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

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

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. 

Story: Two Slow Runner

Once, a long time ago, a turtle and a snail happened to meet. They spoke to each other about their past and what they have accomplished. They talked about how everyone always assumes they are slow runners. Just because they aren’t as fast as a wild cat or deer doesn’t mean they are slow. They started talking about how fast they actually are and decided they would have a race to see who was faster. When they started the race the turtle went ahead of the snail right away and won the race.

"Thats not fair" said the snail, "I am used to running up and down rocks along the shore, we are on flat ground here. This is to your advantage. If we went to my home by the water, I would win the race easily. I am sure of it. Let’s go there and I will show you and if you win you can have my shell." 

After the turtles victorious win he decided he could beat the snail in any race in any place. He didn’t have much use for his shell since he’s so much larger but that didn’t hold him back.

"Fine, lets go to your home and we will race there, I am sure I can still beat you" said the turtle. 

They started the race and ran up and down the rocks. The turtle, larger and not used to the steep hills, slid down all the rocks he tried to climb up. The snail stuck to all the rocks and quickly climbed them and won the race. 

"I told you I would beat you. Now I get to keep my shell and we are even." said the snail. 

“Fine, you were right. We are both fast in our own way” said the turtle. 

Authors note
My story is based off of the story Two Fast Runners. In the original story a deer and an antelope race each other. The antelope wins the first race on flat ground and they decide to have a rerun in the place where the deer is from. Not used to weaving in and out of the trees, the antelope goes much slower and loses the second race. My story is very similar to this but with different characters.

Turtle and Snail

Week 9 Story: The Two Pups

Once upon a time there were two puppies living in California. One puppy was in a home off of the beach of Malibu, while the other was located in downtown Los Angeles. These two house pets had never met before, but at the exact same time they both thought they might want to run away from home to see the rest of California. The puppy that lives in Malibu wanted to visit Los Angeles and the puppy that lived in Los Angeles wanted to visit Malibu.

They both set out on their journey after loosing their leashes during a walk with their owner. The two puppies knew nothing about traveling and had to use their sense of smell to lead them. Being a large state, California has many areas of cost and many areas of city that smell the same. The puppies both ran into the hill of which the Hollywood sign sat and knew it would be a long journey to the top. They knew once they got to the top they would be able to see the city they were going looking for. 

Once at the top they both ran into each other, they were both shocked to see another puppy without an owner. They were so happy to hear they were both traveling to each other's homes. "Too bad we are so small and young, this journey is making me tired." said the puppy from Los Angeles. "Why don't we just look at the place we are trying to go from on top of the sign? I will help you up if you help me" said the puppy from Malibu. Both of the puppies climbed to the top of the Hollywood sign.

"That is Malibu over there," pointing to the coast. "It looks beautiful but I think I can see all I need to from here, the journey is too long" said the puppy from Los Angeles. "That is downtown L.A. over there with all the traffic and tall buildings." The puppy from Malibu looked in that direction and said "wow, it looks crowded, I think I will go back to Malibu. Thanks for showing me." The two puppies climbed down from the sign and made their journey back to their owners.

Authors Note: My story was based off of the story of The Two Frogs. In this story two frogs from far away places both decide to travel to the other frogs home. The run into each other on the top of a mountain, tired and needing directions. The decided to climb on each others shoulders to look at the place they are trying to go to. Since their eyes are in the back of their heads they both end up looking at their actual home and think there is no need to visit because it looks just like their home. Since puppies eyes are not like that, I decided to make my story a little different.

Two Puppies

Story: The Life of Joseph

The Governor of Oklahoma and his wife had a son named Joseph. They always knew that Joseph would do great things in his life and help the people of Oklahoma in so many ways. Growing up, Joseph was very sheltered. His parents tried to keep him in the governors mansion for most of his life. They did not want him to see the streets of downtown with many homeless people, for they were scared it would ruin his innocence.

One day, Joseph decided he wanted to go on a bike ride outside the mansion. His father told his body guards to go with him and to keep him away from the homeless. They tried the best they could, but when Joseph was crossing the bridge on his way back to the mansion he saw a man, cold and sleeping under the bridge. He asked the body guard, "Is that man sick? Why do his clothes look like that and why is he sleeping down there?" The body guard, knowing he should not say anything, told Joseph, "No, that man is not sick. He is homeless. He has not had the good fortune that you have had throughout your life." Joseph, sad for the man under the bridge, went back home.

His father saw him sulking around the mansion and asked what was wrong. He told his father that he saw the homeless man outside of the mansion and is sad for his misfortune. He told his father that he felt bad that he had so much and others had so little. This was the first time Joseph thought about leaving his family and wealth to help other people. He told his father that he was thinking about becoming a priest and living a life of service. His father was sad and tried everything he could to make him stay.

Authors note: My story is based on the story First Encounter from The Life of Buddha. In this story Siddhartha sees a beggar for the first time after his father, the King, has been sheltering him in the palace. Siddhartha becomes very sad and his father is upset that this happened to him.

Oklahoma Capital

Week 5 Story: Three Daughters

20 years ago, in Dallas, Texas, three daughters were born to a wealthy man named Paul Parker. James had one of the largest commercial real-estate companies in the U.S. This company was very important to Paul, but as he was getting older he wanted to pass his company on to one of his daughters, but which one?

Paul had an old building in downtown Dallas that if it sold would bring in a great amount of money for the company, but the building had been listed for years. His wife thought that the best way to decide which daughter should take over the company was to have each of them try to sell the building and the winner is clearly the best saleswoman.

Other employees of the company have tried to sell the building and none have been successful. They doubted that any of the daughters would be able to do it, but their mother demanded that they let them try. "Give my daughters the key to the building, or my husband will have something to say about it," she said. Scared of losing their jobs, the employees immediately brought them the keys and went back to the office to wait and see if the sale would be made.

Each of the daughters had their fair share of connections in the Dallas area but two of the daughters had failed at their shot to sell the building. The third daughter, Samantha, had no trouble selling the building. Within a day of getting her chance she was able to find the perfect buyer and rake in a large commission for her father.

Due to Samantha's great selling skills, her father rewarded her with the company. He even gave her the company car and the corner office.

Authors Notes:
My story was based on the story of Rama and Sita. In this story, the princes are all challenged to bend the bow that has never been bent. The brother Rama was the only one able to bend the bow and for that he was able to marry Sita. Rama was also the brother that was in line for the thrown. I decided to do a modern version of the story and change the sons to daughters.

Source: For sale sign

Week 3 Story: The Forbidden Cookie

Gabriella is the first daughter of Elena. Gabriella is 12 years old and loves learning from her mom. One day Elena is making peanut butter cookies for Gabriella's bake sale. She tells Gabriella she cannot eat the cookies because they are for the bake sale and she is allergic to peanut butter. Elena makes Gabriella separate chocolate chip cookies so she won't be tempted to eat the peanut butter cookies.

Gabriella was sitting in the kitchen eating her chocolate chip cookies when her little brother Hayden walks into the room and grabs a peanut butter cookie. "You're not supposed to eat those," Gabriella says. "Says who, they're way better than those and mom won't even notice," Says Hayden. Feeling like she is missing out, Gabriella gets up and takes a big bite out of the peanut butter cookie.

Twenty minutes later, Gabriella began to feel an itch in her throat. She yells to her mom in a panic and Elena comes rushing in. "Why are you feeling like this, did you eat one of the cookies?" Gabriella apologizes to her mom. Her mom takes her to the hospital and she is okay.

"Gabriella, you cannot disobey me like that. It will have serious consequences, like today. I'm taking away all of your cookies and you won't be able to participate in the bake sale," says Elena

Gabriella is very upset and tells her brother its all his fault, but her brother gets punished too. They are both not allowed to have any cookies until they can prove they can follow their moms rules.

My story is based on the story of Adam and Eve. I think most people are familiar with the story but I focused on the fall of man. In the original story, Adam and Eve are told to not eat from the forbidden fruit. Eve is convinced to eat the fruit by a serpent and after that she convinces Adam to eat it. Adam and Eve are banned from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God. I decided to do a spin off of this and use the basic concepts of the story to create my own.

Adam and Eve: The Fall from the book of Genesis

Peanut butter cookies

Week 2 Story: Elizabeth and the Scarecrow

Elisabeth was born and raised on a farm in a small town in Oklahoma. She grew up planting crops and helping the family take care of cattle. When Elisabeth wasn't working on the farm she was pursuing her love for art. Elisabeth loved to study sculptures, but her father disapproved. Her father thought it was a waste of her time and she should focus her efforts on the farm and finding a husband to take over the farm in the future.

The only way Elisabeth could express her passion for art without her father getting upset was by making scarecrows. The scarecrows helped protect the family crops and were not seen as a waste of time to her father. Now if only she could find a husband.

Elisabeth prayed and prayed that she would find the right guy. One day as she was building the last scarecrow for the field, she said "I wish you were a real man, sculpted to my perfection." She hugged the scarecrow, set it up on its stand, and went to bed.

The next morning she woke up bright and early and went to the field. Upon reaching the crops she noticed one of the scarecrows was missing. She searched everywhere for it, until finally she ran into a man in the middle of the corn field. The man was holding the scarecrow, which looked to be in two pieces. The man said "I'm really sorry about your scarecrow, I was out watering the crops and accidentally knocked it over. I have been trying to fix it for an hour now."

Elisabeth sat down and showed the man how to make a new scarecrow, inspired by him. The two became very close and later got married. Their crops were guarded by two scarecrows, one that looked like her and one that looked like him.

My story is inspired by the story Metamorphosis: Pygmalion. In the original story Pygmalion, the main character, is a sculpture and wishes to have one of his sculptures come to life. In the original story the sculptor does in fact come to life and fall in love with the main character. In my story I decided to have the same idea but a more realistic love story, where the sculpture brings love, but indirectly.

"Metamorphosis: Pygmalion" by Tony Kline

source: scarecrow couple

Metamorphosi

s: Pygmalion