Story: Dave and Vincent

The Dark Neighborhood and the Hill

There are many places around the city that I have explored. The one place that scares me to talk about is the dark neighborhood. It was the one place I have gotten lost and I hate talking about it. To tell about the good that came from the situation I must also tell the bad parts.

I was coming home from the park across town that I visit many times a week, only this time the street I always ride my bike on was closed. I don't know how I entered the neighborhood but when I reached the top of the hill, I saw the sun going down and the area was getting dark.

I started to get scared, I didn't know where I was or how to get home. I road around for hours. There were no street lights and nobody was out. I was starting to get tired and worried I would never make it home.

When I finally got the strength to turn around and go back the way I came, I ran into something very scary. There was a viscous guard dog in the road. Struck with fear, I stopped my bike and stared. I didn't know what to do. The beast would not let me pass but that was the only way I knew how to get home.

Sobbing, I turned around.

Dave meets Vincent

While I was turning around, the sun began to rise. And on the top of the hill, this time I saw a man.

"Sir, do you live her? Will you please help me get past the dog so I can go home."

He answered me: "I do not live here, I only pass by each day. You will not be able to get past the dog. You will have to take another route."

I answered him, "Will you show me the way? I have been wandering around for hours on end."

He answered me after he noticed I had been sobbing. "I will show you the way, but you must follow closely and quickly or I will be late."

Author's Note: My story is based off of the story of Dante and Virgil. In the original story a traveler gets lost, like in my story. He also runs into a beast but his is a viscous lion. Dante is lost in the woods and runs into Virgil, who then leads him out of the forest and to safety. 

Dave

Reading A: Dante's Inferno

I decided to read Dante's Inferno for my last reading unit because I remember reading a story from a student based off of this unit in the beginning of the year when we were encouraged to explore students works from past semesters. The story Dante and Virgil, begins with Dante being struck with fear. He seems to have just escaped death from the ocean. He starts to stop living in fear and decides to begin his travels. He is on the path he always goes on but is visited by a lion. Struck with fear again, he begins to weep. He is driven back from the path by the lion. Dante then runs into a man named Virgil. He asks Virgil to help him get past the beast and Virgil tells him he will have to take another path to escape. Virgil then guides him through to another path. This story was written very powerfully and I think it would be fun to try to recreate it. I feel like there are many way this story could be changed and it would be interesting to try.

Source: Dante and the Beast

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

I decided that my blog needed a little change to it. I have changed it before but I didn't really like the background that I had changed it to. I think the colors I have now are much more fun and have a better "utopia" feeling.

Reading B: Celtic Fairy Tales

In the second portion of the Celtic Fairy Tales I really enjoyed the story King O'Toole and His Goose. The story begins by explaining who King O'Toole is. He was a crippled King that was directed by his goose. The goose would go swimming and catch trout for the King. One day the goose was stricken with illness like the King and could no longer help the King. The King wanted to kill himself due to his misfortune until a man found him by the water. The man was Saint Kavin and he was promising to fix the King's goose. Saint Kavin would heal the goose if the King would give Saint Kavin all the land that the goose flew over. The King agreed and his goose was healed. I liked this story a lot because of the way it was written. It was easy to read and understand but also written very properly. This story could easily be rewritten with a different animal than the goose or someone besides a king.

King and the Goose

Story: Connor and the Imaginary Friend

Connor was eight years old and lived in Greenwich, Connecticut. His dad, David, was the CEO of General Electrics and had big ambitions for his son. One day when they were at a company dinner, the son saw a woman dressed in weird clothing walking towards him.

"Who are you?" said Connor.

"I am Elena. I come from the past. Where people are kinder and technology is nowhere to be found. People are happy and live in the moment. They call it the Golden Age," she said.

Connors dad noticed he was talking but could not see who he was talking to.

"Who are you talking to Connor?" said the dad.

"My new friend, dad. Can't you see her?" said Connor.

"I am calling the therapist, you are too old to have an imaginary friend. Something is not right," said the father.

The family left the dinner and the father called the family therapist and told him to come over to their house.

After a long session with Connor, the therapist convinced Connor that he was too old to be having imaginary friends. He told him it was time to grow up and be a big boy. For a whole month, Connor never mentioned the imaginary friend again.

Connors birthday party was upon them and the family threw a big party for him.

"Elena, you're back?" Said Connor.

"Yes I am Connor. I came to wish you a happy birthday and take you with me. Would you like to come back with me to the Golden Age?" said Elena.

"I would love that. I have not stopped thinking about it since I first saw you," said Connor.

Connor followed Elena out of the house and walked away with her.

Connors parents frantically searched for him for months, but they never found him....

Author's note: My story is based off of the story of Connla and the Fairy Maiden. In the original story the son of the king was hearing and seeing a Maiden. The father could never see the Maiden but he could hear her. At the end of the story, the son leaves with the Maiden even thought the king tried his hardest to keep him from leaving.

Imaginary Friend

Reading A: Celtic Fairy Tales

For this weeks readings I decided to read Celtic Fairy Tales. The story Connla and The Fairy Maiden was very interesting to me. It was written very formally but was actually a pretty simple story. Connla is the son of the King. One day the son is visited by a maiden that only he can see. She speaks to him and wants him to go away with her. The King begins to question who his son is talking to before he can finally hear her. The King is never able to see her the way the son is. He can only hear her. The King tries to get rid of the maiden by summoning someone to perform magic against her. She temporarily leaves but the son feels a strong void. After a month she appears again and the son decides to leave with her.

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

Story: Mirror Attic

"Mom, Mom! There is something different about the attic in this house than our old one." said Lillian

Lillian's mom was too busy unloading boxes from the moving truck to listen, so she just nodded her head and kept going.

"The attic is like a mirror, everything on one side of the attic is the same as the other side but flipped! I'm going to climb up there and see what it is like."

Lillian crawled up the narrow stairs at the end of the hall into the dusty attic.

"The last owners left a lot of stuff up here," as she looked around and saw a full attic with toy soldiers on the ground.

She noticed they were moving and quickly got on her hands and knees.

"Wow there is a whole army down here. There is the Sergeant and theres the Corporal. Leading the soldiers around the room. Why can't they hear me? Or see me? Are they just ignoring me?"

Lillian got as close as possible to the soldiers but they still did not see her.

"Help! Help!" Yelled a soldier across the room, being crushed by a truck.

"Oh hell, how did that happen." said the Sergeant.

He started running over to the truck but it was so far for his little legs.

"That's going to take you forever, he's going to be dead by the time you get there!" said Lillian.

Feeling like she needed to help, Lillian picked up the Sergeant and brought him to the distressed soldier.

The Sergeant was trembling. It was not until the soldier cried out again that he shook out of it and helped him from under the truck.

"What just happened. It was like a large gust of wind just flew me across the room. I could not breathe or see it was so fast!" said the Sergeant

"I didn't see sir, I'm just glad you got here in time," said the soldier.

Lillian was watching and listening very intently.

"Should I carry them back? I'm worried that might kill them from shock!"said Lillian

Author's note: My story is based off of the story of Looking Glass House. In the original story Alice enters into the looking glass house to see if there is a fire burning. When she gets into the room she sees chess pieces on scattered on the ground. She notices that they are moving and in distress because the queen's daughter is stuck on the fireplace. Alice helps them get her but moving the king and the queen to their daughter. This frightens them because they cannot see or hear her. I changed the story to a little girl moving into a new house and as she is exploring it she notices army pieces that are alive.

Army Men

Reading A: Looking-Glass

I enjoyed reading the Alice in Wonderland section a couple of weeks ago so I decided to read more about it from the Looking-Glass unit. The story of The Looking Glass House was very interesting. In the first part of the story it was kind of hard to follow what was going on because Alice was talking about so many things at once with and not making much sense of any of it. Once she actually enters the looking glass house is when the story starts to make more sense. She sees the King and Queen and they are much smaller than her and cannot hear or see her. She tries to help them climb up to their daughter but she ends up just frightening them because they were lifted through the air without knowing how. I think I could definitely make a story of my own out of the Looking Glass House. It would be hard for me to mimic the writing style of the original story but I think it would be a nice challenge. I was thinking a way to switch up the story would be for Alice to be smaller and to not see the King and Queen.

Looking Glass House

Story: The Three Roommates

Sarah, Erin and Blake, three roommates in Norman, Oklahoma were watching tv like any other day. Erin and Blake were sisters so they pretty much shared everything at the house, while Sarah had her own stuff. Tonight they had a formal event to go to and were all talking about what they should wear. 

"I really want to wear the purple dress we have, Erin, but I can't find it," said Blake. 

"I'll go see if it is in my closet," said Erin.

Erin comes back to the room empty handed. 

"I couldn't find it, do you have it Sarah?" said Erin. 

"I will go look," said Sarah.

Sarah knew the dress was in her room but she wanted to wear it that night to impress her date.

"Nope, wasn't there," said Sarah. 

"That's so weird, I guess I will just wear the black one but I really hate it," said Blake.

That night the three girls were all getting ready. Sarah left early to get ready at a friends house, to make sure they didn't see her wearing her dress. 

"Do you think Sarah has something I could wear besides this black dress?" said Blake. 

"I don't know just go look, she won't care," said Erin. 

Blake walked into Sarah's and was shocked at what she saw. All of Blake and Erin's missing clothes throughout the years were in Blake's closet. 

"Erin, come look at this. We have to do something about this," said Blake

To get back at Sarah, they decided to wear her all of her favorite things. They wore her dresses, her shoes and even her jewelry. When they showed up the the event they were wearing long coats. They walked up to Sarah and took their coats off.

"We know how you stole all of our clothes so now we are stealing yours and we are moving out," said Blake and Erin 

Sarah, shocked, left the event and never saw the girls again. 

Author's Note: My story is a silly spin off of Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman. In the original story, the bear mother kills the deer mother and in return the deer children kill the bear children. I took the story as being like "an eye for an eye" and that is why I made my story the way I did. It might be a little silly but I think the overall theme is similar to the original story.