Towards the beginning of the course, we
started out with a unit I didn’t originally enjoy. Mystery stories and movies I
have always thought were very boring. We each had to write our own mystery
story with our own plot and characters. It took a long time to come up with a
good story that was mysterious but I came up with a good idea. Once I came up
with the idea I was on a roll. I created this story and had so much fun with
it. This was a new experience for me and I think it went well and would love to
try it again. This story came to my mind from a picture we were shown in class
with a first line. Revising it wasn’t very difficult because after you re-read
something you have written you can always find a few things to change after a
while. A few grammar mistakes and sentences that needed some change of words
were focused on. I hope you like the story, and I hope it ends up like any
mystery should.
“A Strange Day in July”
He threw with all his might, but the
third stone came skipping back. It was the 1950’s, back in old Jackson Meadows
in Southern, Minnesota. The skies were a dark grey, not an ounce of sun in the
sky. There were birds chirpin’ all over, the sound of water flowin’ down
streams, the site of grass all over, bushes with little red berries, and deer
walkin’ all around. It was a rather dark and mysterious day around the Jackson
Meadows, and everyone wondered why. Donald, age seven, rather shorter little
guy, skinny, and white with curly red hair, was at his mother’s house right
outside the meadows. It was the day of his fifth birthday, he was sitting at
the table and his mom only made him one cupcake and invited no one else over to
celebrate. Donald was born deaf and his mother wasn’t fond of it. That very day
he left the house on his own because his mom decided she wanted him out, Donald
was so hurt. He set off on his way trying to survive, eating little things he
found all over like berries, hoping they weren’t poisonous, but he became very
skinny. He moped around for days and days, but couldn’t find any friends or
anything to do, he would find ponds in the Jackson Meadows, pull out the little
fish and eat them, just trying to get past his state of hunger. All he was
wearing was the one outfit of clothes he had put on him everyday, little suit
coat, dress up shorts, high white socks, and dress shoes. All he wished was
that his mom could accept him so he could live back at home, surviving in the
wild is a challenge.
So one day, the day after he turned
six, he decided to venture out into the Jackson Meadows across the street from
his house, and see what was going on over there. He noticed a house, a run down
shack, and kept walking about two more miles, and noticed a big pond right in
the center. No better time to go check out what he found. The pond was large
with little fish swimming around everywhere and there were large and small
rocks surrounding the large pond. Donald decided to try and go fishing without
a pole, just with his hand. He tripped over a rock on the side and dove in,
little did he know, but realized, the pond was way deeper than expected. Donald
struggled to grab the fish and missed, but couldn’t get himself back up out of
the water because he never learned to swim. It was that very day Donald had
drowned.
It was the year 2013, on a hot,
sunny, beautiful day in the Jackson Meadows, of Minnesota. Hunter, an
eight-year old boy, slender, with short spiked blond hair, wearing a little
white t-shirt, with cargo shorts and black sneakers was at home with his twin,
Fay. Fay was a petite, little eight year old girl with long blonde hair; she
developed Autism as a young child. The family was sitting with each other at
breakfast one morning, when Hunter had a great idea. His Uncle Anthony had always
told him that skipping rocks was an activity he did at the pond when he was a
little kid all the time, so Hunter asked his Mom if he could give it a go.
“Hey Mom, Uncle Tony told me that he
skipped rocks as a little boy like me. Can I try? I’ll bring Fay along.” Hunter
said all excited.
His Mom replied with an “I guess.”
But she reminded them to be home before dark.
So at ten o’clock that morning,
Hunter and Fay ventured out to that pond in the middle of the Jackson Meadows,
a mile away from their house. It was a little bit of a walk, but Hunter was
definitely up for it. His sister Fay always followed her twin brother around
and always wanted to do what he was doing, but it never bothered Hunter. So
after a long walk, and a few bottles of water chugged down, they made it the
pond in the middle of the Jackson Meadows. He walked around the pond multiple
times to find three nice and smooth rocks that he could skip in the water. So
his sister, Fay, stood next to him and cheered him on as he tried this challenging
task.
“Go, go, go brother.” Fay cheered.
And she gave her brother a hug.
So there he went, he threw the first
rock, and with Fay’s encouragement the rock skipped right across the pond, and
that got Hunter all pumped up and excited. So he tried it again with his second
rock a few minutes later, and what do you know, that one skipped so perfectly
right across the water, once again.
So they sat down near the water on a
blanket they had brought out to the pond, and enjoyed a couple sandwiches together
for lunch, both of them having a great day. They talked and talked, but then
they finished lunch and decided it was time to start skipping rocks again, with
his last lucky, white, flat, stone rock. So they got up and walked back over to
the pond. He picked up the rock, put it in his hand, and threw with all his
might, and the stone hit the water once, and what do you know, the third rock
came skipping back. And then Hunter and Fay were very confused. So his picked
the rock up again, and retried. He threw with all his might, and the third rock
came skipping back once again. At that point he was confused and angry that he
couldn’t get that last rock to skip as perfectly as his other two had done.
He told Fay that he was all done for
the day, so they picked up their blankets and were on their way home, a long
mile walk back to their run down shack of a home. They were not the wealthiest
of people in Minnesota.
So they reached their destination
after a tiring walk back home. The kids walked in the house and the mom talked
to them about their day.
“How was your day my little honeys.”
Their Mother Kathy asked.
Hunter spoke up and said “Mom it was
a blast, but you wouldn’t believe what happened.”
“What do you mean honey.” Mom
wondered.
“Well, I grabbed three rocks to skip
because that’s my favorite number. I threw the first two and I skipped them
perfectly, but when I went to go throw the third stone...It came skipping
back.” He yelled.
“Do you know why that would be Mom.”
Hunter asked.
“Honey, take a walk to Uncle Tony’s
house, I am sure he can answer your question.” Said Kathy.
So Hunter and Fay ventured out to
Uncle Anthony’s house that was two miles away in the Jackson Meadows, as well.
They finally got to his house, knocked on the door, and he answered after a few
minutes of repeated knocking.
“Oh, my niece and nephew, how ya’ll
doin’.” Uncle Anthony asked.
“Great Uncle, we went and skipped
rocks this morning at the pond, I did good, the first two I skipped were
perfect, but you wont believe this.” Hunter said.
“Wont believe what.” Uncle
questioned.
“When I threw the third rock, it
came skipping back, TWICE.” Hunter yelled.
“Ohhh, have I ever told you about
what happened at that pond back in the 1950’s.” Uncle Anthony said with a mild
tone.
“No Uncle, what happened.” Fay and
Hunter chimed in.
So Uncle Anthony went on to explain
the story.
“Well, a long time ago in the 1950’s,
there was this little boy named Donald. He lived right outside of the Jackson
Meadows, and at age five he was released into the wild, by himself. His parents
didn’t accept the fact that he was deaf, meaning he couldn’t hear, and they
kicked him out. He searched around the meadows trying to find food all day, and
one day, the day after his sixth birthday he ventured all over Jackson meadows.
He found the pond in the center of the meadows, and decided he wanted to do
some fishin’. He tripped over a rock; dove in head first, tried to grab the
fish, and missed. But the big problem was he couldn’t get himself back up out
of the water because he couldn’t swim, so his soul lies in the bottom of that
pond, forever.” Uncle Anthony explained.
“Whoa,
I never knew that.” Hunter said surprised.
So each day after they found out what
happened, Fay and Hunter ventured out to that pond to pray for Donald because
they felt horrible. He saved that rock, he realized at a young age, that it
represented Donald’s spirit, and they became friends with it forever. Deep up
in heaven, Donald was now Fay and Hunter’s new friend.
