Bud wants to slip through the windows into the library's basement to spend the night, but he finds that they have been barred. However, Bud figures he could sleep under the Christmas tree in front of the library. Before taking his blanket out of his suitcase, he looks at the pictures of his mama and his long…
At bedtime, Jennie agreed to let Maurice, Martha, Louis, Jenny, and Betty stay up and play with their toys as long as they locked the door and turned out the lights. Later that night, Jennie wakes up to a phone ringing. She gets up and answers the phone. The woman who had called asked for someone Jennie didn't know, laughed, and then hung up. She then looked and saw the doors unlocked and the lights on. She locked the door and turned out the lights, assuming her children had gone to bed. She went back to sleep only to be woken up again by a sound of something hitting the roof and rolling off. She dozed back to sleep. Only thirty minutes later, she woke up to the smell of…
Ruth and her brother started walking toward the house to meet him. “Jotham! Jotham!” Ruth called out, “Where’s Zeena?” Jotham looked confused for a second as to why they were here, replied, “She should be in the house. Why? What’s wrong?” “Mattie and Ethan were sledding, they crashed into the Big Elm and…” Ruth burst into tears and couldn’t continue. “And what? What happened?” Jotham asked, beginning to panic. “They died. They crashed into the tree and were killed,” Ruth’s brother told Jotham. By this time, they had reached the house. Jotham slowly sat down into a rocker in shock and said, “I can’t believe it, Ethan and Mattie are dead?” Ruth just nodded through her tears unable to speak its truth. “We came to tell Zeena,” she said. Jotham led them into the…
As the summer of the 6th grade year of elementary was over, Hailey’s life was about to experience a major change. Junior High. Hailey got new friends, her grades changed dramatically, and she was introduced to the life of trouble. The summer of 2013, she took a trip to Colorado. There she went to the town of Denver and attended an event called Art Night. She entered an art piece that she knew would wow the other contestants. Her father was proud to announce that Hailey had won the first place prize and that she beat the other contestants by many points. Hailey was given the opportunity to enter another event with a little more competition on the coming Tuesday night. Although that would have been a wonderful experience for Hailey, she turned that down to come home to her…
There was an explosion of rainbow glitter, and her monster was gone. One swing of a magic blade was all it took to wake her from her nightmare.…
“Ugh!”, he grunts from how large the suitcase is. “Will you be able to carry that, Scottie?” she says, her face, worn from time, twists with concern for her son. “Of course”, he laughs. “Okay, if you’re sure.” She says as she opens the metal gate to the front yard. They slowly walk through the cracked pathway until they reach the steps to the porch. Beatrice opens the sturdy door with her keys. “Honey, I’m home!” Scottie yells into the empty living room. “Must you do that every time you come inside the house?” She says fondly. “Of course, I must.” He says as if she should already have known the answer. While they were talking, Alice and Jake, Scottie’s younger siblings, heard his announcement and excitedly ran out of their room and down the beige stairs. “Stop making all that racket!” she admonishes her children. “SCOTTIE!” they yell out enthusiastically. “You’re home!” Alice states, full of wonder that her big older brother is finally back where he belongs. “Well, it’s obvious that I’m home unless I’m an imposer who’s secretly an alien”, He jokes, winking at Alice. “I definitely didn’t miss your humor,” Jake lightheartedly says. “Oh, come on, I tell the best jokes”, Scottie says smiling. “Yeah right, in your dreams”, Jake jokingly teases. “Leave your brother alone for right now. He had a long trip and he’s probably exhausted.” Beatrice gently tells to her…
A grunt was heard down the dirt path she was taking and she instantly hid behind a tree. She must be close enough to him already. She shifted to the next closest trees. The closer she got, the louder the grunts got, and the more she realized these grunts were painful one's. Was Frederick being hurt?! What happened if a wild fox thought he was good enough for dinner and tried attack him?! She decided it was good enough to skip trees to get right next to the sound.…
A girl a few inches shorter then I stood in the door way looking scared and cold so I hurried her inside. Her face was full of worry and I walked her over to the fire place draping a blanket on her shoulders. She immediately latched onto my side and began to sob and shake. I felt bad and slightly concerned because it wasn’t everyday a girl ends up in my lap past dusk especially a crying one. She spoke softly with shaken breaths “Thank you for letting me in, I have been walking through the forest for hours.”…
When I was 14 my stake High Adventure group went on a 50 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail which was one of the most physically and emotionally challenging experiences I have ever had. For six days, I had to carry my pack containing about 40 pounds in supplies. It rained all six days of the trip.…
The Appalachian Trail and a category four hurricane are two things that do not mix well together. This is the last thing any hiker would want to be caught up in. Thirty miles from civilization, there’s nothing but wet ground and an angry sky.…
At 29,000 feet, Mt. Everest isn’t a hospitable place to be for any living creature. The cold icy winds tearing through the bodies, extremely cold temperatures unbearable to anything alive are making it extremely tough to keep moving forward. Clouds thundering and the mountain freezing everything to death. Ground just beneath the fresh snow is similar to a knight’s armour. Almost impenetrable like the mountain is protecting itself, but his sharp ice axe is shedding it into pieces wherever it hits the ground to move forward. Solid snowflakes are hitting his body, resentful of his presence on the mountain. But he’s there to save his soul mate and there is no way the mountain can scare him enough to make him go back. Dark grey peaks, barely visible,…
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, is a footpath in the eastern United States for outdoor enthusiasts, extending about about 2140 miles from Maine to Georgia, along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. The trail passes through 14 states and is maintained by 34 different trail maintenance organizations. It is the longest marked, continuous footpath in the world, at some points reaching elevations of more than 6000 feet. Wooden signposts and white paint marks on rocks and trees are placed along the trail. Construction of the Appalachian Trail was begun in 1922 near Bear Mountain, New York.…
There were many hardships on the trail. If you left too early in the spring, the grass wouldn't grow for your oxen/ horses. If you left too late, you will run into winter. There were diseases that could kill people. People died from cholera, measles, and smallpox. Children got killed because they either were run over by a wagon wheel or fell out of the wagon and got ran over. Some people got bit by snakes.…
One spring day the old man decided to mate Arnuk. So the old man sends Arnuk to the people. Arnuk waited for the man to tell her something, but he didn’t say anything. Arnuk was very hungry. She walked to the men house and she whined but no one was home. The drifts were covering the trails so she used to sense of smell and found a rock ridge. Even though she was very hungry she climbed into the shelter and fell asleep. In her dream she was thinking of catching and eating a deer.…
The hike was generally extremely enjoyable. Initially, when we set off from RI, I was extremely high and for the first checkpoint, I felt as if the bag weighed almost nothing. However, when we had to backtrack when we realised we had forgotten to take a picture of the checkpoint. On the other hand I was always motivated to continue walking by my fellow companions with whom I could share stories with. We also distributed the weight as equally as possible. The tent was shared around. When it came to my turn, the tent was so heavy that I struggled to carry it. I managed to scrape through three checkpoints carrying it. It was an excruciating battle for the first day. At night, once we reached the rest point, I managed to get extra practice on how to pitch a tent. As a team, we got down to cooking which was enjoyable and relaxing as we could share stories around the campfire.…