison! What's wrong?” shouted Mom. Alison, my fourteen year old sister, just stood there and cried. Tears flooded down her face. Mom walked over and brushed her curly blond hair behind her ear. “What is wrong?”
Alison turned around and pink fairy wings sprouted out of her back. She lifted off the ground and bumped against the ceiling. “Alison,” said Finnick, wide eyed. He walked over and put his hand on her foot. “Calm down. Are you all right?”

All right? I am far from all right! I am turning into a bug!!!!” exploded Alison. Her shoulders shook and her face reddened.

“You are not turning into a bug. Every one needs to calm down,” said Mom. 

“I bet you will grow pinchers next,” teased Emma.

“Mom,” I said, crossing my arms. “My big sister is turning into a bug.”

“She isn’t turning into a bug. Your Father can explain when he gets home from the castle...”

“CASTLE?!” the four of us shouted.

Mom sighed. “He can explain to you what you are.”

“What are we?” asked Emma.

Mom cringed. “You are fairy princesses.”

“I don’t want to be a fairy princess!” sobbed Alison.

“Oh. My. God,” said Emma.

“WHAT? I AM A FAIRY PRINCESS?!” yelled Finnick, clutching his blond curls like they were going to float away.

“Finnick is a fairy prince,” explained Mom before my brother could turn into a raving lunatic.

Fine, I thought. Just fine.

“Kids, have you ever heard of the brothers Grimm?” asked Mom.

“Get to the point,” said Finnick.

“Don’t talk to me like that. My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great something or other was Wilhelm Grimm.”

“I am pretty sure that Wilhelm could not turn into a bug!” shouted Alison.

“Your Father is the King of Fairies,” said Mom.

“And I can read the phone book and make it sound interesting,” I said. 

“Mom, you seriously don’t expect us to buy this.”

“Believe me,” said Mom.

“Wait. Dad is a fairy princess too?!” shouted Emma.

“Fairy Prince,” said Finnick stubbornly.

“Fairy King, dummies, Mom said he was the KING,” I said. Even though this was some kind of sick joke, I needed to make sure that they got the facts right. The front door slammed.

“I’m home!” shouted Dad. We all filed out the door and down the stairs. Alison flew, Mom holding onto her wrist so that she wouldn’t hit anything. 

When Dad saw Alison his eyes grew wide and he said, “Alison!”

“Ok, Dad, spill,” I said.



TO BE CONTINUED……

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Poem: The Last Orange by Lauren

There is just one orange left in the blue bowl on the kitchen table.
It wants to be round but there's a dimple or two to frustrate its roundness.
It wants to be sun bright but is tending toward rain clouds.
Does it hold inside itself Florida sweetness or did it dry up in waiting?
All its companions were chosen early for their promises of juice and acid,
promises written on their unblemished rinds and solid spherical weight.
But this orange, one last orange, is waiting still, asking for a leap of faith
or maybe just pity,
hoping for a less discerning fruit fancier to rescue it
from what awaits when grocery day comes again
and a new bag of apples, oranges, bananas

arrives to refill the blue bowl on the kitchen table.

Memoir: The Bus Stop by Lauren

The winter I was seven, I had to walk by myself to the bus stop every morning, zipped into my snowsuit, with an itchy wool scarf across my mouth, musty from catching my breath, and wearing awkward rubber boots buttoned over my shoes.

Every morning the kids would slowly gather at the stop. All the children from our tiny town met there to ride to the county school in the next town over. It was a mixed group, some who egged each other on toward the line between mischief and mayhem, others just minding their business and waiting. I was one of the youngest of the eight or ten kids at the stop, and certainly the quietest. I rarely spoke, and was never noticed.

There was an old barn across the road and if the wind was cutting, we'd huddle inside it. In the spring, some kids would climb into the rafters and balance or jump but in the winter it was too cold for bravado and we huddled together to wait for the bus.

One day, when the bus was a little later than usual, and the wind had blown a drift of snow into the doorway of the barn, one of the older boys gathered some snow and packed a snowball. He grinned around the group, looking for who he'd like to peg. I stepped quickly behind a taller girl, knowing that this particular kid would take great pleasure in filling the wool scarf and the snowsuit neck of a timid little girl like me, with wet, cold snow.

Just then a car came down the road, slowing to take the right turn at the bus stop, and the boy spun around and pelted his snowball at the car, hitting it squarely on the windshield. We all froze in horror, expecting terrible consequences, terrible punishment. But the car kept going. The driver probably never knew where the snowball came from, never saw us inside the barn door, and the snow exploded harmlessly and blew away as he drove.

Now it was open season. Everyone began packing snowballs and waiting in anticipation for the next car. When it came, a light green station wagon, the snowballs rained down, mostly missing, but a few, lobbed by older kids, found their mark. I threw a snowball that fell well short. I didn't know how to pack it densely enough to make it fly and so it fell apart not long after it left my hand. I was disappointed but determined to make an impact. When I reached down to scoop up more snow, I found a rock, about the size of an egg and I had a thought. I didn't know physics, but I instinctively understood that I would be able to throw that rock more accurately and farther than I could a loosely packed snowball. As the next car came down the road toward the intersection, my arm rose, and without very much thought about consequences, I threw that rock with all my might.


There was a load “crack!” and the black lines zig-zagged across the windshield of the car.  

Little Anna, MuShu the Shih Tzu, and The Bad Dog by Lauren

Little Anna and MuShu the Shih Tzu were like a donut and its hole, Mama used to say. Where you had one, you would surely find the other. Seeing Anna's dark braids swinging past was a guarantee that MuShu's plumed tail would be not far behind. And for Little Anna, MuShu's companionship was the greatest joy of her childhood. In a house overrun by loud, careless, older brothers (three, to be exact), the love of a little Chinese lap dog was just what a quiet, sensitive girl needed.

MuShu had come to the family as a teacup sized puppy, silky hair and curling tail, an incongruous gift for Mama from a childhood friend who had not married a farmer right out of school, but instead had shockingly chosen to explore the world. She came for one brief unexpected Christmas visit and left the tiny brown and white dog as a remembrance. At first Mama was annoyed. What place on a busy farm was there for a lapdog from the far east? There was a wise old sheepdog and two boisterous hunting dogs as well as a wily, secretive mouser living out by the barn but those were working, contributing hands rather than pets. But then Mama watched as MuShu and Little Anna made their acquaintance and Mama found she was quite happy to make room in the family for her girl's new best friend.

In good weather, the two could most often be found behind the old farmhouse, under the swing arbor where Little Anna liked to stage exciting dramas for an approving audience of one. The players were an old rag doll, a dingy stuffed elephant, and a woe-begone ceramic horse. These versatile actors could take on any form or personality and Anna, the playwright, director, and narrator was wide ranging in her choice of story, moving easily from tragedy, to comedy, to melodrama. MuShu would lie stretched out, his little nose resting on his paws, round brown eyes almost hidden behind long bangs, watching every motion, listening to every plot twist. He was sometimes consulted about the production and invariably, the curling tail would gently wave in approval of whatever creative choice the small girl was considering.

Papa, passing behind the swing arbor on his way out to the barn would hear her small voice rising with excitement and confidence, tones that were seldom heard in the presence of any of the big people of the house. He often worried about his Little Anna, she seemed so quiet, so easily cowed, in a family of loud extroverts, a shadow in the corners of the bright, bustling house. Papa was reassured that his littlest was not mute or struck when he eavesdropped on her conversations, standing in the sweet fragrance of the honeysuckle vine that climbed the swing arbor and hid the small girl and her small companions as they created another world. He'd smile and shake his head as he continued walking down the path. She would grow out of her shyness soon, he felt sure, and that vivacity of personality that he heard behind the honeysuckle would no longer be only reserved for the little dog and her toys.


One day, Mama discovered that Isaac, the oldest of the big brothers, had forgotten to return Missus Harper's best glass pie plate when he went in to town that afternoon to meet up with Sweet Lilly Anderson. Missus Harper had made a lovely scuppernog pie for the family just the other day as a thank you for the boys catching and returning her run away pig. A widow lady who managed alone often leaned on her neighbors and repaid her debts with her considerable baking talents. The boys had enjoyed that pie but now the plate needed to be returned quickly as a sign of courtesy. Mama was fussed. She didn't have time to go the three quarters of a mile down the road, what with the laundry to boil and dinner to get on with. She glanced out the window and noticed a brown and white feathered tail protruding from the honeysuckle that climbed over the swing arbor. She knocked on the glass loudly and repeatedly until two small shapes emerged, a small, dark girl with long braids and a tiny brown and white dog with feathered ears and a curling, plumed tail. Mama threw up the sash, “Little Anna, take this plate down to Missus Harper, right quick.” She passed the ornamental dish out the open window, patiently waiting as Anna reached up and gripped it. “Be careful, now. Don't drop it and be sure to hurry on back.” The sash was slammed back down and Mama was gone, back to her bustle and busy.

“Come on, Moosh,” Little Anna said, holding the big plate against her chest. She needn't have said it, for MuShu was, as usual, right at her heel, ready to walk anywhere his girl might lead.

The pair walked on the grass beside the asphalt road, where bluebonnets and indian paint brush were growing. Anna was tempted to stop and gather some, but discussed with MuShu the impracticality of such a pursuit. “It'll take too much time and how could I carry them?” Moosh seemed to agree as he looked up at his mistress. “They are pretty, though. Maybe we will pick a bouquet on our way home, once I don't have to carry this big plate.” Satisfied with her plan, Anna continued on down the road, the tiny dog trotting with her.

When MuShu stopped, his body tense, and looked off across the field, Anna stopped, too, turning to see what had caught his attention. Coming over a slight rise was a large black form—it was the Peters' big Pit, off his customary chain and two farms away from home. He stopped at the top of the rise, watching the girl and her dog, and Anna felt her heart freeze as she sensed menace in his tense form. Quickly, she turned and continued walking, her little legs moving with urgency. “Come on, Moosh.” The little Shih Tzu stood for a moment more, watching the other dog, then trilled a warning before turning to follow Anna.

The other dog did not follow them at first, but he never took his eyes off the pair as they moved away. Anna was as aware of him as he was of her, watching him from the side of her eye, turning her head quickly. Her breath was quick and tight but she held her panic in check, seeing the Harper farmhouse just down the way. She would get through the gate and then shut it. And Missus Harper would let her stay until that bad dog went away. She might even call Amos Peters to come and get his mutt! And she'd give him a talking to about letting such a creature off the chain to terrorize small girls and small dogs!


No one can know what made the big Pit decide to stop watching and come off that hill after Little Anna and her dog. He came silently but MuShu knew just when his pursuit began because he spun to face the other dog, trilling and huffing (a Shih Tzu's version of snarling and barking), fierce as a mama bear protecting her cub. Anna turned as well, and froze, the large glass pie plate still clutched to her chest, staring at the demon streaking toward her. His teeth were bared, ears back, focused on her ten pound defender. MuShu's trilling resolved into genuine snarls as he faced off with the dog five times his size and then sprang up and bit into the wet black nose. The other dog squeaked in surprise and pain, shaking his head violently and sending MuShu flying, to land on the asphalt. Anna stared at the unmoving pile of silky brown and white fur and her frozen heart sprang back to life as the panic she had held down came welling out of her mouth in a scream. Her little friend was broken and dead. “You are a BAD DOG!” She shrieked. She raised the glass plate over her head and brought it down with all her strength onto the head of the big black dog. It broke down the middle as the dog yelped and cowered. In the space of a thought, the Pit turned, his tail between his legs, and ran back over the hill, the way he had come. Anna did not watch him go, but dropping the broken plate, she turned to the road where the little dog was dazedly tottering to his feet, bruised and winded but not broken after all. Snatching him up into her arms, the little girl ran to the neighbor's gate, tears running down her cheeks as she struggled to hold him and slam shut the barrier. The dog and his girl sat behind the fence, comforting each other with licks and pats until Missus Harper came down the walk to see what was what.