Hello, my name is Elias, and today, I will tell you about a story that changed my life.

It starts with me going to my grandparents’ house. I was standing outside their house and rang the doorbell. They opened the door, and I went in their house. First, I chatted with them. Then, I asked them if I could look in their attic. My grandpa said yes.

So I went up in their attic, and I looked in their attic. I looked everywhere I could. I looked sideways, up, down, everywhere. Then, at the back of the attic, I found a pencil. In gold writing, it said “magic pencil.”

“This is exactly what I wanted,” I said.

I had read in a book that there was a magic pencil in an attic somewhere that had special powers, so I checked in my grandparents’ attic just in case he had a magic pencil. But let us resume the story.

So I ran down to my grandparents and said, “I found a very special pencil. I know it is a magic pencil because I found out there is a magic pencil in a book, and the book’s description matches the pencil.”

My grandparents reacted like I never told the truth. They said that could not be true. Then, I took out a piece of paper, and I wrote, “Make a red rose appear.” And a red rose appeared right in front of them, lying on the table.

My grandparents said, “That is really true, wow!” They acted very surprised. Their faces looked very shocked, and their mouths were wide open.

I thought, How come my grandparents can open their mouths so wide? Because in science class, we learned old people can’t open their mouths very wide.

Then, I told them that we could become very rich, and they looked even more shocked. I wrote, “Add 100 dollars to my grandparents bank account.” I asked my grandparents what the password was to their bank account.

My grandparents asked me, “Are you sure that’s safe?”

And I said, “Yes, because I’m writing it on a piece of paper that nobody can read.”

So my grandparents gave me the password to their bank account, and I wrote it down. And then, they checked their bank account, and it said, “One hundred dollars has been added to your bank account.”

My grandparents looked the most surprised they’d ever been (which is very suprised). And then, they said, “We really could become very rich with this.”

I asked my grandparents if I could keep this pencil, and my grandparents said yes, since they were so old, they wouldn’t need it and I had a long life ahead, so I could keep it.

They also said, “You should be careful with the pencil.”

I was as happy as I’d ever been. I grabbed my pencil and said, “Sorry, grandparents. I can’t stay with you any longer.”

And they said, “Okay.” I was supposed to be with my grandparents for another hour, but they thought that was very short for me to be with them.

Then, I ran home as fast as I could. It took me about ten minutes; it usually takes me, like, thirty minutes. When I reached home, I was very tired, but I still told my mom, whose name is Ederick, that I had found a magic pencil. My parents had already read the book. They looked at it and inspected it and saw that it matched the description perfectly.

They said, “It really does look like the magic pencil.” They looked surprised.

And then, I wrote down, “Make one hundred dollars appear in front of me.” And one hundred dollars appeared in front of me. I told my parents that we should also be careful because the government might find out, and they would think we stole money from the bank, and we could never convince the government about the pencil. So we would have to keep it very secretive, and we would have to hide it, so no one saw the magic pencil, even our friends.

My parents said, “Yes, we do need to keep it very secretive.” The next day, I woke up, and with the magic pencil, I wrote, “Make breakfast appear.” Then, scrambled eggs with liver pate appeared right in front of me.

After that, my dad came over and said, “That magic pencil is cool.”

My dad’s name is Josh, and he is always worried about me. My dad took the magic pencil and wrote, “Make coffe apper.”

“Nothing appeared. you spelled it wrong,” I said. (My dad is a very bad speller.)

“Oh no, I spelled it wrong,” my dad said.

“Yes, you did,” I said. At school, I knew I could not tell anyone about the magic pencil. It was tempting to tell one of my best friends, but luckily, I did not tell any of my friends about the magic pencil.

When school was over, I walked home with my dad, and we argued about animal extinction and the magic pencil. (Of course.) As we were walking, I noticed many more kids were walking behind us than usual. Then, I stopped to think for a moment. l thought that if all those kids were following us, they must have wanted something. But what did they want?

Then, I said, “The magic pencil! They must have heard about it.”

I told my dad to run to our house. Once we ran to our house, I locked the door, and kids were starting to pile up around our house. I told my dad that kids from my school heard about the magic pencil.

My dad yelled, “Why did you tell them about the magic pencil?!” (My dad gets angry very easily.)

“It was not my fault,” I said.

“Fine,” my dad said.

“They just learned that I had it,” I said after a long lecture.

My dad said “Alright, I forgive you.”

Then, when they left, I wrote with the magic pencil, “Make a guardian appear to defend our house.” Then, a tiger appeared right in front of our house.

The next morning, people were standing outside our house, protesting. My parents were contemplating leaving our house because of the protesters. Luckily, the protest was only thirty minutes long, but my mom still was about to throw away the magic pencil. I could not let that happen, so I convinced my mom to not throw it away.

My mom told me, “I am putting the magic pencil away because if you have protesters outside your house, it is very stressful.”

“Fine,” I said.

Then, I woke up, and it was the weekend. I was so happy because of the magic pencil until I remembered my mom had put away the magic pencil. I always hated my mom, but this time, I hated her so much, I made a plan. I would convince my parents to leave me at home because I am a very good convincer. I could take a ladder and reach for the magic pencil, and then, I would hide the magic pencil.

So I put my plan into action. I started by convincing my mom, and it took a very long time. It went like this:

“Mom, I am in fifth grade. So can I stay at home by myself?”

Mom asked, “Why?”

“I told you, I am in fifth grade. Every kid in my class stays by themselves.”

Mom said, ”Fine. On one condition: you do not do anything silly.”

“Okay.”

When I was at home alone, I decided to kick my plan into action. I first got a ladder. Then, I walked to the closet and opened the door. I took the magic pencil, and I hid it in my lockable drawer and locked the drawer.

Then, I waited until my mom and dad came home. Once they came home, I said nothing at all.

My mom said, “How are you?”

I said ‘I am fine.” I also said, “Can I go to the bedroom?”

My mom said, “Alright.”

So I went to the bedroom, and I wrote with the magic pencil, “Make paper appear,” and paper appeared out of the air. The reason I wanted paper to appear is because I love to draw, so I also wrote, “Make the most beautiful markers appear,” and markers that were so beautiful appeared.

The next morning, I woke up and went to the dining table.

My mom said, “How are –”

I cut her off and said, “Mom, I am going to make breakfast today, alright?”

My mom said, “Alright.”

I was appalled by my mom’s response.

So I went to my bedroom to get my magic pencil, and I wrote, “Make a very good breakfast appear,” and a very good breakfast appeared right in front of me. Then, I went to the table.

My mom said, “You must be a very good cook,” but I just went to another topic.

Then, my dad switched on the TV. There was news about Nepal having a war with China.

I thought, My grandparents live in Nepal. I ran to my bedroom, and with the magic pencil, I wrote, “Stop the war between Nepal and China.”

After that, my magic pencil said, “Out of power.”

I felt very unhappy that the magic pencil only lasted for less than a month. So then, I ran to the living room where my parents were chatting and guessing whether the war would end.

But then, the newscaster said, “We have new news in — the war has stopped.”

My parents said, “That was a very quick war.”

They called my grandparents in Nepal. The conversation went like this:

Parents: ”How are you? Is the war ok?”

Grandparents: ”Yes, it disappeared like magic.”

Parents: “Ok, I will call you later.”

(By the way, my grandparents in Nepal are different from the ones in the beginning of this story)

I was happy, even though I did not have the magic pencil, because the war ended, and I was happy for my grandparents who lived in Nepal.

Once upon a time, there lived Mr. MacaroonVoh. Mr. MacaroonVoh kept walking through lots of snow. Mr. MacaroonVoh had never had a place to live before, so he always carried plates with him, just in case he found food somewhere.

He didn’t want someone to say, “Where are your plates? You need plates to eat.”

Mr. MacaroonVoh was walking with his plates through the snow and thought maybe he would land there. Mr. MacaroonVoh liked snow because it was cold. Mr. MacaroonVoh was pretty much like a snowman, but he never melted. His body was all white, so everybody always mixed him up with a snowman. His name used to be called Lila Moon, but people called him Mr. MacaroonVoh because he looked like a white macaroon.

When Mr. MacaroonVoh was a kid named Lila Moon, he never listened. When his parents would tell him to go to the grocery store, he would go to the candy store instead and buy ten thousand candies. When his parents would tell him to write a story all about himself, he would sneak out the door and go to his backyard. He would swim in the pool in the backyard for ten minutes. When his parents were cooking in the kitchen, they heard the pool noises. Lila Moon  would only swim when the wind was blowing, because his parents would think it was the wind and not him swimming. Lila Moon’s parents hit him for misbehaving. If he sang out, “Blah blah you can’t hit me!” his parents would lock him in his bedroom.

One day, Lila Moon’s parents said, “You know what, Mr. Lila Moon? You have been troubling us for too long. If you trouble us one more time, you will have to go away.”

Lila Moon knew he wasn’t supposed to use washable markers on the chalkboard, but he took it down anyway and got some Expo markers. He used green, red, black, and blue markers and scribble-scrabbled all over the board. He erased it so the color would get all blurry all over the chalkboard.

When his parents saw what he had done, they said, “Sorry, Mr. Lila Moon. You have made too many mistakes. You are ten years old and will have to find a new place to live.”

“You cannot make me leave!” said Lila Moon.

“Fine, then you can go play in the pool in the backyard,” said Lila Moon’s parents.

As soon as he went outside to play in the pool, Lila Moon’s parents locked the door and said, “Nah, nah, nah, you cannot get back inside! You have troubled us too much.”

***

Lila Moon walked and walked and walked. He walked through snow and coldness. He hated the snow and cold. But then, he saw a snowman. Lila Moon had never seen a snowman before. At first, he thought it was a blind girl, but then everybody said, “Hi, Mr. MacaroonVoh.”

He said, “That’s not my name! My name is Lila Moon.”

Everybody said, “Well, sorry, this is Neverending Snow Land. And you have to be named something white. Everybody has to like vanilla, so we named you Mr. MacaroonVoh.”

Mr. MacaroonVoh said, “Okay. I would love to live here. Can I?”

Everybody said, “Yes!”

Mr. MacaroonVoh had already made a friend. Her name was Lighty Light. Lighty Light had asked Mr. MacaroonVoh where he came from. Mr. MacaroonVoh was not sure what to say because he wasn’t sure where he had come from; he had forgotten. He had already had so much fun in Neverending Snow Land that it was hard to remember what it was like to not have a home.

“I’ve never had a home, so I’ve just been walking. I thought it would maybe be fun to live here,” said Mr. MacaroonVoh.  

“That’s very sad! Are you very hungry? Because I could ask you what vanilla thing you’d like to eat,” said Lighty Light.

“I would like a chocolate cupcake!” said Mr. MacaroonVoh. “Where is my chocolate cupcake?!” he yelled. “I’ve been asking for it for hours!!”

“We are not going to give you a chocolate cupcake! Remember what we told you? You just got here! You must eat something vanilla! It is compulsory,” everyone yelled back.

Lighty Light looked at everyone from Neverending Snow Land. “Stop! If you don’t stop yelling at my friend, I will go to another home with him!”

“Okay, go to another home! We don’t care!”

Lighty Light was surprised that everyone was acting so mean.

“You haven’t been like this all year. You haven’t been like this since I arrived here. Why are you acting this way?” asked Lighty Light.

Someone pushed through the crowd.

She said, “I am Fantastic Paper. My old name used to be Virey Moon.”

“Virey Moon,” said Mr. MacaroonVoh. “I think I know you.”

“How can you know me? I don’t know anybody named Mr. MacaroonVoh,” said Fantastic Paper.

“Well, my name used to be Lila Moon.”

Fantastic Paper paused. “Wait a second,” she said. “Let me think.”

Mr. MacaroonVoh stared at her to try and figure out what she was thinking.

“We are cousins!” yelled Fantastic Paper.

“Oh yeah! Woohoo!” Mr. MacaroonVoh and Fantastic Paper danced.

“Now all we have to do is find a few more friends and we can go home.”

“Do I have a home?” asked Mr. MacaroonVoh. “Wait. I need time to think, like you needed time.”

Mr. MacaroonVoh sat down on some snow and crossed his legs.

“Wait!” he shouted. “I did have a home! I used to be a bad boy, and my parents said for me to leave. That’s all I know.”

“Okay now, Mr. MacaroonVoh. If you weren’t behaving back then, have you learned your lesson now?” asked Fantastic Paper.

“Yes,” said Mr. MacaroonVoh.

“Well, what did you learn?” asked Fantastic Paper.

“I learned that if I do not listen, I won’t have a home,” said Mr. MacaroonVoh.

Meanwhile, Lighty Light was listening to the conversation from behind. She wanted to know about this new person in Neverending Snow Land. Right after their conversation, Fantastic Paper and Mr. MacaroonVoh left.

“I’m coming with you!” shouted Lighty Light.

The three walked out of the snow garage of Neverending Snow Land. It had old snow cars and broken, old things inside. They walked and walked and walked until they were almost out of the land.

They found ten kids. Their names were Tulip, Romina, Charlit, Rarity, Lina, Charlie, Rosie, Rasly, Laurie, and Jordan.

Lighty Light asked everyone, “Do you think it would be good to make a clubhouse?”

“Yes indeed!”

Fantastic Paper, Mr. MacaroonVoh, and Lighty Light started asking the ten people questions about themselves so they could know more about them. They wanted to focus more on building later.

Lighty Light asked Rasly, “What is your favorite color?”

Rasly said, “Purple!”

Mr. MacaroonVoh asked Tulip, “What is your favorite place to go for vacation?”

Tulip said, “Poconos.”

Fantastic Paper asked Lina, “How many years have you been in Neverending Snow Land?”

“I have been there for at least ten years,” said Lina.

Fantastic Paper, Mr. MacaroonVoh, and Lighty Light said, “Wow! You guys have a lot of details about yourselves. Very good. That’s exactly what we wanted to know about you.”

They started looking for an empty block with no snow so they could build their clubhouse. Soon, they found the perfect block. It had a lot of grass, so everybody said, “Let’s cut this! Let’s cut this!”

“Yes!” said Lighty Light, Mr. MacaroonVoh, and Fantastic Paper.

Then, they started cutting the grass with scissors. It took them one day to cut the grass because of their teamwork. They put the grass in the garbage bag. Now, they were all done. All they had to do was get some wood and some tools. They started walking more. They asked a long-haired man for some tools.

He said, “I am a building guy, and I build a lot.”

“Do you have any wood?” they asked.

The man said, “No, I ran out of wood.”

They said, “No problem. We’re just going to have to go get it from a tree.”

Virey Moon said, “You know what? Oh my gosh! My old house is just two blocks away. We could go there and get some wood. I have a station of wood. I could just ask my parents if we could take some.”

Tulip said, “Do you live here?”

Virey Moon said, “Nope, not at all. One day, a long time ago, my parents said, ‘We found this cold place you would like living in.’ Then, they told me not to worry, and they would always live in this exact spot.”

Soon, they got some wood and started to go to the grassy place.

“Let’s start building,” everyone said.

They put some more wood up until they had made a big square. They made a triangle on top and a chimney too! Now, they started to paint pink, blue, and red. All they needed to do now is let the paint dry. And then they needed to make some windows, some doors, and start using the club house! They cut some squares from the clubhouse and used glass for windows.                

And then, they put a little rectangle over a little hole to make a door. Then, they put a doorknob, and they saw and made sure that the door could open. As soon as it was done, they said, “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Mr. MacaroonVoh.  Happy birthday to you.”

And Mr. MacaroonVoh said, “It’s my birthday today, it’s my birthday today,” dancing, shaking his waist, pushing down, and kicking out the ground.  

And everybody sang this song: “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go. Over the river and through the woods, oh, how the wind does blow. It stings the toes and bites the nose as over the ground we go. Over the river and through the woods, trust fast my dapple gray. Spring over the ground like a hunting hound for this Thanksgiving day. Over the river and through the woods, grandmother’s cap I spy. Hooray for the fun, it couldn’t be done, hooray for the pumpkin pie!”  

Mr. MacaroonVoh said, “It is finally a day to relax. It’s my birthday today. It’s my birthday today. It’s finally my birthday today, it’s finally my birthday today. Let’s start going in the clubhouse today!”  

They said, “Oh, my gosh, this clubhouse is the best house!”

“Wait a second,” Mr. MarcaroonVoh said, “Today is our day to go back home!  And we have our phones!  We can still give each other our phone numbers!  But wait a second, I need to go home now!  With Lighty Light and Fantastic Paper!  Let’s start going!  Bye, guys!  We’ll miss you!  It’s our time to go back home but soon we’ll meet up together in the clubhouse. It will be our secret clubhouse.”

***

When Mr. MacaroonVoh, Lighty Light, and Fantastic Paper reached home, Mr. MacaroonVoh’s family wasn’t there!  

So then, they said, “Let’s go look out.  Maybe they’re in the garden!”  

They went in the garden–they found Mr. MacaroonVoh’s family! Mr. MacaroonVoh started introducing his family to his cousin and his friend.  

First, he said, “Family, this is my friend Lighty Light!  She saved me!  And so did Fantastic Paper, my cousin!”

“Mr. MacaroonVoh, we’re sorry we told you to leave the house. We realized that it was the wrong thing to do. We would never want to leave you again.”

Mr. MacaroonVoh said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen. And I would never want to leave you either.”

It was a breezy day in Alaska, and a group of puffins were playing by the snow. The king puffin was demanding more fish.

“Give me fish! I can’t do it! My beak just got polished!” he said.

Now, the main character came waddling along.

“Yes sir,” said a puffin named Bensy, “Salmon — I think? — for you!”

“Salmon! I hate! I despise! Salmon!” he shouted.

“Ok, I’ll get you a different fish,” said Bensy.

As he waddled across the snow, he looked at the city. And then, he saw his destiny behind a window.

“Oh my gosh!” said Bensy.

And you must be wondering what it was… and it was fried chicken!!

“Yaaaaaaaa!” shouted Bensy’s friend Amelia.

“Ow!” said Bensy.

“King Puffin wants his fish,” said Amelia.

“Ohh, you civil, boring, fish-eating puffins, there’s better food in life, you know,” said Bensy.

“But you’re a puffin,” said Amelia.

“Yeah, but I’m better,” said Bensy.

“You’re so full of yourself,” said Amelia.                                                                                                                                      

“Look, fried chicken,” said Bensy dreamily.

“That’s cannibalism,”said Amelia.

It was night in the puffin village. Everyone was inside because Gwen the fox was on the prowl.

“Everyone inside! Gwen is going to climb the gates!” said the speaker.

Bensy ran out of his house and to the gates at the front of the cave.

“Hey, I need your help!” he said shaking and waddling with fear.

He ran back home

“I was wrong!!’ screamed Bensy.

“I told you so!!’ Amelia said.

“Hello, tiny puffin! What do you want?” said Gwen the snow fox.

“I need your help,” said Bensy.  

“What do you want?” said Gwen.

“Uh, I want … fried chicken,” said Bensy.

“Uh, that’s cannibalis-”

“I know!!!’ interrupted Bensy.

Gwen rolled her eyes and said, “Tomorrow. Gates. Morning.”

***

It was early morning. Bensy was waiting.

“Foxes always lie,” he said.

“Uh, no. I’m here at the gates,” she said.

“Okay, let’s go,” Bensy said.

“Uh, remember you split fried chicken, or you will be chicken,” said Gwen.

They were walking to KFC, and they stopped at a sign.

“No pets! Technically, we’re not pets,” Gwen said.

Try 1:

Roz never smiled.

“Why did I have to work the 24/7 hour shift,” Roz said.

“Uh, hi, can I have some fried chicken?” said a lady.

“Sure, it’s made with the opposite things we say in the ad,” said Roz.

“Oh, um, ok, here is the money, crazy lady. Goodbye,” she said.

“Now!” said Bensy.

BOOM!

“Ah! Get off of me!!” she said as she stormed away.

“Aw, no fried chicken,” said Bensy.

“Yeah, next time, don’t tackle. It’s just sad,” said Gwen.

They were in front of KFC looking into the window at all the fried chicken.

TRY 2

“Ok, let’s just walk through the door,” said Bensy.

“Wait, uh no, don’t, nooo-’ said Gwen.

“Ding” went the doorbell.

“Hi, welco– Hey! No pets or animals allowed!!” said Roz with so much rage that she could blow a fuse.

“Wenk wenk weeeenk!!!” he said. [Can I have some fried chicken?]

“No!” screamed Roz.

Bam! Bensy flew out the door and onto the snow-covered street.

“Uh, let’s try again!” said Bensy dizzily

TRY 3

It was scary being a puffin because of trees, blizzards, and snow foxes (except Gwen). But this was the scariest. Bensy was in a cage in the dark, and it was moving. Scary!

“Bensy! Where are you! Did ya get it! Uh Bensy?” said Gwen nervously.

Then, she saw the worst thing ever, an animal truck which you don’t see much, so this meant that Bensy was in there! Padding against the fresh snow, Gwen was too slow.

“No, Bensy!” said Gwen sadly.

As Gwen was walking home, she had an idea. Maybe the person who understands me the most! thought Gwen.

“Dorothy!” said Gwen happily. So she sped to Dorothy’s house.

DING! went the doorbell.

“Oh, hi, Gwen. What are you doing here?” said Dorothy.

Now I know this was kind of far, but just go with it.

Ruff, grr, grr, barked Gwen.

‘Your friend’s in an animal control truck!’ said Dorothy understandingly.

“Yeah, that’s the crazy thing” said Gwen.

So Dorothy got a backpack that had a bunch of jangly things. They saw the animal control truck at the gas station near the ferry.

“Come on. The truck’s back door is open!” said Dorothy.

Slam! went the door just as they got in the back of the truck. And they were off!

But the ferry ride was short, so in a wink, the truck was on the road again.

All tries over!

Quickly, they drove the car into the ditch and climbed out.

“Okay the ferry dock is right there, so all we have to do is get on — Oh! That ferry,” said Dorothy.

They ran to the ferry dock and clambered on the ferry.

“Uh, are you sure they won’t get on?” said Gwen nervously.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” said Dorothy.

And as soon as that, they were off!

“Uh, this is kind of strange?” said Dorothy.

“Whats strange?” said Gwen.

“This ship! It’s, well, strange and shady!” said Dorothy nervously.

She was right; it was strange. The walls were rusty. It had graffiti all over the windows and only some of them because the rest of the windows were broken!

“Where, uh, am I?” said Bensy.

“Bensy! You’re awake! After being unconscious!” said Gwen.

“Yes, I am. Now seriously, where are we?” said Bensy.

They explained what happened, which in my opinion, took too long to write and so my fingers would get tired. Go figure.

“Oh, okay thanks for explaining, but I need that fried chicken!!” said Bensy.

“Yes I know, but right now, we have bigger problems!” said Dorothy.

“Yeah, Dorothy’s right, but I have a feeling someone’s watching us! But anyway, let’s go to bed.”

***

It was night on the mysterious boat, and everyone was sleeping. (Ha! It sounded like a nursery rhyme when I said it like that!) Mumbling was coming from the deck of the ship.

“Do you think they’re on the boat?” said Maxwell.

“Of course they’re on the ship. Otherwise, they wouldn’t exist!” said Pete, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, and I don’t want Boss to be mad!” said Maxwell.

Now everyone knows that snow foxes have extraordinary hearing.

“What’s that noise?” said Gwen. “And whose boss? Guys?”

“What? I’m sleeping!” said Dorothy.

“The henchman are on the ship!” said Gwen.

“Uh oh! I was right!” said Dorothy.

“How will we escape!” said Bensy.

“Uh, I obviously don’t know!” said Dorothy.

“How can you not knoooooo– I see them!!” screamed Bensy.

“Run!” said Gwen.

So obviously, this was one of those cool scenes where everybody runs. Yeah, this story had to have one.

“I never run in gym class!” screamed Dorothy.

The only thing they could do was jump.

“Lets jump!” said Bensy.

So obviously, they disagreed..

“That’s crazy — okay, let’s do that. They’re coming!” screamed Dorothy.

So they jumped, yeah. Under the water, they pumped their legs as the water pushed them down. But then, a shadow stretched across the water.

“Uh, what’s that!” said Gwen.

Then, a wing stretched into the water and grabbed Bensy’s wing.

“Ahhhh!” said Bensy.

Then, he saw an amazing sight.

“Well hello, Bensy!” said KING PUFFIN!  

“The annoying girl puffin told me you were missing!” said King Puffin.

But then, Bensy remembered about his friends.

“Wait! My friends!” said Bensy.

So he dove into the water and grabbed Gwen and Dorothy.

“Uh, Amelia, King Puffin, meet Gwen and Dorothy,” said Bensy.

They all shook wings, hands, and paws. But they realized they were only on a wooden canoe.

“Uh, will this sink?” said Gwen.

“Bah! No, it’s made in my palace, so it’s the best!” said King Puffin.

He was back to his selfish self. But then, they saw Alaska!

“We’re home!” said Bensy.

As they got to the snowy beach, they relaxed, and Amelia said “Uh, Bensy, you know I have something for you.”

Bensy tilted his head.

“What is it?” he said.

Then, Amelia held out… fried chicken!!! Bensy passed out. Just kidding! Bensy screamed like he was on High School Musical!

Then, he asked, “How’d you get it?”  

‘“Dude, you literally just have to jump on a person who’s eating fried chicken and they’ll drop it on the ground!” said Amelia.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Bensy screamed like he was on High School Musical (again!) Then, Bensy said something

“Uh, can I live with you?” asked Bensy.

“Uh, why?” said King Puffin.

“Pwease Kwing Pwuffin!” said Bensy like a baby.  

“Fine,” said King Puffin.

But first, they ate the fried chicken that Bensy always wanted.

Hi! My name is Bob. I love roller coasters (especially scary ones.) I live at Columbus Circle.

My mom came into the room.

“Bob,” she said. “We are going to Coney Island.”

“Yes!!!” I said.

We went to the 59th Street Columbus Circle station and got on the D train.

We passed 7th Ave/53rd Street. We passed 47th-50th Streets Rockefeller Center. We passed 42nd Street Bryant Park and 34th Street Herald Square. We passed West 4th Street, Broadway Lafayette Street, Grand Street, Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street, and 36th Street.

Finally, we were there.

We headed towards the beach.

My dad asked, “Do you want to go into the waves?”

“No,” I said.

When my mom and dad went into the waves, I escaped and went towards the amusement park.

I bought a Luna card and headed towards the Cyclone.

I got on the Cyclone. This was the best day of my life!

The Cyclone went very fast, but then suddenly, it stopped.

The Cyclone had broken down.

I jumped off the Cyclone and ran. I did not know where.

Then, I saw it! A roller coaster with a vertical drop! It said “THUNDERBOLT” on the side. I watched a car for the thunderbolt go down the side of the track. I got onto a car for the Thunderbolt, and off it went.

Up the vertical drop.

Down the vertical drop.

Over the loop.

Then, the ride was over.

By that time, my mom and dad had come looking for me.

Finally, they found me.

“Why did you run away from us, Bob?”

I just grinned.

They rolled their eyes at me.

We went to Nathan’s. I could tell my mom was mad at me. But inside, I was happy. I was happy because I knew I had ridden the Thunderbolt.

Chapter 1

A bird flies over buildings, brushing against the smooth and bumpy trees. It flies up and pecks on a leaf, and then, it soars off. It flies into the sun, its feathers shining. It pecks on the leaf again. The bird sees bees collecting pollen and people getting up. Then, the bird looks up and sees the sun rising, with yellow and pink colors.

Then, he studies the sparkling sun. He tilts his head and flies off. He flies more and then stops. He sees the most beautiful building ever as he flies up and up. Then, he goes to the very top, and he sees flowers and his friends. He flies down and tells them what he saw that day.

The birds play in the vines, jump, fly, eat leaves, and find worms. They throw the worms down and forget about them. They keep on playing for the rest of the day.

Then, they go back to the nest. Just then, they see a bat. They fly into the nest as fast as they can!! The bat sees them, but they curl up, and ten minutes later, they fall asleep. But the bat is still there.

“But, you guys! I’m your friend, remember?” says the bat, “Remember? My name is Blackie.”

But the two birds are fast asleep. The birds dream of going to see their old friend, but they don’t remember what their old friend looks like and what animal he is.

Meanwhile, the bat finds a spot to go to sleep. The next morning, the pigeons wake up. They go to examine the bat. They don’t remember anything they saw or dreamed about, but they decide to think, and think, and think. But still, they can’t remember. Just then, the bat wakes up.

The birds jump back, but the bat says, “Remember me? I’m Blackie.”

Then, they remember that it was Blackie, their friend.

“Oh, hi! We didn’t know it was you. Sorry, yesterday we couldn’t see you, and it was dark.”

“It’s okay, I came here to see you guys.”

Just then, the sun rises up.

Birdie says, “Let’s go look. I want to show you what we did yesterday, and then, we can do it again today too!”

“Okay,” says Blackie.

So they fly off. First, they stop and sit on the windowsill of a building. They see a cat, so they fly to another ledge. They see their friend Rattie.

“Rattie, wanna come play with us today?” they say.  

“Sorry, maybe tomorrow. I have to go and get to the grocery store.”

“Okay, it’s fine. We will go tomorrow.”

So, they fly off and go to the vine building.

“What’s this?” asks Rattie and Blackie.

“It’s a building with vines!” says Birdie and his other bird friend, Pinnie.

Blackie starts to fly up to the top. Rattie climbs and climbs to the top. Then, Birdie flies up and then Pinnie. They play hide and go seek. Then, they play tag.

“Tag, you’re it.”

Blackie is it. Rattie runs, and runs, and then, he tags Pinnie. Pinnie flies and tags Rattie. Rattie is very, very fast, but Birdie and the others can fly. But Rattie can jump too! He jumps into the air to Birdie, and now Birdie is it. Birdie flies and gets Blackie and Pinnie. They do rock paper scissors. Pinnie wins.

Chapter 2

They play hide and go seek. Pinnie is it, while the others go and hide.  First, he checks for Rattie because Rattie loves hiding in small corners. He looks in the top corner, and the bottom corner, the other top corner, and the other bottom corner. He finds Rattie in the other bottom corner. Rattie and Pinnie start looking for Blackie. Blackie loves hiding in the bushes. They look in parts of the building, for little parts that are small, that Blackie can hide behind. They find one, but he isn’t there. They find the second one, but he isn’t there. The third one is really big. They look and there is Blackie.

Then, they look for Birdie. Birdie isn’t particular to where he hides. They look under the building, on top the building, and around the building, but they still can’’t find him. They look at the side of window, but they still can’t find him. They go back to the nest, thinking he is right behind them. They look behind them, but he isn’t there. They keep walking, and he still isn’t there. Then suddenly, Birdie pops out of the nest.

“Boo!” he says.

They all jump back, and Rattie almost falls out of the tree, but Pinnie catches him and pulls him up. That night, they make another nest. Rattie sleeps in one nest and Pinnie and Birdie sleep in the other. And Blackie sleeps right above them. It is a full moon, so they don’t fall asleep for a while.

Finally, at 8 o’clock p.m., they fall asleep.

The next morning, they watch the sunrise. The colors are pink, purple, orange, and yellow. It is really fun. After that, they go into the train station. They find some tickets on the ground. They have one, two, three, but one was missing. They search the ground..

“Rattie, look at this! There’s two more tickets. What should we do?”

“Maybe we can print out more tickets and give them to the others.”

“Okay!”

So Rattie goes to print them, and Pinnie goes to tell the others. She calls Blackie and Birdie. They go to the printer all together. Rattie types it in, Blackie presses the button, puts the paper in, and Birdie takes the papers out. They have eight tickets now. They can go on two trips!

Birdie is looking at the tickets. Pinnie is walking over, and Rattie is jumping off the printer. He lands next to Pinnie, and he almost knocks his beak off.

Just then, Birdie screams, “These are tickets to India! And even better, plane tickets!”

One time, when Birdie was a baby pigeon, he wandered off and he snuck onto a plane. He didn’t know where it was, he didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know how to fly. He got lost on the plane. He found his way into the cargo. He saw this little puppy.

He said, “Hi.”

The dog didn’t understand him, so he read his name tag and read, “Fluffy.” He knew a little English, so he said, “Hi, little puppy.”

The dog said, “Woof, woof, woof.”

“Maybe I should switch to dog,” he said. “Hello, little dog. What is your name?”

The dog said back, “My name’s Fluffy. I’m from India. My owner’s on the plane. I want some food. I’m really hungry. One second.”

He went back. He started walking down the aisle and saw some food. He picked it up and brought it back to the cargo.

“Thank you,” said Fluffy. “Can we be friends?”

“I’ll give you my phone number.”

And that is how they became friends.

Birdie is so happy that he is going to India because he is going to see his friend, Fluffy.

“Before I met Fluffy, I was afraid of dogs.”

“Cool!” say Pinnie and Rattie.

So, they put the tickets on top of the counter where the flight attendant checks them. They grab them down, and go onto the airplane. They sneak onto the plane, with snacks like gum, crackers, ice cream, and donuts. They drop their backpacks and give each other a piece of gum.

They sleep for a while. Then, they hear that dinner is coming around, and Birdie says, “Wake up, everyone! Dinner is here!”                         

Rattie goes up and gets two juices from the juice bar and two bowls of spaghetti with meatballs. Rattie runs across the bar, gets two juices and runs back. Then, he goes to the food bar and gets two plates of spaghetti and meatballs and scampers back.

“I wonder where we are going,” says Birdie.

“I will check,” says Rattie.

He runs down the aisle, reads the sign, and then he goes back to his friends.

He says, “We’re going to India!”

“Cool,” says Blackie.

Chapter 3

“I’m hungry for dinner,” says Birdie, “I’m going to go up to the dinner bar.”

So Birdie starts walking. He walks down the aisle like a person. But just then, a flight attendant walks down the aisle. She isn’t watching, and she steps on Birdie’s tail. He screeches. The flight attendant starts chasing after him. He runs into the food bar. He doesn’t get anything because he just starts running back down the aisle. He goes under the chair where all of his friends are.

He says, “There’s a flight attendant coming to get us! Quick, hold onto the top of the chair, so they don’t see us.”

But Blackie is too late. They see him. They take them all to the cargo and put them in a cage. They are so sad because they want to see what the view is like. But they can’t now. Now, they have to wait until they come out of the airplane. Just then, Birdie is reading the ticket because he still has it in his wing.

And he says, “Oh no, we don’t know if we are getting off on the right thing. We’re stopping in London, and we might not know when to get off.”

Blackie says, “I could try and gnaw off these bars.”

“No,” says Birdie. “That would hurt your teeth and you might break them.”

Rattie starts running around the cage like a maniac. Birdie has to calm him down and puts him on the little blanket that they put in the cages for animals. Just then, they hear a beeping sound from outside.

“Oh no! This might be India, or it could be London,” says Rattie.

“Quick!” says Birdie. “Gnaw off the lock for us! It won’t hurt your teeth because it’s only a lil bit of metal.”

Rattie starts gnawing off the metal, and there is a little hole that they can fit in. They squeeze out and push the button to open the door of the cargo. They walk against the wall.

“There’s the door,” says Birdie. “Come on! Go quick!”

They run down the aisle and out the door.

“Whew!” they say.

Birdie notices that it is much colder than in India at the airport. Then, he sees the plane leaving.

“Oh no! This is London! It’s not India!”

All of them start running toward the door to get to the plane, but it is leaving. Now, they have to sneak onto another plane and make sure it is going to India.

Chapter 4

“Now what are we going to do?” says Rattie in his annoying voice.

“Don’t worry,” says Birdie, “We will find a plane that’s somewhere close to India.”

“First of all, we need to find a place to sleep,” Pinnie says.  

“Look, we can go under that chair in the corner,” says Blackie.

They walk over to the chair and find a comfy space behind the leg of the chair.

“Perfect, and now we can see when the airplane’s coming, and we can hear if it’s for India.”

For the next two days, they play and steal food like birds and animals do. Then, they hear the announcer say, “The plane for India is leaving now. Please get in line if you are going to India.”

They get up as soon as they hear the word “India” and they run as fast as their little legs can carry them.

Birdie thinks for a second, Oh no! We’re going to get seen.

Just then, he sees another little bird in there flying around.

He says to the others, “You know how birds get stuck in airports sometimes? We should act like one of them.”

So, they start flying around like they are birds that just got stuck there. Then, they see the door opening. They swoop down. Rattie is holding onto Blackie’s back into the door.  

“Phew” says Blackie, “We got on! Now let’s find a place to sit where they won’t find us.

“Maybe behind the curtain,” says Rattie.

“Okay,” says Birdie.

They run over to the curtain. They get settled, and they stay there for the whole time. It is really hot in the curtain, so Birdie takes a walk under a seat.

Then, he notices a flight attendant coming. He runs back as fast as he can to the curtain.

“Phew! Don’t go out there, and be quiet,” he said to the others.

They all stay still for a few minutes. Then, Birdie peeks his eye out of the curtain. The flight attendant is gone. They are safe.

They look at the time. It was ten o’clock at night.

Birdie says, “I think we should all go to bed now.” So they all fall asleep.

The next morning, they hear that breakfast is coming. So, they sneak a little pretzel bag. They all share it.

Just then, they hear an announcement that says they are almost in India.

“Yay, we’re almost there!” says Birdie.

So, they spend the rest of the time enjoying the plane. Then, they see on the board that they are landing in two minutes! They count down.

“59, 58, 57…”

They are so excited!

Then, the flight attendant says, “Everyone who wants to get to India, get off.”

They run as fast as they can off the plane. They run through security, and they run through the door of the airport.

They say, “We’re finally here!!”

They sneak onto a taxi and ride all the way to the gate of India. There are a lot of people there! They walk around and look for dogs that look like Fluffy. Just then, they see a beautiful design on the gate of India. They walk around one more time, and they hear a barking noise! There is a dog jumping on someone!

Birdie looks over and says, “That’s my friend!!!”

But just then, Birdie walks up to Fluffy. He pauses. He is nervous. His wings start shaking. Then, he remembers Fluffy is his friend. He is not going to eat him.

Finally, he says, “Hello” to Fluffy.

But Fluffy doesn’t hear Birdie. Birdie runs over, but just then, Fluffy starts walking away!

“Don’t you remember me?” says Birdie.

Just then, they see each other. “You’re my friend that I met on the plane!” says the dog named Fluffy.

“Yeah,” says Birdie, “I came to see you!”

They laugh and play for the rest of the day, and Birdie ends up staying there for a whole month with this friends! Fluffy gets to know his friends, too. They eat a lot of dosas, flat pancakes that you can eat for any meal, and they’re not sweet. They also eat idli’s, rice shaped into balls.

Soon, they plan a date where Fluffy can come to New York! They are so happy. And they live happily ever after, for now.

The End!

(Birdie says goodbye!)

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Dear Diary,

Today after workshop, I’m going to a birthday party. I’m not supposed to go dressed in a costume, but I want to. I don’t think anybody’s going to notice me in my costume, so I’m not worried about it. This birthday party doesn’t have any theme. I want it to, though.

I’m going as a vampire.

This morning, I woke up at 1:00 in the morning. I don’t know why, but maybe you do. Maybe because my eczema was itching me. I kept having to wake up and put my cream on the back of my knees, but I’m not 100% sure that was the reason why I woke up early.

I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. in the morning, and then, I fell back asleep. I woke up at 8:30 AM, because I was really tired. But I didn’t feel tired. I felt like I normally do every morning, which is fine. Rested. Every morning, I feel–

”Come down, I need you to drink your water!” yelled my mom.

“Okay!”

–like an early bird. Finally, I walked down the stairs to the living room and started gulping down my water. And I forgot something I needed to add in my diary.

I said, “Mom, can I just be excused for a minute?”

“Why?” she wondered.

“Just because I forgot to add something in my diary.”

“You can do it later.”

But she didn’t know that my diary was quite emotional and real. I begged to go back upstairs, and finally she said yes, counting to ten. I heard her counting, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,” and I came panting downstairs and leaped onto the sofa just as she was about to say, “10.”

My twin screamed, “TV! TV!”

I covered my ears to stop the noise, but he was too loud.

My mom said, “No, you watched too much TV already.”

I wondered, “When?”

She said, “While you were writing in your diary.”

“Oh,” I said.

Just then, I finished my water, and at that exact same moment, my dad came striding in from his changing room, as he always does.

He looked everywhere and said, “Oh, there’s my breakfast. I’m starving.”

My mom said, “As a matter of fact–oh no! We’re very late. It’s already 9 o’clock!”

I asked, “Where do we have to go?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” my mom replied very cautiously and worried.

I said, “Can I just go get something from my room?”

She replied even more cautiously, “Hurry up.”

I ran upstairs, as quick as a flash, and came rushing down faster than I have ever gone, but slower than a flash because I was exhausted from running up.

I collapsed into the car, and my intention was to start writing in my diary, but I was too tired from running upstairs, so I started snoring louder than my brother was yelling “TV.”

I woke up fifteen minutes later, and as soon as the diary thought came across my mind, I sprang up from lying down, and started scribbling every word of what happened in my diary.

The car jerked, and what I saw next was a something big, but I didn’t know what it was. The shape of it had glass, colorful windows. I’m not sure if it was the sun’s rays shining on a raindrop, or if it was just meant to be that way. I scribbled all of this in my journal.

I hopped out of the car, and my mom said, “Stop writing in that journal, so you can enjoy the party.”

I grumbled to myself, “I want to keep writing, but I feel as if I’m a bandit from my home.”

She said, “Don’t have such a sad face. Enjoy the birthday, and stop writing in that diary, or you won’t have a birthday party this year.”

She looked at me as if she wouldn’t give me any presents for my birthday, and I heard her just snort to herself. I hurried inside and started scribbling again.

I saw a little corner where lots of children were reading and writing, and as soon as I saw them, I hurried over, but not as quick as a flash. I jogged over there and somebody had just left, so I tumbled onto that cushion. Just as I was about to put down the first word, I heard a loud voice say, “Game time!”

“Noooo!” I grumbled. I felt as if it were an autocracy.

They said, “The first game is… the rock climbing jump!”

As soon as I heard rock climbing, I couldn’t stop jumping up and running towards the wall, because I love rock climbing. I was in such a hurry, that I forgot to bring my diary with me. When the game was over, I said, “Ugh, let me start writing now.”

Just at that moment, I realized that I had lost it. I was startled. I hurried over to the corner in which I had been writing. I lifted up the cushions, but it was nowhere to be found. I started sobbing, but then, I said to myself, “I will find it. I’d rather miss the activities than lose my diary.”

I started asking everyone, “Have you seen a brown, leather-covered diary/journal?”

They said, “What are you talking about?”

Just as I left, I saw them grin at each other and heard, “Let’s look at the diary!”

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

They started opening the cover, and I leaped up and snatched it, landing in the cake. There was a big gasp, but the positive news was that I got my diary. The next negative news was that my diary was dirty! I hurried out of the cake and walked with icing dripping out of my hair. My parents scolded me, and my dad took me home and locked me in my room. I was half delighted and half sad. I was sad because I wanted to enjoy the birthday, but ended up not enjoying the birthday party at all. I’m happy because I have my diary, and I can clean it up here. As soon as the door closed, I grabbed a cloth that was always in my drawer and water from the water jug. I started cleaning it up. I was finished in about ten minutes and started scribbling again in my diary.

My family came home, and I heard my twin laughing and saying, “Ha! He didn’t get to come! I finally had an outing without him!”

I ground my teeth, just to show how angry I was. I opened my door and screamed, “Mom! Dad! Can you put him in another separate room and let me come out, please?”

The next thing I heard was wailing and crying, saying, “Don’t put me in! I’ll say sorry.”

I quickly scribbled all this in my diary.

Finally, I heard footsteps coming towards my room. Creak. I heard my front door being unlocked.

“Thank you!” I said in a relieved way, and I ran downstairs to the basement and found a comfy spot where I wasn’t too cold or too hot. It was just perfect. I started writing.

When I finished writing, which I thought was only five minutes, but was actually an hour, my mom shouted, “Come down for dinner.”

I grunted and started walking up the stairs gloomily. I sat down and started sobbing when I saw what was for dinner, which was cold, fried peas. My brother had already gulped all of the peas down his throat.

My mom said, “You have to eat it all.”

When I had finished my dinner, I went up to my room and wrote everything that had happened recently.

I felt really ashamed when I went to sleep, because I could’ve fought through eating the disgusting peas, just like my brother did.

Before I went to bed, my brother came into my room to apologize.

I said, “It’s okay, I’m sorry as well.”

I went back to sleep and thought in my head, Tomorrow is going to be a great day, because today was the worst day!

Mr. Maniac has white hair. He is about five feet tall, he has glasses, he has a small army, he has enemies, and he has a power that can stop time with the small clock that he keeps inside his jacket.

Mr. Maniac likes to freeze time, steal money, and spill people’s coffee. His army has a watch too, so they don’t freeze when he clicks the watch.

Mr. Maniac wants to control the world.

He has no real reason, he just wants too. So he can have everything. He wants money and gold. He wants to be rich.

When he’s trying to control the world, he sends his army to defeat the people who are against him, but they steal the armies watches, and so when Mr. Maniac stops time, they don’t freeze.

In one of the big battles, Mr. Maniac is there, and only a few people in his army are left. People try to break his watch. Someone manages to find and break his watch.

Then, they take him to prison for life. His army also goes to prison, but not for life.

Mr. Maniac is lonely. He only sees the police.

In prison, he plays some games with his army friends. The police gives him food. The police don’t want him to die.

Once upon a time, a ten-year-old girl tossed and turned in her bed, whipping the lavender-detergent-scented, ironed-to-a-fare-thee-well bed sheets into a sweaty, tangled web. She had a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if she’d swallowed an iceberg. She didn’t know why.

Ashley Viva Stella, that was her name, although she hated to be called Ashley. She liked Ash better. When she looked at her clock, it was 1:33 a.m. Ash sighed. She had a long way till morning.

Ash switched on the lamp on her bedside table, casting a warm, yellow glow across the room. She picked up the book she had been reading, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Ash passed about six or seven pages without retaining any information at all — literally, if you had walked into the room and asked Ash what she just read, she would not be able to answer that. Ash soon realized that she would not get anywhere by reading, so she switched off the light and stared at her ceiling. Soon, out of pure exhaustion, she fell into a restless sleep.

Ash was in a dark cavern, with the only illumination being her headlight on her uncomfortable plastic hat. Bats silently fluttered between the stalactites and stalagmites — the ones that were on the cavern ceiling, though Ash could never remember which was which. Ash was looking for something… something… something…

Ash sat up in bed, panting. She read her clock. It was 7:06 a.m. Ash had to read the clock twice, once to just read it and the second time, because she could barely believe her eyes. Even though her mom got up at six, there was no light from beneath the bedroom door, and the delectable smell of Saturday pancakes had not made its way up to her bedroom.

In fact, when she yelled, “Mom!” her voice had an echo to it that is only heard in particularly empty houses.

Frantic, Ash yanked the ruffled lace curtains away from the window so hard that she almost ripped one clean off. When she peered out the window, she thought she was hallucinating.

The neighbors across the street, the Goldmans, were stuffy, old grandparents. They lived in a great, big house, a Victorian-style beauty, as her mother always called it. Personally, Ash hated it. It made her feel cramped and claustrophobic, and Mrs. Goldman had a mania for cleanliness, so the Goldman place was always unnaturally clean. It made no sense, her claustrophobia — the Goldman house was huge! But she felt claustrophobic, all the same.

The Goldman house, the ‘Victorian-style beauty,’ was half-crushed by an enormous rock! It looked like a meteor, not that Ash had ever seen a meteor before. It’s not like meteors come crashing randomly down all over the place, but when you see one, you just kinda know it.    

As you’d expect, there was a huge crowd around the Goldman house. It looked like the whole neighborhood had come. Mrs. Goldman was being carried out of the rubble on a stretcher. Mr. Goldman was kneeling on the rough gravel beside her.

Ash was so shocked, that for a moment, she did nothing at all. Then, she finally came to her senses and stuffed her feet into a dirty pair of too-small yellow sneakers. Well, the sneakers used to be yellow. Now, they, like all the other well-used items in her wardrobe, were sort of an indeterminate gray, and her pajamas, which she was still wearing, were striped other shades of indeterminate gray. She ran down the stairs so fast, she seemed to be flying — her sneakers seemed hardly to be touching the wooden stairs at all.

Ash pushed open the door and slammed it behind her. She pushed through the huge crowd surrounding the Goldmans’ house, yelling to the annoyed people in her wake, “Sorry! Sorry! I have to find my mom!”  

Ash was so desperate to find her mom, that when she pushed through the crowd, she pushed away her mom and kept searching. But when she yelled, “Sorry! Sorry! I have to find my mom!” to her mom, Ash’s mom stepped in front of her and said quietly, “Ash, I’m your mom.”

Ash threw her arms around her mom, Jasmine Violet Stella. (Yeah, I know, Ash’s grandma was obsessed with flowers.) Ash’s mom smelled like salty sea air, the same way she always smelled, but after being so scared of losing her mom, Ash loved the smell more than ever.

“Ash, I’m so, so, sorry,” Ash’s mom breathed. She pulled Ash away from her and looked at her, mother to daughter, blue eye into deep, deep, brown eye. “When I looked outside the window and saw the meteor, I ran outside to help the Goldmans without a second thought.”

“So it is a meteor,” Ash remarked.

“Well, that’s another conversation we have to have later, isn’t it,” Ash’s mom said, sheepishly. Ash agreed.    

Ash twisted her head around to see the damage done to other houses. But it was weird — the other houses seemed to have gotten off easily, without a mark or a scratch. While Ash was inspecting the surrounding houses, she spotted, out of the corner of her eye, a greyish-white figure disappearing into the trees.

The town Ash lived in was densely wooded all around. This cut Ash off a little bit from the rest of the world. In fact, there was very bad cell phone connection, and Ash had only been outside of her town once, to visit her grandmother.

The town was self-contained, though. And that is why, just three months ago, a colony of aliens decided on that place as their landing place on Earth.

***

Earth was a prime spot. The aliens had decided on that long ago. It was virtually free of pollution. (Believe me, all the other inhabited planets had had organisms that were able to think and pollute billions of years longer, and were much, much, worse.) The organisms that lived on Earth were simple-minded and easy to manipulate, and overall, Earth was much younger than the aliens’ former planet, Planet 89k in the Andromeda Galaxy. To the aliens, Earth was a blank sheet of paper, a fresh start, with only a few faint marks.

Ash’s hometown was almost a little world in itself. Oh, sure, there were a few roads and paths through the woods, but they were far from the interconnected highways that generously decorated the rest of Earth. So in all ways, Ash’s hometown was the perfect landing spot.

Three months later, by catching onto a passing meteor and altering its course, the alien colony had arrived.

***

When Ash saw the greyish-white figure, she passed it off as nothing, just a trick of the eyes. But whatever had planted the iceberg in her stomach refused to allow Ash’s brain to think about anything else, or at least not for a long period of time. For the rest of the day, Ash thought about the greyish-white figure. She pushed it to the back of her brain. But the thought did not go away. Instead, Ash’s thought waited patiently at the back of her brain, and whenever there was nothing better to do, the thought waddled over to the front of her brain.

Ash lay in her bed. The thought about the greyish-white figure prevented her from sleeping. As soon as Ash began to close her eyes and think about puppies at the beach and other cute, comforting things, the greyish-white figure thought waddled over, and Ash opened her eyes in shock. This choppy, interrupted sleep got her some rest, but Ash was still grumpy and irritable the next morning from insomnia two nights in a row.

***

“Hi, sweetie!” Ash’s mom greeted her cheerily, “I made cinnamon toast!”

“I don’t want cinnamon toast, okay?” Ash snapped back.

“Ash…” her mom said, in a tone that warned Ash that her mom was not going to put up with that behavior. “I want to start this morning out in a good way. I don’t want to go there, Ash.”

“You don’t realize that the house across the street was just destroyed? By a meteor? How do you not expect me to be paranoid after that!” Ash shouted at her mom. She surprised herself by her tone.

I’m going to be in such big trouble… Ash thought nervously.

But instead of escalating the war, Ash’s mom took a deep breath and sighed. “I know what happened yesterday was scary, but I’m trying to keep my cool, okay?” Ash’s mom replied softly.

Ash was not comforted at all. Instead, this made her angrier.

“You don’t understand!” Ash yelled, “You may be trying to ‘keep your cool,’ but I am actually having a normal reaction to this enormous disaster! I am freaking out!”

“Are you overreacting?” Ash’s mom asked.

Ash considered what she was doing. Yelling and shouting was not going to stop the fact that life had to go on, despite this disaster.

“Uhm, sort of, not really… yeah,” Ash answered sheepishly.

“C’mere, sweetie,” Ash’s mom said, opening her arms.

Ash charged headfirst at her mom’s stomach, playfully. “Oof,” her mom grunted, as Ash knocked her over. “You’re getting strong!”

Mother and daughter wrestled on the floor, and all was forgotten for a couple minutes. But the looming threat of the meteor returned soon, when…

***

Ash’s mom switched on the kitchen TV.

“Scientists are still trying to figure out what is the meaning of this meteor…” the reporter droned on.

There was a photo of the destroyed Goldman house on Eyewitness News. Ash and her mom looked at each other. Without talking, each knew what the other wanted: Turn off the TV.

So Ash clicked the remote, and the screen went black. But once Ash and her mom had started thinking about the meteor, they couldn’t stop — it was like a magnet.

“Mom,” Ash started nervously. “Did you see any small, greyish-white figure?”

“When?” Ash’s mom replied wearily.

She was 99% sure that Ash was just being funny, or making some invisible joke, but she always tried to give Ash a fair chance to speak.  

“Uhm, yesterday?” Ash said.

“No, sweetie,” Ash’s mom answered.

The irrational part of Ash’s mom’s brain then considered a new possibility: Ash needed to go to the mental hospital, but that was so unlikely, that the one hundred times bigger, more rational part of her brain deleted the thought.

“Sweetie, is this some kind of joke? Because I’m really not in the mood.”  

“Ah, no,” Ash muttered softly, and that was it, conversation over, end of story. But this was only the beginning of her asking those questions.  

It was Sunday, and there was no school, though Ash wanted to have school. Anything, anything, to get away from this thought in the back of her mind, this growing thought that was slowly, painfully, taking over her mind.

Because Ash was just denying the truth–aliens were taking over the planet.

***

“Did you see a greyish-white figure? Two days ago?” Ash asked around.

It was Monday. Ash had thought that having school would help take her mind off the greyish-white figure, but here she was, asking about the very thing she didn’t want to think about. The front of her brain told her that she didn’t know why, but the always-more-truthful, sometimes-painful back, told her that she really just wanted to have people who knew that what she saw was real.

But to no avail — everybody looked at her as if she was crazy, or with worry, and said, “No, I haven’t, not at all.”

Well, almost everybody. The class clown, Robert Grimley, said, “D’you mean Mrs. Goldman? She looked pretty greyish-white, though more from her shock that her beautiful house was destroyed than from the pain of having the painting frame fall on her foot.”

When he said beautiful, he made his voice high and old-lady like. It was an uncannily good impersonation of Mrs. Goldman.

“You are so unfeeling,” Ash shot back, though she, too, found it hard to have emotion to spare for Mrs. Goldman.

She had invited Ash, and Robert too, at some point, over to her house, which was a fancy, stuffy place filled with priceless objects, uncomfortable designer furniture, and flax and granola cookies that were more like terrible crackers.

Ash heard a piercing whistle very near her ear.

“Aah!” Ash flinched involuntarily and covered her ears.

They rang loudly afterward, so that she could hardly hear anything. But she didn’t need to hear to see that the oblivious PE teacher, Coach Shea, walked away without a look back to see Ash’s pain.

The day went on. Humanities, math, and computer class, the three other subjects she had that day, didn’t help at all to take her mind off the figure. In humanities, they were asked to write their feelings about the meteor hitting the Goldmans’ house. In math, they were asked to calculate the mass of the meteor based on the length, width, and density. In computer class, they were asked to write a digital composition about the meteor.

Finally, school was dismissed. Ash slammed the door behind her, as she swung through the doorway of her house.

“Oh there you are,” Ash’s mom said, not looking up from her laptop, which she was rapidly typing on. “We need to go to the store.”

Ash sighed and flung her backpack onto the coffee table, causing the fortunately-plastic cup on it to tip over and thump onto the floor.

“Ay–Ash! Put your backpack somewhere safe and pick up that cup!” Ash’s mom groaned.

Ash did what she was told and headed out the door again with her mom.

At the grocery store, the air smelled heavily of fish. There were many signs everywhere for a sale on salmon. Ash’s mom never bought the food on sale. She said that they only put the food on sale when it was going bad, and they wouldn’t get much money for it, unless they put it on sale.

Ash’s mom immediately headed to the dairy section to get milk, cheese, and butter. Ash instead asked a bagger about the greyish-white figure. When the bagger said “no”, Ash told herself, I will ask one more person and then that’s it, I’m done, no more talk about the stupid greyish-white figure!

So Ash asked another bagger. This bagger she knew. She was twenty-one, and her name was Alex Seidra. Alex had babysat for Ash sometimes, when Ash was younger. Mostly, Alex was just doing odd jobs to earn money for college.

Alex said, “What do you mean? No, I didn’t see anything like that.”

Ash’s heart was in her shoes already, but Ash was pretty sure it had now tunnelled through the earth and ended up in Australia.

***

Even though Ash had vowed to ignore the memory of the figure, as she walked home, she kept thinking about it. She knew in the back of her brain that what she saw really was real. So, she decided to do something about it. But she couldn’t think what.

As Ash lay in bed that night, she couldn’t sleep (again!) She realized that this had happened every night since the meteor, and even the night before. Ash grew angrier and angrier.

This weird figure is taking over my brain! Thoughts raced furiously through Ash’s brain,  I have a constitutional right to be safe in my own home, but I’m not safe from this figure anywhere!

Ash got so angry that she decided to do something about it. Right then.

As if controlled by an invisible force, Ash methodically rose to her feet and dressed in a warm long-sleeve shirt and a jean jacket. It was a brisk fall night. Ash was still in her monkey pajama bottoms when she headed outside with a flashlight.

Previously, Ash had not known why she was going outside. She just felt really strongly compelled to. But as Ash was carefully closing the door of her house, it hit Ash like a ton of bricks.

She was looking for the aliens.

***

Ash took one last look at her house. She wasn’t sure she would ever see it again.

As Ash headed into the woods with a flashlight, she felt a very strong sense of deja vu.

I’ve been here before, Ash thought.

And then, she realized. Ash stood stock still, terrified.

The dream from Saturday night. The cavern.

***

Ash ventured deeper into the woods, swinging her flashlight wildly amongst the trees. She didn’t see anything. It was just dark, dank woods smelling of wet leaves. No moon glinted over her head as she headed into the menacing trees. Ash was just about to turn back when she saw a beautiful light.

Ash didn’t know what she was doing. She broke into a panting run for no reason, toward the light. Then, Ash fell down on the soft earth, out of breath and out of hope. “Aah…” Ash breathed heavily, and fell into a black hole of despair, darkness, and finally sleep.

***

Ash didn’t know she had been asleep until she woke up. At first, she didn’t know what she saw.

Then she realized. Ash was in a clearing of the woods. A bright globe, ten feet tall, radiated the soft glowing light that she had seen earlier. And what was that? Oh my gosh…

Hundreds of those small greyish-white figures were climbing expertly all over her. It tickled. Suddenly, Ash had a wave of tiredness. She fell asleep again. In her sleep, the aliens whispered to her…

Tell… everyone… you… know… about… us… our… only… request…  

One girl. Hundreds of aliens. The two worlds had always been separate. But this symbolized unity. Unity between two planets.

The End. Well, not really.

Epilogue: Tuesday morning

Ash ran home and told her mom about the aliens. She told everyone. And strangely, easily… everyone believed her. Maybe it was the aliens’ magic. Maybe it was something else. I don’t know.

Go to Ash’s hometown. Go to her house. By now, Ash is seventy-three. She has children and grandchildren. Ask her about the meteor, and this is what she will tell you:

Once upon a time, a ten-year-old girl tossed and turned in her bed…  

The End. Really.        

Emma Hieh was thirsty, so she went to the grocery store to buy some Vitamin Water. When she bought the lemonade and she drank it, a fairy popped out of the bottle. Emma was so surprised. She thought fairies weren’t real. The fairy had curly, black hair down to her feet and she had a light blue dress down to her ankles and she wore a headband that was light blue and matches her outfit and pink sparkly high heels.

Emma said, “Hi.”

The fairy questioned, “Who are you? What are you doing in my bottle?”

“I was drinking lemonade,” Emma answered.

“Will you come with me?” the fairy said                   

“No,’’ Emma said.

“Please, I’ll help you face problems that you face in the future.”

And then Emma sighed, “Fine.”

The fairy took her outside and hid her behind a tree. And used her magic wand and they were off to The Writing Lab. They were on the top of a rainbow and when they slid down, they were at The Writing Lab of Fairyland. Emma felt magical and afraid, because she thought she might do something wrong. She saw a Writing Lab. It looked like a palace, except it said, “Writing Lab of Fairyland” on the top and not a palace. It was light blue and light pink. At the end of the rainbow, there was a cushion.

“Where are we?” Emma asked.

“Fairyland Writing Lab,” the fairy answered.

“Where should we start?”

Fairy Lab had light blue curtains on it with dark blue stars and the dark blue stars shined in the nighttime. They had drawing stations and they also had a special train that led to every single room that only fairies were allowed to take. Fairies only showed themselves to girls.

First, the fairy showed Emma her five magical objects. The first one was a magical pen that helped everybody write well in neat handwriting. The next one was a magic notebook which helped everybody’s pages not be ripped or crumpled. One was a magical necklace that had good covers and always had good drawings. And the last one was a magical computer that helped everybody type and think well for typing and another one was the magical light bulb which helped them think of ideas. She was about to say, “My name is Madison,” but suddenly one of the magic objects disappeared. The magical pen was the first one to disappear.

“I can’t believe it! I asked my best friend, Mia the Drawing Fairy, to look after it and also my best friend, Lily the Cover Fairy.”

Then, she went to ask Mia the Drawing Fair and Lily the Cover Fairy.

“Didn’t you look after my magical objects?”

Mia answered, “Yes, but I thought Lily was looking after it!”

“I wasn’t! Mia was,” Lily argued.

Emma saw something dark while all the arguing was going on, and suddenly she called Lily, Madison, and Mia. And when they saw it too, they said it’s the monster of all fairies.

Emma wondered, “What’s the Monster of all Fairies? Doesn’t every fairy have a happy life?”

“No,” cried Madison, Lily, and Mia at the same time as they burst into tears.

‘’Why’’

‘’He loves to ruin us.’’ Mia sighed.

‘’Is he nice?’’

‘’No.’’

‘’We have no time to lose,’’ Madison cried.

Emma asked, “Where should we start?”

“Are you going anywhere that has writing involved in it?” Madison asked.

“Yes, I’m going to a writing camp,” Emma answered.

“Awesome,” Madison cried, “Luckily, my magical objects get goblins or anybody who has them to the closest place of writing.”

“Do you know where your writing camp is?” Mia asked.

“Yes, it’s on Pense Avenue in Australia.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll come with you,” Madison answered, “Mia and Lily, can you help me and Emma look for my magic objects?

“Of course,” Mia and Lily chimed in.

A second later Emma blinks, she remembered that she was at her house. But then, she realized three fairies were hiding in her pocket, because her parents said that she could ride her bike to the camp because it was only five miles away. She went to the garage to get her bike, decorated with blue, silver, and gold. She had a basket on her bike, so she put the fairies to hide inside there. Suddenly, Emma’s puppy, Sunny, rushed and almost drooled on her bike. Emma jumped off from her bike and calmed down Sunny. But, her parents said to take Sunny to writing camp, because they couldn’t look after Sunny because they both had jobs. Madison loved dogs because her sister Ava, the helpful Fairy, sometimes took care of puppies, so she liked to help her too.

“Ah!” Mia and Lily shrieked.

“It’s okay,” Emma and Madison said at the same time.

“It’s just my puppy,” Emma told to them.

Then, she picked up Sunny and said, “Calm down, boy.”

And then, she put the fairies in her bag she was carrying to writing camp with all of her materials and put Sunny in the basket.

“There you go,” Emma said.

But Madison flew out of the bag she was in.

“Can I sit inside with Sunny?” Madison asked.

“Of course!” Emma exclaimed.

Once they arrived, Madison sensed all around the room.

Then she said, “I know that the magical pen in this building, but it’s not in this room.”

Then Emma said, “Maybe we should check downstairs. It’s a big place.”

When they went downstairs, goblins were holding all types of pens.

“Oh no,’’ Madison cried, “My magic pen can be anywhere.”

“I have a idea’’ Emma smiled, “I bet the monster of all fairies would be really mad if they weren’t hiding.”

“Okay, but I still don’t understand your plan,”  Madison questioned curiously.

“I’ll explain it,” Emma said, “If we can tell the goblins that I am the Monster of All Fairies, then the goblins will give me the magic pen and maybe we can take it back to Fairyland Writing Lab.”

“Let’s try it,” Mia, Madison, and Lily said.

Madison tried her magic, but it couldn’t work without her magic pen, which also helps her magic. Then, she asked Mia and Lily to help her with her magic. And when they put the three wands together, the magic gets more powerful than one fairy that has all their magical objects. Then they put the loud booming voice together to Emma.

Emma whispers turned invisible.

“We lost a pen,” one told truthfully.

Then, Emma, Madison, Mia, and Lily looked together in dismay.

Then Mia spoke up. “Maybe we should be brave.”

Then Lily said, “Maybe me and Mia can make the pen not sparkly, so it’ll be easier to find.”

“Okay,” Emma answered happily.

All of a sudden, two people appeared. One was really dark, so she looked miscellaneous. The other one was Emma’s best friend. Emma looked worried. She would always tell her secrets to her best friend, Melissa Aslyn. She knew that Melissa was the type of girl who was the most popular girl (she really was number two, and Emma is number one) in class. She always acted like a queen and ordered them to do something such as this,

“If you don’t give me that cupcake, I will never be your friend again.”

Melissa was always trying to look for fairies, like Emma.

“Fairies, come here!” Melissa called.

Emma felt something bad coming on her way.

“Is there something wrong?” Emma asked Madison and Mia who were playing hand games.

Madison felt a shiver. Mia felt a snowball and Lily felt a snowflake. That meant they were really cold and knew that something bad was on the way.

All of sudden, the goblins cried, “We found it, we found a pen!”

“Oh no!” Madison whisper-cried.

Mia suddenly had an idea. She didn’t want Melissa to hear.

She whispered, “What if the goblins aren’t smart enough to find a real pen?”

Emma checked her watch. “The time that we made the magic pen non-sparkly was 2 o’clock exactly. Now it’s 3 o’clock and they just said fairy magic power only lasts for 30 minutes.”

“Yes!” Madison said, sadly.

“So, did you remember to look at the pen?” Emma asked.

“No!” They cried.

Emma talked a bit louder this time and Melissa could hear her, “I wish we could find it.”

“Emma, don’t be tricky,” Melissa called, “I know you’re here.”

Emma took a big breath.

“Fine, I am,” she answered.

As usual, Melissa knew everything. She was one of those girls who took classes in everything. Melissa loved school too. So, Melissa was always the smartest girl in class. Melissa grinned. She knew that her best friend, Emma, was going to the same camp as her. Emma’s mom and Melissa’s mom were best friends. Emma pulled out her phone and she texted Melissa. She didn’t want her to know that she was up in the sky. So this was how it went:

EH: Hey M.

MA: I’m mad @ you, E.

EH: Hey r u bored?

MA: No, I’m mad. If u didn’t know that.

EH: Don’t be so mad at me, it’s not a big deal.

MA: Do u even know what I’m talking about?

EH: I sure do.

MA: I’m mad at u b/c u didn’t say hi to me.

EH: R u jealous?

MA: Jealous of what?

EH: Jealous of not finding me.

MA: Humph u always have the luck.

EH: R u sure you don’t want to join me for my new story? Plus, there’s a big store outside that sells tons of yummy treats.

MA: U still r my best friend and I made a new friend named Rina.

EH: I can’t go, I’m working on my new story, bye!

Melissa skipped to the treat store. Emma and the fairies flew all over the basement. They didn’t even see a glimpse of sparkle.

Emma sighed, “Maybe we shouldn’t try again. Maybe we should follow the goblins this time.”

The three girls flew up to the roof. Madison, Mia, Lily, and Emma huddled up.

“I’ll take the basement,” Madison answered.

“I’ll take the roof,” Lily said, “Even though we can’t see it, Emma said the roof was bigger.”

“True,” Emma said, “I’ll take the workshop if you can turn me down to human size.”

“I’ll take the lobby to make sure that the pen’s not there.”

With a wave of two magic wands, Emma turned to human size. Emma dropped her friend at their stops. Emma hurried to her stop. She searched all around. All of a sudden, she saw a gleaming pen. She grabbed it. All of a sudden, she heard a voice. A really grumpy voice.

“What are you doing with the pens?”

Emma turned around. It was the principal of the camp.

“I was just going to think of an idea for my new story and I wanted to write it down on paper.”

“Okay,” he grumbled.

Emma hurried down to the basement.

All of a sudden, she saw goblins and they said, “Give us that pen and let your fairy friends go or keep the pen and let your fairy friends stay inside the nets.”

Then Emma said, “I don’t believe you. For proof, show me the net.”

The goblins huddled up.

“Okay,” one whispered, “It was your dumb plan to trick that girl and it didn’t work.”

“Hey! It wasn’t me! It was him!”

“It wasn’t me either.”

When the goblins started to talk, Emma put on her voice record.

“It wasn’t me either,” a short one said.

All of a sudden, one of the goblins said, “I have an idea. How about we do an arts and craft of the fairies.”

“But we’re not good at arts and crafts,” the plump one said.

“Only Master is good at them,” another one mentioned.

“But he’s so greedy, that he sits around in the castle all day, and eats frost pops,” a tall one mentioned.

And then all the goblins agreed.

“Okay,” they all mumbled.

Emma left the room and hurried up to the roof. She met Lily.

“Listen to this!”

She pressed the button and they heard what the goblins talked about.

“I hope they don’t spot me, so they don’t do a sketch of me,” Lily said, “I’m not sure if they’ll trick you much though. Because they are horrible at arts and crafts.”

“Let’s find the others and talk about this,” said Emma.  

They found the others and Madison came up with an idea after they heard the recording.

“How about we trick them!”

“How?” Lily questioned.

“We could do an arts and crafts. Let’s put some glitter on top of a pen and then trick the

goblins and say ‘We don’t need a silly pen, all we need is normal pen,’” Madison said.

The others agreed.

They quickly finished the arts and crafts. Emma carried a bag everywhere and it had stuff to do a writing and illustrations. Then, they hurried to the goblins.

“We found the pen! But we don’t need it,” Emma said.

She threw it at the goblins.

“Hip, hip, hooray!” the goblins said, “We finally got the pen.”

Madison, Mia, and Lily pretend to be mad.

“Why did you do it?” Lily grumbled to Emma.

“It’s not fair. We took so much time to find it,” Madison grumbled.

“The Queen and King of Fairy Land are going to be so mad, Emma,” Mia mumbled.

The goblins happily skipped back to the MFAF (Monster of all Fairies). When the goblins disappeared, the fairies flew back to fairy land. When the queen saw the fairies and Emma, they thanked Emma and the queen said, “Thank you for all the help that you did for Madison. As a gift, we will give you a gift.”

She handed Emma a box with gold and silver wrapping paper and a bow around it. Emma opened it. She found a necklace with locket.

The queen said, “The locket will have fairy magic and whenever you open it, you will come to us. And, your parents will know that you have met a new friend and think it is from them. You have to be careful. Make sure when you come here, your parents don’t see you.”

The queen waved her wand and all of a sudden, she transformed her back to her room in her house. Emma was all happy. She started texting Melissa. This was how it went this time:

EH: Hey, M.

MA: Hey, E. I’ve got something for u.

EH: What is it?

MA: Wait and find out! btw, my parents and yours r letting us have a sleepover.

EH: ?

One day, when the wind was howling like a wolf, and the bats were having a feast, Mr. Hyde was in his bedroom. It was midnight, but of course, he wasn’t sleeping. He never slept, always plotting his next evil plan. He was mumbling to himself, and tonight, it seemed like he was a dog. He was rolling around like a maniacal idiot (not that he wasn’t always.)

Then, I, the ghost who haunted the night, saw him through his window and thought that I should enter. Not his house, but his body.

So I flew through his window as fast as a falcon, and I entered his body. But again, of course, I was unlucky. Since the only reason he was rolling around like a stupid dog was that there was another ghost inside him. I never did work out at the gym, so obviously he won the fight.

So I was forced to haunt his house. The next morning, when Mr. Hyde woke up, he felt very eerie, like there was something inside of him, which both you and I certainly knew: there was a ghost inside him. And that ghost was powerful. He entered through your dreams. Through your biggest nightmares, like a spy. Like a robber.

But then Mr. Hyde? He was powerful, too. He may have even been the most powerful man on this earth. So, he broke free. That ghost went flying out the window, whining like a wet cat.

But then, he realized that there was another noise in that house. That noise was me.

Obviously, a ghost doesn’t go around saying “who, who!” (That’s him floating in the wind). So, now you know we didn’t like screaming. In fact, we didn’t even mean to make noise at all. But we had to. Unless we wanted to be still for life. Yet, other ghosts didn’t have an option. They were frozen. Frozen by hard magic. Turned to stone. Practically statues. And crushed under the power of good. I’m lucky that I wasn’t not crushed like that. Maybe one day I might be. But I hoped not.

But now, Mr. Hyde really noticed that there was something going on. And being a scientist, mad or not, you had to be smart. So he was, and then he held a seance to call the ghost, which he sensed in the house. So he called all his neighbors, all his close friends, and far friends, too. He called all his family members and everybody else he knew.

And then, that’s when I had to fight. I had to fight against all of the rituals they did to call me. And I could hear them. I could hear them like thunder in my ear. But my willpower didn’t let them call me, didn’t let them see me. And then, I had to do something.

My mother had once said, “Only use this spell in the deepest of dangers.” It was the only spell I knew. And this was dangerous. They were going to see me. They were going to kill me. I thought about it. For a long long time. Then, I decided I just had to do it. So I used it! I used the spell. In a booming voice, much stronger than theirs. And then, all of them froze. And then, I said the backup spell. The one that would crush them.

I thought, Should I crush them? Or should I not?

Then, I decided not to. I knew how I’d been crushed. Crushed with only my spirit left to roam. No one could hear me. No one could see me. Then, I would have gotten used to it. But still, I thought, No.

So then, I just left.

Now, Mr. Hyde — his story was one of the past. One that I will always tell. For eons and eons to come. And his story, I’ve just told you.

I heard a noise. “Woo!”

I thought it was the wind but it was something far from the wind.

But then, I heard, “Come, come, KC.”

I stepped off my bed. My feet touched the cold bare floor. I put my slippers on. I looked out my window. I didn’t see a thing. I turned around. I screamed. There was a ghost.

***

30 years later…

“Jane, go tell your sister to come on.”

Jane said, “Liz, Mom wants you to come and see the new house.”

“I’ll be there in a second,” Liz said.

There was music playing.

Five minutes later…

“Why is there salt on the windows? There’s salt everywhere.”

“I don’t know,” said Jane in a very cheerful way, “I call the waterbed!”

“They’re all waterbeds.”

“Okay.”

“Mom, can I go to town?”

“Why?”

“Because I just want to.”

“Yes, but you have to bring your sister.”

“But why?”

“Jane, go grab your coat!”

“La la la,” Jane skipped on the road. “Can we get a cookie?”

“Fine.”

“Hello, miss. What are you doing out so late?”

“Yeah, it’s late, but I’m thirteen. I can walk around.”

“Oh, you’re the new family in town.”

“But don’t you know what happens when it’s this late?”

“No, what happens?”

“You don’t know the myth, do you? So a long time ago, about thirty years before, there was a girl named KC. She used to live in the house you live in. One night, she was in bed, and she woke up and she was bleeding. She had a knife in her leg.”

“Is she okay?”

“Yes, but she’s never gone back to that house.”

“That is why there is salt on the sides of the house?”

“Oh, she put that there when she sold the house.”

“Liz, can we get a cookie now?”

“Yes, here is some money now. But where does she live now?”

In the old car going home, Liz decided that she would be sure to go to talk to her mom about it…

Queep was super mad. Actually, he was capital “M” mad. Why? Because he wanted the most wonderful painting ever, and so, he knocked down his neighbor’s house.

Queep was a big, scary monster who did things for no reason. He was green. Well, actually, he wasn’t green. He just wore a green cloak and never took it off, even in the summer, so he looked green.

One of the things he did for no reason was that he knocked down his neighbor’s house because he wanted the most wonderful painting in the world, even though his neighbors had nothing to do with it. He did it because he thought his neighbors were taking his packages, and he was expecting them to come in the mail (but he didn’t even order anything.)

The neighbors were out, but when they came home, they saw their house, and taped it back together with Scotch-tape that had been sitting in the freezer forever. His neighbors didn’t know Queep, because he only went out when they weren’t there.

His neighbors were humans. Their names were Buggy, Woggy, Shuggy, and Baby Welmer.

Whenever Queep opened the door to tell the world that he wanted the most wonderful painting ever, a big, red bird with a tongue taller than the Empire State Building, appeared and whacked him on the head (with his long tongue.) That was the only thing that Queep was scared of.

That night, Queep remember-dreamed of when he was born. Queep was born out of a black hole.

Based off of what you already know about Queep, you may think his house would be yucky and moldy like a normal monster’s house. But his house was so nice because he didn’t sit on anything, he didn’t touch anything, he wore a new pair of inside shoes every day, and he wore gloves, even if it was the hottest day. He lived in a big mansion, so it was hard not to touch anything. Even the neighbor’s house was dirtier. Queep hated dirt. If he saw dirt, he screamed.

***

One day, Queep went outside to tell the world that he wanted the most wonderful painting ever, and the big, red bird appeared. He stuck out his tongue, and he whacked Queep. It hurt because his tongue was made of electricity. So Queep got electrocuted.

Queep shouted, “Go away, bird!” but it was in Queep’s language, so the bird didn’t understand, or it just didn’t listen.

So Queep went inside, and he turned on the microwave for no reason. And then the house got hot, because the microwave was on. But Queep was still cold, even though it was summer. And so, he turned on the oven, and he was still cold. So he turned on the stove, and he lit a fire in the fireplace. And he sat on the chimney. And the smoke just pushed him off. He fell headfirst on the neighbor’s roof and smashed it open.

And they got mad. Especially, Baby Welmer. And Baby Welmer whacked him and then turned into the big, red bird. And Baby Welmer, when he turned back into a baby, was just himself again, as small as a peanut.

Queep remembered a time when he had gone to the peanut factory, and he ate so many peanuts and felt good after. And so, Queep ate the baby. And then Baby Welmer turned back into the big, red bird in Queep’s stomach. He stuck his tongue out of Queep’s throat, and Woggy pulled him out.

Queep screamed his head off and it made the whole ground shake. His head really fell off. So he taped it back on. But he couldn’t talk because his vocal cords were disconnected. So Queep ran to the bank and picked it up and threw it on the neighbors. But the neighbors weren’t there because they were still in their house.

While he was out, Queep thought of the painting of the bear with no face in the big, gold, swirly frame, and thought that it was the best painting ever. So, he headed towards the painting store. He put on a human disguise. But the painting cost too much money. And Queep only owned play money. So he tried to prank the guys at the store. But, when he put the play money in the machine, the machine got jammed, and Queep couldn’t buy it.

Queep then headed to the doctor to fix his head and vocal cords. After the doctor had fixed him, Queep headed home and took a nap.

Queep woke up a few hours later with a cold. He ran to the town hall with his tote that Baby Welmer had made a few years ago. Queep absolutely loved the town hall. The reason Queep loved the town hall was the elevator. Queep rode up and down, pressing all the buttons.

After visiting the town hall, Queep remembered that the local shoe department, where he stole extra shoes for inside, had closed down, so Queep ‘borrowed’ an iPhone belonging to an extremely fat woman who was always on social media, mostly Twitter. Queep didn’t like her for some reason. He didn’t know why. Maybe it was her strong perfume or something. Queep asked Siri where the nearest shoe store was. Siri said it was at 222222 Ralone Ultra Avenue. So, Queep set off to find it.

Thirteen hours later, Queep arrived in a miniature motor plane at 222222 Ralone Ultra Avenue, and boy was it ultra, because it took Queep thirteen hours just to get to 222222 Ralone Ultra Avenue.

Anyways, Queep flew right into the shop and landed. Right at first sight, Queep loved the store itself. The shop owner screamed. All the customers ran out of the shop, dropping all their items.

“My customers!” the shop owner wailed.

He fell to the ground and fainted. Happily, Queep grabbed all the shoes he wanted, and ran around the shop. Since he hated the shop owner, instead of calling the paramedics, Queep jammed the pay machine. Queep felt bad about doing this because he loved the store itself. Suddenly, Queep realized how late it was, so he ran out of the shop, cursing in his own language.

By the time Queep arrived home, it was 6:45 A.M. which meant Queep hadn’t slept through the whole night, but Queep didn’t care, so he just landed his miniature motor plane and whizzed inside his big, fluorescent doors. He had a nice, fizzy Pepsi and some Cheddar Bunnies in ice cream. Then, he spilled the Pepsi in his ice cream too. But really, Queep was tired because he just rested his cheek in his ice cream, fell asleep, and sleep-sang, “I like to eat apples and bananas!”

The next day, Queep remembered that his birthday was coming up soon. Queep’s birthday was on February 30th, which only came every 8 years, so Queep celebrated only every 8 years. This made him look much older than he was. Queep got out of bed and cartwheeled over to the television and turned on CNN. When the commercial came on, Queep headed to the bathroom, but found out that his toilet had broken down, along with his bathroom sink and bath. So he headed to the neighbors’ house to use their bathroom, but he accidentally walked in on Baby Welmer, who screamed and turned into the big, red bird and Queep quickly round-offed away. Well, Queep still had to use the bathroom, so he went in his kitchen sink instead.

Later, Queep decided to go to Starbucks. He got a hot macchiato using the scaring trick that he did at the shoe store. Queep could feel the warm coffee sloshing down his throat. Queep then put his human disguise on and then headed to the painting store. When he arrived, Queep saw the painting and instead of the usual rush of warmth throughout his body, he shivered, a lump forming in his throat, and a pit forming in his stomach. And for some reason, Queep left.

When Queep woke up, he knew he dreamt about something, but he didn’t remember what.

Meanwhile, a small one-and-a-half-year-old baby, who was traveling alone, boarded the train in Larxington Alley Train Station. The conductor simply scooped her up and plopped her down on a backwards facing window seat. The conductor put up some “Baby For Adoption”  signs in the station, and re-boarded the train. The baby pressed her nose against the window, fogging up a spot on it. She watched the blur of color as the train sped. Every so often, the train would come to a halt, the doors would slide open, a bell would ding, and a low voice would come over the loudspeaker and say the stop. For instance, “This is Larxington Alley Train Station.”

Finally, the train stopped and the low voice said over the loudspeaker, “This is Grassy Field Meadow Train Station.”

Finally, the little baby was picked up and brought to a small building called “Grassy Field Meadow Orphanage”. The baby was too young to know where she was, but she knew she wasn’t where she came from. Grassy Field Meadow was a terrible name for it, because it was a city.

Meanwhile, Queep was eating raisin bread soup mixed with a warm coca-cola, because Queep didn’t like when coca-cola was cold, so he always heated it first. After he ate, he ran out to town to watch the trucks on his favorite bench. He liked the bench because it was right across from a construction site. He liked to watch the big trucks push the cement around and build stuff. He especially liked the trucks that picked people up when they had to reach things. After a while, he got another warm macchiato. He brought his macchiato back home so he could pour it in his soup, which was getting cold. But, on his way home, he tripped on a rock and scraped his knee. He had to limp home, and when he got there, he put on 12 bandages.

Queep fell asleep but was woken up by the phone ringing. He didn’t answer it. A few minutes later, the phone rang again. Since the phone was bothering him, Queep decided he would go back to town. All of a sudden, Queep decided he wanted to leave “The Town Of Bore” (aka: Grassy Field Meadow.) He ran to Grassy Field Meadow Train Station and waited in a two hour line to stamp his tickets. But when he got to the booth, a sign said they do not serve any animals or non-humans.

“No! No!” Queep thought out loud, which wasn’t a good thing, because many people stared at him, and then, when they came back to their senses, they ran away.

Soon, Queep was positive that the lady in the booth was gone. She was a familiar lady, who Queep soon remembered was the one he stole the phone from. The smell of strong lavender perfume was still in the air. Queep wasted no time stamping the fat lady’s signature onto his tickets. Queep had gotten two seats because (no offense to Queep) he was kind of a big guy.

Queep just made it onto the train that the baby just so happened to be on. Queep sat in the backwards facing window seat that the baby just so happened to be sitting in, and Queep, just vaguely, could smell the scent of baby powder. He wondered why.

Queep soon heard a low voice come over the loudspeaker. It said, “This is Larxington Alley Train Station.” Queep stepped out of the train, got a warm macchiato and sat down on a bench. He watched two small girls giggling and talking. His warm macchiato trickled down his front. A pit formed in his stomach. He saw a mother kissing her small baby boy. Queep’s eyes filled with tears.

“I want someone to love.” Queep whispered to himself.

He began to cry.

No! Queep thought. I’m crying in public!

Suddenly, something caught Queep’s eye. It was a sign that read, “Baby For Adoption”  and in smaller letters it said, “Call 012-345-6789. Phone booth.”

It’s serendipity! Queep thought.

He took a train straight back home, and when Queep arrived at his house, the phone was still ringing. Queep picked it up.

“Hello, this is Greenfield Girl Scouts! Would you like some cookies?”

Queep put the phone down. It continued to ring. Queep shut down his home phone. He grabbed his stolen cell phone  and immediately called the number on the paper. 012-345-6789. Queep had it memorized. The line was busy. Queep’s heart sank. He tried again. Someone answered.

“This is Grassy Field Meadow Orphanage!” a woman said, ‘How can I help you?”

“Um…” said Queep, “Baby #7?”

“Ah,” said the woman, “Yes. Can you be here at noon on Friday, March 1st?”

“Yes!” Queep exclaimed happily.

That was Queep’s birthday, on the Queep-Calendar! (It has February 30th every eight years.)

“Bye!” said Queep.

He couldn’t wait. Queep warmed some Coca-Cola and poured it into his day-old soup. After eating, he went to sleep, knowing the next day would be great.

The next morning, Queep gobbled up his breakfast, and whizzed outside in his miniature motor plane. He arrived approximately eight minutes before noon. Queep politely parked his plane and walked inside.

Suddenly, Queep realized he might scare the lady at the front desk. Oh well. Queep thought, and he walked inside.

The lady (surprisingly) didn’t run or scream or stare. Instead, she took him to a small room labeled Rm. #7. Queep’s heart was racing. Would it be hate at first sight? Queep hoped not.

When Queep set eyes on the small baby girl, he smelled the baby powder on her. She was terrific! This was definitely love at first sight.

“So…” said Queep, “Can I keep Marcy?”

“Who’s Marcy?” the lady asked.

“I named the baby.” said Queep.

“You sure can!” said the lady.

She smiled genuinely. And that is just what Queep did.

Oh, and that painting? Queep didn’t need that thing anymore. Because Marcy just loved to do art.

Every time Bob went to school, the Squirrel kids would point and say, “You’re not so smart.”

When he got home, he would tell his mom, “Mom, people made fun of me.”

His mom would say, “It’s okay.”

She would pat him on the back, and then, she would forget about it.

One day, on a weekend when they were a eating lunch of fried acorns and berry soup, a girl raced up their tree. She had golden-brown hair and was wearing buckled jeans, a turtleneck shirt, and dress shoes. It looked like she was going somewhere fancy.

They asked, “Why are you in our house? Are you a robber?”

“No! Kids were scaring me!” said the girl.

“I’m so sorry,” said Bob’s mom. “You know, you are a giant to us, and you could eat us right now. But you won’t, right?”

“I don’t know,” said the girl. “I’m really hungry right now…”

“Just in case, go behind my back, Bob,” said Momma Squirrel.

“Don’t be scared of me,” said the girl. “I love animals. I never eat them.”

Bob looked from behind his mom’s back and came back out.

“Hello, my name is Isabella,” said the girl.

“Hello, my name is Sue,” said Bob’s mom. “My son’s name is Bobbert.”

“My name is Bobbert.”

Isabella looked at her hands.

“Oh my god, they’re getting smaller every second. Why am I shrinking?”

She felt confused and excited at the same time.

“When you go in this tree, you start shrinking!” Momma Squirrel interrupted.

“Oh, that’s so cool.” Her face was blushing because this was so amazing, “People and animals will always be your size, so you will never get hurt?”

“That is correct,” said Momma Squirrel.       

“Do you have any food for me that I could eat?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows.

“The only stuff I have is berry soup and fried acorns.”

“How do you eat this stuff then?”  

Momma Squirrel heard a ka-kaw in the light blue sky. “Oh no! That’s a bird up there in the sky! It may eat us!” Her mouth was open. She was so scared and frightened.

“I can hide you,” said the girl.

“And tell me where you are gonna hide me!!!” said Momma Squirrel.  

“Hide under my T-shirt,” said Isabela

“But that is gross!” said Momma Squirrel.

“You want to die, or be in a gross place?” said Isabella.

“Okay, let’s go, Bobbert,” Momma Squirrel said.

She picked him up and crawled up Isabella’s t-shirt. She crawled under her shirt. The bird was soaring down, but then he stopped. He looked at Isabella and said, “Ka-Kaw,” before flying away.  

“Thank you for saving us!” said Momma Squirrel and Bobbert.

“You’re welcome. Can I please stay a little bit longer? It’s so much fun in this tree!”

“Okay… just a little bit longer. Bobbert needs to go to sleep.”

“May I please have the popcorn that we found at the carnival?” asked Bobbert.

“Okay, but just a little bit,” said Momma Squirrel. “This was a crazy day today,” Momma Squirrel said to Isabella. “That’s why Bobbert has to go to bed early.”

“I have to go now. My parents are calling for me. See you tomorrow,” said Isabella.

***

The next day, Isabella asked her parents if she could go to the park. Her parents, Raul and Lucy, asked why she wanted to go the park.

“I met my first ever friend at the park!”

“Who are they?!” Raul and Lucy asked. “Who are these friends?”

“They aren’t people.”

“Then, what are they?”

“They’re two squirrels.”

“Ew! That’s so gross! Show me immediately! I need to call the exterminators,” said her mom.

“No! They’re nice! They helped me make a friend.”

“But they might have rabies!” yelled her dad.

“But they’re so nice to me!”

“I won’t hurt them if you show me how ‘nice’ they are,” said her mom.

“Okay, I guess I’ll show you,” said Isabella.

They walked to the park together. They walked in a line, and when they got to the park, the mom stopped.

“Where are these squirrels of yours?” Mom asked.

“Follow me,” Isabella said.

They followed her into the park. They passed two hot dog stands, the Park Slope Zoo, and an ice cream parlor in the park. Then, they saw one tree all by itself. It had a little ladder on the back of it. You could take it off, but it would be hard. Only squirrels could do it.

“This is the tree,” said Isabella.

“It looks like an ordinary tree,” said her mom.

“Don’t judge it by its looks,” said Isabella. “Come over this way. There’s a little ladder that we can climb up behind the tree, but it’s hard to see.”

So Lucy and Isabella climbed up the tree.