Notes
from Ish Fabicon: A writer's block is the scariest thing to happen
when you write to beat a deadline. This morning, I had hoped to start
writing an article but nothing came out of my brain:-(
I resorted
to reading Al Franken's book but gave it up because I was not in the
mood to laugh. I could not concentrate. I resorted going through some
old notes and files and got hold of a write-up of my daughter when
she was in 8th grade. The title is "Fire." I think it was
one of those writing attempts of hers on the short story and fiction.
After reading "Fire" I concluded that an 8th grader could
make a difference to a lazy writer like me. Here it is.
It was a boring
Saturday morning. My cousin Maureen and I were sitting on her porch
with nothing to do. Silence was over us and everything made me feel
sleepy. A light, cool, breeze blew, perfect for late summer and both
of us wore jeans. The weather was too cool to go for ice cream; we
were too tired for swimming; too sick of board games and too afraid
to venture into Harper's Woods.
Harper's Woods
is a big clump of trees that takes a half hour to get through - if
you didn't get lost! Jack Harper owns it. He hated people in his property,
so he totally fenced in his trees. "No Trespassing" signs
plastered the perimeter of the woods and a big Doberman with big teeth
enforced it.
At the other end
of the woods and behind the fence, are some camping grounds. When
you're there, you're halfway from being cut off from civilization.
All this is a few yards away from us. It's a lousy place to put a
couple of houses, but the whole town seems to have a lousy sense of
proportion.
After twenty minutes
of complete boredom, I started to smell smoke. I thought someone was
having a barbecue, but I didn't hear any voices.
"Joanna,"
said Maureen. "Look!
I turned to where
her finger was pointing and saw smoke coming out of the woods.
"Wow! If we can report that, we'll be heroes! We'll be on the
T.V.! C'mon! We'll have to cross the woods.! It's the quickest way
to get to the camp grounds. We have to warn the people." I dragged
Maureen across the street to the edge of the woods. The only time
I let go of her was when I climbed up the fence.
I was on the other side when I realized I was alone. I turned back
and gave a look to Maureen.
"I'm sorry, Jo, but I don't feel like being eaten by a dog today."
"Jack Harper and his stupid dog are not going to stop me from
being a hero.!" I yelled so loudly that I almost lost my voice.
"Now if you're going to chicken out on me, I'm going to be on
T.V. by myself."
Realizing she had no choice, she reluctantly climbed the fence and
joined me. I knew she wasn't being a wimp, just her completely logical
self.
As we walked deeper into the woods, we broke every branch that lay
on the ground.
"Jo," Maureen's voice broke the quiet of the woods, "how
are we going to keep from being lost?"
I searched through my pockets and found a bag of marbles and half
a baloney sandwich.
"I'll drop a marble every three minutes," I said, smiling
to myself since it was she who usually came up with the bright ideas.
"If we run out, we'll follow the broken branches." Boy,
I was really triumphant.
Fifteen minutes and five marbles later, we were in the middle of the
forest.
"I think we're a little too late to be heroes," said Maureen.
She was irritated because she fell down and a hole formed on the knee
of her pants. I felt grouchy myself, but I didn't want to admit it.
The shade of the trees made me colder and the scratch on my left hand
was starting to bleed, thanks to a low, sharp branch. I never liked
the great outdoors and now, I was close to hating it. I loathe the
mud I constantly have to step in and I can't sand the mosquitoes that
swarm around my face. I wanted to go home, heal my hand, and scratch
my bug bites but the stronger smell of smoke kept me going.
"Maybe we are a little late, but we can watch them put out the
fire."
"Just drop another marble, it's been three minutes."
I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was getting mad at
me. I wanted to apologize and call this whole thing off when we heard
a growl.
I didn't look back. I just dropped a marble and took off behind Maureen
who was already a great deal ahead of me. I heard the dog barking
behind me, so I took a quick peek at him. He looked about as high
as my waist!
"Great," I thought, "If that dog gets really angry,
I'm going to be the first one eaten."
That thought made me scream and run faster, so I caught up with Maureen.
After running a great deal I saw a strong branch a few feet above
the ground. It was pretty high but it appeared it was the only chance.
"Jump!" I said breathlessly, not sure if she heard.
We came closer to the branch and we ran faster to gain momentum. We
jumped at the same time except that she made it and while I got left
dangling helplessly. I struggled but even though half of my body was
already up, my legs stood within reach. Maureen tried to help me by
grabbing my arms and the dog tried to take my shoe or eat my leg.
They were playing tug of war and I was the rope. Finally, I had the
choice of losing my shoe or having my leg mutilated. So deciding the
best, I kicked my shoe off and scrambled up to safety.
We sat still, breathing heavily. Below us, the dog was trying to rip
my shoe apart.
"Joanna?"
"Oh, don't get mad at me!" I snapped. "I'm tired, my
hand hurts, my leg hurts, my arms hurt, and soon my foot will hurt.
If it weren't for that stupid dog, I would have been a hero!"
"I am not talking about that. Jo, there's a big spider beside
you and it's about to crawl up your arm!"
Now, I hate crawlers. I hate insects. I hate everything that has more
than four legs. So, I was more than startled to find a big hairy spider
on my arm. That's why I shook my arm so violently that I fell off
the branch.
I opened my eyes to smell doggie breath. I felt doggie slobber and
I heard a doggie growl! Maureen was on the branch, frozen. I didn't
blame her. She was about to see her cousin get mauled. Naturally,
I would have frozen too.
The doggie growl was getting louder. Then I thought of my baloney
sandwich. I reached into my pocket and broke off a piece. The dog
sniffed it at first, then took it gratefully. All of a sudden, he
was my best friend.
Maureen came down finding the dog with his change in personality.
"The woods are thinning out," she said. "We can keep
going to the camping grounds."
"Yeah, maybe one of those happy campers can give us a ride home."
I looked at her sheepishly. Being a hero wasn't important anymore.
Just getting out of these woods seemed like the only thing I needed.
I never want to come back here.
Five minutes and three pieces of baloney later, we reached the other
fence. We said good-bye to our new friend and climbed over.
After a few steps forward, Maureen suddenly stopped. "Joanna,
I could strangle you!", she shouted.
I looked down. I felt defeated. I felt beaten. I felt embarrassed.
I felt angry. Frankly, I could have strangled myself. For right below
us were the newly extinguished remains of a large camp fire!
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