Our Voice 8

Our Voice 8 Page 18

by Scot McAtee

Kristy Stoll

  It was a Saturday,

  When the lad came to greet her

  The compliments were given thoroughly,

  Along with his handsome smile.

  Suddenly a golden ticket he grabbed from his pocket,

  Made its way to her,

  With confusion in her eyes, he explained

  That he wished for her to accompany him to the circus.

  Her heart blossoming like a rose blossom,

  She skipped to her home

  Her mind wandered to what would happen that night

  Until a quiet voice gave her a nasty thought.

  “The young man with a nice smile,

  Doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

  Realization struck as she tore that yellow ticket,

  Knowing that his offer must’ve been a joke

  Her eyebrows furrowed

  As she willed for the tears to stop

  Her heart wasn’t made for tricks and games,

  All she wanted was someone to love.

  Seven miles south,

  The lad stood with a gleam in his eye.

  With flowers in hand,

  He waited for her to arrive.

  As the minutes ticked by,

  His grin began to fade.

  The opening act began,

  But he stood outside in the pouring rain.

  He racked through their conversation,

  Wondering what he said wrong.

  With a heavy heart,

  He found himself back at home.

  The flowers were stared at,

  Until his strong hands tossed them away.

  He climbed into his bed,

  As a single tear flowed from his eye.

  He looked towards the ceiling,

  And let out a prayer.

  After all,

  He only wanted someone to love.

  What I Never Knew

  By: Hope Dodson

  Today is June 31, 2015, and I am going on my first vacation out of the United States, I have never been so terrified in my life. I was going to Denny’s Beach Resort in Honduras for 5 days. My friend Kelsey has been there before and it was a good cheap get away for a college student, like me. Kelsey kept telling me, “Sophia, it is one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been to, your Mom liked Honduras why don’t you just try it.” She finally convinced me after three months of telling me over and over. The terrifying thing was going out of the country, by myself. It was a pretty crammed flight; I had a guy that looked maybe 32 sitting to the right of me and a lady maybe 45 on my left. I just kept to myself the whole flight not wanting to pester anyone, round trip it took 18 hours, 9 hours each way, so I was trying my best to sleep the time away.

  By the time they brought around the last snack before we landed the guy next to me started talking, “So, where are you from?” he said to me just trying to start a little conversation.

  “Vermillion, South Dakota. I go to the University of South Dakota. Where are you from?” I said with curiosity.

  “Well I am about 30 minutes out In Yankton.” He looked down at my ring and then said, “Oh you’re married that’s neat. How long has it been?” He said.

  “Well we are legally married but we haven’t done a big ceremony with our friends and family yet. It’s only been 7 months but we have been together for 3 years. Are you in a relationship with anyone?” I said not really caring if he was or not.

  “Well since you asked, I’ve been in a relationship for about 8 months now, it’s truly amazing.” I didn’t respond because I just spent the rest of the ride wondering about what my husband might be doing.

  Jake has been my “lover” for nearly 3 years. I never thought for one second I wouldn’t marry him. He is perfect, his family is perfect and nearly everything about him I love. It’s crazy considering we only see each other 15 days out of a month due to his traveling for his job and my career taking a start but somehow we do, we manage to love each other from a distance. He wasn’t too thrilled about me going to Honduras; it took a lot of convincing but I knew he would give in. He paid for my flight and dropped me off at the airport. I never thought someone could love me so much.

  As I was thinking the plane jerked a little bit, causing me to lose my train of thought, we started going down. It was hectic being such a busy plane; no one knew where to go. As the guy next to me was getting off he turned to me and said, “It was nice talking to you.” Then he smiled and walked out. As soon as I got up to get my stuff, I realized he dropped his phone in my lap. I panicked trying to return the phone to him; he was gone there was nothing I could do. I darted towards the bagging area to hopefully finding the guy next to me so I could return his phone. I then walked all over the airport and still no sign of the guy that just left his phone behind. I spent over an hour looking for a guy who obviously was long gone. I got my bags and headed towards a cab. Luckily I took 4 years of Spanish so I could communicate with the cab driver. As he started driving I looked at the phone and decided I would spend a day or two looking for the guy. I turned on the phone and it just came up with a picture of the beach, it had a passcode. I tried to put my thumb in the thumb print because if our thumbs were anywhere close to similar it would hopefully turn on, but no luck. I just decided that if I didn’t find him here, I could always go to the phone company when I get back to North Dakota. I spent my first day relaxing on the beach, met some people who were from Florida, Illinois and Missouri. One good thing is South Dakota and Honduras were on the same time zone. I slept a lot within the first three days. I hardly ever got any sleep in South Dakota between school and work. On my second day I did some assignments for school since I was taking off more time than what was given. The third day went by smooth sailing, I went shopping, and learned new things, and stayed outside most of the day getting really sunburned. Jake called me every night during dinner to tell me good night. I didn’t have great cell service unfortunately so I only talked to him a little bit.

  “Hey, how is it going? Having fun?” Jake said with a little concern in his voice. “Yeah I am having a pretty good time. What’s going on you sound a little occupied? Do I need to go?”

  I said “No, you’re fine; I just want to make sure you are okay. I have a lot going on so I should get going, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He hung up.

  He never just hangs up. I was concerned that something was going on that I wasn’t aware of so I called his work phone. No answer. I just decided to sleep on it. I woke up at about 4:30 am and just felt like something was just wrong so at six I called his office.

  Janice his secretary answered and said, “This is Jake Withers office, this is Janice speaking.

  “Hi Janice, this is Sophia. I am concerned, Jake called me last night and just seemed a little bit off do you know where he is?” I said with curiosity in my tone.

  “Yeah, this week he is in Honduras at Tegucigalpa Marriott Hotel.” Janice said with confidence.

  “Um, great thank you Janice. Goodbye now.” I said not trying to be rude and cut her off, but to end the conversation.

  I sat up in bed, astonished. He came to Honduras to surprise me! I never thought he would do that. I got all dressed up to go to the hotel and surprise him that I knew. I called a cab and they came and got me within 10 minutes. The hotel was so fancy, something someone in high society would stay at. I walked up to the receptionist and simply told her my husband’s name and she gave me a room number. I pushed the elevator button with my phone and the stranger’s phone in my back pocket. Then before the elevator door opened one of the phones started vibrating, I pulled mine out of my pocket and it wasn’t mine. I grabbed the other phone and it was his phone. It was somebody calling under the name “Boyfriend,” and a picture of the guy was on the phone. It was Jake. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I got in the elevator in shock and went up to the floor then I got to the floor I wanted to be in and sat on a chair that was in the hallway. I was amazed that I was so stupid, so blindsided,
betrayed and hurt. I had no idea what to do next. I decided to do what my broken heart led me to do.

  I walked up to room number 784 and knocked loudly on the door. Then to my surprise he answered the door and I said. “Honey? What are YOU doing here? This isn’t right is it? Can I talk to your boyfriend?” The guy from the plane walked up to the door and said, “Hey you, thanks for returning my phone. I am surprised you found me. This is Curt, my boyfriend I was telling you about.” I cut him off responding, “Oh, well this is my husband Jake, otherwise known as Curt.” He turned to Jake and saw the look on his face, he was purely shocked. I threw my wedding ring at him and walked away. You could tell he didn’t have much of a reaction. I got the first flight home, packed all my things when I got home, even though it was three in the morning, and took my stuff to my Mom’s and told her everything. Within the first couple months of the divorce, Jake was arrested for Identity Theft, three different degrees. Nothing was ever the same but I eventually got all of my belongings and graduated law school. My life was flipped in a matter of seconds and if I wouldn’t have ever gone to Honduras I would have never known my whole marriage was a lie.

  The Dancing and Singing Chicken

  Hope Dodson

  I don’t know why I remember this but during the hot Buffalo Indiana summer we went on a boat ride and had a fire with our friends Paul and Kim. Buffalo was a small town that I loved. I could ride my bike without being afraid of getting hit by a car, we could walk with our parents or ride our bikes to the ice cream shop that served the best twist (chocolate and vanilla) ice cream out there. There was also a bar that no one that I knew went into down the road called,” Dobson’s,” which I thought was awesome because it was super similar to my last name. I thought they might have just misspelled it being an egocentric little kid. Summer of 2002, our third year of living there, my parents, our neighbors and my sisters and I went out on the neighbor’s boat quite often, it was basically a ritual. My neighbors (Paul and Kim Kleber) had lived next to us since 1999 when my twin and I were born and basically were our grandparents of Buffalo. We often spent time with them since we had no family in Buffalo or even close to it. Kim was my Mom’s best friend she helped constantly with us and was always around when we needed something. I liked growing up with Kim and Paul because they were always like family to us as soon as we moved in during 1999. They were like my 3rd set of grandparents being so close and being a little bit older in age. They are one of the reasons I liked growing up in Buffalo, because we always had a good time and memories to last a lifetime. Kim and Paul were around my parent’s age, or maybe a couple years older. My mom was about 42 or 43 and my Dad was 45.

  As the night started off we had a fire that lasted an hour or two before we went on the boat so we could eat and then have full stomachs to be able to enjoy ourselves on the boat. We had a typical fire, hot dogs and s’mores over the fire. Sometimes my Mom would even make us some pudgy pies which are pie filling of apple or cherry and put in the bread into the fire. We set the container over the fire and you have a nice warm desert. My favorite was the apple pudgy pies with no crust on my bread. We decided after our delicious meal, we would just enjoy a smooth ride over Lake Shaffer. Lake Shaffer was basically in our backyard that we didn’t go on too often. It was pretty neat because we had never lived in an area with a lake in our backyard. The ride was maybe an hour or two. We had our swim suits on to enjoy the water and they took us to the little sand area across from our house to play in the sand with our toys and to enjoy the day. It was maybe 9 or 10 at night in July, the weather was in the 70s to 80s, and July was the hottest time of the year for us. Faith and I were only two years old. Grace was only one so of course we had to bring some toys and little shovels and buckets for the sand.

  Our absolute favorite toy was a stuffed mechanical chicken that musically sang, “I don’t want to be a chicken, and I don’t want to be a duck, so I shake my butt.” It danced and sang to the song, it was most likely our favorite toy because we loved the song and we loved the way the chicken danced. Also little kids generally like the most annoying toy that sings and dances and makes weird noises as it moves and sings that the parents eventually just take the batteries out and say the toy broke. Anyways, the longer the ride got the bumper it got. We ran over more and more rocks as far as we got, considering it was a mucky lake that was coated in rocks, jewelry, clothes, swim goggles, sunglasses, beer bottle, and the more common things you find in the bottom of the lake. Then while Grace was sitting on the edge of the boat holding and playing with our beloved toy, one of the bumps made Grace lose ahold of our toy and the toy fell into the lake, then began the two year old screaming.

  Our neighbor Kim a great friend who would do anything for us girls, the ones she treated as her own children, insisted to jump into the cold summer water to get the stupid chicken that the little children insisted on having. My parents were most likely not thrilled to have the annoying baby toy back that we played nearly 100 times a day, per child. After a cold dip, she climbs back into the boat and she starts doing chest compressions and mouth to beak CPR, on the chicken to make sure the chicken is breathing right for the precious children. The chicken could never sing again, or dance. The memory always lasted forever, considering we got it all on our video camera and we had it in picture form too. We also have the chicken in our house still; I don’t think that we will ever give it away. The night was just an overall blast.

  The memory forever has stayed in my head because it was with the people who I grew up with the most and it was always something that got brought up when we hung out with Paul and Kim in the years later. Paul and Kim still remain in our lives and so does the chicken that’s in a box in the attic. It was a great feeling for my parents that Kim was willing to jump into the cold lake water for her beloved “children” she loved us as her own and it showed she would do anything for us. It’s a family memory too because everybody was basically in spirit and the video showed them what had happened and the pictures were always something funny to look over and see how much fun we had in small town Buffalo Indiana. I had a lot of memories in our Buffalo Log House but that memory of the dancing and singing chicken was probably my favorite, not just because of the CPR but the fact that we can still joke around about it to this day.

  The Mysterious Flight

  Hope Dodson

  One early day in New York City, Lady Gaga was getting her crazy attire packed for her upcoming tour that started that afternoon. She had done this kind of trip a thousand times and knew the routine, get up, eat breakfast, start packing, make sure the alarms on the house still worked right, get into the limo, driven by her chauffeur to the airport to get onto her private jet. She knew that she would miss New York City, but she also needed to make this new album a hit in order to make the top 20 and hopefully make a couple million dollars. She really regretted leaving for so long, an 8 month trip without seeing family friends or anything was kind of challenging. At 9 am, she got a call from her pilot of the private jet saying that he just got a bad case of pneumonia, so he is hospitalized for a couple days and would miss the flight today.

  Lady Gaga replied,” What am I supposed to do then! I have two hours to get on that jet and 5 to be in Germany! You need to have some kind of backup. Is there anyone you can think of?” The pilot said,” Well I know this woman who is pretty good for being a beginner and I talked to her this morning and she would be willing to fly you at least to Germany you can discuss with her about whether or not if you want her to fly you throughout the rest of the tour.”

  The setback was kind of scary considering she had no idea who this new pilot was going to be. She took her chance though, even more terrified because she had no security guards that day. Lady Gaga packed her gun and tazor, because you never know if they will be a crazy obsessed fan. She braced herself. She started to settle into the limo as best as she could without showing any fear. While pulling into the runway for her flight she saw the pilot, pretty young redhea
d with long hair put back into a braid. She was dressed in black dress pants and a blue polo. She however did not speak to Lady Gaga. The pilot escorted her onto the jet and tried her best to make her comfortable.

  About an hour into the ride, Lady Gaga realized how hot it started to become on the inside of the jet. She slowly got out of her seat, went up to the pilot’s area of the plane and knocked on the door and no reply. Then she was knocking on the door saying,” What is going on? Are you trying to kill me? You are going to make me have a heart attack! Is anyone in there?” Then the pilot opened the door saying, “Ma’am this is not my first time flying a plane! Have a seat and calm down!” Lady Gaga, ticked off beyond belief angrily slammed the door and sat down. Confused and scared she took a short nap and never would’ve thought something so dramatic was about to happen.

  The plane was jolting back and forth so much it woke up the celebrity. Then she opens the window and was absolutely terrified. She didn’t see a sky, no ground nothing, pitch black everywhere. She started screaming as if someone could hear her, “HELP THIS LADY IS TRYING TO KILL ME I NEED HELP SOMEBODY!” Then the pilot came out from the front and said,” Ma’am I can explain, this isn’t the first time this has happened,” cutting her off Lady Gaga replied,” Where are we I need out of here now you have to get me out of here. Please land this plane and get me off before I have a panic attack!” Ma’am I cannot do that, my name is Amelia Earhart. I disappeared July 2, 1937. Somehow someway I came back to life last week at the age of 39, how old I was when I disappeared. I need to find my plane. It’s somewhere close to this location.” Lady Gaga then passed out.

  Ten minutes later, Amelia was laying over Lady Gaga with a wet washcloth saying,” Ma’am are you awake?” Lady Gaga started screaming petrified and confused she screamed, “You are not Amelia Earhart she was pronounced dead July 5, 1939 there is no way that you can just come back from the dead. You are crazy. We need to leave this location immediately.” Amelia tried her best to calm her down because she panicked for a good thirty minutes after that, but nothing helped. “Okay I am going to try my best to explain this to you, I disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle when I was 39 and I died within the next couple days, it was crazy hot and I was really dehydrated, I had no water because of my plane crashing which will happen in about 30 to 45 minutes which is why I need you to put this jumpsuit on and get out of the weird meat dress. We will jump but there is no way to know if we will land together unless you want to be strapped together. We need any kind of weapon, food supply, or anything you have. We don’t have much time, so start moving.” Lady Gaga listened for once changed clothes and gathered as much supplies she could find.

  About 32 minutes after, the wing on the plane fell off and Amelia ran out of the bathroom on the plane screaming and jumping up and down like a kid, “Are you ready.” Lady Gaga scared out of her mind held onto Amelia with her huge backpack. The air impact was crazy, with all the gear on it still scared Lady Gaga while Amelia was giggling the whole way down. When they landed on the ground Lady Gaga ran away as fast as she could being afraid that this crazy lady would try to kill her or something that she didn’t even want to imagine. Lady Gaga’s journey by herself was fascinating; with nowhere to go and nothing to do she just walked and jogged. She tried to find a shelter but there was no sight of anything. She ran a couple miles trying to find a sign of humans but it was just like an area with no end, and no humans. About three hours later Amelia found her miles away from where she left her and said, “Hey friend, why’d you run away like that? I was really worried that something might happen to you.” Lady Gaga just shrugged her shoulders and walked a little bit. She noticed a bunch of very strangle looking animals and creatures on her walk farther and farther away from where they landed, that were running, walking, and galloping. One was a monkeys head on a pigs body that was flying, then another one was a penguins waddle on a horses body with an ox’s head. She couldn’t believe the different patterns on animal body parts. This was a new fascinating discovery that she could use to become more famous, she decided to get out a camera and take pictures.

  In Lady Gaga’s mind it was like 14 hours in that weird area, that they think was the, “Bermuda Triangle,” she just kept praying to God that some miracle would happen. Unfortunately, she just thought to herself the whole time she was in the pit of darkness that she would never see light again. Eventually, but not to her knowledge she would see lightness again but not the way she expected it to be. About 5 hours later she starting becoming numb, her face, her toes, her legs, everything went numb. 4 hours went by with numbness and all of a sudden this big spaceship came down from above and took Amelia and Lady Gaga. She was in all shock when she saw the purple headed alien she just slowly got into the ship. No thoughts just peace.

  On the space ship the aliens told them that they were starting a new life, they could not go back to Earth, it was too dangerous for them to go back to Earth. The first alien said, “This is the first time in history we have taken any humans. Don’t worry you will fit right in.” The second alien then began to talk, “We will take good care of you but you may never have a chance to go back to Earth.” Lady Gaga then asked, “Where are you taking us?” The first alien then said, “We live on the planet Jupiter, population of 34,000.” Then their new life on Jupiter began.

  They never had publicity in their new lives. They were pronounced dead within 2 years. No one had any idea where the area was that they went missing at. They just identified Amelia as a suspect, considering her name wasn’t really her name no one knew anything about her coming back. Lady Gaga was a celebrity and they just had no idea what had happened. Lady Gaga was now known for teaching the aliens what music is and how to sing she was an inspirational role model to the younger aliens. Amelia, still pretty crazy learned how to fly the space ships and was a pilot taking aliens all across Mars.

  Moesville and the unfortunate events

  Hope Dodson

  A quiet early Monday morning with the sun rising seeming so peaceful in such a small town named Moesville, but that’s not the whole truth. Moesville had recently had many tragic events happen with the town’s people, they were all a bit strange. Drugs had taken over most of the town. After twenty years of living in Moesville the police realized there was no changing this town. The people didn’t tolerate it and the local people who wanted a change contacted the state and they still had no assistance on what to do. It was just a downward spiral. No one had any control anymore, most police had quit after months of getting nowhere with all the citizens, not much authority. Most kids were in some sort of predicament with their parents, alcohol, or drug use messed up the future generations. Some sane citizens wrote letters to the state complaining about the people but they saw no reason to take over because of things. Most people went into hiding when the state arrived to inspect the town and nothing really happened. The whole town knew how badly it had fallen apart. There was no remorse. Mayor Jackson took a deep breath as he sat down in his car, he knew today was just some of the few adventures days considering it wasn’t even 9:30 am.

  When Jackson arrived to his office, his secretary was standing at the front door, she opened the door and said, “Good morning Mayor. Would you like any coffee?” “Sure Susan, thank you. Is there anyone in my office?” replied Jackson. “Yes, it’s Sheriff Smith. I let him in about 2 or 3 minutes ago.” Susan said. “Sheriff Smith? Not even 9:30 and there is already an issue,” Jackson thought to himself. He walked towards his office walked in and said, “Sheriff.” Shaking his hand. Jackson sat down, and then Smith said, “Sorry to call you in so early, but something strange is going on with the cocaine users. I noticed this morning that most of them are making circles around the town square. It wasn’t even 8 when I noticed it. I got a couple calls about robberies early this morning around 5 am. I didn’t put the two and two together until another officer mentioned them coming around really early. I just need some advice on what to do. They are getting worse.”

&
nbsp; “Well Sheriff, It is always your call, whatever decision you make I will back you up and support you. I suggest you keep a couple extra officers around just in case you get another call. They are just trying to scare people that something might be approaching, please investigate the houses and make sure that there is nothing hidden in the houses, bombs, knifes, guns, etc.” The Sheriff shook his head and took some notes and then nodded his head “thank you” to the Mayor.

  The Mayor Jackson was never blamed for any accusations of not keeping the town calm and at easy. The issue was that the criminals became way to out of hand, the police were all quitting or they just gave up overall. Jackson wanted the town to change desperately but there was no way to do it. The state tried but people made it impossible for questioning when the police were in town, cleaned out the drugs, cleaned houses, made it look like a generally nice town but when the big dogs came there was no proof of destruction.

  The longer the day the more events, crisis, murders, drug deals, fires, political issues, he just had to review those types of things, but they were getting high in numbers. The worry for the town had increased over the past six months with the new residences moving in. The drug increase escalated in the past 18 months, nothing they really could do considering you need someone to call in for an investigation or for anything to really start to take place. At around 3 the day started to come to an end for the Mayor and he got a call from the Sherriff’s Department. “Code 366, extreme animal violence in the town square, suspect is 5’9,male, dark brown hair, blue jeans red tie dye shirt currently tranquilized, started foaming out the mouth eyes are very dilated, seems like cocaine meth mix, not positive on identification, suspect bit dog and the bite made the dogs hair start falling out within 23 minutes. Requesting back up.” The mayor rolled his eyes. He was beyond tired of the weird stuff going on in the town that he once was in love with. Sitting back in his chair he pulled out his resignation.

  At about 4 he went over to the town square, paparazzi flooded the place so badly you couldn’t even see the police. He walked over to Sherriff smith, “So any leads on what’s going on?” “Suspect OD at a quarter till 4. The dog has been treated and is doing okay, this town is nuts I need a vacation.” Stopping what he was saying because he saw the Mayor looking past him. “I am turning in my resignation this afternoon this job isn’t for me anymore; I can’t spend the next year doing this anymore. Thank you for all that you have done for me while I have been the mayor I appreciate your friendship, I just can’t emotionally handle this anymore.”

  A couple weeks after the Mayor quit, they already had a new person in line for the role, and the Federal Government became aware of the events that were taking place in Moesville. Step by step they were getting through it together as a town. Citizens understood why he resigned but at the same time they felt bad since he no longer had a pay check. Moesvillle eventually became a better town for the better. Moesville eventually a couple years later charged a majority of the criminals that were causing issues, and the Mayor became a Mayor of a different town.

  The Sapphire Ring

  By Hope Dodson

  “Was this really happening? I can’t go through with this. This cannot be happening to me. Is this real life?” I thought to myself during the brink of panic. Let me tell you the events that led to that day. One early October morning, Jess my roommate and I were buying antiques for our new 1847 house. I wasn’t into the “old junk,” that people liked to call “antiques,” but with our new home being such an olden layout and Jess begging me for four weeks I decided we could decorate it the way she wanted, unfortunately. I was already in a pretty horrid mood considering it was 40 degrees outside, 9:45 am, and we had already cruised through 4 stores and there was nothing that Jess wanted for the house. I just kept thinking, “Why did she drag me along?” As we were driving towards our next destination Jess could not shut up about all the cool things she could put in the house. “Clocks, tables, dressers, dinner china, lanterns, vases! Think about it Kayla, it will be way better than you think it will be. Everyone will adore it I already know.” I slid down in my seat looking out the window ignoring everything she was saying. Then we turned on Bridle Lane, and I saw an antique shop Jess said, “Yes, this one looks perfect!” As we walked into the store you could just smell all the antiques. It was disgusting. I took a glance, and turned to Jess and said, “I am done let’s go home.” Turning around she grabbed my arm and made the comment, “Not so fast.”

  I rolled my eyes and sat on a chair that looked semi stable. I watched Jess as she looked around amazed at all the antiques. She was looking into a jewelry box and gasped. “Kayla you better come look at this I know how much you love Sapphires.” I walked slowly over to her expecting some ugly ring with some beautiful sapphire in it. Jess was pointing into the box. It was actually a lot prettier than I thought it would be. I looked at the tag and it said, “$12.” I walked over to the cashier and said, “Can you unlock the cabinet so I can try this ring on?” she followed me and handed me the ring. Perfect, it fit so perfect. I turned to the cashier grinned and said, “I’ll take it.” The following week I wore it to all my classes and someone always complemented the ring. I finally decided that I would take it to a jeweler and have it looked at, one little diamond in the design was missing and I figured even with the minor missing pieces the ring would be a good investment.

  The jeweler looked at my ring and his eyes got really big. He looked at me and said, “This is one of a kind, I have never seen anything like it before, I am truly amazed.” I just went along with what he was saying. Then he looked up at me and said, “The little diamonds are real, so would you like it filled in with a fake or real diamond. My estimation for the whole ring is $300,000.” He said it like it was no big deal but my heart instantly dropped. $300,000 this can’t be just an ordinary ring. I looked at the jeweler, he looked experienced, but he had to be lying. No way would I buy a ring that was sold for $12 and its worth would be 300,000. It simply wasn’t possible. I looked at him and chose the right words to say, “Sir, I don’t mean to seem rude, but your judgment has to be wrong. I bought this ring for only $12 at an antique shop, this just isn’t right.” He looked at me with a bit of confusion and held up on finger signally me to wait a second. When he came back from the back room he was holding a paper it read, “100,000 reward for anyone that finds this ring and returns it to this address.” It was my ring. I looked at him and said, “Where did you get this?” He looked down at the paper and said, “A friend of mine who works for people in Manhattan had a client who had that ring stolen from them a couple months ago, I believe it belongs to Jenna Bush Hager. I thought about it not thinking it was possible. He looked at me and put the ring in my hand. “I know this may seem hard to believe but if you would like I could call my friend and see if you can return that ring to her. I nearly fainted.

  I went outside for a moment to call Jess and tell her how my day dramatically changed. I explained to her the opportunity I had been given and what I was going to do next. Jess was amazed I was going to meet the one and only Jenna Bush Hager, President Bush’s daughter. I got off the phone and walked back inside the jeweler was smiling and said, “My friend said he could have you fly out tomorrow morning to Manhattan. You will meet Jenna tomorrow and he will have you home in 3 days.” I shook his hand, grabbed the ring and was on my way. A limo picked me up at 9:30, two hours before my flight. I was surprised that they knew my address the body guard took my bag and said, “You’ve got the ring right?” I nodded and got in the limo. By the time we got to the airport it sunk in that this was real. I got on my own private jet with body guards. The ride wasn’t as long as I expected and when we landed my heart sunk to my stomach when I found out we were already on her property.

  They had their own airport basically outside their house. I walked with the security guards into mansion, gold doors, modern and olden decorations, pictures of the family all around the house. It was truly a house that I would imagine fo
r her. I took a seat at the dining room taking in my surroundings when I heard heels walking across the floor, I watched her walk in I stood up and she shook my hand. She looked at me as she sat down and said, “I heard you found my ring.” I nodded scared to have much of a reaction. I pulled the ring out of my pocket and handed it to her. She looked down and smiled. “Thank you for returning it to where it belongs, it was my mother in laws, and it was a present for me, all the diamonds and the sapphire are real so that’s why it’s very valuable, may I ask if you know who previously took the ring?” I nodded my head no and said, “I am sorry Ma’am, I bought it at an antique store in Virginia. I had no idea it was yours. I just admired its beauty.” She slid an envelope across the table. I assumed it was the money. I was flattered. I couldn’t believe I was holding, one hundred thousand, dollars. It didn’t seem real. I had so many different organizations I could donate to but I couldn’t choose just one, I had a game plan in my head. I smiled and started to tear up and she grabbed my hand and said, “Use it wisely. I admire you for doing the right thing and returning it. I just wanted to simply say thanks to the person who returned the ring. Thank you. I will show you the guest house where you will be staying.” At that moment I knew my life had changed forever.

  The Queen’s Side of the Story

  By Hope Dodson

  Snow White was always a common story that was all about how Snow White was the fairest of them all. They also talk about how Snow White was such a good pretty young lady and the Evil Queen almost took her life. It’s not as simple as it seems, she isn’t the Princess everyone thinks she is. I’ll tell you the true side of the story and skip through all the lies, since I’m the “Evil” Queen. It all started when I grew up. I had so many guys that had become interested in me but being a servant my parents chose who I would marry. I always had a dream of being the Queen of my village, but the prince was already destined to marry another Princess; he chose her. They ended up getting married and I stayed single for a couple of years just staying dedicated to my craftsmanship. I was good at art, I knew how to make things to make people become more presentable, and I was good at making clothing items.

  When I turned 30 I gave up all hope of having a family, kids, everything. I simply didn’t want to at that age, I was turning too old. By the time I was 31 I had different people from different villages approaching me with issues with their clothes that they needed me to fix. I felt pretty comfortable helping people in that sense because I got paid. Like I said, I was over the fairy tale ending until one day I was approached by Mr. Right himself. The King came to my front doorstep. Yes, my front doorstep. He asked for my hand in marriage. He hardly knew me, but I said yes, it was always my dream. His wife the Queen died when Snow White, the King’s daughter, was born. The King and I had a great relationship. In the start of our marriage everything turned on the upside for me. He was happy and so was I. He got me a magic mirror telling me who am the fairest of them all, and of course I was always the answer. He spoiled me with everything I ever dreamed of. Then he became ill, it wasn’t long into our marriage that he passed, Snow wasn’t that old either. I gained guardianship of Snow and I was to raise her.

  I raised Snow White giving her the essentials she needed to survive while she did the things I needed her to do for. The things she needed to get in order to do the choirs of the house. I showed her what it was like for me to grow up. As Snow White grew older she became strange. Caring for outdoors animals and trying to make it seem like she wanted to be their mother. She sang to the animals, nourished them, and talked to them. One morning I caught her with one of them at the dinner table and another time at a family gathering with her father’s side of the family. She was spending more time with the animals then her chores. I was the best mother she could’ve ever gotten. The mirror always told me what I needed to know about her work and the slacking off and what she was doing in the time she wasn’t doing her chores. The towns people agreed with me with how I handled what was going on, since most of them lived the same way. When Snow White became old enough she became a little less handy. She slacked off on cleaning the castle like she was to do, she lacked sewing her own clothes she wore the same dress about every three days she would switch. One early morning I woke up with a horrid dream, the mirror told me I was not the fairest of them all. I didn’t understand, I got up out of bed to test it and it said that “Snow White is the fairest of them all.” My heart sunk to my stomach. How could she possibly be the fairest of them all? She never took care of herself, wearing raggedy clothes, unless I made her take showers or wear nice clothes. To me she was ugly, but maybe people saw her as beautiful or kind? Who would think she was more kind then myself! I wasn’t jealous of her like other people began to think, I was just mad that her somewhat, “beauty” was outnumbering mine. Snow had what was coming to her due to the fact that she knew how much it meant to me that I was the fairest of them all. I was always the fairest and she knew I would do anything to keep it that way. She basically put herself in trouble. She just had some sort of evil plot to make my title diminish slowly and fade into her because she knew how much it would make me resent her.

  I sent henchmen to go and kill of Snow and to make it look like an accident, take her deep into the forest. He was very hesitant but followed my instructions. When he came back with a heart, I thought the work is done, when I asked the mirror to show me Snow White I got an unexpected surprise. She was living and sleeping on some little beds. Dwarfs I thought to myself. I knew exactly where to find her. I realized I just needed to get the dirty work out of my way with no in between people. I ran down to the potion chamber and gave myself a couple potions that made my appearance change so she wouldn’t recognize me and went her way. I finally found where I thought she was located knocked on the window offering her the apple but the stupid animals felt as if I was threatening her so Snow invited me into the house away from them not knowing what was going on. She gave me a glass of water and then I persuaded her to eat the apple. Finally, she was into a sleeping death. The apple put her into a coma that would only be revived by loves first kiss, the others thought she was dead. The plan was indeed for her to be buried so there was no waking up for Snow.

  Eventually I guess that a prince that Snow White met revived her. Unfortunately my plan didn’t appear as it was supposed to be. I am not as evil as everyone makes me out to be. Snow had it coming for her, people agreed with me, it was the right thing to do. I used my power the way I am supposed to. My side of the story is the truth.

  Ms. Alabaster

  Emma Samuels

  When the old crow died at the age of 92, the town went on like it would any other day. Mrs. Williams still baked her homemade rhubarb pies, Olivia Brannagan still sold flowers to the townsfolk, asters and bachelor’s buttons and little forget-me-nots. Old Man Robinson continued yelling at the children noisily playing kick the can in the street. It was as if no one noticed that Ms. Florence Ruth Alabaster was dead. Either that, or they noticed and didn’t care.

  When I was younger, 6 years old, I moved to Moesville with my mom and my little brother, Andrew. Andy was 3. We played outside on the summer days so hot that the heat created ripples in the asphalt. Our favorite playthings were the hose, Andy’s red Radio Flyer wagon, and my baseball set. One day, I swung the bat and hit the ball with all of my 6-year-old might, and it smashed through Ms. Alabaster’s window with a deafening smash. I paled and began to tear up. The little girl down the street had told me how mean she was, that she was a witch and would turn me into a toad with lumpy warts and webbed feet. But I wanted my ball back, so I went next door to her house.

  I knocked on the door, nervously. A dog’s shrill bark made me jump.

  “Pierce, sweetie, stop your barking!” a woman’s voice came from inside the house. When she opened the door, I backed up a little bit and fixed my hat.

  “Hello?” She opened the door. She was a thin woman with pursed lips and too much neck. She held a small dog, a Yorkie, in her fr
ail arms. Her eyebrows knit in a scowl and though she was fairly short, she loomed over my small frame. Her skin and hair were as pale as her name suggested.

  “I-I was playing baseball and I broke your window.” I teared up, scared out of my wits. The corner of her lips curled up, but I couldn’t tell if it was with acceptance and sympathy or with malice. She invited me into the house to find the ball. Pictures lined the halls, pictures of a little boy, about my age, with bright eyes and a wide smile. Her son, I assumed.

  “He died when he was 9.” She spoke. I didn’t realize that she was behind me, and I jumped out of my skin.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.” I continued looking for the ball. I came across a room with glass shards everywhere and sunlight streaming through a shattered window. The ball lay in the middle of the room, under a table. Her dog, the Yorkie named Pierce, took the ball and ran around me, settling down to give me the ball. I found Ms. Alabaster in the den.

  “Ma’am, is there any way I can repay you? I don’t have any money.” She turned to face me and smiled, a real smile.

  “Come visit me every day. I need someone to talk to.”

  I did exactly that. Every day until I turned 30, I visited Ms. Alabaster and Pierce. Yes, even Pierce. Even though 24 years had gone by, Pierce was still alive, and hadn’t aged a day. The same could not be said for Ms. Alabaster. She made fresh macadamia nut cookies weekly, but her chronic pneumonia had made it harder for her to move around the home.

  On June 2, I entered her home, with a rhubarb pie in one hand, and flowers in the other. She was sleeping in her bed. I made her some coffee and walked Pierce, and when I came back in, she was still asleep, lukewarm coffee on the bed stand beside her.

  “Ms. Alabaster, it’s noon.” I gently shook her shoulder. She did not rouse. I shook her a little more vigorously, to no avail. I teared up, just as I had the day I first met her, but for the exact opposite reason. I realized that she wasn’t an old crow. She was a lonely old woman with only her dog for company. Perhaps it was fate that I broke her window that day. A note was on the bed stand next to the coffee.

  “I, Florence Ruth Alabaster, leave my entire estate to Pierce, my dog. The estate totals over $100,000,000. I leave the dog, and the book in my top left desk drawer to Alex, my best friend.” Her elegant signature was underneath. I found the book and took the will to the courthouse, crying softly.

  When I went home that night, I read the cover of the book. There was a note.

  “Alex, this was a test of your patience and caring. Every day, you would come to my home to keep me company. You never once raised your voice to me, and you always made sure to come, even when it was inconvenient.

  I leave this book to you. You are the only one who is to know this. I was trained as a witch by my mother, who was trained by her mother before her. Pierce was the only person who I had ever taken care of, and you were the only one that had ever taken care of me. Pierce is my adopted son, the one who I told you died when he was nine. He didn’t die, but he was too weak to live for much longer. I turned him into a dog to keep him alive until I could get him back to health. When the time came, I couldn’t turn him back. I just didn’t have the patience. I hoped that you could, so I’m giving you my book of spells. Read the one on page 394 every night to him. I want you to take care of him, like you did for me.”

  And I did. Every night, for 39 days, I read the spell to the dog, and on the 40th day, it happened. A healthy nine-year-old boy woke up on the couch in the pajamas that he was wearing when he first changed and looked at his hands in disbelief. He jumped up and hugged me tightly. That day, I learned that nothing is what it seems to be. Angels

  Emma Samuels

  Always watching, hanging

  Between the clouds and the Earth

  Carefully planning their

  Descent upon our realm.

  Every night they

  Fly above us

  Grasping for some understanding of the human ways of life

  I lay awake

  Just

  Knowing,

  Listening to the sounds of these shapeless

  Masses of eyes and wings

  Never fading,

  Omniscient and always

  Present in my mind, telling me to

  Really sleep.

  Sleep so that my

  Troubles will fade and my

  Unrest will calm, and the

  Vicious cycle of life that

  Wreaks havoc under the

  Xanthic

  Yellow stars will become more

  Zenic.

  Child of Light

  By: Emma Samuels

  Based on True Events

  A young man walks through a park in Budapest, Hungary on his way home. Suddenly, he experiences a tremendous flash of light, brighter than anything he had ever seen. In his mind, he sees a perfect blueprint of an engine, one that would revolutionize power as we know it. In that moment, he knows exactly what he needs to do.

  The crowd bustled around him as he stepped off the steamboat. Mothers and fathers hurried their children and young couples with stars in their eyes disembarked from the ship and onto the land where they would get the chance to start their new lives. The air was thick with the summer heat and the anxiety of being in a strange country. It seemed like every family spoke a different language, a few of which he understood. The young man felt that he stood out—being more than six feet tall and thin like a bean pole, not to mention impeccably dressed—though no one seemed to really notice him. He was just another face in the crowd. But it wouldn’t be that way forever. He was sure of that.

  He graduated from high school in three years, could do integral calculus in his head, and was fluent in eight languages, but this 28-year-old, dark haired man arrived in the United States with only four cents in his pocket, some mathematical computations, some drawings of an idea of a flying machine he had in a dream, and a letter of introduction from Charles Batchelor, introducing him to Thomas Edison, a business associate of his. THE Thomas Edison. He had been working for the Continental Edison Company in France since 1882, two years ago. Not only was Thomas Edison known as the greatest engineer in the world, he was this young man’s hero. He had come to the United States from Serbia hoping to gain a position under Edison and learn what really made him the Wizard of Menlo Park.

  He walked into the city, nearly bursting with excitement, but when he saw the rough buildings and dirty streets, he stopped. He had worked in Paris and Strasbourg, improving the generators that powered these cities, and had come here to realize his dreams, but how was this a place to realize anything? Everything he had left behind in Europe was beautiful, fantastic, and fascinating in every way! But New York was rough, mechanized, and unappealing. He looked up at the street lamps, which consisted of single poles with dozens of crossbeams trying to support drooping, loose wires. Not only was it ugly, it was dangerous! He had heard that the citizens of Brooklyn had become so used to avoiding death by electricity on the railways that they had named their baseball team the Brooklyn Dodgers!

  Something needed to be done about this. Wealthy people were rushing to have this kind of careless, hazardous wiring put in their homes, with their children! Even J.P. Morgan, banker extraordinaire, was one of these electrified consumers.

  He walked around the city, coming across a vast, square building with a sign that sprawled across the front with the words EDISON MACHINE WORKS emblazoned in large, black letters. This was it! This building was the key to his success! He hesitated, then walked past the building. He walked completely around the block. He walked around the block three whole times, finally coming to a stop in front of the edifice, both thrilled and terrified to meet his idol. The receptionist smiled at him. She wore her hair in a tight bun on top of her head, and a necklace made of…pearls? Were those pearls? Goodness, did he hate pearls. He smiled back at her, though he was afraid that it looked more like a grimace.

  “Why, hello, sir! Do you have an appointment
to see Mister Edison?”

  “Yes, I do, but I think I’m a little early.” He stumbled over his words a little bit, checking his watch. He was, in fact, 6 minutes early.

  “Don’t worry yourself, dear. Worst case scenario you’ll have to wait a little bit. I’ll go get him. Have a seat, Mister…”

  “Tesla. Nikola Tesla.”

  Tesla remained seated, waiting on the receptionist. Five minutes later, she returned.

  “You’re in luck! He’s free right now. I’ll take you to him.” Nikola stood up quickly. The receptionist, Marcia, smiled at him again as they walked. “So, Mr. Tesla, where are you from?”

  “Serbia, originally, but I lived in France and Germany for a while.”

  “Wonderful! I’ve always wanted to go there. What’s it like in Europe?”

  “Absolutely beautiful.” He followed up three flights of stairs, with fifteen stairs per flight (he counted them) then to a grandiose laboratory with dozens of bookshelves, and scientific equipment everywhere! Edison sat at a desk, furiously writing something in a journal.

  “Done!” He smiled. “I’ve been trying that experiment for months! Well, I’ve been writing it down, but…” He was a middle aged man with dark brown hair and kind eyes. “Who’s this?” He stood up to look the young man in the eye. Nikola was surprised that Mr. Edison was at least four inches shorter than he was. Mr. Edison grinned and reached out his hand. Nikola slid the letter into Edison’s outstretched hand, making Edison’s smile falter for a mere second, as if put off that this young man wouldn’t shake his hand. He cleared his throat and opened the letter. He glanced up at Tesla, and began to read:

  “My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!” Edison folded the letter neatly and put it back in the envelope. “Great! Tell me a little about yourself.”

  “I was born and raised in Serbia, I went to an esteemed technical school—“

  “You know, that’s great and all, but what have you done?” Nikola was a bit taken aback at the sudden interjection.

  “I-I went to school in Austria, where I studied mechanical and electrical engineering, and when I graduated, I moved to Budapest and started working for the telephone company, where I came up with the idea of a motor that uses alternating electrical current to power homes and businesses. There I invented the induction motor. Then I moved to France and Germany to spread the idea of AC power and make their electric lines more efficient.”

  “I don’t really know what alternating current is, and honestly, it just sounds like competition to my direct current, so I really don’t care to know, but you know what? There’s something different about you. I think that you will be a great asset to my company. How’s about you start tomorrow? You can start by fixing up those generators. There’s $50,000 in it for you, if you can!”

  “Wonderful! Thank you so much, Mr. Edison!” This time when Edison reached his hand to Tesla, he took it with a smile.

  “You can call me Thomas.”

  When he got to the hotel in which Mr. Edison had rented a room for him that night, he didn’t eat. He also only slept for three hours, but that’s just how his brain ran. He spent the rest of the time until work the next day mentally fixing up those behemoth generators.

  Nikola Tesla worked day and night, every day, sleeping (if at all) for no more than three hours per night. Those generators were super noisy, inefficient, and not to mention eyesores. He worked in his office from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. the next day, making sure each piece of his ideas was absolutely flawless before even considering moving to the construction stage. He had been working for roughly eight months, when finally, the pieces came together. With no diagrams, no drawings, without even writing one note to himself, he had done it. He had created and built the perfect DC generators.

  He returned to work, absolutely ecstatic. All he had to do was find Edison, show him these generators, and he would have $50,000 to start his own lab!

  “Thomas! I have done it!” He said, gleefully.

  “Done what?” Edison mumbled, writing the data from his most recent experiments down.

  “I fixed your generators! Take a look!”

  “Oh, brilliant.” Edison mumbled again, clearly uninterested.

  “But, Mr. Edison, I’m sorry to ask, but I could really use the money.” Tesla stopped smiling. Edison looked up, mouth slightly open, and took off his reading glasses.

  “Niko, my boy!” He said, surprised, then the corners of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. He chuckled lightly. “I was joking! Did you think I was really going to pay you $50,000 to fix my generators? I could have done that myself!”

  “B-but I worked so hard, for so many months!” Nikola said. He felt his heart drop into his stomach.

  “Tesla, once you become a full-fledged American, you will understand our jokes.” Edison smiled, almost pityingly. “But you know what I will do? How about I give you a raise? Your salary is 18 dollars a week, so I will raise it to 28 dollars. How does that sound?” He raised an eyebrow. Tesla looked at him, a fire building in his chest. He was shocked! He had worked so hard on these infernal machines!

  “Do you really want to know what I think about that, Thomas?” Tesla’s light grey eyes narrowed. He began to fumble with the buttons on his lab coat. He removed his coat and threw it on the ground in front of Edison’s desk. “I resign!” He shouted, shaking with disgust.

  “Suit yourself, Tesla. You’re not going to do any better than this with that alternating current. It’s too dangerous. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it.” Tesla held his tongue, turning on his heel and storming out of the office. He was now determined to prove him wrong.

  Tesla spent many sleepless nights alone in his room, staring at that little light bulb above him, just thinking, perfecting ways to spread his ideas throughout the world. He started working again, spending his nights digging holes along New York City’s streets to lay Edison’s wires for $2 a day, trying to make ends meet until he could find some sponsors for his own research lab. He lived in a hotel until word spread that a foreign man with enormous talent was digging ditches to stay alive. Eventually, investors came to him, asking him to improve a method of arc lighting. One of these men was George Westinghouse, owner of the Westinghouse Company. He met Tesla one day on his way to work.

  “Excuse me, aren’t you Mr. Tesla?” The mustachioed man asked.

  “Yes, yes I am.” He nodded. Westinghouse let out a hearty laugh, and then took Tesla’s hand in a firm handshake.

  “Of course! George Westinghouse. Good to meet you, son! Many people talk about you, you know, and they say such good things about you! They say you have so much talent!”

  “Well, I guess you could say that.” Nikola smiled.

  “It’s such a shame that you’re out here doing manual labor while you could be improving the world! I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Come with me.”

  “But I’ll miss work! I won’t be able to eat tonight.”

  “Bah! I’ll take care of them.” Westinghouse clapped Tesla on the shoulder. “This is no job for you, anyway.”

  Westinghouse took Tesla to his office and sat him down. He proposed the idea of starting his own company. They made a partnership, and soon enough, the Tesla Electric Light Company was born! Through Westinghouse’s help, and the help of a few other investors, Tesla could finally afford his own workspace.

  Tesla, the proud owner of his very own laboratory, got to work on a beautifully designed arc light. Unfortunately, all of the profit went to the investors. It all worked out, because a Mr. A.K. Brown asked to invest in an AC motor. Finally! He could produce his motor. But how was he going to sell it?

  He filed for seven patents on his alternating current. He had made a line of generators, transformers, motors, and lighting. They were accepted without a challenge! George Westinghouse bought his patents for $60,000. He spent half of this newfound wealth on a new laboratory. So many things were going great for Nikol
a Tesla. He thought back to one of the stories his mother, Djuka, had told him. He could remember her voice, clear as day:

  “Niko, the day you were born, a fierce thunderstorm shook our house. I remember the midwife wringing her hands and crying, saying that the storm was a bad omen, that you would become a child of darkness. But you know what I said? I said “No. He will be a child of light.” And that you are. I can tell, from your bright mind, there is so much light in you.”

  The world was electrified by alternating current! It was becoming more and more common. Meanwhile, Edison caught wind of what was happening, and he was shocked. He came up with his own campaign to turn the world back to his direct current. He built a stage outside his lab, and on this stage he set up some of Tesla’s motors and wiring. He started paying neighborhood children 25 cents a head for live cats, dogs, and sheep, and old horses. He was talking to audiences about the dangers of alternating current. Tesla attended this event, listening as Edison besmirched his work!

  “My direct current is like a river flowing peacefully to the sea. This alternating current, this dangerous, unpredictable creation, is like a torrent rushing violently over a precipice. It’s just too hazardous to have in homes! I have Professor Harold Brown here to demonstrate these hazards. Professor Brown?”

  At this moment, a man with thinning brown hair and a thick mustache stepped over to a platform. In one hand, he carried a cat. In the other, two clamps connected to the motor. Tesla knew what was coming. He, like most of the audience, averted his eyes and cringed as the cat’s screech echoed through the air. After the deed was done, children cried and women fainted, but Tesla just looked Edison straight in the eye. Edison acknowledged his presence with a slight smile and a head nod. This was sabotage!

  It only got worse from there. Just a few weeks later on August 10, 1890, a convicted ax-murderer named William Kemmler was sentenced to death. The means? Electrocution using Tesla’s alternating current and Westinghouse’s AC motor. Edison referred to this as his “ultimate demonstration” of how hazardous the alternating current is. People called it “an awful spectacle, far worse than hanging.”

  Soon after what was the first execution in an electric chair, Westinghouse came to Tesla with some excellent news; a beam of hope in this dark time. His corporation had won the bid to supply all the electricity at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893!

  May 1, 1893, the time had come. The now 37-year-old Tesla and his assistants worked day and night to build up their light display, tension and excitement building in their chests. This display would be the way Nikola Tesla would show the world what he could do. He strung lights on the buildings, the trees, columns, statues, and he was even going to introduce his newest invention: neon lighting. The neon display was a maze of diamonds, squares, and a big blue sun with the word ‘Light’ in yellow in the center. Not only was it absolutely gorgeous, it was all powered using AC. It had to be! There were just too many lights to power them all with DC. He would let people know that alternating current wasn’t really dangerous, after all.

  He waited a while for night to fall, then went to take his place to give a speech. A familiar face showed up in the crowd. It was a man with dark brown hair, though a little grayed now, and kind eyes. Edison. Simultaneously the last person and the only person he wanted to see. Upon seeing Tesla, he approached him. Oh, how the tables had turned.

  “Niko, my boy! It's so nice to see you. Lucky your friend Westinghouse outbid me. I know you couldn’t afford it, and…” Edison laughed.

  “Right. I’m sorry, but I have a speech to give.” Tesla replied.

  Tesla gave his speech, and it was wonderful. He spoke eloquently and fluently, with only a little bit of anxiety about being in front of the world. Okay, maybe it was a little more than a little bit. He was petrified. But he didn’t let it show. He switched on the lights.

  The lights gleamed as brightly as the sun. It was absolutely astonishing. Their radiant beauty lit the streets of Chicago. The people clapped and cheered, the city sparkled, and Tesla had never been prouder. He shone almost as brilliantly as his beautiful display. His mother was right. He really was a child of light.

  His fame soared after that. He became an international figure, a household name. He created a high-frequency device known today as the Tesla coil. It created sparks that could be transferred to a receiver. The higher frequency made lamps glow brighter and was generally more efficient. He showed them how it was less dangerous by letting it pass through his body without incident. Famous people from all around the world would come and watch him do experiments with the electricity. He proposed to his investors the idea to build a few of these towers, giant ones, across the world, and spread free electricity through the air!

  None of his backers liked the idea. They thought the idea was preposterous! Spreading power through the air? For free? No way! So Tesla kept the coil in his lab. He tried to develop it for other purposes, like transmitting signals across distances like today’s radios do, but people viewed him as a “mad scientist”, an “eccentric”, “crazy”, an “outcast”. His fame started to decline.

  Two years after the World’s Fair, on March 13, 1895, Tesla stood in front of a smoldering pile of rubble. A large crowd gathered around him as he looked at the scene. Their sympathetic coos rose around him. The charred debris and glowing embers that lay before him were once the laboratory he called home. The lab that he stored his radio-wave research in was reduced to ash. He stepped cautiously through the remains, scanning them for some sign of hope. One lonely thing stood in the middle. The high-power oscillator, the rumored “earthquake machine” that he kept on the fourth floor, had fallen to the ground. He placed his hand on top of what was left of the oscillator and sighed deeply.

  He made his way to the hotel room where he had been living, immediately concocting new plans, plans that he could try to sell to businessmen and potential investors. He walked to the park and tried to find people that would be interested. He grew tired. He was tired of a lot of things: The strange looks he received when working in public, the lonely, sleepless nights, the scoffs he would get when proposing an idea, but most of all, he was tired of Edison. Why did Edison have such resentment towards him? Why did he spend more time sabotaging Tesla than actually working? That same year, a young Italian man named Guglielmo Marconi took out two patents on the radio. The same radio that Tesla had been working on before his lab burned down.

  He found a park bench and sat down, resting his tired legs. Pigeons gathered around him. Some people say that if pigeons appear to you, something is wrong with how you are living.

  Tesla decided to pick up and move.

  In 1899 he moved to Colorado Springs. There was more room for his high-frequency experiments there. His associates were willing to help him, no charge. He thrived, transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris, studying lightning, studying the Earth itself, even creating artificial lightning that could be heard 15 miles away! But eventually, he moved back to New York, where he built a laboratory called Wardenclyffe. Construction took many years, and he faced foreclosure before it was done! During that time Marconi had sent a message—a single letter “s”—from England to Newfoundland.

  “Looks as if Marconi got the jump on you.” Otis Pond, an engineer working for Tesla, said.

  “Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents.” Tesla replied.

  “You know that Edison bought his stocks, yes?” Otis questioned.

  “W-what? But he knows I’ve been working on this radio!”

  “Do you think he cares? The more famous Marconi gets, the richer Edison gets.” Otis raised an eyebrow.

  “Never mind that, I have the American patents.”

  But no patent is safe. In 1904, the Patent Office gave them to Marconi. In 1911, Marconi received the Nobel Prize. Tesla was furious. He tried filing a lawsuit, to no avail. He was in no condition to sue a major corporation! Marconi was now a wealthy man, and
Tesla was penniless.

  He began visiting the parks more often. He rescued pigeons, taking them back to his hotel room to heal. He asked the hotel chef to make a special kind of bird seed. The aversion to germs that he developed as a teenager became worse. He started to wash his hands even more often and only ate boiled food.

  He still had wonderful thoughts and ideas; in 1914, he described a way to detect ships. High-frequency radio waves would bounce off the side of ships, and return, like a bat hunting its prey. Edison, in turn, told Navy officials they would have no use for it, and the idea was cast off. In 1928 , at 72 years old, he took out his last patent, the “Apparatus for Aerial Transportation”, the flying machine he depicted in the drawings he brought with him from Europe, but he didn’t have the means to create it.

  His body may have been growing old, but his mind was still full of light.

  An old man, 86 years old, broke and alone in the NYC hotel room that he had been living in for the last decade, living off of milk and Nabisco crackers, lays on his deathbed. He looks out the window into the city. On the windowsill sits a pigeon. A pure white pigeon with light grey tipped wings—his pigeon—the one that he built equipment with the last of his money to nurse back to health. Lord, did he love that pigeon. Suddenly, a tremendous burst of light comes from the pigeon’s eyes. As he looks into the light, Tesla thinks to himself that he will never invent anything worthy of a pigeon. He never knew just how wrong he was.

  Just a Little Stuck

  Emma Samuels

  When I was younger, probably eight or nine I’d say, my niece and nephew would come over for periods of time while their mom was doing something, and hang out with my brother and I. My niece, Mahala was just a baby, and my nephew, Jeryn was about six, so he, my step-brother and I would play outside while my mom watched Mahala. We lived out in the country with a huge yard and a woods out in the back. (We weren’t allowed to go past our fire pit, because that’s where our land ended, but we did anyway.) We had a small pool, and an old red barn that the door was broken on one side, and a little pond that we would catch tadpoles in.

  We would run around and climb trees, pretend we were pirates and superheroes and all the things little kids do outside, and we had a whole lot of fun. Once, in the summer, we were playing outside and Jeryn, Vinny and I were playing with this thick, yellow rope that my grandpa tied to a tree on the far left of our yard, and we would climb the tree, grab the rope and Tarzan swing down to the ground.

  “My turn!” Jeryn called and ran to the tree after Vinny landed on the ground.

  “Do you need help getting up there?” I asked him as he put one foot in the tree.

  “Nah, I got it.” But he stopped.

  “You okay?” I laughed.

  “Yeah, I’m just a little stuck. I can get it.”

  Ten minutes later, He was still ‘just a little stuck’. He grew more panicked as time crawled on. Eventually, after 45 minutes in this stupid tree, he was crying, and we were trying to help, then Vinny, who seemed to be the sane one of the three of us, realized that there was no way that two children under the age of ten were going to be able to liberate this panicked child, and decided to go inside and seek adult intervention. He got my mom, who tried to free him, to no avail. She went back inside to get my step-dad, who also failed to get him out of his woody prison, so they finally went back into the house. By this time, more than an hour had elapsed.

  My mother decided to call my grandpa. Now, my mom is by no means weak, my step-dad was just full of stories about how he used to ‘flip cars’ and ‘carry whole vehicles over his head’, (riiiiiiighht…) And my grandpa used to be in the Navy, so all three of these adults should have been able to get a 6 year old boy’s foot out of a small tree. It took about fifteen more minutes for my grandpa to get to our house, and by that time, poor Jeryn had spent an hour and a half with one foot about 12 inches off the ground. I guess his foot was just small enough to get it wedged perfectly.

  At this point, my brother and I went off to continue our game without him like the heartless creatures we were, but I mean, come on! It took two whole hours to free this boy. We were losing valuable daylight. It was probably about four o’clock, and there were plenty of other trees that didn’t contain a six-year-old boy.

  Looking back on it, It was probably one of the funniest things that happened in my childhood. It’s definitely one that will stick with me for a long time. It’s already stuck around for seven years!

  To be honest, I don’t think that Jeryn was allowed to climb trees until he was eight. Milk Girl

  Emma Samuels

  As the bell rang for lunch I hung back through the stampede of wildebeest-like students rushing to be first in line. I waited for my friend Audrey to gather her things so we could head to the cafeteria. When we got there we were laughing about some joke she told, and Audrey pulled out her phone to check her hair.

  “Aw, man. I’ve got this big honkin’ glob of mascara on my cheek, and you didn’t tell me?” She laughed. I let out this primal sounding guffaw, like some sort of animal in distress. It was embarrassing and caused a few people to turn around in shock. She looked at me as if I had three heads. “What was that?”

  “Who uses the word ‘honking’ like that?” I couldn’t stop laughing. She led me forward. When I calmed down enough to open my eyes, I noticed this boy staring at me. He looked scared, then smiled really big. He was pretty cute. He had messy brown hair, green eyes and a wide smile. He shook his head and walked farther into the lunch line.

  As we got our lunch and sat down at the table the same one we sit at every day, we kept using ‘honkin’’ in different ways and laughing like maniacs. I opened my milk and raised it to my lips to take a drink. Then it happened.

  “Tara! Listen to my Hulk Hogan voice!” In that moment, the worst impression of Hulk Hogan I’ve ever heard emerged from Audrey’s lips. I felt it in my bones and I knew what was happening, but I couldn’t stop it.

  A laugh built in my chest, and forced its way up into my throat. Milk shot from my nose like a geyser. It was absolutely disgusting, yet so hilarious. I was covered in milk and tears from laughing so hard. I gasped like a free diver surfacing. It was an awful sound. I looked up, already mortified, and saw him there. Those green eyes were filled with something like fear. Maybe worry, but probably fear. His mouth formed a perfect ‘D’ shape, but the corners twitched like he was forcing back a smile. I stared him straight in the eye. My heart skipped like, 5 beats. I thought, no, hoped, I would die right there. I hoped the world would open its magmatic maw and pull me into the depths of its molten core. He put his lunch down at the table and started my way. I averted my eyes and waited for the inevitable laughter. Is there a word stronger than mortified? Super-mortified? Über-mortified? No matter, that’s what I felt.

  But no, The boy took me by the arm and escorted me out of the cafeteria, still stifling a snicker, but with good intent. He spoke.

  “C’mon, Milk Girl, let’s get you cleaned up.”

  We walked into the hallway and he led me to the corner near the water fountains. He walked away to get paper towels, leaving me alone and embarrassed. When he came back, he handed me the paper towels and his hoodie.

  “You can wear this if you don’t want to wear those wet clothes. Sorry about the size. You’re awful tiny. I’m Theo.”

  “Thanks, Theo. I’m Tara.” I took the hoodie and the towels and went to get cleaned up. I changed into the pull over hoodie that was at least two sizes two big—a plain grey hoodie with a tall green symbol. I figured it was a band or something.

  “What’s this?” I pointed at the symbol.

  “Oh, it’s from a webcomic I’m reading. It means life. Sorry, that’s really dorky.”

  “Well, I guess if you call me ‘Milk Girl’, I’ll call you ‘Nerd Boy’.” I smiled.

  “Well, Milk Girl, do you want to go get coffee sometime?”

  “Sure, Nerd Boy. Thanks for the hoodie.” I waved at him and wa
lked back into the cafeteria.

  That day, I learned two great lessons. One, any time you laugh so hard that milk sprays out your nose will be the exact moment a cute member of the opposite sex will walk by and see it. Two, sometimes that cute member of the opposite sex is just as dorky as you are.

  Auntie Ursula

  Emma Samuels

  What’s the problem? She had something that I wanted, and she was willing to give it to me for something that she wanted. Fair trade, right? I don’t see the big deal here. She was an angsty, hormonal teenage mermaid who was “in love” with the first human she’d ever seen, and I wanted to help her see the truth. I guess I just got a little carried away. I mean, she is my niece, after all. I care about her and I want her to be safe. I wanted to be Auntie Ursula, a confidant, someone she could talk to, but my ‘tough love’ attitude got the better of me. Let me tell you how it really went down.

  Ariel came to me, upset, and asked me to trade her fins for legs so she can go woo this guy. I think she said his name was Eric? ANYWAY, she comes to me and says:

  “Ursula, I need legs.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Whale, there’s this guy, Eric…” At this point, I tuned out. Oh boy. I’ve heard this one a million times. I didn’t need to hear the rest. Under normal circumstances, I would have just said ‘whatever’ and given her legs, but this was different. Ariel was family, and I wanted her to learn a lesson from being on land. So, I did it a little different.

  “I’ll give you legs for three days. After that, if he’s not totally in love with you, you’ll turn back into a mermaid and live here, with me.” (I didn’t mean with me with me, but that’s what they thought I meant.) “Oh, and you need to trade me your voice.” That part was for two reasons: One, I know how human males are. They don’t even need to hear your voice. In fact, a good portion of the population doesn’t care. Two, Ariel has the most beautiful voice of any mermaid I know, and (yeah, it’s a little shellfish) I wanted to use it for three days.

  To be honest, I kinda did it for the halibut.

  Now, my pets, Flotsam and Jetsam, have minds and ambitions of their own. It was their choice to break the kiss. When they came back to tell me what they had done, I was angry at them, not Ariel. But, I did realize that there was a lesson to be learned here. If this Eric is so easily dissuaded, he won’t be there for Ariel forever. I decided to convey that the way I knew how. I became Vanessa. I used her voice to let her know that he was in love with her voice, not her. He was in love with the idea, not her. I guess I took it a little too far, and we ended up almost married.

  After Ariel realized that Vanessa was me, she got her voice back. I figured my lesson had gone through when she became a mermaid again, but I had forgotten that I had only given her three days. After a little scuffle with her father, he returned her human form; the one he wouldn’t let her have in the first place.

  She ended up killing me (After all I’ve done for her!), and marrying that Eric anyway. Oh, well. At least she’s happy.

  Between Two Minds

  Berenice Orozco

  “I told you I knew the way,” Anne Frank squealed out.

  “That’s the same thing you said last time, this is the same spot we have been passing all day. Don’t you recognize the path?! Even our footprints have left marks on the path.” exclaimed Edgar.

  Edgar Allan Poe and Anne Frank had had the misfortune of getting lost together after a meeting they had attended at Lexington for poetry. They were far off from their trial where they had originally began. Edgar was using familiar sights he had seen earlier, both had just met each other for the first time and you can say they didn’t get off to a great start. To begin with Edgar temper wasn’t the best but when it came time to converse Anne brought up a chat.

  “Well maybe if you hadn’t stopped to admire yourself in the pond we would have gotten somewhere by this point”, remarked Anne. This wasn’t the best time to argue as the sun was setting and soon night would fall upon the forest. Little did Edgar and Anne know what was going to come out of the woods.

  “You know what Anne I’ve had it with out,” he annoyingly proclaimed. The two knew that fighting was not going to solve anything at all just cause more confusion on where to go. Time passed and they had to promptly rest so that they could sleep for the night. Edgar surprisingly managed to start a fire for warmth which lasted until about sunup. Then the two embarked on their lost cause for a second chance to get out of those horrific woods.

  It was only a while longer until they found and used path which they figured was leading out towards some roadway or at least a house. At last they heard some motor sounds. It turned out to be a man with a chain saw cutting down a rotted tree. He wore knee-high black leather boots, with faded blue denim jeans, and a red somewhat tattered flannel shirt. He had a brown Chuck Norris looking beard on his face that added a meanness to his face. Both Anne and Edgar looked hesitantly at each other not willing to make the first attempt to start a conversation with the guy with the chain saw. They didn’t need to turn around for they we soon seen by the man who turned off the chain saw and let it down.

  “Heller, y’all, musta be alost isn’t you,” his accent was hardly recognizable but he was very nice in his tone as if though this were his catch line. “Sorry, ma’am, sir, I didn’t properly introduce myself, I’s Henry Brown. And you two are….?”

  “Ohhhh excuse our rude manners,” exclaimed Anne, “I’m Anne Frank and this is Edgar Allan Poe. We were here in Lexington for a poetry meeting and we somehow got lost on our way back home to Boston, Massachusetts,” all this said Anne mighty happy to have finally found some sign of civilization for once.

  “Yes, like my partner here said, I’m Edgar Allan Poe. It’s very nice to finally see someone’s face that is this woman,” he chimed in happily.

  “Well’s yours names asound mighty familiar, but scant aput a finger on it. Say is y’all from round’ here or is y’all city folk,” was all mustered out. “Well anyhow that don’t matter just as long as y’all is safe, ya know these woods have astrange acreatures. Mighty surprised you two made it this deep into these woods here,” he was just about to start walking away somewhere.

  “Well actually, it was Edgar who made us lose you way when he stopped to look at himself in the pond. We do have a map but these woods don’t seem quite to match up with the map that I have,” said Anne with the hope that is red-neck would help them out.

  “Sure s’not a problem, y’all just head in that direction,” he pointed in front of his path, “wells if y’all wanna g’on ahead it shoulda take but three hours, just be acareful for night when dem critters are out. Wouldn’t want to nice afolk getting hurt,” he was admiringly calm in his tone of voice with compassion.

  “Ohhh well, me and Edgar stayed one night alone here just last night and we were not bothered by any creatures, it was mighty silent for these woods,” said Anne with a bright smile. She sure was hard to upset.

  “Tis’ true in these woods night’s is aquiet cept’ for them critters likes I said”, Henry sang out.

  Edgar by now was getting flustered by the irrelevant conversation Anne and Henry were having. By the words of Henry he already knew with way to head out of the woods and into modern civilization. He stood next to Anne and nudged her a bit to get the point across to tell her that it was time for them to be on their way. Anne quickly picked up the hint and was abruptly silent.

  “Well if I do say so myself I want to say thank you Henry for your service to us, I’m really gratified for your help to us. We were very lucky to have come across you. Now if you don’t mind I would be best if me and Edgar get going before nightfall just like you said,” exclaimed Anne as politely as she could sound.

  “All’s right y’all just stay safe and the same it was a pleasure meeting two new faces,” said Henry. The three shook hand and Anne and Edgar went in the direction that Henry had told them.

  “I really don’t f
eel like dealing with you right now Anne,” said Edgar as they were making their way out of the woods, so he just came behind Anne and followed in her footsteps.

  “We sure were lucky to find someone that could help us out,” said Anne happily trying to lighten the mood up some from what Edgar was letting on to her. It came to no avail as the Edgar remained as silent as a candle. Honestly, there was no harmony in between Edgar and Anne. Two and a half hours had gone by and the two didn’t seem to even notice each other. Edgar began to feel somewhat ashamed for how he had been treating Anne since all she wanted was to make things easier. The woods they saw were getting less and less dense with every step, until at last they were on the roadway. Edgar thought to himself it’s time for me to apologize to her before I don’t ever get to see her again.

  “Errrr, Anne, I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you the whole trip. It’s just that I don’t have the best temperament at times and can get easily flustered.” He said with honest remorse towards Anne.

  “It’s alright I understand that you weren’t meaning to be that rude with me,” said Anne. The two just nodded their hands and gave each other a respectable handshake. Afterwards, both headed their separate ways never to see each other, though both reconciled with their differences.

  Don’t Expect a Thing

  By Berenice Orozco

  Moments turn to memory

  Love turns to hate

  Your lies were my truth

  You left the same way you came—as a stranger

  I betrayed you—at least I admit it

  But then again there are many ways to be unfaithful

  You know what you did,

  stop denying it

  We are better off alone,

  then with bad company

  Don’t expect something from someone

  who repeatedly let you down.

  You knew without a doubt you were meant to be together

  Wake up—it wasn’t meant to be

  Walk away while you still have your pride

  Don’t expect to teach an old dog new tricks

  It was an Almost Perfect Day

  By Berenice Orozco

  I don’t know why I remember the time my younger brother ran over a kitten with a lawnmower. This happened when I was about 11 years old during summer at my aunt’s house in the country, my brother then was only a year younger than me. My aunt and uncle of course had quite a bit of space outside to run around and play. What I really enjoy doing was turning on the hose and soaking my cousins with it as entertainment. There is this particular event that happened during one summer day stands out to me the most out of the rest. My cousins had cats that they kept outside and we would play with them on a daily basis, also the had a lawnmower that my younger brother would from time to time turn on and use to play around with or to actually mow the lawn. Since there was plenty of room to keep many things outside they also had a mini pool (the ones that you blow up with air). Well since sometimes my cousins were mischievous; often they would submerge the kittens’ heads in the pool from time to time. The kittens in turn would cry out and try to twist their little bodies towards the hand that was carrying them, but the good thing was that they weren’t underwater for long. At least not long enough to drown them I mean.

  I am not quite sure on which day it was exactly but I was with my brother, and cousins outside playing. In other words, we were just running around doing things we weren’t supposed to be doing. It was breezy and sunny that day so we were able to go outside. We got a little bored so we decided to find the cats that were in the side of the house. The kittens were fairly easy to find. Honestly those kittens were just adorable, well any how we just took the kittens outside and petted them while also messing with them. One of the kittens scratched my brother, since he had the bright idea to dunk them into the pool, then he put one of the kittens down on the grass. The little kitten just sat there as if nothing had happened and remained sitting there. The lawnmower was already outside and ready to be turned on so my brother just yanked the cord until it turned on, which of course only took a couple of seconds. I had honestly thought that my brother was going to scare the kitten but instead he went directly towards the kitten. All you heard was a screech of “rawrrr” which was abruptly silenced by the blades, what I saw was the kittens’ head fly out of the lawnmower and heard the body being mangled under the blades. While all this was happening my hands were just cuffed over my mouth as I watched in horror what my brother had done. I shuddered when I heard the ripping noises that came from within the lawn mower already contemplating the immense pain the kitten must have felt. I just felt my heart skip beats inside my chest. I thought to myself for sure my aunt or uncle will be furious by what my brother had done of murdering a kitten. To my surprise they didn’t seem to take notice since they weren’t interested in the kittens. My stomach could only churn by the sight I had seen.

  Right after running over the kitten my brother shut the lawnmower off abruptly after seeing the kittens’ body parts flying outwards from it. Seeing that his mission had been accomplished he just left the lawn mower in the same spot. All I thought was “ Are you kidding me?”, “What had I just witnessed”. You’re such a horrible human being I wanted to utter. My cousin didn’t seem to be upset with what my brother had done but I knew I felt bad for what he had just done to a cute kitten. There would be one less kitten in this world I thought to myself. I went to see where the body parts had landed and it wasn’t a pretty sight to see. Only seemed like and internal parts clumped together

  “Edwin why did you run over that kitten with the lawn mower, what were you thinking?” I managed to say looking directly at him with a straight face.

  “It scratched me”, he said in a tone that seemed unsympathetic and not worrisome.

  “I’m telling on you”, I said narrowing my eyes to see what his response would be. I had expected him to automatically give me a darting look but instead just a glance in my direction.

  “Don’t tell on me”, was all he could say seeming a bit worried.

  “Fine I won’t, but only if you give me money,” I flatly said waiting for his response.

  “Okay but I only have 15 dollars,” he said.

  “Well I guess that will do with me,” I said. He got his wallet out and handed me the money which I took as a vow of silence, at least for a while in other words.

  Since the grass had the length of about 4 inches and the kittens’ body was small the body parts of the kitten weren’t easily seen. In the end I don’t recall if I did tell on him or not but that memory of the kitten being run over will stick in my head and be replayed over and over throughout the course of my life. As I can still hear the kitten screeching from the pain of being dismembered by the blades of the lawnmower. The rest of the day it seemed to pass by as normal just that incident that had happened briefly. My brother eventually put away the lawn mower, being honest with you that kitten was not greatly missed because there were about 4 other kittens that were in the side of the house. Summer passed without any more incidents as the one that had happened with the lawnmower.

  I Believe

  By Berenice Orozco

  I believe that bad things happen for good reasons that we don’t know yet. When I was little I would always find a way of getting into trouble one way or another. I was often hit for this reason but I never really learned not to pay much attention to it. When I was in 3th grade during the summer I was climbing on top of a stationary boat and constantly jumping off it at my mother’s friend’s house. The boat was probably about 8 feet high. On one of my attempts I got caught on one of the latches on the side of the boat and I used my hands to fall on the rocks. I good up and noticed that my left arm was crooked.

  “MOM I think I broke my arm,” I stammered out. I looked from my mother to my arm and stared at its weird shape as I wondered whether it was sprained or broken. The hospita
l ride was decent my mom’s friend took us there. They have me Ibroprophen and bandaged my arm up. It would be a week for me to get it into a cast. The cast color that I choose was green. At school I did have a little trouble with my tray for lunch but was manageable. I was still able to do my homework. After the cast got off my arm got a weird smell and washing it hurt. My left arm was really sensitive but over time it came back to normal. From this little adventure of mine I became less active due to being a bit traumatized though this is better now. I believe this incident helped me be more responsible of what I did and about listening to adults when I was told to do something.

  Indecisive

  By Berenice Orozco

  “Hey!” shouted Alexandra. The cement stairs on the side is where Samantha was seated with her phone on her lap patiently waiting for Alexandra. Samantha glanced up quickly and quickly set her phone on her side directing her attention to where she heard her name called. Sure enough just a block to the left she saw Alexandra trotting along the sidewalk. Alexandra had an orange tribal looking top and denim blue shorts on with her black hair in a ponytail, smiling from ear to ear. Her slender body trotted effortlessly and her gladiator orange sandals made little popping noises on the concrete floor. Alexandra only needed to cross the street and she would arrive since her house was in the corner of the street. This is it Samantha thought as Alexandra got closer.

  “Hey—so what was so important that you needed to tell me, sorry that I took a while to arrive I had to finish up a few chores and my phone didn’t vibrate when you sent me that message half an hour ago.” Samantha said to Alexandra.

  “Oh no worries Samantha, it’s nice fresh weather today anyways, and you know that I love when there is this type of weather.” Alexendra said.

  “Hey, I’m really just thinking of dropping out and moving in with Anthony, we’ve been talking for a while and I’m sure he would offer me to move in with him,” Samantha said to Alexandra. Samantha had had trouble with school for a while now and she thought the only way out was to drop out. She decided that she would not deal with school by just leaving it all together. Her best friend Alexandra didn’t want Samantha to drop-out because she knew that it would not lead to anything productive or useful. Alexandra was what Samantha would call a “prodigy”, since their childhood Alexandra had always excelled in everything she did in school. It would seem that these two girls of all people would not end up becoming best friends but it did happen and they got along just well. What made Samantha such a pessimist was that her family had always seen her as the black sheep of the family. She out of all her family was the nicest but was most taken advantage of by others so she was always left feeling lonely. This is when Alexandra would come in and lift Samantha’s spirits up whenever she could, Alexandra was always her reason to continue school but now she felt on the fence of things. Not to mention the fact that even though Samantha liked Anthony quite a bit she still had feeling for her ex-boyfriend Emiliano whom she had dated for almost a year. Samantha had broken up with Emiliano because she had kissed Anthony, though she did tell Emiliano that she had kissed Anthony. Emilano’s reaction wasn’t the least bit happy, but Samantha knew that Emiliano had treated her badly but never would admit it. Emiliano had tried to get with other girls while he was still with Samantha, while Samantha had just stayed with Emiliano because she was madly in love with Emiliano. Even though he had hurt her, Samantha was always willing to turn the other cheek.

  “Samantha, you know well that if you at least don’t get a high school diploma that life will just get harder from here on out. Yes it may seem an easy fix but in the long run it won’t do you any good at all. You can’t let other people’s action always bring you down, I know that your situation hasn’t always been the best at home but try to see that it can only get better from here,” was what Alexandra tried to get through to Samantha. Samantha looked long and hard at Alexandra’s eyes, Alexandra saw despair and sorrow in Samantha’s chocolate brown eyes with a tear starting to form on her right eye. Samantha noticed she was getting emotional and wiped the tear away from her eyes not trying to show that she was about to break down.

  “It’s just that every time I have tried getting ahead there is always something there knocking me down to the point of just being done with everything. You know my mother signed the drop-out papers last night and I just could not find a way to tell you until now,” mustered out Samantha attempting not to make eye contact with Alexandra.

  “But… but .. how could you?! All you needed was one more year and you would have been done with school. You had enough credits to make it to graduation. I thought that without a doubt that was what you wanted to graduate on time with your class. Why would you blow it all of just so that you can go live with some random guy?!” Samantha’s words felt like shards of glass against her ears.

  “You know what Alexandra, I did what I did, it was my choice to make I hope that you can respect it. Even though I didn’t meet your expectations you were truly always there to support me, but now I feel that it has come time to just break away from all that was holding me down, school in all doesn’t help you with anything. Beside Anthony isn’t just a random guy Alexandra. Why don’t you see that? Okay, Alexandra thank you for always supporting me in what I do and not giving up on me, but Anthony has given me the love that I have longed from somebody. My parents have enough with my siblings and it’s too hard to make sure that every single one of us gets taken care of. I haven’t felt what love is really like and I’m just now beginning to see what it feels like and Anthony is the one who has made me feel like I actually matter. He has been understanding with me, genuinely cared about my well-being and is determined to give me a place so that I can feel free from all this mayhem. Sometimes I feel like it would be better for the world to just swallow me whole then to deal with these problems.” Samantha exhaled out.

  By Berenice Orozco

  Rumpelstiltskin

  Being able to have magic powers isn’t always as fun as you think though over the years I have used it to my advantage in order to gain a couple few possessions. I sure do know how to make a deal. Well there was this one particular night I heard crying coming from the castle and sure enough I secretly made my way to the room to see why there was weeping. And sure enough there was this beautiful girl sitting on a stool. Her blue dress was poufy and a bit tattered with dirt.

  “What is the matter with you beautiful young lady,” I asked her. She looked up startled that someone had gotten into the room.

  “Well my father told the king that I could spin straw into hay when I am not able to do so,” she spoke quietly to me. “The king will have me killed in the morning if I am not able to spin the straw into hay,” she said desperately. “Could you please help me in any way, please I beg of you here, I will give you my necklace,” she quickly blurted out and handed me a necklace.

  “It’s nice of you to have given the necklace, I’ll spin the straw to hay for you so that your life may be spared, “said trying to sound compassionate.

  “Oh thank you so very much for your kind help, I will be forever grateful of you kind sir,” she squealed out as if it had been her plan to make me spin the straw but I just disregarded it guessing her nerves were getting a bit out of shape. I sat down on the floor and readily begin to spin the straw into gold using the wheel. Spinning, spinning, and spinning it trying to get as much done before daybreak. After hours of spinning the straw I was able to finally make it into gold. I took a deep breath, I looked at my hands and saw that they were a bit swollen. By this time the girl had fallen to sleep and so I left as not to disturb her sleep.

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