Gotta stay cool

Page 6

3-4-91

This is the journal entry to myself in 2024.

Well it’s early Monday morning, about 8:10. I’m sitting in my composition class writing about my feelings and I guess the strongest feelings right now are pain and confusion. See there is this new girl who moved to Service about 3 weeks ago. Well as usual I got us in a tight spot. Before you think anything bad let me explain. I started liking this new girl and well she seemed attracted to us so I though I though I’d get her phone number and call her. So I got it and we talked everyday, at least an hour, for well; until today. Well Monday, a week ago, I told this girl how I felt hoping she would the same. She didn’t say anything, so I stayed off the subject for a few days. Then on Wednesday I asked her how she felt, this is where the hurt hits, she told me she liked my best friend. I didn’t know if I should kill him or her so I did the only thing I knew how, I played cool. See I’m a guy, a junior, I can’t go around letting chicks get to me, and it’s not cool to cry. Well then I told my friend that she like him and found out he liked her but because he knew I liked her he hadn’t said anything. Well being the nice, but dumb person I am, I set him up with her. Last night I called a friend who always helps me when I’m down. I asked her why don’t girls want to date me? You know what she said? Get this, I’m too nice. How can a person be too nice. I don’t understand. So here I am a little up set, but my feelings are mostly numb because if I don’t keep them that way I’d break up inside. So I’m coping the best way I know how and that is to keep it locked up inside and go on with my life acting like nothing is wrong. I gotta stay cool.

Written 3-4-1991 for school

Thinking back to high school, I know I was so whinny about girls. There was a different girl every other week I was “in love with.” Sure there where a few that I liked for months, but I just wanted to be loved so badly. I do think that is too different than most people, it is just sad to think how much anguish I went through over wanted to be with someone. It funny though cause I don’t recall who this note was about. I know my friend at the time was my buddy DW and the friend who told me I was too nice was a long time friend, Terra, but the girl I had so much pain over I can’t figure who it could be. DW and I did have a few girls we both liked and a few we took turns dating but I can’t think who was new to school that we both liked.

I really like how I’m telling myself I’ve got to remain “cool.” I am not nor have I ever been the definition of cool.

Another thing this note points out is I was in composition class. By the date on the note I thought I was in a creative writing class. I don’t remember taking composition but have over written the classes name in my mind with creative writing.

I also don’t know the significance of the year 2024, as the title of the piece claims, “This is the journal entry to myself in 2024.” I will be 50 on March 4th 2024, which is exactly 33 years after the note is written. Although I will turn 51 later that year. Maybe it was a specific date picked by the teacher.

There are no marks on this paper, so it appears a teacher never read it, at least not for grading purposes. It was labeled as page 6 so I assume it was part of a project that was graded as a whole. I’ve only found one other page that was labeled the same way as page 7 and dated the following day, 3-5-1991. I wish I could find the first 5 pages and will update my writings if I do.

Page 7

3-5-91

2nd hour I broke a sword I’ve been working on for a week in pottery. It broke in seven pieces.

3rd hour I have Middle East class and we watched taped news reports all hour. It was interesting to see people in the class cheer when someone on the tape rips down a picture of Saddam Hussein and stomp on it. The people were saying stuff like, “we should have kept bombing ’til we got him, ” and “I wish I could have blown his ass away.” I guess in away I wish Saddam was dead but even though he is evil, he is human and what good would it do if we were to kill him. If his own people killed him it would mean something. Then Norman Schwarzkopf came on and all the cheering went to like a sudden attention everyone listened to every word like he was a famous movie star.

4th hour was hard because the girl I like and my friend which she likes is in there. So I acted like everything was o.k. I joked around and cut on people.

Lunch. During lunch I went to my locker. My friend and the girl were hanging out there so I stayed cool and acted cool. Then I saw an old friendwho likes me. I think she likes me. See she’s a tease, you never can tell if she’s serious or not. She started hanging on me, which is cool ’cause I think it got to the girl. Then an ex-girlfriend who I still care about came up and was hanging on me. So here I was with two great lookin’ girls hanging on me. I think that the girl was confused because I was smiling and having a good time when I should feel bad, if she only knew. But having good friends around made me feel better.

5th hour I didn’t think much of my problems. I was working on a video game for computer class and it took up all my thoughts.

Written 3-5-1991 for school

I really enjoyed my computer classes in high school. I took basic computer programing I and II. We programed easy little programs on the old Apple IIe. Ah, the good old days.

I think I still have the hilt part of that pottery sword that broke. I was using two colors of clay to make the grip and to decorate the skull on the pommel. Since the blade broke I took a lump of clay and stuck the hilt into it to make a sword in the stone. I was terrible at pottery although I enjoyed the class.

Reading this entry I sounded a bit like a stud. Two girls hanging all over me. Way to go sirs, I rock.

Just for clarification, the term “cut on people,” did not mean I carried a blade and sliced and diced my way through school, but instead was slang for roasting people, or mocking them.

I find the paragraph about 3rd hour and the Middle East class interesting. That was just after the first Persian Gulf war or Operation Desert Storm if you will, I think it is interesting how seventeen year old me saw that killing Saddam wouldn’t make a change. Also that even an evil person is still a person. I still struggle with my feeling on things like the death penalty and wars. Partly because of my spiritual beliefs. I don’t care what religion you practice, most have rules that say killing other humans is bad. I don’t recall reading that it was bad most of the time but if you really don’t like them then o.k., just this once go ahead. I don’t really want to go down that road right now so I’ll just repeat myself and say, looking back at my high school thoughts on the war was interesting to me.

Four Play vs. Earth Day

Narrator: It’s a nice Saturday night in Eagle River and the members of a local band are talking about Earth Day.

Paul: Hey Rod what’s up?

Rod: Nothin’ much just thinkin’ ’bout tomorrow

> At that time Tony bops up to the others

Tony: What’re ya’ll jabering ’bout

Paul: Rod here’s worried ’bout tomorrow for some reason

Tony: Hey Rod we ain’t got a set tomorrow, so what’s up?

Rod: Well guys tomorrow is Earth Day and I’m not sure we as a whole ain’t doing enough for our environment.

Tony: Ah, what’re ya talkin’ ’bout, we recycle our beer cans.

Paul: Ya and sometimes I even recycle my beer bottles.

Rod: Ya but there’s a lot more we can do for the Earth.

Paul: Like what?

Rod: Hey Dwayne!

Dwayne: Hey what!

Rod: Come here!

Dwayne: Ah man I’m talking’ to chicks!

Rod: Come on, it’s importen’

Dwayne: OK

> Dwayne walks up

Dwayne: What’s more importen’ than chicks?

Rod: The Earth.

Dwayne: The Earth!? Is that our next gig?

Rod: No it’s our planet.

Dwayne: What’s going on here.

Tony: Well Rod here is tryin’ to convince us we’re not doin’ ’nuff for our planet.

Dwayne: Sure we are. Hey I don’t use hair spray so I don’t hurt the ozone.

Paul: If you don’t think we’re doin’ enough for Earth, what else should we do?

Tony: Ya want else?

Rod: OK T-bone, we’ll start with you sure we recycle our beer cans, but what about glass bottles, milk jugs; the plastic is recyclable, and paper.

Tony: OK I’ll start recycling everything.

Rod: Dwayne, sure you don’t use hair spray but Wednesday you went on a picnic what did you use to carry your beer in?

Dwayne: A cooler.

Rod: Made of what?

Dwayne: Styrofoam I think, why?

Rod: Well in the process of makin’ Styrofoam things go into the air and help destroy the ozone and what about driving all the way out here from Anchorage every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The fumes the cars let off pollute the air.

Dwayne: Well you’re right, maybe we should all ride together.

Tony & Paul: Ya you’re right.

Rod: also Paul, you and Lorain just had a kid, what type of diapers do you use?

Paul: Pampers disposables.

Rod: You should use cloth diapers because disposable diapers are not biodegratable.

Dwayne: What’s that.

Rod: That means it takes a real long time for it to brake down so it fills our dumps.

Tony: Hey guys next you know Rod’s goin’ tell us how to recycle baby crap.

Rod: No but in the next few years they’ll probably be a way to recycle it. Anyway Paul what does Lorain clean wooden tables with?

Paul: Pledge and paper towels.

Rod: Did you know that if everyone cleaned with paper towels once a week, it would take thousands of trees, so use a rag.

Paul: OK

Rod: And Pledge has chemicals that destroy the ozone.

Paul: What should we do, let dust collect on the furniture?

Rod: No, but do what Barbara does, use veggie oil and lemon juice.

Paul: OK I can handle that. Now do you feel better about tomorrow?

Rod: Yah!

Tony: Then let’s ROCK N’ ROLL!

Written for school in 1990.

My sophomore year of high school I lived lived with my 21 year old sister and two room mates. I was sixteen at the time and enjoyed the freedom of living with a rebellious sibling.

My sister would often spend weekend evenings at bars and clubs enjoying live entertainment of which ever rock band was playing that week. Being a regular at the clubs she befriended a few of the bands one of which was called Four Play. They where your typical four member band, drummer, bass, guitar and vocals, and performed a mix of popular hair band music from the eighties and a few of their originals.

The band was performing at a club in a small neighboring town so my sister and her friends drove out to watch them play.

Typically on a weekend if I hadn’t made plans with one of my school friends I would be at home playing video games or watching a video. One weekend I was at home playing video games with my male roommate Andy. After a few hours of games we decided to go see if I could get into the club and check on the girls.

We drove to Eagle River and attempted to enter the club. The plan was simple walk in and if I got carded just act as if I had forgotten my ID at home. As we approached the bouncer I remember feeling nervous so I started a conversation with my roommate to ease my mind. Once we got to the bouncer he only asked for the cover charge. We paid and entered.

It surprised my sister that they let me in.

I spent the next few hours there, met the band members and had a lot of fun.

That evening made a bit of an impact on me. I thought it was awesome to hang out with the adults and met a band. So I took that experience and turned it into of all things a play for Earth Day.

It isn’t much of a play, but it was just a school project and not something I really wanted to do. I doubt I cared much for Earth Day then and I know it means nothing to me today.

I am not much into “saving our planet” at least not in the traditional since. Mostly because I don’t fear that we can destroy the planet. At least not with plastic bottles and Styrofoam. If we somehow manage to destroy the ozone layer or kill off the plant life all that will happen is we’ll end up killing of the human race. Which in the big picture really isn’t that bad of an idea. We excel at it after all. Killing is man’s best gift. We kill the animals, the beauty of the planet and each other. The sooner we manage to wipe out the human race the sooner the planet can clean it’s rivers and air and go back to being a big beautiful ball in galaxy. So don’t recycle and please don’t car pool. Do the world a favor do what you can to speed up the destruction of your environment. The sooner we are all gone the sooner the world will truly be green.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time…

there lived an evil man named Algotron. He was the most evil living person of all time. He was known all over the world for feeding the peasants children to his mean dogs so they would learn to love the taste of human flesh.

After a few years of these horrible deeds, the mighty warrior Thor could not keep his anger inside any longer. So Thor walked into Algotron’s kingdom with the thought of killing him on his mind.

Thor walked up the stairs to his castle and knocked on the door quickly and loudly.

The door swung open and a small man appeared in the doorway and asked, “what is your name?”

“Thor,” the mighty man replied.

“What do you want here,” the tiny man asked?

“I am here to kill King Algotron,” the man said is such a way it brought fear to the eyes of the smaller man.

Then the small guards man slammed the door shut, and bolted it locked.

“You think a mere door can keep me from my quest,” exclaimed the mighty Thor as he swung his large war-hammer.

The war-hammer hit the door with such power the door split into chips and flew across the room like a horde of bees.

Thor enter the castle and walked up to the kings throne. Two large guards jumped Thor. Thor with his mighty strength, hit the guard shattering his jaw. Then came around with his hammer and hit the guard caving in his chest.

The king squirmed in his throne as Thor approached him.

“What do you want,” the king said still acting strong.

“I’m here to kill you,” Thor said.

Then the man called for his dogs, but when they saw Thor and the dead guards they stopped and licked the blood off the guards and off the floor.

This really shook the king. He jumped up and charged Thor.

Thor hit him once and stunned him. The evil king pulled out a dagger. When Thor saw the blade he was angered even more, so he hit the king with his hammer and smashed his skull. The king dropped to the ground, his body twitched and died.

The people loved Thor and everyone lived happily ever after.

Written for school early 1991

This was a paper I wrote for a school project. As with all of these pieces of my writing I am preserving the grammar and style in which I originally wrote them. I know some is horrid and it is hard for me not to fix them as I go, although grammar still isn’t my strongest point, I leave them as they where so I can revisit my past self as it was.

The teacher asked us to write a story which begins “Once upon a time.” So of course I write a fairy tale about a Norse god going to kill an evil king who feeds children to dogs. I wrote another story with the same theme for a different class project and because this story was not dated I’m not sure which came first. I think the other one might have been written first and I was continuing the idea from that story with this one. I made a few story arc mistakes from that one to this one. The original hero was Hercules and I confused the names of the evil king and his lands. Although the Hercules story is written a little better than this one, so I might have written it later as a prequel to this story, after gaining a little more writing skill. Maybe I’ll take these two stories and rewrite them some day just for fun. Although I’ve always been a big fan of Thor, I think Hercules works better for the other story and he can be incorporated into this part much easier than the other way around.

Hercules Out of Time

One fine day Hercules awoke from a pleasant nights rest. He was on his way to a small village called Algotron, ruled by an evil lord called Galtor.

Galtor was known for feeding children to his prized dogs. For this Hercules wished to end the life of Galtor and to stop the killing of innocent children.

He was only a few days walk from Algotron when he decided to rest for the evening. The next day he continued on his voyage.

In the hot afternoon sun, his thirst grew very great, so he stopped at this beautiful fountain and sipped the water quickly, unknowing that the fountain was a trick made by Hera. Hera had been watching for days waiting for her chance to curse Hercules. After drinking, Hercules  stood back up, as he did immediately he got weak and fell to his knees then on to his face falling unconscious.

When he awoke, a few hours later on a damp, cold, hard ground, he opened his eyes and was astonished. He sprang to his feet, and stumbled, still being weak. He had a sinking feeling in his throat as he looked around and though to himself, “is this Hades or a bad dream that I can not awake from.”

He was standing between two huge, square towers. The ground is made of brick so finely crafted the mortar was not visable. It was covered with fine colored papers and littered with dirt and slime. The windows of the towers were covered with transparent brick. The climate was cool and there was a reek in the air. The smell was so bad the mighty warrior choked and gagged until his lungs where use to the unpleasant smell. The sky was covered with strange colored clouds.

As he looked down the bricked ground, he figured it was a road and so he followed it until he came to a cross road.

As he came to the cross roads he was even more astonished by the sights of quickly moving chariots not drawn by horses, but by magical means, There were large poles with strange lamps of three colors red, yellow and green. Strangely dressed people walked the side road. None seemed friendly, but all seemed in a hurry.

The buildings, that were made of strange metals and other materials, seemed to reach higher than Mount Olympus itself.

Even though Hercules was still baffled about his whereabouts when he heard the plead of a lady’s screams, he did not hesitate to come to the rescue.

He raced into the alley and saw a lady being held by a man. The lady was kicking and screaming for help. At the sight of Hercules the man pulled out a knife. When Hercules saw the knife he chuckled at the sight of the tiny weapon.

Although he did not fear for his own life, he feared for the woman. Then the man spoke, “hey man, what’s up?”

Hercules replied, “I’m not sure of your tongue, but if you do not free the woman then I shall send to to Charon.”

“Hey I don’t know this Charon dude but I’m fixin’ to kick your butt all over this alley. So get outta here, this ain’t your problem.”

Hercules still did not understand all the words that the man said but the still spoke to him, “if you are any form of man then fight me and let her go!”

“Hey bro, if it’s a fight you want, then you got it.”

The man through the woman to the ground and thrust at Hercules with his knife. Hercules saw an opening and grabbed the mans wrist and snapped it with his sheer strength. Then he hit the mans chest. There was a loud crack as one of his ribs broke and sliced through his chest. Hercules followed the blow with a punch to the nose. The man screamed as his nose shattered and blood sprayed Hercules. The man fell to the ground, his body went limp, and then twitched.

Hercules immediately ran over to the lady. She thanked him with a kiss. He helped her to her feet, then she took a good look at him and asked, “what are you wearing? What are you going to a party?”

“No,” the mighty Hercules said, “this is a fur from a lion I once slew.”

She came back with, “lion? What type of dope are you on man?”

Hercules looked to the ground to see if he was standing on some strange object and stated, “I’m not on dope, but on brick.”

“Brick? Never heard of it.”

Then she gasped at the sight of a large gash he had across his stomach, “we have to fix that up, Hurry up with me. My apartment is up here, come along.”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him behind her.

They reached a building at the end of the alley and went inside. After climbing a few flights of stairs they reached her apartment.

They entered and magically the lamps on the ceiling burned with a bright glow. She sat him down on the couch and went into another room.

When she returned she carried a bandage and other small containers. She undid his wrap around and wiped the blood from his wound. Then put a strange goo on it and bandaged it.

In just a few hours Hercules knew her, je was already growing very attached.

Zeus could not bare it any longer and so while Hercules slept he transported Hercules back to the path on the way to Algotron.

When Hercules awoke he prayer to Zeus to return him to the woman he loved, but Zeus knew Hercules had to stay in his own time.

To forget his grief Hercules went on to Algotron and killed Galtor. The towns people cheered him, Zeus felt for him and Hera still hated him.

Although he got much pleasure out of killing Galtor he was still upset over his lost love and the woman took her life jumping from her fire escape. Zeus made her into a star. The only star not in a constellation. The lovely star of the sky. And if you ever look to the sky and see a star that looks as if it is crying, you will see the love that Hercules could never have.

Written early 1991 for Creative Writing class in high school.

I remember being excited about this paper, because the students were free to write a short story on anything we wanted. I was into mythology and had always loved fantasy so I made my hero Hercules.

I can also remember being worried about using the word ass when Hercules was stopping the man from attacking the woman, so I used butt. Although I really wanted a more “adult” theme so I made the nose breaking scene a little over the top. That is good old American T.V. at play, sex and language is bad but violence is good.

Anyhow I digress, As it was typing this out I fought with myself not to fix it. I still enjoy the story but some of the grammar was killing me. I decided from the start as I’m typing these old works I want to keep them as close to the original as I can. Although after typing it out the amount of spelling errors was driving me crazy. All the little colored lines under the misspelled words glimmered like a Christmas tree. I decided that if I had a computer or word processor at the time, instead of every thing being hand written, I would have used the spell check to fix the errors, so I could go ahead and make life a little easier on any future readers.

Even with its grammar issues the teacher enjoyed the paper. She even wrote excellent across the top. As I was reading it today, I feel bad for teachers out there having to read 30 plus papers like this. If my paper was a gem, thinking of the mass of poop they have to read through is heartbreaking. So if you are in school or know a teacher, thank them for their patients and understanding.

Friend Suffers Hardship to Save Friend

Recently in the town square a brave fellow named Pythias saved his friend Damon just a few short seconds before his execution.

This reporter wondered why he would risk himself for that of another, so I asked him, “Pythias why would you come to near death for that of Damon?”

His reply was, “well see like Damon is my most killer bud, and like we’ve been hangin’ out since we where little dudes.”

He also told me how he walked miles, in a horrid storm to get here to save the life of his  friend.

“Ya, I like was walkin’ around this humungo flood and walkin’ right into this like totally bad storm. It was like horrible. My hair got totally messed up.”

There are rumors that Dionysus is going to give Pythias an olive wreath and I asked him what he had to say about that.

“Well dude it’s like this, anyone would have done it if they have known Damon like I do.”

In this reporters opinion I’m glad to see more caring people these days.

- Socrates Napoleon -

Written for school sometime between 1990 and 1991 for school.

The good ole Bill and Ted days. I do not recall anything about this story other than the obvious, that it is meant to be a newspaper article. The mock reporter, credited as Socrates Napoleon, is an homage to the movie Bill and Teds Excellent Adventures.

Looking at the story now it makes me chuckle. I still have that simple minded sense of humor I guess.

What is the Worst Animal?

I think humans are are the worst living creature on Earth. The way they treat each other and other animals on this planet is terrible.

The way we use the animals is horrible. We raise cattle and pigs just to slaughter them so we can enjoy a big steak or bacon.

Then we dig up worms to impale them and while they squirm to their death you throw them in water to use to stick a hook through a fishes mouth all so you can slice it up and eat it.

Not to mention clubbing baby animals just to make a nice coat.

How would you like to be a horse. You think you’d like having some heavy thing on your back kicking your sides and controlling where you go.

And what about dogs and cats. You take little puppies away from their mothers just so some little kid can tug at its ears and treat it like a toy.

Put yourself in the place of any of the animals I’ve listed and see how you’d like their lives.

Wouldn’t you love to be a whale or buffalo or any of the other animals man has hunted.
Written sometime between 1990-1991 for a school project.

I don’t remember being such an animal rights person in my high school days. Although I still agree with most of the ideas behind the piece, I’ve gotten a little more cynical with age. I love steak and bacon goes with just about anything so I’m not going vegetarian any time soon.

I’ve raised a rescued dog for the past nine years and I wish I had her life. She sleeps all that she wants. She gets the not too cheap pet store foods. She has plenty of toys and a yard to play in. I don’t think there is much that she doesn’t get and yet I’m the one who has to work to clean up her messes, pay for her food, toys and treats. So putting myself in the place of a pet dogs life, I’m ready for the trade at this point. I enjoy getting my tummy scratched too and I’m house broken. I even put the seat down when I’m finished.

Tired of life

If I had one day I could do anything in the world with, it would be to spend the whole day together. See my best friend lives in Texas and I haven’t seen him is about two and a half years.

So I would go to Texas and go swimming.

I think later in the day I would ride on the go karts at the little grand-prix place in Houston.

At late day or early night we would play games at the local arcade.

Then late night we would go see a killer concert like Mötley Crüe or maybe Nelson or something like that.

Then we would hang out back stage with the band and go partying the rest of the night.

Tired of Life

Written for school 3-18-1991

When I read the title of this paper I was expecting something very different. I’m not sure why I titled this Tired of Life. Maybe I meant Time of My Life, I am just not sure.

I received an eight out of ten on this paper. It feels a bit light to me now and has terrible errors in it that I almost fixed as I was typing it today, but like the rest of my old writings that I am typing up as a digital archive of sorts, I was them to remain fairly true to my original, repairing only spelling errors.

It is funny to see the musical highlights to the seventeen year old me was Nelson and the Crüe. I did manage to see Mötley Crüe in concert years later and enjoyed myself although my wife didn’t care for the strippers that danced around the show topless. I’m not sure why she didn’t approve of the dancing girls but I thought it was excellent entertainment.

I never made it to a Nelson show. I’m not sure they ever released a second album. I still have their debut album, After the Rain. After discovering how “killer” I thought they where in 1991 I decided to play the album to check it out now. When it comes to music I’m pretty easy going and will listen to just about anything and find the album still enjoyable. It is that bubble gum pop hair metal of the late 1980′s, early 1990′s before Nirvana came along and made it so music needed to mean something. If Gunner and Mathew are still out their rocking and come to my town, I’d go see them.

I Remember

I remember when my family and I were moving to Tennessee and we were driving through Texas and I talked them into stopping off and seeing my best friend.

Well, he was still at school and my parents went to the auto shop to get a spare part. I stayed behind to wait for my friend and to catch up with his parents.

I hadn’t seen him in two years and when he came in he looked at me like it was no big deal and said, “Hi Frank.” Then it hit him. His eyes lit up and it shocked him.

After we talked for awhile we walked up to his school and he showed me around. By the time we got back, his parents talked my parents into letting me stay there for three weeks and fly into Tennessee.

It was Christmas time and we had a great time in the three week period.

He got out of school for Christmas and so we slept all day and stayed out all night.

I started learning to play drums.

When I flew into Tennessee the day before school started and I went to my new school for the first day then there was a large snow fall for down there and I missed school for eight days straight because the schools were canceled.

I Remember

Written 3-20-1991 for school

This is still one of my fondest childhood memories. My friend George lived in an upper class neighborhood in Kingwood, Texas near Houston.

While I was staying with his family his brother David, George and myself stayed in his families pool house.

One of the first nights I was there his dad came out to the pool house and asked George if he knew some girls to introduce his cousin and I to. George told his father that he did and the plan was to meet up with them the following day. His fathers reply was go on out that night and hang out with the girls. He ensured us he would keep George’s mom busy and she wouldn’t check up on us.

That night was an adventure that could be turned into a teen flick these days.

The neighborhood was patrolled by constables and there was an early curfew, so every time we saw car headlights we’d scattered, hiding anyplace we could find. We would jump into bushes or skitter under vehicles parked in peoples driveways to avoid being spotted.

We made our way across the town to where the girls where staying the night. After tossing pebbles at their bedroom window for what seemed like an eternity, we managed to get someone to come to the window. After talking them into sneaking out to join us we spent the whole night talking and getting to know each other. It’s been too many years now. I can’t remember their faces and the only names I remember is Chris and Heidi.

Of course being kids we also played a few pranks on people by rearranging “Merry Christmas” signs in peoples yards to say things like “Cherry Ass,” then hiding the remaining letters. One the the crueler pranks was removing a few Christmas lights from the tree in peoples yards causing the entire string to turn off.

So after an evening of mischief we dropped the girls back at the home they where having their slumber party at and returned to the pool house. We made it in the door right as his father was leaving to go to work for the day.

It was three weeks of similar high jinx. What a great time and a great memory.

Running

It was a bright morning on the 8th day of September. I awoke on the damp ground with a slight chill.

As I rose to my feet I had a sudden remembrance of all that transpired the night before…

It was a very cool night. The wind blew through the large holes in the darkened walls of the olf dirty shack. In the large openings though the roof I could see the evening sky filled with the twinkle of the millions of stars covering the midnight blue heavens. The moon was full and was almost as bright as an early morning sun.

I was lying there, on the floor. Dreaming of other worlds, other planets when my thoughts were disturbed by the merciful pleads of a woman of a woman who seemed to be in much pain.

I sprang up right, almost like a jack in the box, popping up out of its eternal prison. I rushed to one of the largest holes in the walls. It faced to the east, and I could see the huge mountains which spread across the horizon as far as the eye could see. Then I noticed what my goal was. It was a young woman in her mid to late teens being beat by a large man.

Normally I would not have cared because it is against the kings law to interfere with a man disciplining his wife, but this man seemed to be over doing it. Also he was using a large leather whip with a small metal tip.

I rushed to another corner of the room and grabbed my long steel blade and rushed out the door which creaked loudly as it was swung open.

I charged at the large, rough looking man. My first strike was to disarm him. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as my blade slowly sliced through his wrist, crushing bone and severing arteries. Blood showered the man, the girl and I as the man screamed with a powerful yelp.

Then I brought my powerful steel up through his chest. There were many large cracks as ribs were splintered. The large body fell to the ground with a large thud as blood oozed from his damaged chest and are. His hand lay a few feet left of his body.

The girl was crazed with hysteria. She told me to run but I could not make out why through the tears. Then I caght what she was trying to say. I’ll never forget those words that will damn me for the rest of my life. She said that the dead man was the kings brother.

I ran the rest of the night and now I will be running the rest of my life.

Running

Written for school in early 1991

Reading this story today and thinking of the way schools are today, I think if I was in school now and had written this I might have had to see the school counselor. It was a little violent but over all I think it still holds up as one of my better stories from teen me.

To my surprise my teacher wrote “good” on it. I don’t remember this teacher very well, but now going through these old writings, she seems to have been very nice. I think many teachers would have push me away from fantasy and tried to force me into a more traditional genre. I don’t recall her ever encouraging me to write more and it might have been because my writing might not have been very strong for my age group, but she never discouraged me either.

I wish I could remember this teacher better. If my writing does ever appeal to others I think part of the thanks would have to go to her.

The Game Was Exciting

It was like a fairytale. There I was doing my everyday thing, which was to deliver eggs laid by our (my families) chickens to the market at the bazaar, then I heard a strange noise coming from a building I’ve never been in. As a stupid kid I got nosy and entered.

The place wasn’t for me and I could see that right off. For one, I was the youngest person in the room. Another thing I noticed real quick was the fact that every guy was at least six foot, five or six and had huge arms.

It was about then I made the mistake of my life. As I was looking around I walked into a giant sized man. I guess by the suddenness of the bump the man, large and sweaty, tumbled over with a loud crash. The room, filled with smoke, came to a complete silence. All the people, dirty and angry, stopped and stared at me and the man. Then they started yelling, loudly and violently, “Ripper…Ripper!”

I, stunned and confused, started to run but realized the door was blocked. Staggering and queasy, the large man came to his feet. A circle was formed in the center of the room. I was pushed into the center of the circle. The large man, slowly and angrily, walked into the circle. The chants, “Ripper…Ripper,” had stopped since it started. The man slowly slide his sword out of its sheath.

I couldn’t stand it any longer so, suddenly and nervously, I asked, “wh…what’s going on?”

From outta the blue this lady (if you can call a nineteen year old girl wearing dental floss a lady) stepped up and said, “this is the game of the Ripper. By knocking Joe down here without any cause, now he gets a chance to rip you apart, but of course you can protect yourself.”

“But I don’t have a sword,” I said in a squeaky, high pitched voice.

The lady threw me a small sword and yelled, “let’s get this over with!”

With that the crowd started yelling and the large man charged me with his sword. I stepped to the side and the man went by. I was thinking to myself, between flashes of trying to figure out how to get outta here, that the game was exciting. I would have loved to see a match like this but didn’t want to be in it.

The mans’ sword came at my head. I closed my eyes, ducked and lifted my sword. When the swords made contact a spark flew onto he mans fur cloak and his sword snapped in half.

All of the sudden  I smelled this gross smell, then noticed that his cloak was on fire. I pointed at it with my sword. I guess that he thought I was going to kill him cause he git down on his knees and gave up.

When he felt the fire burning through his clothes he took off out the door quickly.

The crowd cheered me, the lady kissed me and now you know why I say it was like a fairytale.

Written 2-22-1991 for school. Subject was, “write a page or so about The game was exciting.”

Dental floss? So now I realize a fantasy setting probably wouldn’t know what dental floss is, but it works I think.

Looks like the class was suppose to use adjectives and I think they where forced into the paper. I know I’ve never written like that before or since.

I think if I striped out the adjectives and a little rewriting it could be turned into a fun short story.

How about you write a short story that incorporates “The game was exciting” and post it as a comment. I’d love to see what you can come up with.