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kasihyaThe prompt: a photograph of a trail through a misty, autumnal forest, and a harmonica. Also to write something different than usual.
(This is different because there are exactly two words of dialogue, also because I didn't know about the latter part of the assignment until Julian was already in the woods. Shhh.)
Respect Your Elders
This is a story about a boy named Julian. Julian is seven years old — yes, just like you — and lives in a house with a forest in the backyard. On the weekends, his older brother will cut through the woods to take him onto the bike trails.
It is autumn, in the early morning, when we meet our brave little hero. The sun has just barely risen, and the whole forest is covered in mist. Julian is standing on the back porch, and he can just barely make out the line of trees through the white. He looks behind him, but the whole house is silent, because it’s Saturday and everyone is still asleep.
Why is he outside on a cold Saturday morning, when he could be inside watching cartoons? Obviously he’s running away. Who can say why? He isn’t a very bright child, is he. Maybe he failed a quiz at school. Maybe the other children are mean to him. But I suspect — this is just a hunch — it was because his older brother yelled at him for trying to sneak two extra cookies while their parents were out the previous night.
No, of course this isn’t about you, you bonehead. He has a brother, not a sister.
Anyway: Julian is running away. He has a backpack full of cookies and pretzels and toy cars for when he gets tired, and he has a walking stick he found in the back yard. He jumps down the steps and runs into the woods, letting the mist fold around him like a wet towel. He doesn’t look back at his boring old life. If he did, he would realize that the fog has drawn the curtains shut over his house, as if it was never there at all, and that would scare him into realizing what a stupid thing he is about to do. But Julian is too busy thinking about the injustices he has suffered at the hands of his family, so he plunges forward blindly until he finds the trail that will lead him to freedom.
The trail is marvelous. Birds sing just out of sight, squirrels rustle through the loam, and the leaves are all more brilliant than anything he could hope to render with his crayons — what? Oh, it means that he can’t draw as well as Mother Nature. All of this fills his heart to the brim with joy, because the forest is beautiful, and the forest is going to be his new home, just as soon as he’s far enough away from his old one. He’ll find a hollow at the base of some huge old tree, big enough for him to curl up into but so small that his mean older brother will walk right by when he comes begging for forgiveness. The thought pleases Julian so much that he bursts into song as he walks.
He continues to walk for quite a while, singing song after song — I don’t know, probably the Ramones or something, it’s not important — as he goes down trails that are familiar enough he isn’t as afraid of getting lost as he should be. Everything is wonderful and perfect, until he pauses to remember the words to the song, and notices that the forest has gone quiet.
Very quiet.
Julian looks around him. Where did the chorus of birds go? he thinks. What happened to the squirrels and the chipmunks? He stands still, waiting for any noise besides his own heavy breathing, but there’s nothing, not even the wind. He stares into the woods, but there’s so much mist that he can’t see anything beyond the first few trees whichever direction he turns. His heart starts to pound with fear, so loud that he’s sure the whole woods can hear it. They can’t, obviously, that’d be stupid, but you know what everything in the forest could hear?
His singing.
The woods are full of squirrels and robins and cute little woodland creatures, but they’re also full of foxes and bobcats , and things that are even bigger. These animals don’t like to have their peaceful mornings interrupted by loud, obnoxious little boys. I know what you’re going to say — Julian has a stick, right? He’s a brave little boy, he can fight them off.
The foxes and the bobcats know this, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to just let him blunder in where he doesn’t belong. That’s why the forest is quiet: they’ve all gone for reinforcements.
Julian doesn’t know why it’s quiet, of course, he just knows that he doesn’t like it. So what does he do? He starts singing again. I told you, he’s not very bright. He sings to block out the silence, and he is just deciding that maybe the wilderness isn’t for him after all, when he hears it: a low growl from the mist in front of him. He stops dead in his tracks, his song petering out mid-word.
“Hello?” he says.
“Graaaargh!” he hears back, and then from the depths of the mist, a gigantic bear comes charging straight at him!
Julian screams. He drops the walking stick and the backpack, and starts running for his life. If he had been closer to the house, he might have made it. If he had turned around before he tried to run away from home, and realized what a stupid idea that was, then maybe he wouldn’t have been so far out in the woods that no one could hear his screams. If he had remembered that though his family is cruel, they don’t want to eat him, then maybe the animals wouldn’t have woken the bear, and Julian’s gnawed-up bones wouldn’t have been found by a man going for a jog a few hours later. All sorts of things might have been avoided, if he’d just realized that there are worse things in life than not being allowed to eat too much junk food.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Good night.
END
~~*~~
I am SO looking forwards to reading this story aloud in class tomorrow. I mean, it's written to be read aloud.
EDIT:Aaaaaaaaaaand my printer ran out of ink just before I was able to print it. No reading aloud for me. /o\
(This is different because there are exactly two words of dialogue, also because I didn't know about the latter part of the assignment until Julian was already in the woods. Shhh.)
Respect Your Elders
This is a story about a boy named Julian. Julian is seven years old — yes, just like you — and lives in a house with a forest in the backyard. On the weekends, his older brother will cut through the woods to take him onto the bike trails.
It is autumn, in the early morning, when we meet our brave little hero. The sun has just barely risen, and the whole forest is covered in mist. Julian is standing on the back porch, and he can just barely make out the line of trees through the white. He looks behind him, but the whole house is silent, because it’s Saturday and everyone is still asleep.
Why is he outside on a cold Saturday morning, when he could be inside watching cartoons? Obviously he’s running away. Who can say why? He isn’t a very bright child, is he. Maybe he failed a quiz at school. Maybe the other children are mean to him. But I suspect — this is just a hunch — it was because his older brother yelled at him for trying to sneak two extra cookies while their parents were out the previous night.
No, of course this isn’t about you, you bonehead. He has a brother, not a sister.
Anyway: Julian is running away. He has a backpack full of cookies and pretzels and toy cars for when he gets tired, and he has a walking stick he found in the back yard. He jumps down the steps and runs into the woods, letting the mist fold around him like a wet towel. He doesn’t look back at his boring old life. If he did, he would realize that the fog has drawn the curtains shut over his house, as if it was never there at all, and that would scare him into realizing what a stupid thing he is about to do. But Julian is too busy thinking about the injustices he has suffered at the hands of his family, so he plunges forward blindly until he finds the trail that will lead him to freedom.
The trail is marvelous. Birds sing just out of sight, squirrels rustle through the loam, and the leaves are all more brilliant than anything he could hope to render with his crayons — what? Oh, it means that he can’t draw as well as Mother Nature. All of this fills his heart to the brim with joy, because the forest is beautiful, and the forest is going to be his new home, just as soon as he’s far enough away from his old one. He’ll find a hollow at the base of some huge old tree, big enough for him to curl up into but so small that his mean older brother will walk right by when he comes begging for forgiveness. The thought pleases Julian so much that he bursts into song as he walks.
He continues to walk for quite a while, singing song after song — I don’t know, probably the Ramones or something, it’s not important — as he goes down trails that are familiar enough he isn’t as afraid of getting lost as he should be. Everything is wonderful and perfect, until he pauses to remember the words to the song, and notices that the forest has gone quiet.
Very quiet.
Julian looks around him. Where did the chorus of birds go? he thinks. What happened to the squirrels and the chipmunks? He stands still, waiting for any noise besides his own heavy breathing, but there’s nothing, not even the wind. He stares into the woods, but there’s so much mist that he can’t see anything beyond the first few trees whichever direction he turns. His heart starts to pound with fear, so loud that he’s sure the whole woods can hear it. They can’t, obviously, that’d be stupid, but you know what everything in the forest could hear?
His singing.
The woods are full of squirrels and robins and cute little woodland creatures, but they’re also full of foxes and bobcats , and things that are even bigger. These animals don’t like to have their peaceful mornings interrupted by loud, obnoxious little boys. I know what you’re going to say — Julian has a stick, right? He’s a brave little boy, he can fight them off.
The foxes and the bobcats know this, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to just let him blunder in where he doesn’t belong. That’s why the forest is quiet: they’ve all gone for reinforcements.
Julian doesn’t know why it’s quiet, of course, he just knows that he doesn’t like it. So what does he do? He starts singing again. I told you, he’s not very bright. He sings to block out the silence, and he is just deciding that maybe the wilderness isn’t for him after all, when he hears it: a low growl from the mist in front of him. He stops dead in his tracks, his song petering out mid-word.
“Hello?” he says.
“Graaaargh!” he hears back, and then from the depths of the mist, a gigantic bear comes charging straight at him!
Julian screams. He drops the walking stick and the backpack, and starts running for his life. If he had been closer to the house, he might have made it. If he had turned around before he tried to run away from home, and realized what a stupid idea that was, then maybe he wouldn’t have been so far out in the woods that no one could hear his screams. If he had remembered that though his family is cruel, they don’t want to eat him, then maybe the animals wouldn’t have woken the bear, and Julian’s gnawed-up bones wouldn’t have been found by a man going for a jog a few hours later. All sorts of things might have been avoided, if he’d just realized that there are worse things in life than not being allowed to eat too much junk food.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Good night.
END
~~*~~
I am SO looking forwards to reading this story aloud in class tomorrow. I mean, it's written to be read aloud.
EDIT:Aaaaaaaaaaand my printer ran out of ink just before I was able to print it. No reading aloud for me. /o\
