“Blue”
by Sydney Dowd, age 15
My clothes were stiff that morning. The brand-spanking-new blouse was blue and floaty but ironed within an inch of its life. Long-sleeved and laying tensely on my bed, it was lineless and starchy smelling. I wrinkled my nose. The skirt was worse – black and loose and long, resting at my knees and ironed. I was tired; sleep had long left me and deserted my puffy eyes to haunt my mother, who was a ghost by the coffee-maker.
"Ready?" she rasped, swallowing a sip of scalding coffee, no sugar. I nodded plainly, tugging at the skirt and smoothing invisible wrinkles. I'd have no breakfast today. It wasn't worth it. Though the sun was rising, it cast a haunting gray film over everything; clouds sheathed its' warm light. Slinging her red purse over her bony shoulder, my mother stretched out a blue-veined hand at me. It was the hand that wasn't already gripping her Styrofoam cup. I took it. I relished the clammy stickiness that clung to her skin. It meant she felt as I did.
Forlornly, I gazed at our gray-washed car. Dust encrusted the window; old bug guts dried in the summer heat on our windshield. Duct tape held our rear-view mirror loosely on. I let go of my Mother's hand. Crawling into the seat, I smelled the old Civic's signature scent: old fries and the stale smell of gym clothing.
The car wheezed to a start. It was still hot. Hesitantly, I cracked a window and felt the heat waft in. Because it sped past my flushed face with speed, it felt nice. Reminded me of warm, careless days swinging my legs on a park bench and burying my face in the coldness of vanilla ice cream.
"Shut the window, Posy," sighed my Mother. I did, hearing the loud squeak that indicated the window's slow rising. I was forced to look at the crescent-shaped marks of dried raindrops. My lip curled at my ankles. My feet had been stuffed into black, shiny shoes and lacy, frilly socks. From the meticulously clean smell that hung around them, I had the idea that my mother might have ironed them, too.
Our car passed dingy, barely-alive yards with vibrant green patches of weeds springing themselves over crusty, brown grass. It hadn’t rained in a long time. That showed how long it had been since we’d washed the car – it was still carrying its war-scars from the rains of April. We pulled into the parking lot. Those same stubborn weeds sprouted between mangled cracks in the pavement. Softly, I kicked one, scuffing a black shoe. My Mother pursed her lips wearily. “Come on.” Her breath was raspy and ancient, like the wheeze of an old vacuum nipping at an oversized dust ball. I followed her past the sympathetic looks and handkerchiefs dabbing at falsely watery eyes. After a while, I gave up on the people whose heads turned down at me, whose ears longed to hear so much as a sad sniffle before they buried me in overly-sweet perfume and chubby arms clasping my head to their chests.
Blue flowers were everywhere. There were artificial blue roses, pale violets, and any kind of flower I hadn’t heard of. All in blue. Nothing black except the outfits. It was like they had been through what I had, I noted with a frown. My mother and I took our seats at the front of the room full of chairs and more people, more breathing bodies with red lipstick and combed greasy hair. The Minister coughed, as did several people to hide their small sobs.
“Now then, let’s get started.”
He pointed to a picture of my big brother – Klaus, blond as a platinum credit card, smiling bigger than the Cheshire cat. “This young man was a fine specimen of what God wants every young person to be,” he said strongly.
I knew he was lying; Klaus was downright bad. He’d sneak out to the 7-11 late at night, so late that when Mom woke up in the morning, she’d wring her hands and gaze at him sadly.
“Oh, no, Klaus,” she’d say, pacing and not knowing what to say. “Oh, no.” In the end, I’d find myself digging into a bag of Cheetos and sitting in his lap. I got in trouble, sure, but as long as Klaus always came home, it would be fine.
It wasn’t fine anymore.
by Sydney Dowd, age 15
My clothes were stiff that morning. The brand-spanking-new blouse was blue and floaty but ironed within an inch of its life. Long-sleeved and laying tensely on my bed, it was lineless and starchy smelling. I wrinkled my nose. The skirt was worse – black and loose and long, resting at my knees and ironed. I was tired; sleep had long left me and deserted my puffy eyes to haunt my mother, who was a ghost by the coffee-maker.
"Ready?" she rasped, swallowing a sip of scalding coffee, no sugar. I nodded plainly, tugging at the skirt and smoothing invisible wrinkles. I'd have no breakfast today. It wasn't worth it. Though the sun was rising, it cast a haunting gray film over everything; clouds sheathed its' warm light. Slinging her red purse over her bony shoulder, my mother stretched out a blue-veined hand at me. It was the hand that wasn't already gripping her Styrofoam cup. I took it. I relished the clammy stickiness that clung to her skin. It meant she felt as I did.
Forlornly, I gazed at our gray-washed car. Dust encrusted the window; old bug guts dried in the summer heat on our windshield. Duct tape held our rear-view mirror loosely on. I let go of my Mother's hand. Crawling into the seat, I smelled the old Civic's signature scent: old fries and the stale smell of gym clothing.
The car wheezed to a start. It was still hot. Hesitantly, I cracked a window and felt the heat waft in. Because it sped past my flushed face with speed, it felt nice. Reminded me of warm, careless days swinging my legs on a park bench and burying my face in the coldness of vanilla ice cream.
"Shut the window, Posy," sighed my Mother. I did, hearing the loud squeak that indicated the window's slow rising. I was forced to look at the crescent-shaped marks of dried raindrops. My lip curled at my ankles. My feet had been stuffed into black, shiny shoes and lacy, frilly socks. From the meticulously clean smell that hung around them, I had the idea that my mother might have ironed them, too.
Our car passed dingy, barely-alive yards with vibrant green patches of weeds springing themselves over crusty, brown grass. It hadn’t rained in a long time. That showed how long it had been since we’d washed the car – it was still carrying its war-scars from the rains of April. We pulled into the parking lot. Those same stubborn weeds sprouted between mangled cracks in the pavement. Softly, I kicked one, scuffing a black shoe. My Mother pursed her lips wearily. “Come on.” Her breath was raspy and ancient, like the wheeze of an old vacuum nipping at an oversized dust ball. I followed her past the sympathetic looks and handkerchiefs dabbing at falsely watery eyes. After a while, I gave up on the people whose heads turned down at me, whose ears longed to hear so much as a sad sniffle before they buried me in overly-sweet perfume and chubby arms clasping my head to their chests.
Blue flowers were everywhere. There were artificial blue roses, pale violets, and any kind of flower I hadn’t heard of. All in blue. Nothing black except the outfits. It was like they had been through what I had, I noted with a frown. My mother and I took our seats at the front of the room full of chairs and more people, more breathing bodies with red lipstick and combed greasy hair. The Minister coughed, as did several people to hide their small sobs.
“Now then, let’s get started.”
He pointed to a picture of my big brother – Klaus, blond as a platinum credit card, smiling bigger than the Cheshire cat. “This young man was a fine specimen of what God wants every young person to be,” he said strongly.
I knew he was lying; Klaus was downright bad. He’d sneak out to the 7-11 late at night, so late that when Mom woke up in the morning, she’d wring her hands and gaze at him sadly.
“Oh, no, Klaus,” she’d say, pacing and not knowing what to say. “Oh, no.” In the end, I’d find myself digging into a bag of Cheetos and sitting in his lap. I got in trouble, sure, but as long as Klaus always came home, it would be fine.
It wasn’t fine anymore.
"Rose"
by Sydney Dowd, age 15
Rose worked hard. The women gave her fabric – too small for their chubby babies stuffed into their cotton. Pull, tug. Her arms ached and burned, stretchy and loose like the clothes when she finished with them. Her work was paid with not telling the guards- no, don't tell them about the grubby girl curled up in her corner, whose eyes were as large as saucers, the whites yellowed from malnutrition – hush and keep silent when they ask.
The men asked her to wave her arms up and down, to do jumping jacks. The extra weight made her spine sag and bend at odd angles. Their laughter was met with glass bottles filled with strange, sour liquid that Rose would lap up too fast for their comfort when they offered it to her. She's sad, that one. But don't tell the guards, no. They'd take her away. I think she's happy here.
Rose was cold. So cold. All the time. Her baby blanket was too small, too shrunken to cover her spindly body. Her skin was creamy white. So beautiful. Quite wasted on her. That's to say, why can't our regular girls have such skin, such hair, such a face. Would be prettier if someone fed the thing. Rose's ears were attentive to these noises – what were they saying? Words? Confused. They didn't sound like Mama and Papa. Not like "Rows Darleeng" but like "Dertee Creechur." Was that her name? She didn't know.
Ow, her head hurt. She was tired. Sleep – no, too chilly. Will get still, stiff. Like Alex. Not like Alex. Alex was like the other people. Not like Rose. Rose remembers the screams.
"Waht iz that own hur bak? Tayk hur too thee speshulist."
"Iym soree mam, but she's betur own thee streetz."
Rose remembers school when she was two. Dog, cat, mother, father. No – Mama and Papa. They're by Rose's bed with her brother. Bruther. His name was Baby.
"Bee niyz too baybee. Kiss baybee."
Their words spun and warped in her mind. Her hair was longer now. Mama didn't take the sharp thing, the peen, and put it up on her head. No bruh to make her head prickle. Coldness now. Laughing now. People like Rose. She makes them smile. Their teeth are nubs.
"She's horibl! Wat's rong with hur?"
Rose reaches out her hand; fingers open to grasp the bread- to take it and quickly pull back her hand to her mouth- to eat it. To chew the hard, crumbly stuff until it was mush. Then swallow.
The lump on her back hurt. Her extra arm hung limp until she moved it. Her ears were deformed, not like them. The other people. Rose wanted her Mama. Rose wanted her Papa. She adjusted the payper over her, and closed her bright green eyes. They stung.
Sleep like Alex now.
by Sydney Dowd, age 15
Rose worked hard. The women gave her fabric – too small for their chubby babies stuffed into their cotton. Pull, tug. Her arms ached and burned, stretchy and loose like the clothes when she finished with them. Her work was paid with not telling the guards- no, don't tell them about the grubby girl curled up in her corner, whose eyes were as large as saucers, the whites yellowed from malnutrition – hush and keep silent when they ask.
The men asked her to wave her arms up and down, to do jumping jacks. The extra weight made her spine sag and bend at odd angles. Their laughter was met with glass bottles filled with strange, sour liquid that Rose would lap up too fast for their comfort when they offered it to her. She's sad, that one. But don't tell the guards, no. They'd take her away. I think she's happy here.
Rose was cold. So cold. All the time. Her baby blanket was too small, too shrunken to cover her spindly body. Her skin was creamy white. So beautiful. Quite wasted on her. That's to say, why can't our regular girls have such skin, such hair, such a face. Would be prettier if someone fed the thing. Rose's ears were attentive to these noises – what were they saying? Words? Confused. They didn't sound like Mama and Papa. Not like "Rows Darleeng" but like "Dertee Creechur." Was that her name? She didn't know.
Ow, her head hurt. She was tired. Sleep – no, too chilly. Will get still, stiff. Like Alex. Not like Alex. Alex was like the other people. Not like Rose. Rose remembers the screams.
"Waht iz that own hur bak? Tayk hur too thee speshulist."
"Iym soree mam, but she's betur own thee streetz."
Rose remembers school when she was two. Dog, cat, mother, father. No – Mama and Papa. They're by Rose's bed with her brother. Bruther. His name was Baby.
"Bee niyz too baybee. Kiss baybee."
Their words spun and warped in her mind. Her hair was longer now. Mama didn't take the sharp thing, the peen, and put it up on her head. No bruh to make her head prickle. Coldness now. Laughing now. People like Rose. She makes them smile. Their teeth are nubs.
"She's horibl! Wat's rong with hur?"
Rose reaches out her hand; fingers open to grasp the bread- to take it and quickly pull back her hand to her mouth- to eat it. To chew the hard, crumbly stuff until it was mush. Then swallow.
The lump on her back hurt. Her extra arm hung limp until she moved it. Her ears were deformed, not like them. The other people. Rose wanted her Mama. Rose wanted her Papa. She adjusted the payper over her, and closed her bright green eyes. They stung.
Sleep like Alex now.
The Snowy Forest
by Noel Muehlbauer, age 14
The snow, sparkling and glistening, covered the forest ground like a blanket. Soft and silent, the snow sat on the forest until a herd of deer came running through the clearing, making almost no sound because of the thick blanket of snow that covered the ground. Only snorts were heard from these silent creatures when they flipped their head up because of the falling snow that was aggravating them. They glided through the forest so softly and swiftly, it looked like they were flying. The herd of deer vanished into the white, snowy forest as quickly as they came, and it could’ve been a dream except for the hoof prints they left in the snow.
I climbed down from the frost covered tree and jumped down into the snow, shaking off snow from the tree onto me as I jumped. I silently wandered in the direction the deer went through this winter wonderland hearing no sound but the crunching of snow under my feet. Suddenly, I heard an eerie yelp in the direction I was walking, ripping me out of my own thoughts. Not knowing what the yelp was, I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and kept on walking, knowing that I had to get home by going this way. As I proceeded closer to the frozen river, the yelps got louder, eerier, and more consistent. Not knowing what I was going to find through the brush up ahead, I broke off a snow covered stick and proceeded forward through the frost covered brush.
I could barely believe my eyes in what I had found when I walked through the brush. Lying just across the brush next to the rock-solid river in the clearing, was a young fawn, curled up in a ball on top of red snow. I slowly walked over to the deer with my hands outstretched, trying to make no noise, but that was impossible with the snow crunching under my boots. The deer's eyes got wider the closer I got, but the yelps had stopped. Just before I had reached the deer, a frightened squirrel scampered through the trees above, knocking a pile of snow onto the deer and me. I could tell the deer was even more frightened because through the white blur of snow the squirrel knocked down onto the deer, I saw the startled deer jump up in fright; but it quickly sank back down when it recognized the pain of its injury. Once the white blur snow cleared away, I walked just a couple more steps towards the deer and then sank down into the cold, soft snow.
I slowly reached out my hand towards the deer and softly stroked its grayish-brown, snow-covered, damp back. The deer's' eyes got very wide the first time I stroked it, but it calmed the more I stroked its short, soft fur. Since the deer seemed to be more trusting after I stroked it, I started to look for the injury and found blood seeping out of its leg. As I bent towards it leg to examine it further, the deer frightened, jumped up, trying to bolt, stepped on my hand in the process, and fell back down, only inches from where it first lay. "Easy girl, shhh," I softly spoke to the deer, stroking its back, while watching the perfectly white snow turn a crimson red. I unwrapped my grey scarf and slowly reached towards the deer's leg. Frightened, but willing, the deer let me scoop out a hole in the snow, just under the deer's injury, staining my hands a deep red. I slid the scarf into the hole, and started to pull the scarf over the top of the deer's leg. More trusting than before, the deer, shaking, let me tightly wrap the scarf around the deer's leg to stop the bleeding.
Since the young fawn looked be born premature, I scooped the deer up into my arms, along with some snow, while the deer tried to escape with its front legs by kicking because its back leg was injured. I walked, slowly, towards the frozen river, while the deer proceeded to panic even more. I saw a small, jagged hole in the ice, about the size of a deer's hoof. "So that's what happened to the deer," I whispered under my breath. "It fell in." I walked further away from the hole in the ice and crossed the river where I knew it was frozen solidly, with the deer panicking in my arms.
As I walked through the snow-covered forest, the deer settled in my arms and fell asleep, leaving me only to my thoughts, and the crunching of the snow under my boots. When I emerged out of the wooded winter wonderland, I climbed up and over the frozen fence to our paddock without using my hands because the deer was still curled up in my arms. When I jumped down off snow-covered fence, the deer, sleepily opened its eyes and looked around. Seeming to trust me, it stayed still as I walked across the paddock and through the gate. I walked across our lawn to the front porch. I cautiously walked up the frozen steps, making them squeak as I went, then slipped my boots off at the front door. I turned the doorknob with my elbow, pushed the door with my foot, and entered into my warm, cozy house. I closed the front door with my foot to keep the wind from entering our house, walked a few paces, then knelt down on my knees and set the fawn on the rug in front of the blazing fire. I slipped off my coat and placed it on the coat rack, then sank back down next to the fawn in front of the fire, stroking its head.
After sitting next to the fawn by the fire, I rose and walked through the dining room into the kitchen to grab a sponge and some warm water to clean the fawns wound. I peeked into the library next to the kitchen; and I saw my older, mean brother, Rob, sitting in a chair, sound asleep. Disgusted, I left the kitchen and went back to the fawn carrying the bucket and sponge. The reason I was mad at my brother is because my parents were away for the day and weren’t coming back late into the night, and he was supposed to be in charge and working around the house. I sank back down next to the fawn and placed the bucket down carefully next to me. As I started to unwrap the wet, now red scarf, the fawn looked up at me with questioning in her pitch black eyes. “Its ok,” I whispered to the fawn, “I’m going to take care of you.” She fretted very little, and I finally succeeded in unwrapping the scarf.
When I sponged the deer's wound off with the warm water, she barely fretted, and I realized the seriousness of the injury. The wound was deep; all the way to the bone, but I cleaned the wound and luckily it stopped bleeding. "Stay still," I whispered to the deer as I rushed out the room, taking the soaking scarf with me. I went into the laundry room and threw my scarf into the washer, knowing that it was permanently red, and I grabbed a huge roll of gauze and a pack of tape. Quickly walking back into the den, I knelt down by the fawn and proceeded to wrap the wound. This time was slightly harder last time because I had to hold the fawn's leg instead of digging a hole in the snow. I could tell that this put the fawn in pain because the whites of her eyes where showing and she kept trying to jump up and escape the pain to no avail.
After about fifteen minutes of trying to wrap the deer's leg while keeping her still, I finally finished wrapping her leg, and I went to put the gauze away. When I walked out of the laundry room, I looked to my right and saw the deer, curled up into a ball, resting by the fireplace. Satisfied that the deer was resting, I walked into the kitchen and pulled the jug of milk out of the fridge. I searched for a baby bottle to feed the deer by opening and closing various drawers and cabinets until I found an eye dropper. "This will have to do," I sighed to myself. As I was pouring the milk into a bowl, my evil, older step-brother, Rob, came walking into the kitchen rubbing his eye's from sleeping because I had awakened him by opening and closing the many drawers and cabinets.
"What are you up to, twerp?" Rob asked.
"I'm warming some milk," I quickly responded, knowing that Rob would hate what I had done.
"Ok, weirdo," Rob replied, "Oh, and by the way, Kaylee," Rob said, "I'm going upstairs to, uh, finish some work. You'll have to feed the animals and fix dinner. My work will take me awhile."
"Fine," I answered, forgetting about the fawn curled up on the carpet. The minute Rob walked out of the kitchen and into the den, I remembered about the fawn and panicked for a minute; but it seemed like Rob didn't notice because he turned right, then left, and walked up the back stairs. "That was close," I whispered to myself. Rob hates animals, and he especially hates when I rescue them because I end up keeping them as a pet. I first rescued my dog, Panda, from an old barn because a huge piece of wood had fallen on him and trapped him. I named him Panda because he has the exact markings of a Panda. I also rescued my horse, Firefly, from a huge ditch she had fallen and had been trapped. Firefly was named so because of her glossy black color, that made her look like a midnight sky, and the white roan markings on the butt that look like fireflies. The microwave dinged, snapping me out of my fantasy and awakening me to the real world. I got the bowl of steaming hot milk out of the microwave and shut the microwave door with a bang. Then I grabbed the eye dropper with my empty hand and walked back into the den in front of the fireplace.
I sat down next to the fawn, awakening her from her sleep. She stirred then turned her head and looked up at me sleepily. "There, there, sleepy girl," I said while filling the eye dropper with warm milk. I cradled the deer's head with my free arm and started to push the full eye dropper closer to the fawn's mouth. At first she turned her head up and refused the milk, but then, realizing how hungry she was, she accepted the milk. It took awhile to finish the milk, since I only had a small eye dropper; but when she finally finished drinking, I took my arm from around her neck and let her go back to sleep. Then I walked into the kitchen, and rinsed the bowl and eye dropper in the sink. As I was drying my hands, I walked to the fridge and opened up the refrigerator to see what food Mom had left for me to bake. I saw a pan of unbaked chicken covered in plastic wrap with a note taped on top. While I was carrying the dish out of the fridge and shutting the fridge door with my foot, I read the note: "Dear Kaylee, I hope you have a wonderful day, and I will see you in the morning. Please place the breaded chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for thirty-five minutes. Love you, Mom." I placed the dish on the table, took off the plastic wrap and threw it away. Then I set the oven for 350 degrees and placed the dish in the oven. I walked back through the den to the front door and started putting on my coat. The deer only lifted her head up when I opened the door and a blast of cold air came rushing into the warm house.
The deer looked at me as if she was saying, "Please hurry up and shut the door. It's making me cold." I smiled at the deer then shoved my mittened hands into my pocket. I walked out into the cold, shutting the heavy, wooden door behind me.
The frozen snow crunched under my feet as I walked towards our four-stall barn. I slipped into the tack room, which was across from the wash rack and scooped out two buckets of grain, causing a great racket as the grain clattered into the bucket. I clipped one bucket to a hook in the second stall for our cow, Daisy, and used Firefly's bucket for bait. As I walked out of the cozy, little barn into the wind, I started to shake the bucket of grain to lure Firefly and Daisy in. The clatter of the grain was so loud and obnoxious that Firefly and Daisy come running from anywhere in the six-acre pasture. After shaking the grain for about a minute, I stopped and paused. Looking at the ground, just like I always do, I waited for the sound of thundering hoof beats. The minute I heard that familiar four-beat pace, I lifted my head just in time to see Firefly and Daisy flying up the snow-covered hill, flinging snow everywhere as they went. They slammed into a dead stop the minute they got to the frosted gate, throwing chunks of snow everywhere and waited for me to let them in the barn. I opened the gate, and they patiently followed me around the barn blowing their warm breath on me as we went. The minute Firefly stepped into the barn behind me, I heard the familiar, comforting, clip-clop sound of her shoes hitting the concrete floor as she headed for her stall. I walked just past Firefly's stall door and let her enter her stall and turn around. When she entered and turned around, her blanket brushed against the wooden stall making a sound that made me cringe. Then I clipped her feed bucket to the hook in her stall and shut the door with a slam that echoed throughout the barn. When I turned around, I was startled to see Daisy standing behind me. I gave her a quick pat on the nose then tugged on her blanket to fix it's position. Firefly also had a blanket on but always kept it in the proper position. I gave Daisy a quick smack on the butt, and she ambled into her stall. Then I slammed her door; and before I walked out of the barn, I paused for a minute to listen to the soothing sound of grain being munched on then I walked out of the barn and slid the barn doors shut.
The minute I walked in the house through the back door, the oven timer was six seconds from going off so I quickly shut the door, ran to the oven, and turned it off, right as the first beep started. Then I sat the pan of chicken down on the table on top of a pot holder and set the table. Right as I finished setting the table, I heard Rob come out of his room and slam his door. “Oh, no,” I exclaimed under my breath, “Rob’s coming.” I rushed out into the den and scooped up the sleepy fawn and started running for the front stairs because Rob was coming down the back stairs.
“Is dinner ready?” Rob called out angrily.
“Yes, but I have to get something upstairs. I’ll be back down,” I replied in a panic.
“Fine,” Rob roared. I rushed upstairs as quickly as I could and ran the fawn into my room. When I opened the door to my room, I found Panda locked in my room.
“I’m so sorry, boy. I didn’t know you were in here,” I said. Then I placed the fawn on the rug in my room, and rushed out of the room, scooting Panda out of my room. I shut the door quickly, to keep Rob from finding the fawn until mom and dad got home. I ran down stairs, shaking the steps as I went and flew into the kitchen.
"Where were you?" Rob angrily asked.
"I was putting something away and getting Panda," I responded.
"Ugh, Panda," Rob groaned. Then Rob reached out his leg from where he was seated and kicked Panda.
"Stop it," I yelled, "you're so mean."
"Thank you. Now, can you sit down so I can eat?" Rob evilly demanded.
“Sure,” I replied, sinking into a wooden chair. Then I served each of us a piece of chicken and started to eat. The meal was delicious but awkwardly silent. The only sound was Panda, occasionally whining for food.
“That’s it,” Rob yelled, the last time Panda whined. “I told you to feed the animals, and you didn’t do it,” Rob said, now yelling at me.
“Yes,” I replied, “but when I got back from feeding Firefly and Daisy, the meal was done; and you wanted to eat dinner.”
“Fine,” Rob said, knowing that he was proven wrong, “I’m going to eat in my room.” I finished my silent meal then put the chicken in the fridge and my plate in the sink. I scooped Panda’s food for him and walked upstairs to my room.
The steps squeaked eerily as I walked upstairs to my room. I opened the door to my room, walked in, then quickly shut the door, not bothering to look at my bed.
“Well, hello,” and evil voice said from the corner.
I jumped and turned to look at my bed and saw an angry Rob, sitting on my bed with a bunch of rope in his hands.
“What are you doing in here?” I cried, “and what have you done to the fawn?” I questioned.
"What fawn?" Rob teased, "Oh that thing. She's fine. She's just tied up right now," Rob said and snickered.
"Let her go," I demanded walking towards Rob until I saw the fawn, on the floor, whimpering and shaking then I stopping moving.
"I said, let her go," I screamed.
Rob sat unmoving and said, "I'll release her as soon as I get to Kansas."
"Wait, Kansas? Why Kansas?"
"Why not?" Rob replied, "I've always wanted to get away from everyone here. They all think I'm a bad person."
"Well you are," I said under my breath, interrupting Rob.
"What was that?" Rob demanded.
"Nothing," I said, "continue."
"Well, like I said, everyone thinks I'm bad so I'm leaving, tonight. You and your precious fawn are leaving tonight too."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Since you're the baby of the family," Rob said, "I figured Mom and Dad would be pretty distraught if you were gone."
"I'm not going with you to Kansas," I said firmly.
"Oh, you're not going to Kansas," Rob said laughing. I was just about to speak when I was thrown to the floor, knocking the breath out of me.
"What are you doing?" I asked Rob, gasping for breath, "get off of me," I demanded.
"Fine, I'll get off of you," Rob said. The second Rob got off of me, he flipped me over with a thump, and pressed his foot on me, crushing me into the floor.
"Stop it," I tried to say, but my mouth was on the floor.
"What was that?" Rob said laughing. Then he grabbed my hands and tied them so tightly behind my back that my hands went numb. Then he proceeded to tie my feet just as tightly. Once he finished tightly tying me up, he flipped me back over onto my back. Then, I sat up and screamed.
I was in the middle of screaming when Rob thrust a iron pole at my head. Before I could move, the iron pole came hurling down and crashed onto my head. Then, all was black.
I awoke cold and shivering with a headache. I looked around and realized that I was in the middle of the snow-covered forest, but I had no idea exactly where I was. I heard a yelp and turned around. There, nestled up against my back, the fawn sat, tied up and yelping.
"Its ok," I said trying to soothe the fawn, and myself. I was freezing because I had no coat on, and small, sparkling snow flakes were falling onto me. I turned around, noticing the Rob was nice enough to leave a blanket and inched myself sideways next to the fawn to try and untie the tight knot around the fawn's legs, and to try and help keep us warm. My hands were a reddish blue color and numb, but I tried my best to undo the knot around the fawn's leg. The fawn lay silently in the snow, knowing that I was helping her; and I would only occasionally hear a crunch coming from the fawn and I assumed that she was eating the snow that was piled up all around us.
Eventually, just when my numb hands where about to give out, the knot loosened; and I slipped the rope from the deer's legs. Then I turned, only to realize that the deer had chewed the rope off that had tied my feet together. "What a good girl," I cooed at the deer. Then, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get the rope off from around my wrists, I stood up and stepped through my hands so that my hands were now tied in front of me. I walked a couple steps towards the blanket that had carelessly been thrust close to the deer, and I stooped down and picked it up. After that, I shook off the snow as best as I could and wrapped it like a cape around me. I stepped towards the fawn, and scooped her up into my arms, cradling her next to me for the warmth for both of us. Next, I wrapped the blanket around the fawn, to try and help ward of the biting, winter wind. Not knowing which way to head for home, I searched for footprints. Finding none, because the snow had covered them up, I set off desperately hoping to find familiar landmarks to lead me home.
After walking for hours trying to find my way back home, I sank hopelessly exhausted and tired into the snow. By now it was completely pitch black and had been for hours. It was also the coldest and windiest part of the night so I huddled tighter into the blanket next to the fawn. Leaning back against a hard, frozen tree, I tried to get some sleep.
I must've only been asleep for a few hours because I was awakened sharply by the sound of wolves howling when it was still pitch black. The howling also awakened the fawn because she tensed up in my arms and buried herself closer to my chest. I slowly stood up because I was so tired and hungry. Walking was the last thing I wanted to do right then, but I proceeded forward in the direction I was headed before I fell asleep, away from the wolves. It was all a dreary daze to me as I stumbled over my own feet rushing to get home and away from the wolves that seemed to be gaining on me with every step I took. Just when I thought that I couldn't go on moving this fast and that the hungry, cold, mangy wolves would devour me, the incessant howling stopped. Stunned, I stopped jogging and listened but not a sound was heard. Relieved, I continued walking, but at a much slower pace, to frightened to try and sleep again.
Just as the sky was turning an orangey red after walking for about another hour and finding no familiar landmarks, I came to a clearing and stopped dead in my tracks. Right in front of me was the frozen river and to my right was the pile of crimson red snow.
"I've found it!" I excitedly exclaimed. Starting off with a new pep in my step knowing that I was close to home, I crossed the frozen river and set off eagerly for home.
The minute I emerged from the frozen woods, I quickly hopped over the fence and started running up the hill. I must've been a sight because when I got to the top of the hill, I saw Mom and Dad so I shouted out, "Mom, Dad, I'm back!" They turned and looked at me then rushed to the gate. They didn't even bother to open the gate; they just flew over the fence and came running to me.
I would've been engulfed in a huge bear hug that would've injured the fawn further, if I didn't call out, "Stop. Don't hurt the fawn."
Mom and Dad slid to a stop and simultaneously asked, "What fawn? What do you mean?"
I unwrapped the blanket from around me and said, "This is what I mean. I found her yesterday, injured in the woods and I took her home to help her, but then I got tied up and knocked out and was lost in the woods."
"What?" Mom and Dad asked shocked. "What do you mean?"
"I have a lot to tell you," I said as I started off for the house.
"Yes you do," Mom said. "Let's get you inside and get you warmed up."
"Ah, heat. That sounds great!" I said. "I've been out here forever."
"What do you mean?" Dad almost yelled.
"Lets just say that Rob kidnapped me and left me in a unknown part of the forest."
I could see Dad's face turn a bright red as we walked towards the house so I left the subject unfinished. To break the silence, I asked, "Can we keep her?"
"Who?" Mom questioned.
"The fawn," I replied.
"Of course," Mom replied shaking her head with a smile. We headed across the frozen yard towards our warm, little house with everything working out. The only thing that didn't work out was Rob being gone, but that didn't bother me.
by Noel Muehlbauer, age 14
The snow, sparkling and glistening, covered the forest ground like a blanket. Soft and silent, the snow sat on the forest until a herd of deer came running through the clearing, making almost no sound because of the thick blanket of snow that covered the ground. Only snorts were heard from these silent creatures when they flipped their head up because of the falling snow that was aggravating them. They glided through the forest so softly and swiftly, it looked like they were flying. The herd of deer vanished into the white, snowy forest as quickly as they came, and it could’ve been a dream except for the hoof prints they left in the snow.
I climbed down from the frost covered tree and jumped down into the snow, shaking off snow from the tree onto me as I jumped. I silently wandered in the direction the deer went through this winter wonderland hearing no sound but the crunching of snow under my feet. Suddenly, I heard an eerie yelp in the direction I was walking, ripping me out of my own thoughts. Not knowing what the yelp was, I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and kept on walking, knowing that I had to get home by going this way. As I proceeded closer to the frozen river, the yelps got louder, eerier, and more consistent. Not knowing what I was going to find through the brush up ahead, I broke off a snow covered stick and proceeded forward through the frost covered brush.
I could barely believe my eyes in what I had found when I walked through the brush. Lying just across the brush next to the rock-solid river in the clearing, was a young fawn, curled up in a ball on top of red snow. I slowly walked over to the deer with my hands outstretched, trying to make no noise, but that was impossible with the snow crunching under my boots. The deer's eyes got wider the closer I got, but the yelps had stopped. Just before I had reached the deer, a frightened squirrel scampered through the trees above, knocking a pile of snow onto the deer and me. I could tell the deer was even more frightened because through the white blur of snow the squirrel knocked down onto the deer, I saw the startled deer jump up in fright; but it quickly sank back down when it recognized the pain of its injury. Once the white blur snow cleared away, I walked just a couple more steps towards the deer and then sank down into the cold, soft snow.
I slowly reached out my hand towards the deer and softly stroked its grayish-brown, snow-covered, damp back. The deer's' eyes got very wide the first time I stroked it, but it calmed the more I stroked its short, soft fur. Since the deer seemed to be more trusting after I stroked it, I started to look for the injury and found blood seeping out of its leg. As I bent towards it leg to examine it further, the deer frightened, jumped up, trying to bolt, stepped on my hand in the process, and fell back down, only inches from where it first lay. "Easy girl, shhh," I softly spoke to the deer, stroking its back, while watching the perfectly white snow turn a crimson red. I unwrapped my grey scarf and slowly reached towards the deer's leg. Frightened, but willing, the deer let me scoop out a hole in the snow, just under the deer's injury, staining my hands a deep red. I slid the scarf into the hole, and started to pull the scarf over the top of the deer's leg. More trusting than before, the deer, shaking, let me tightly wrap the scarf around the deer's leg to stop the bleeding.
Since the young fawn looked be born premature, I scooped the deer up into my arms, along with some snow, while the deer tried to escape with its front legs by kicking because its back leg was injured. I walked, slowly, towards the frozen river, while the deer proceeded to panic even more. I saw a small, jagged hole in the ice, about the size of a deer's hoof. "So that's what happened to the deer," I whispered under my breath. "It fell in." I walked further away from the hole in the ice and crossed the river where I knew it was frozen solidly, with the deer panicking in my arms.
As I walked through the snow-covered forest, the deer settled in my arms and fell asleep, leaving me only to my thoughts, and the crunching of the snow under my boots. When I emerged out of the wooded winter wonderland, I climbed up and over the frozen fence to our paddock without using my hands because the deer was still curled up in my arms. When I jumped down off snow-covered fence, the deer, sleepily opened its eyes and looked around. Seeming to trust me, it stayed still as I walked across the paddock and through the gate. I walked across our lawn to the front porch. I cautiously walked up the frozen steps, making them squeak as I went, then slipped my boots off at the front door. I turned the doorknob with my elbow, pushed the door with my foot, and entered into my warm, cozy house. I closed the front door with my foot to keep the wind from entering our house, walked a few paces, then knelt down on my knees and set the fawn on the rug in front of the blazing fire. I slipped off my coat and placed it on the coat rack, then sank back down next to the fawn in front of the fire, stroking its head.
After sitting next to the fawn by the fire, I rose and walked through the dining room into the kitchen to grab a sponge and some warm water to clean the fawns wound. I peeked into the library next to the kitchen; and I saw my older, mean brother, Rob, sitting in a chair, sound asleep. Disgusted, I left the kitchen and went back to the fawn carrying the bucket and sponge. The reason I was mad at my brother is because my parents were away for the day and weren’t coming back late into the night, and he was supposed to be in charge and working around the house. I sank back down next to the fawn and placed the bucket down carefully next to me. As I started to unwrap the wet, now red scarf, the fawn looked up at me with questioning in her pitch black eyes. “Its ok,” I whispered to the fawn, “I’m going to take care of you.” She fretted very little, and I finally succeeded in unwrapping the scarf.
When I sponged the deer's wound off with the warm water, she barely fretted, and I realized the seriousness of the injury. The wound was deep; all the way to the bone, but I cleaned the wound and luckily it stopped bleeding. "Stay still," I whispered to the deer as I rushed out the room, taking the soaking scarf with me. I went into the laundry room and threw my scarf into the washer, knowing that it was permanently red, and I grabbed a huge roll of gauze and a pack of tape. Quickly walking back into the den, I knelt down by the fawn and proceeded to wrap the wound. This time was slightly harder last time because I had to hold the fawn's leg instead of digging a hole in the snow. I could tell that this put the fawn in pain because the whites of her eyes where showing and she kept trying to jump up and escape the pain to no avail.
After about fifteen minutes of trying to wrap the deer's leg while keeping her still, I finally finished wrapping her leg, and I went to put the gauze away. When I walked out of the laundry room, I looked to my right and saw the deer, curled up into a ball, resting by the fireplace. Satisfied that the deer was resting, I walked into the kitchen and pulled the jug of milk out of the fridge. I searched for a baby bottle to feed the deer by opening and closing various drawers and cabinets until I found an eye dropper. "This will have to do," I sighed to myself. As I was pouring the milk into a bowl, my evil, older step-brother, Rob, came walking into the kitchen rubbing his eye's from sleeping because I had awakened him by opening and closing the many drawers and cabinets.
"What are you up to, twerp?" Rob asked.
"I'm warming some milk," I quickly responded, knowing that Rob would hate what I had done.
"Ok, weirdo," Rob replied, "Oh, and by the way, Kaylee," Rob said, "I'm going upstairs to, uh, finish some work. You'll have to feed the animals and fix dinner. My work will take me awhile."
"Fine," I answered, forgetting about the fawn curled up on the carpet. The minute Rob walked out of the kitchen and into the den, I remembered about the fawn and panicked for a minute; but it seemed like Rob didn't notice because he turned right, then left, and walked up the back stairs. "That was close," I whispered to myself. Rob hates animals, and he especially hates when I rescue them because I end up keeping them as a pet. I first rescued my dog, Panda, from an old barn because a huge piece of wood had fallen on him and trapped him. I named him Panda because he has the exact markings of a Panda. I also rescued my horse, Firefly, from a huge ditch she had fallen and had been trapped. Firefly was named so because of her glossy black color, that made her look like a midnight sky, and the white roan markings on the butt that look like fireflies. The microwave dinged, snapping me out of my fantasy and awakening me to the real world. I got the bowl of steaming hot milk out of the microwave and shut the microwave door with a bang. Then I grabbed the eye dropper with my empty hand and walked back into the den in front of the fireplace.
I sat down next to the fawn, awakening her from her sleep. She stirred then turned her head and looked up at me sleepily. "There, there, sleepy girl," I said while filling the eye dropper with warm milk. I cradled the deer's head with my free arm and started to push the full eye dropper closer to the fawn's mouth. At first she turned her head up and refused the milk, but then, realizing how hungry she was, she accepted the milk. It took awhile to finish the milk, since I only had a small eye dropper; but when she finally finished drinking, I took my arm from around her neck and let her go back to sleep. Then I walked into the kitchen, and rinsed the bowl and eye dropper in the sink. As I was drying my hands, I walked to the fridge and opened up the refrigerator to see what food Mom had left for me to bake. I saw a pan of unbaked chicken covered in plastic wrap with a note taped on top. While I was carrying the dish out of the fridge and shutting the fridge door with my foot, I read the note: "Dear Kaylee, I hope you have a wonderful day, and I will see you in the morning. Please place the breaded chicken in the oven at 350 degrees for thirty-five minutes. Love you, Mom." I placed the dish on the table, took off the plastic wrap and threw it away. Then I set the oven for 350 degrees and placed the dish in the oven. I walked back through the den to the front door and started putting on my coat. The deer only lifted her head up when I opened the door and a blast of cold air came rushing into the warm house.
The deer looked at me as if she was saying, "Please hurry up and shut the door. It's making me cold." I smiled at the deer then shoved my mittened hands into my pocket. I walked out into the cold, shutting the heavy, wooden door behind me.
The frozen snow crunched under my feet as I walked towards our four-stall barn. I slipped into the tack room, which was across from the wash rack and scooped out two buckets of grain, causing a great racket as the grain clattered into the bucket. I clipped one bucket to a hook in the second stall for our cow, Daisy, and used Firefly's bucket for bait. As I walked out of the cozy, little barn into the wind, I started to shake the bucket of grain to lure Firefly and Daisy in. The clatter of the grain was so loud and obnoxious that Firefly and Daisy come running from anywhere in the six-acre pasture. After shaking the grain for about a minute, I stopped and paused. Looking at the ground, just like I always do, I waited for the sound of thundering hoof beats. The minute I heard that familiar four-beat pace, I lifted my head just in time to see Firefly and Daisy flying up the snow-covered hill, flinging snow everywhere as they went. They slammed into a dead stop the minute they got to the frosted gate, throwing chunks of snow everywhere and waited for me to let them in the barn. I opened the gate, and they patiently followed me around the barn blowing their warm breath on me as we went. The minute Firefly stepped into the barn behind me, I heard the familiar, comforting, clip-clop sound of her shoes hitting the concrete floor as she headed for her stall. I walked just past Firefly's stall door and let her enter her stall and turn around. When she entered and turned around, her blanket brushed against the wooden stall making a sound that made me cringe. Then I clipped her feed bucket to the hook in her stall and shut the door with a slam that echoed throughout the barn. When I turned around, I was startled to see Daisy standing behind me. I gave her a quick pat on the nose then tugged on her blanket to fix it's position. Firefly also had a blanket on but always kept it in the proper position. I gave Daisy a quick smack on the butt, and she ambled into her stall. Then I slammed her door; and before I walked out of the barn, I paused for a minute to listen to the soothing sound of grain being munched on then I walked out of the barn and slid the barn doors shut.
The minute I walked in the house through the back door, the oven timer was six seconds from going off so I quickly shut the door, ran to the oven, and turned it off, right as the first beep started. Then I sat the pan of chicken down on the table on top of a pot holder and set the table. Right as I finished setting the table, I heard Rob come out of his room and slam his door. “Oh, no,” I exclaimed under my breath, “Rob’s coming.” I rushed out into the den and scooped up the sleepy fawn and started running for the front stairs because Rob was coming down the back stairs.
“Is dinner ready?” Rob called out angrily.
“Yes, but I have to get something upstairs. I’ll be back down,” I replied in a panic.
“Fine,” Rob roared. I rushed upstairs as quickly as I could and ran the fawn into my room. When I opened the door to my room, I found Panda locked in my room.
“I’m so sorry, boy. I didn’t know you were in here,” I said. Then I placed the fawn on the rug in my room, and rushed out of the room, scooting Panda out of my room. I shut the door quickly, to keep Rob from finding the fawn until mom and dad got home. I ran down stairs, shaking the steps as I went and flew into the kitchen.
"Where were you?" Rob angrily asked.
"I was putting something away and getting Panda," I responded.
"Ugh, Panda," Rob groaned. Then Rob reached out his leg from where he was seated and kicked Panda.
"Stop it," I yelled, "you're so mean."
"Thank you. Now, can you sit down so I can eat?" Rob evilly demanded.
“Sure,” I replied, sinking into a wooden chair. Then I served each of us a piece of chicken and started to eat. The meal was delicious but awkwardly silent. The only sound was Panda, occasionally whining for food.
“That’s it,” Rob yelled, the last time Panda whined. “I told you to feed the animals, and you didn’t do it,” Rob said, now yelling at me.
“Yes,” I replied, “but when I got back from feeding Firefly and Daisy, the meal was done; and you wanted to eat dinner.”
“Fine,” Rob said, knowing that he was proven wrong, “I’m going to eat in my room.” I finished my silent meal then put the chicken in the fridge and my plate in the sink. I scooped Panda’s food for him and walked upstairs to my room.
The steps squeaked eerily as I walked upstairs to my room. I opened the door to my room, walked in, then quickly shut the door, not bothering to look at my bed.
“Well, hello,” and evil voice said from the corner.
I jumped and turned to look at my bed and saw an angry Rob, sitting on my bed with a bunch of rope in his hands.
“What are you doing in here?” I cried, “and what have you done to the fawn?” I questioned.
"What fawn?" Rob teased, "Oh that thing. She's fine. She's just tied up right now," Rob said and snickered.
"Let her go," I demanded walking towards Rob until I saw the fawn, on the floor, whimpering and shaking then I stopping moving.
"I said, let her go," I screamed.
Rob sat unmoving and said, "I'll release her as soon as I get to Kansas."
"Wait, Kansas? Why Kansas?"
"Why not?" Rob replied, "I've always wanted to get away from everyone here. They all think I'm a bad person."
"Well you are," I said under my breath, interrupting Rob.
"What was that?" Rob demanded.
"Nothing," I said, "continue."
"Well, like I said, everyone thinks I'm bad so I'm leaving, tonight. You and your precious fawn are leaving tonight too."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Since you're the baby of the family," Rob said, "I figured Mom and Dad would be pretty distraught if you were gone."
"I'm not going with you to Kansas," I said firmly.
"Oh, you're not going to Kansas," Rob said laughing. I was just about to speak when I was thrown to the floor, knocking the breath out of me.
"What are you doing?" I asked Rob, gasping for breath, "get off of me," I demanded.
"Fine, I'll get off of you," Rob said. The second Rob got off of me, he flipped me over with a thump, and pressed his foot on me, crushing me into the floor.
"Stop it," I tried to say, but my mouth was on the floor.
"What was that?" Rob said laughing. Then he grabbed my hands and tied them so tightly behind my back that my hands went numb. Then he proceeded to tie my feet just as tightly. Once he finished tightly tying me up, he flipped me back over onto my back. Then, I sat up and screamed.
I was in the middle of screaming when Rob thrust a iron pole at my head. Before I could move, the iron pole came hurling down and crashed onto my head. Then, all was black.
I awoke cold and shivering with a headache. I looked around and realized that I was in the middle of the snow-covered forest, but I had no idea exactly where I was. I heard a yelp and turned around. There, nestled up against my back, the fawn sat, tied up and yelping.
"Its ok," I said trying to soothe the fawn, and myself. I was freezing because I had no coat on, and small, sparkling snow flakes were falling onto me. I turned around, noticing the Rob was nice enough to leave a blanket and inched myself sideways next to the fawn to try and untie the tight knot around the fawn's legs, and to try and help keep us warm. My hands were a reddish blue color and numb, but I tried my best to undo the knot around the fawn's leg. The fawn lay silently in the snow, knowing that I was helping her; and I would only occasionally hear a crunch coming from the fawn and I assumed that she was eating the snow that was piled up all around us.
Eventually, just when my numb hands where about to give out, the knot loosened; and I slipped the rope from the deer's legs. Then I turned, only to realize that the deer had chewed the rope off that had tied my feet together. "What a good girl," I cooed at the deer. Then, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get the rope off from around my wrists, I stood up and stepped through my hands so that my hands were now tied in front of me. I walked a couple steps towards the blanket that had carelessly been thrust close to the deer, and I stooped down and picked it up. After that, I shook off the snow as best as I could and wrapped it like a cape around me. I stepped towards the fawn, and scooped her up into my arms, cradling her next to me for the warmth for both of us. Next, I wrapped the blanket around the fawn, to try and help ward of the biting, winter wind. Not knowing which way to head for home, I searched for footprints. Finding none, because the snow had covered them up, I set off desperately hoping to find familiar landmarks to lead me home.
After walking for hours trying to find my way back home, I sank hopelessly exhausted and tired into the snow. By now it was completely pitch black and had been for hours. It was also the coldest and windiest part of the night so I huddled tighter into the blanket next to the fawn. Leaning back against a hard, frozen tree, I tried to get some sleep.
I must've only been asleep for a few hours because I was awakened sharply by the sound of wolves howling when it was still pitch black. The howling also awakened the fawn because she tensed up in my arms and buried herself closer to my chest. I slowly stood up because I was so tired and hungry. Walking was the last thing I wanted to do right then, but I proceeded forward in the direction I was headed before I fell asleep, away from the wolves. It was all a dreary daze to me as I stumbled over my own feet rushing to get home and away from the wolves that seemed to be gaining on me with every step I took. Just when I thought that I couldn't go on moving this fast and that the hungry, cold, mangy wolves would devour me, the incessant howling stopped. Stunned, I stopped jogging and listened but not a sound was heard. Relieved, I continued walking, but at a much slower pace, to frightened to try and sleep again.
Just as the sky was turning an orangey red after walking for about another hour and finding no familiar landmarks, I came to a clearing and stopped dead in my tracks. Right in front of me was the frozen river and to my right was the pile of crimson red snow.
"I've found it!" I excitedly exclaimed. Starting off with a new pep in my step knowing that I was close to home, I crossed the frozen river and set off eagerly for home.
The minute I emerged from the frozen woods, I quickly hopped over the fence and started running up the hill. I must've been a sight because when I got to the top of the hill, I saw Mom and Dad so I shouted out, "Mom, Dad, I'm back!" They turned and looked at me then rushed to the gate. They didn't even bother to open the gate; they just flew over the fence and came running to me.
I would've been engulfed in a huge bear hug that would've injured the fawn further, if I didn't call out, "Stop. Don't hurt the fawn."
Mom and Dad slid to a stop and simultaneously asked, "What fawn? What do you mean?"
I unwrapped the blanket from around me and said, "This is what I mean. I found her yesterday, injured in the woods and I took her home to help her, but then I got tied up and knocked out and was lost in the woods."
"What?" Mom and Dad asked shocked. "What do you mean?"
"I have a lot to tell you," I said as I started off for the house.
"Yes you do," Mom said. "Let's get you inside and get you warmed up."
"Ah, heat. That sounds great!" I said. "I've been out here forever."
"What do you mean?" Dad almost yelled.
"Lets just say that Rob kidnapped me and left me in a unknown part of the forest."
I could see Dad's face turn a bright red as we walked towards the house so I left the subject unfinished. To break the silence, I asked, "Can we keep her?"
"Who?" Mom questioned.
"The fawn," I replied.
"Of course," Mom replied shaking her head with a smile. We headed across the frozen yard towards our warm, little house with everything working out. The only thing that didn't work out was Rob being gone, but that didn't bother me.
"The Alien Invasion Nobody Knows About"
by Jay Burnett, Grade 8
“My life stinks,” Ben grumbled. “I have one friend! Everybody at school make fun of me, and the others just ignore me.”
Ben was pencil thin. His parents were always urging him to bulk up, but he never did. His red hair and splattering of freckles didn’t fit his rail-thin body. Ben was known by everyone at school as the Littlest Viking because of his Viking-like red hair and tiny build.
“What are you going to do about it?” Jerry, his only friend, scoffed. Jerry wasn’t impressed by Ben’s self-pity. “You’re the only reason you have only one friend and no one notices you.”
Jerry was the kind of guy nobody notices, not that he cared. He was quiet, average height and weight. The only thing somebody might notice about him was the immaculately kept mini-afro he sported. He and Ben had met when they worked on a science project together in fourth grade.
“That’s it!” Ben exclaimed. “We’ve got to do something so big; everyone will have to notice us.
“Oh no, not again!” Jerry thought, exasperated. Jerry had been Ben’s companion on many similar ideas, and they never ended well. In fact, the last one had ended up with him breaking an arm while trying to jump over a river on a two-seated bicycle in front of the whole sixth grade. “Oh no, I am not tagging along with you on another of your crazy schemes!” he said. “Remember my arm?”
It was too late; Ben tuned out the outside world and was busy thinking up an escapade for them to act out. His mind was hard at work. Could we . . . build a rocket? Nah, that’s too hard. Maybe we could do synchronized pogo stick back flips? Nope, there’s no way Jerry’s doing that . . . Oh! We could . . .
“WHOOM!” there was a flash of light that momentarily blinded both of the boys. When they could see again, they saw a mechanical creature. It had a human head with blue skin inside a glass dome. The glass dome was supported by a metal “bowl” with seven jointed metal legs on the bottom; three on each side and one in the back. The glass dome receded into the metal bowl and the head took a deep breath, reveling in the fresh air.
Jerry, never the bravest person, screamed.
“Greetings,” the creature said.
“It talks!” Ben had been too amazed by the creature’s appearance to scream. “If that’s an alien, I’ve got to get a picture!” he thought.
“My name is Merp, not “it”. And of course I talk!” The creature was getting angry.
“Okay, okay,” Jerry soothed. “We’ve just never seen anything like you!”
Merp calmed down and became friendlier. “I am the Skidalien ambassador to Earth,” he stated. “I’m looking for the founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.”
“This is an opportunity . . . We’ll be the most popular kids around if we can get proof that we met a real alien! I’ll just go along with whatever he wants until we can get some concrete evidence,” Ben inwardly grinned.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” he said, drowning out Jerry’s response. “I’m Ben, and this is Jerry.”
“Great!” Merp said. “The Skidalien King would like to talk with you. He wishes to discuss the fulfillment of a deal you made.”
“What deal?” Ben asked.
Merp shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“We need to talk about this in private,” Jerry said.
Merp was eager to oblige, “Talk all you want!”
Ben knew what Jerry wanted to talk about; coming clean.
“Ben, this is a huge risk. You know my rule about risks, “Jerry said. “No risk….”
“Is a worthwhile risk,” Ben finished. “But this is the biggest thing that will happen in our entire lives!”
Jerry was an immovable mountain, “I’m not doing it.”
“Then I’ll go alone!” Ben snapped.
Ben knew he’d made a mistake, “Oh man! Way to go, genius! I just walked out on your only friend! Maybe this opportunity isn’t worth it . . . He’s stuck by my side throughout everything. But this is so big! It’s a small price to pay . . . He turned and walked away, dismissing the hurt look on Jerry’s face from his mind.
“I’ll go and speak with your king,” Ben told Merp. “Jerry won’t come, though.”
“Why not?” the Skidalien asked.
Ben struggled for a response that wouldn’t reveal their real identity, “He doesn’t want to leave his dad. His mom died in childbirth, and Jerry is all he has. It might kill him if Jerry went missing.”
Ben was proud of his concoction, but then he realized how instinctual it was for him to lie. Do I lie that much? He wondered. Thinking back; he realized that yes, he did lie that much. Does that make me a liar? He’d never given any thought before, and he wasn’t going to start know; he had proof to get!
As Ben shook off those thoughts, Merp replied. “The king specifically requested both of you. We’ll have him back before tonight if the negotiations go as planned.”
As Ben fished for an answer, Jerry stepped out from behind the building with a scowl on his face. He was preparing to speak when Merp announced that they were leaving. A high-tech “blaster” popped out of a compartment in the metal bowl, and Merp trained it on Ben and Jerry.
“Y-y-y-y-you don’t m-m-m-mean leave the earth, do you?” Jerry forgot all about his confession in his haste to get away from the Skidalien who was going, he thought, to kill him.
Merp misunderstood him. “Of course!” he cried. A green beam of light came out of the barrel and hit both boys. Ben and Jerry were taken apart atom by atom. Their feet went first, slowly dissolving into nothingness. They shrank as the beam steadily swept over their bodies and reached their hearts. At this moment they thought their last thoughts.
I wish I could apologize to Jerry for dragging him into this mess. Ben thought...
Half a Second later:
“Wow! That was amazing!” Ben was amazed at how advanced the Skidaliens’ technology was. The “gun” Merp had pulled out hadn’t killed them, but transported their dissected molecules to a space ship where they’d been reconstructed.
Jerry was fervently making sure that he was all there. “I can’t believe you did that!” he indignantly said to Merp.
“I saw no need. You’d have gotten here anyway,” the Skidalien replied.
Merp proceeded to lead them into a metal hallway. Still angry, Jerry walked on the opposite side of Merp as Ben. In about ten minutes they reached the Throne Room. A trumpet fanfare sounded as the trio strode confidently into the chamber. As they walked in, they couldn’t help but notice the throne. It wasn’t a throne in a traditional sense; it was a large, floating cushion that supported the king’s folded legs. It could also move quite fast. The king moved around checking this screen and that among the crew members. The king wasn’t that different in terms of looks from the other Skidaliens Ben and Jerry had seen. The only difference was the complex control panel attached to his metal torso. It controlled various functions of the ship and the Skidaliens’ large drone force. He was waiting for them when they entered. When they reached the foot of the throne, Merp folded his legs and performed a Skidalien bow. Sensing that they needed to follow suit, Ben and Jerry also bowed awkwardly. “You may rise,” the king’s voice reverberated through the chamber.
Standing straight again, Merp said, “Your Highness, these are the two humans you sent for.”
“See that refreshments are brought for our guests, ambassador.” The King wanted his guests to be comfortable before he got down to business. After Ben and Jerry had been taken care of, the king began,
“You know why I have brought you here today. In accordance with our agreement fifteen years ago, I have returned for my cup of delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.”
“They made an agreement? This wasn’t in the plan! I hope he’ll let us go after he realizes we don’t have any . . . Ben was becoming less and less thrilled.
He looked at them expectantly. When they produced no ice cream, he was irritated. “Well, where is the ice cream?”
“Were we supposed to bring you some?” Ben questioned.
“Of course!” the king exclaimed. “You did, didn’t you?”
“What would happen if we said no?” Ben cautiously asked.
“I will have no choice but to destroy the planet you humans inhabit if you do not deliver within three earth days. It’s in Section 4, Clause A of our contract,” the King said matter-of-factly.
“What contract?” Jerry desperately asked. “We never signed any contract! We’re not the Ben and Jerry you want! They died sixty years ago!” Wow, this is serious! I’m seriously starting to regret that lie now. Ben was seeing the consequences of his dishonesty for the first time and he wasn’t liking it.
“Of course you signed the contract! The Great Time Traveling Hamster has taken us to the correct time period to find the original signers!” the king cried with conviction. Ben switched topics, not wanting to dwell on their identity theft any longer.
“Maybe you don’t need the ice cream,” he tried.
“Yeah,” Jerry agreed, “why do you need it so badly?”
“I have my reasons,” The king replied. “All you need to know is that you have three days to get me what I ask for before your home world goes bye-bye.”
“But . . .”
“No buts,” The king shouted, “Merp, take them to their quarters!” That didn’t go well. Maybe I shouldn’t have misled Merp,” Ben thought. Merp silently went over the boys from were he’d stood by the door. Looking sympathetic, he herded them towards a green hallway.
Later, in the roomy chambers, Ben and Jerry put their earlier quarrel aside and were thinking up a plan.
“If we’re stuck on this ship we can’t do anything,” Ben said.
“True, it’s not like they have any ice cream onboard.”
“That’s it! We have to get off the ship somehow, get a cup of ice cream, and get back within three days.” Ben had realized that this was bigger than his personal desire to experience everything the Skidaliens had to offer.
“Three days is nothing. The real problem is getting off the ship.”
They chewed on this for a moment before Ben remembered Merp’s face as he led them to their room.
“I have an idea!”
“What is it?” Jerry asked.
“Remember that on the way to the throne room, Merp said he had room for two boys like us in his storage compartments?”
“Yes . . . “
“What if he put us in there, beamed himself down to earth, and beamed back up without us?”
"I hate to say it, but it’s all we have," Jerry agreed. “I’m in.”
“Rise and shine, boys!” Merp cheerfully walked into the room the next morning. His good mood dissipated when he saw Jerry, “I’m sorry about you not being back within a day,” he said sincerely.
“I’ve got a mom and two sisters,” Jerry stated.
“You . . . you lied?” Merp looked at Ben.
“Yeah . . . I wanted to go with you so I could brag about it,” Ben stared intently at his shoes. That didn’t go well. I guess I never really thought about how he’d feel. Then he realized that he had offended the first alien he’d met. At least I can brag about that . . .
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Merp was obviously upset. “That’s a lousy reason to agree to anything!”
“That aside, we need your help,” Jerry said
“It depends on what “help” it is,” Merp said, not looking at Ben.
“We need you to fit us in your storage compartments and beam down to earth so we can get a cup of ice cream,” Jerry explained.
“Sure, I can do that,” Merp said.
“Yes!” Jerry exclaimed.
“With one condition,” Merp finished. Jerry stopped mid-celebration.
“I have to tell the King where you’ve gone,” Merp said apologetically.
“That’s not too bad, what can he do?” Ben scoffed naively.
On Planet earth:
Jerry’s communication watch beeped: Merp here, the king is furious, he’s decided to destroy the world! But before he does, he wants to capture you. He has sent an elite force of soldiers to do just that! Meap’s voice was barely hearable through the watch.
“How much time do we have?” Jerry asked as he began to run. The watch beeped again: The troops are leaving now!
“Thanks for the news,” Jerry shut off his watch. “We’ve got to run,” he told Ben, “the king has sent armed forces to capture us!”
“Wow, maybe this wasn’t worth it.” Ben realized. “I shouldn’t be so eager to hide the truth for personal gain . . I’ve really got to start working on restraint.”
“There they are!” Ben cried. A statement has never been so true; the Skidalien equivalent of Seal Team 6 had just dropped in thirty yards behind them. If they hadn’t been running before, they were running now! All talk ceased as all their attention became focused on outrunning the Skidaliens charged with their capture.
“Left,” Ben grunted, panting. They turned down a side street towards the shopping plaza. Jerry looked back and saw nothing.
“They’ve turned invisible!” he yelled to his companion. Ben later thought that they must have made quite a sight on the busy Brooklyn Street. Two kids running like star athletes at the Olympics for no apparent reason. Were they running from something? Towards something? Had they stolen something? Ben saw an opportunity to escape from the invisible menaces. “Turn into that street . . . climb onto that dumpster . . . and get on the roof of the building.” His sentence was cut into pieces by his ragged breathing.
They executed the plan, and from the rooftop heard clacking footsteps rush past. The Skidaliens uncloaked themselves and slowed down at the loss of their targets. The boys drew back from the edge of the rooftop, and silently began to jump from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of their goal. Before they’d gotten far, Jerry slipped and fell to the metal of the roof. He let out a loud “ooff!” as he landed. The Skidaliens heard the sound and jumped up on the roof to look around. Ben and Jerry were the first things they saw. The Skidaliens ran after them with renewed speed, determined not to lose them again.
The roofs ended in another ten feet, and Ben and Jerry skidded to a stop at the edge. They looked down and then turned around and faced the approaching Skidaliens.
“Give up, humans,” said the leader. “There is no where else for you to run.” The Skidalien slowly pulled a beaming laser out of its compartment and focused it on the boys. Ben and Jerry looked at each other, and stepped backwards off the edge. Ben fought the urge to reach out for the roof to slow his fall. He forced himself to go limp so the Skidaliens wouldn’t suspect anything. Once out of the Skidaliens sight line, he and Jerry twisted to land on their feet on a conveniently placed mattress just below a window. Jerry bounced of the mattress first, and broke the glass of the window. When Ben followed they ran through the building, hoping the Aliens hadn’t seen them. They walked straight to the ice cream aisle. “I hope it doesn’t matter what flavor,” Ben stated. Just to be safe, he grabbed a cup of Carmel Chew Chew, the number one all time favorite flavor.
“Wait! Do you have any money?” Jerry asked. “I don’t.”
“Well I do!” Ben exclaimed. He bought it and the twosome took a deep breath and went outside to confront the Skidaliens. The truth would now be told.
“We have collected the item that your King has requested!” Ben said as they approached them.
“Will you stop resisting capture?”
“We will return with diplomatic immunity only.” Jerry stole that line from his favorite spy movie.
“Sure,” the leader said as he focused his laser. The beam of light formed an octagon this time, but the process was just as fast. They landed in the throne room.
“You betrayed my trust,” the King boomed as Ben and Jerry moved to stand in front of the throne. “I trusted you to stay on the ship, and the first chance you get, you’re gone!”
“We left in order to get the ice cream you wanted, Your Highness.” Jerry was laying it on thick. “Here it is.” He proffered the sweet treat to the king.
“The King snatched it, ripped the top off, and licked the ice cream slowly, “It’s just as good as it was fifteen years ago! Wait, the packaging is different! This isn’t the right time after all!”
“I told you we weren’t the real Ben and Jerry,” Jerry said.
“You lied to my ambassador!” the King couldn’t believe it. “There will be consequences for this. I won’t destroy your planet, but I will require a cup of ice cream every year. You are dismissed!” The king turned away. The tension in the room receded like a falling wave. Ben and Jerry were taken back to the beaming Hangar where they said goodbye to their friend Merp.
“I’m sorry,” Ben apologized. “I should’ve listened to you from the start.”
“Yeah, you should’ve,” Jerry agreed.
“I think I’ve learned my lesson. Lies are wretched things.”
“What about recognition? Did you learn that lesson too?”
“Yeah, we’ll do smaller things now.”
“Arrrgh!” Jerry huffed. They continued the walk home in silence.
by Jay Burnett, Grade 8
“My life stinks,” Ben grumbled. “I have one friend! Everybody at school make fun of me, and the others just ignore me.”
Ben was pencil thin. His parents were always urging him to bulk up, but he never did. His red hair and splattering of freckles didn’t fit his rail-thin body. Ben was known by everyone at school as the Littlest Viking because of his Viking-like red hair and tiny build.
“What are you going to do about it?” Jerry, his only friend, scoffed. Jerry wasn’t impressed by Ben’s self-pity. “You’re the only reason you have only one friend and no one notices you.”
Jerry was the kind of guy nobody notices, not that he cared. He was quiet, average height and weight. The only thing somebody might notice about him was the immaculately kept mini-afro he sported. He and Ben had met when they worked on a science project together in fourth grade.
“That’s it!” Ben exclaimed. “We’ve got to do something so big; everyone will have to notice us.
“Oh no, not again!” Jerry thought, exasperated. Jerry had been Ben’s companion on many similar ideas, and they never ended well. In fact, the last one had ended up with him breaking an arm while trying to jump over a river on a two-seated bicycle in front of the whole sixth grade. “Oh no, I am not tagging along with you on another of your crazy schemes!” he said. “Remember my arm?”
It was too late; Ben tuned out the outside world and was busy thinking up an escapade for them to act out. His mind was hard at work. Could we . . . build a rocket? Nah, that’s too hard. Maybe we could do synchronized pogo stick back flips? Nope, there’s no way Jerry’s doing that . . . Oh! We could . . .
“WHOOM!” there was a flash of light that momentarily blinded both of the boys. When they could see again, they saw a mechanical creature. It had a human head with blue skin inside a glass dome. The glass dome was supported by a metal “bowl” with seven jointed metal legs on the bottom; three on each side and one in the back. The glass dome receded into the metal bowl and the head took a deep breath, reveling in the fresh air.
Jerry, never the bravest person, screamed.
“Greetings,” the creature said.
“It talks!” Ben had been too amazed by the creature’s appearance to scream. “If that’s an alien, I’ve got to get a picture!” he thought.
“My name is Merp, not “it”. And of course I talk!” The creature was getting angry.
“Okay, okay,” Jerry soothed. “We’ve just never seen anything like you!”
Merp calmed down and became friendlier. “I am the Skidalien ambassador to Earth,” he stated. “I’m looking for the founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.”
“This is an opportunity . . . We’ll be the most popular kids around if we can get proof that we met a real alien! I’ll just go along with whatever he wants until we can get some concrete evidence,” Ben inwardly grinned.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” he said, drowning out Jerry’s response. “I’m Ben, and this is Jerry.”
“Great!” Merp said. “The Skidalien King would like to talk with you. He wishes to discuss the fulfillment of a deal you made.”
“What deal?” Ben asked.
Merp shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“We need to talk about this in private,” Jerry said.
Merp was eager to oblige, “Talk all you want!”
Ben knew what Jerry wanted to talk about; coming clean.
“Ben, this is a huge risk. You know my rule about risks, “Jerry said. “No risk….”
“Is a worthwhile risk,” Ben finished. “But this is the biggest thing that will happen in our entire lives!”
Jerry was an immovable mountain, “I’m not doing it.”
“Then I’ll go alone!” Ben snapped.
Ben knew he’d made a mistake, “Oh man! Way to go, genius! I just walked out on your only friend! Maybe this opportunity isn’t worth it . . . He’s stuck by my side throughout everything. But this is so big! It’s a small price to pay . . . He turned and walked away, dismissing the hurt look on Jerry’s face from his mind.
“I’ll go and speak with your king,” Ben told Merp. “Jerry won’t come, though.”
“Why not?” the Skidalien asked.
Ben struggled for a response that wouldn’t reveal their real identity, “He doesn’t want to leave his dad. His mom died in childbirth, and Jerry is all he has. It might kill him if Jerry went missing.”
Ben was proud of his concoction, but then he realized how instinctual it was for him to lie. Do I lie that much? He wondered. Thinking back; he realized that yes, he did lie that much. Does that make me a liar? He’d never given any thought before, and he wasn’t going to start know; he had proof to get!
As Ben shook off those thoughts, Merp replied. “The king specifically requested both of you. We’ll have him back before tonight if the negotiations go as planned.”
As Ben fished for an answer, Jerry stepped out from behind the building with a scowl on his face. He was preparing to speak when Merp announced that they were leaving. A high-tech “blaster” popped out of a compartment in the metal bowl, and Merp trained it on Ben and Jerry.
“Y-y-y-y-you don’t m-m-m-mean leave the earth, do you?” Jerry forgot all about his confession in his haste to get away from the Skidalien who was going, he thought, to kill him.
Merp misunderstood him. “Of course!” he cried. A green beam of light came out of the barrel and hit both boys. Ben and Jerry were taken apart atom by atom. Their feet went first, slowly dissolving into nothingness. They shrank as the beam steadily swept over their bodies and reached their hearts. At this moment they thought their last thoughts.
I wish I could apologize to Jerry for dragging him into this mess. Ben thought...
Half a Second later:
“Wow! That was amazing!” Ben was amazed at how advanced the Skidaliens’ technology was. The “gun” Merp had pulled out hadn’t killed them, but transported their dissected molecules to a space ship where they’d been reconstructed.
Jerry was fervently making sure that he was all there. “I can’t believe you did that!” he indignantly said to Merp.
“I saw no need. You’d have gotten here anyway,” the Skidalien replied.
Merp proceeded to lead them into a metal hallway. Still angry, Jerry walked on the opposite side of Merp as Ben. In about ten minutes they reached the Throne Room. A trumpet fanfare sounded as the trio strode confidently into the chamber. As they walked in, they couldn’t help but notice the throne. It wasn’t a throne in a traditional sense; it was a large, floating cushion that supported the king’s folded legs. It could also move quite fast. The king moved around checking this screen and that among the crew members. The king wasn’t that different in terms of looks from the other Skidaliens Ben and Jerry had seen. The only difference was the complex control panel attached to his metal torso. It controlled various functions of the ship and the Skidaliens’ large drone force. He was waiting for them when they entered. When they reached the foot of the throne, Merp folded his legs and performed a Skidalien bow. Sensing that they needed to follow suit, Ben and Jerry also bowed awkwardly. “You may rise,” the king’s voice reverberated through the chamber.
Standing straight again, Merp said, “Your Highness, these are the two humans you sent for.”
“See that refreshments are brought for our guests, ambassador.” The King wanted his guests to be comfortable before he got down to business. After Ben and Jerry had been taken care of, the king began,
“You know why I have brought you here today. In accordance with our agreement fifteen years ago, I have returned for my cup of delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.”
“They made an agreement? This wasn’t in the plan! I hope he’ll let us go after he realizes we don’t have any . . . Ben was becoming less and less thrilled.
He looked at them expectantly. When they produced no ice cream, he was irritated. “Well, where is the ice cream?”
“Were we supposed to bring you some?” Ben questioned.
“Of course!” the king exclaimed. “You did, didn’t you?”
“What would happen if we said no?” Ben cautiously asked.
“I will have no choice but to destroy the planet you humans inhabit if you do not deliver within three earth days. It’s in Section 4, Clause A of our contract,” the King said matter-of-factly.
“What contract?” Jerry desperately asked. “We never signed any contract! We’re not the Ben and Jerry you want! They died sixty years ago!” Wow, this is serious! I’m seriously starting to regret that lie now. Ben was seeing the consequences of his dishonesty for the first time and he wasn’t liking it.
“Of course you signed the contract! The Great Time Traveling Hamster has taken us to the correct time period to find the original signers!” the king cried with conviction. Ben switched topics, not wanting to dwell on their identity theft any longer.
“Maybe you don’t need the ice cream,” he tried.
“Yeah,” Jerry agreed, “why do you need it so badly?”
“I have my reasons,” The king replied. “All you need to know is that you have three days to get me what I ask for before your home world goes bye-bye.”
“But . . .”
“No buts,” The king shouted, “Merp, take them to their quarters!” That didn’t go well. Maybe I shouldn’t have misled Merp,” Ben thought. Merp silently went over the boys from were he’d stood by the door. Looking sympathetic, he herded them towards a green hallway.
Later, in the roomy chambers, Ben and Jerry put their earlier quarrel aside and were thinking up a plan.
“If we’re stuck on this ship we can’t do anything,” Ben said.
“True, it’s not like they have any ice cream onboard.”
“That’s it! We have to get off the ship somehow, get a cup of ice cream, and get back within three days.” Ben had realized that this was bigger than his personal desire to experience everything the Skidaliens had to offer.
“Three days is nothing. The real problem is getting off the ship.”
They chewed on this for a moment before Ben remembered Merp’s face as he led them to their room.
“I have an idea!”
“What is it?” Jerry asked.
“Remember that on the way to the throne room, Merp said he had room for two boys like us in his storage compartments?”
“Yes . . . “
“What if he put us in there, beamed himself down to earth, and beamed back up without us?”
"I hate to say it, but it’s all we have," Jerry agreed. “I’m in.”
“Rise and shine, boys!” Merp cheerfully walked into the room the next morning. His good mood dissipated when he saw Jerry, “I’m sorry about you not being back within a day,” he said sincerely.
“I’ve got a mom and two sisters,” Jerry stated.
“You . . . you lied?” Merp looked at Ben.
“Yeah . . . I wanted to go with you so I could brag about it,” Ben stared intently at his shoes. That didn’t go well. I guess I never really thought about how he’d feel. Then he realized that he had offended the first alien he’d met. At least I can brag about that . . .
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Merp was obviously upset. “That’s a lousy reason to agree to anything!”
“That aside, we need your help,” Jerry said
“It depends on what “help” it is,” Merp said, not looking at Ben.
“We need you to fit us in your storage compartments and beam down to earth so we can get a cup of ice cream,” Jerry explained.
“Sure, I can do that,” Merp said.
“Yes!” Jerry exclaimed.
“With one condition,” Merp finished. Jerry stopped mid-celebration.
“I have to tell the King where you’ve gone,” Merp said apologetically.
“That’s not too bad, what can he do?” Ben scoffed naively.
On Planet earth:
Jerry’s communication watch beeped: Merp here, the king is furious, he’s decided to destroy the world! But before he does, he wants to capture you. He has sent an elite force of soldiers to do just that! Meap’s voice was barely hearable through the watch.
“How much time do we have?” Jerry asked as he began to run. The watch beeped again: The troops are leaving now!
“Thanks for the news,” Jerry shut off his watch. “We’ve got to run,” he told Ben, “the king has sent armed forces to capture us!”
“Wow, maybe this wasn’t worth it.” Ben realized. “I shouldn’t be so eager to hide the truth for personal gain . . I’ve really got to start working on restraint.”
“There they are!” Ben cried. A statement has never been so true; the Skidalien equivalent of Seal Team 6 had just dropped in thirty yards behind them. If they hadn’t been running before, they were running now! All talk ceased as all their attention became focused on outrunning the Skidaliens charged with their capture.
“Left,” Ben grunted, panting. They turned down a side street towards the shopping plaza. Jerry looked back and saw nothing.
“They’ve turned invisible!” he yelled to his companion. Ben later thought that they must have made quite a sight on the busy Brooklyn Street. Two kids running like star athletes at the Olympics for no apparent reason. Were they running from something? Towards something? Had they stolen something? Ben saw an opportunity to escape from the invisible menaces. “Turn into that street . . . climb onto that dumpster . . . and get on the roof of the building.” His sentence was cut into pieces by his ragged breathing.
They executed the plan, and from the rooftop heard clacking footsteps rush past. The Skidaliens uncloaked themselves and slowed down at the loss of their targets. The boys drew back from the edge of the rooftop, and silently began to jump from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of their goal. Before they’d gotten far, Jerry slipped and fell to the metal of the roof. He let out a loud “ooff!” as he landed. The Skidaliens heard the sound and jumped up on the roof to look around. Ben and Jerry were the first things they saw. The Skidaliens ran after them with renewed speed, determined not to lose them again.
The roofs ended in another ten feet, and Ben and Jerry skidded to a stop at the edge. They looked down and then turned around and faced the approaching Skidaliens.
“Give up, humans,” said the leader. “There is no where else for you to run.” The Skidalien slowly pulled a beaming laser out of its compartment and focused it on the boys. Ben and Jerry looked at each other, and stepped backwards off the edge. Ben fought the urge to reach out for the roof to slow his fall. He forced himself to go limp so the Skidaliens wouldn’t suspect anything. Once out of the Skidaliens sight line, he and Jerry twisted to land on their feet on a conveniently placed mattress just below a window. Jerry bounced of the mattress first, and broke the glass of the window. When Ben followed they ran through the building, hoping the Aliens hadn’t seen them. They walked straight to the ice cream aisle. “I hope it doesn’t matter what flavor,” Ben stated. Just to be safe, he grabbed a cup of Carmel Chew Chew, the number one all time favorite flavor.
“Wait! Do you have any money?” Jerry asked. “I don’t.”
“Well I do!” Ben exclaimed. He bought it and the twosome took a deep breath and went outside to confront the Skidaliens. The truth would now be told.
“We have collected the item that your King has requested!” Ben said as they approached them.
“Will you stop resisting capture?”
“We will return with diplomatic immunity only.” Jerry stole that line from his favorite spy movie.
“Sure,” the leader said as he focused his laser. The beam of light formed an octagon this time, but the process was just as fast. They landed in the throne room.
“You betrayed my trust,” the King boomed as Ben and Jerry moved to stand in front of the throne. “I trusted you to stay on the ship, and the first chance you get, you’re gone!”
“We left in order to get the ice cream you wanted, Your Highness.” Jerry was laying it on thick. “Here it is.” He proffered the sweet treat to the king.
“The King snatched it, ripped the top off, and licked the ice cream slowly, “It’s just as good as it was fifteen years ago! Wait, the packaging is different! This isn’t the right time after all!”
“I told you we weren’t the real Ben and Jerry,” Jerry said.
“You lied to my ambassador!” the King couldn’t believe it. “There will be consequences for this. I won’t destroy your planet, but I will require a cup of ice cream every year. You are dismissed!” The king turned away. The tension in the room receded like a falling wave. Ben and Jerry were taken back to the beaming Hangar where they said goodbye to their friend Merp.
“I’m sorry,” Ben apologized. “I should’ve listened to you from the start.”
“Yeah, you should’ve,” Jerry agreed.
“I think I’ve learned my lesson. Lies are wretched things.”
“What about recognition? Did you learn that lesson too?”
“Yeah, we’ll do smaller things now.”
“Arrrgh!” Jerry huffed. They continued the walk home in silence.