Storytelling: All alone

Author's Note:

This week I used a song and changed the words where it would tell the story of Tattercoats. I enjoyed reading this story. I have always loved music so I thought I would try something different. Warning: some of the lines are a little bit of a rough fit to the music so they don't flow as well as I would like. I kept thinking of how the girl in the song is kind of torn because she's always on the move. In the story, however, the girl isn't on the move. She has only one friend and the nurse that takes care of her.  On the day she was born, her mother died during her birth. Her mother was her grandfather’s favorite daughter. He blamed the death of his daughter on her and never wanted to see her face. Instead of a wicked stepmother, the girl is raised by the nurse who was there when she was born. The nurse tries her best to help her. She has one other friend, the goose hand. She spends time with him when she can. They were on their way to the castle when they met her true love. The song I used for this story is called Love Triangle by Raelynn. It talks about how divorce can be hard on a kid. It is one of my favorite songs for the moment, so while I was reading Tattercoats, which is pretty much a different version of Cinderella, I couldn't get this song out of my head. That is how I came up with this idea. Please let me know what you think.

Links:

Karoke Version of Love Triangle
Raelynn, Youtube

Love Triangle Offical Music Video
Raelynn, Youtube
Tattercoats
Joseph Jacobs
Love Triangle Lyrics
Raelynn, AZ lyrics

All Alone 

Sitting on the sofa
Looking out the window
Wishing for a family to
To share a life with
Wondering why she is all alone

Grandpa staring out the same old window
Wishing he could change some past events
His whole world turned upside down
He can't look at her at all
Not moving from his spot at all

The Nurse is there
To take care of her
And she does the
Best that she can

Some mommas and daddies
Can't be there for their kids
It's not by their choice
The kids grow up without a parent's love
Sometimes no one can fill that place
And then they get stuck
Being all alone

One day a word was spreading through town
The Prince was coming back to the kingdom
He was looking for a girl
Someone to be his wife
Grandpa heard and moved from the window
Not missing a chance to go to the  ball

One day the girl was running to the palace
Her friend the gooseherd was there for her
She was dressed in a tattered robe
When they ran into a man
He asked directions to the palace
She told him to tag along

Then he asks her to accompany
Him to the event
Where he will announce
She will be his bride

Some mommas and daddies
Can't be there for their kids
It's not by their choice
The kids grow up without a parent's love
Sometimes no one can fill that place
And then they get stuck
Being all alone

She asks him why me
He says she sweet

She thinks he's kidding

He tells her he will be
Expecting her at midnight
He can't wait till she's his wife

Some mommas and daddies
Can't be there for their kids
It's not by their choice
The kids grow up without a parent's love
Sometimes no one can fill that place
And then they get stuck
Being all alone

She shows up to the ball
He runs to her side
He takes her to the front of the crowd
He tells the King
That he's found his bride
The king is surprised
He asks the Prince are you sure?
The Prince responds
Says there is no one else
The King smiles and
Tells him congratulations

And the girl is surprised
She didn't know he was the Prince
He hugs her tight while she cries

Some mommas and daddies
Can't be there for their kids
It's not by their choice
The kids grow up without a parent's love
Sometimes no one can fill that place
And then they get stuck
Being all alone

Grandpa moved from in front of the same old window
He can't see the girl's face
Depressed that he can't see the beautiful view
He can't look that way at all
He moves in to another town

The Prince and the Princess
Go on about their lives
She's so happy to be by his side
Things have never been this good
She's no longer alone

Tattercoats

By:Wikimedia Commons

Story: The disappearance of Mike and Molly.

One-day Mike and Molly decided they wanted to go on a hike. They set off on a trail up the side of the mountain towards the trails they had hiked many times. They found the trail and set off towards the top of the mountain. The morning sun was rising and they were excited to see what the day held for them. After a couple hours of climbing towards the top Molly was getting tired.

Molly asked Mike, “Can we take a break? This hike is really making me tired and the heat is not helping.”

Mike told her, “Try to get to the next break in the steep side of the mountain and we will take a break.”

So they continued to climb, after another twenty minutes of climbing up the mountain Molly turned around and asked Mike, “Can we please stop now? I don’t think I can walk much further without a break. This heat is ridiculous. I have an umbrella and we can sit in the shade.”

Mike thought about it for a minute and said, “I guess we can take a break, but let’s make it a short one. I want to get to the top and back down before sunset.”

They sat down and took a break. Before they knew it they were both asleep under the umbrella. Hours later Mike woke up, he suddenly realized that he had fallen asleep. He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 6:00 in the evening. He shook Molly till she woke up. They both couldn’t believe that they had fallen asleep for that long.

They gathered their things and started heading down the mountain. It was dark before they reached the bottom of the mountain. Once it got dark they were having a hard time following the trail that they had taken. Eventually they had to stop because they were lost and just walking in circles.

When the kids hadn’t shown up for dinner their mother got worried. After it got dark she went to her husband and he was rounding up dogs to go look for their kids. They sent their first dog who had been with them many years out first. After an hour or so the dog came back but the kids weren’t with him.

Next they sent out their hunting dog, he had been with the family for a while. The hunting dog went looking, he spent hours looking. He climbed back and forth and ended up getting himself lost on the mountain. After hours of the hunting not returning they didn’t know what to do. The only dog they had left was a puppy.

The husband told his wife, “Well I guess it never hurts, I am going to let Pup out and see if he can find the kids.”

The wife told the husband, “Pup is not old enough to go out on his own yet! We can’t do that!”

The husband said, “I have no other choice, our kids aren’t home, my hunting dog is lost, and it’s late in the night.”

The husband release Pup and Pup took off into the mountain.

After sitting there stranded for so long lost and confused Mike and Molly heard the bushes rustling. They were scared to see what was going to come and attack them, they closed their eyes and screamed. Suddenly Mike was attacked and on the ground with Pup licking his face. They were so happy to see Pup.



Pup lead Mike and Molly down the mountain where he ran into the hunting dog. Shortly after that they were back at the house where the parents were so happy to see their kids.

Authors Note:

I used the story of The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds. Which is an Indian fairy tale about a little boy and girl who fall asleep on a rock, While they are asleep the rock grows. Their parents go looking for them but can't find them. Finally one of the animals tracks the kids to the rocks. All the animals try to reach the top to save the kids, but it is the smallest animal who ends up saving the kids. 

Bibliography:

The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds

By: W.T. Larned

Pup saves the day

By: Wikipedia

The Story of Brer Rabbit's House

One afternoon during the middle of summer, Jenny was lying on the floor waiting for 1:00 to roll around. When the clock struck 1:00, she turned on the radio and tuned it to her favorite station. Jenny loved 94.6 The Kids Channel. Every day at 1:00 they would take a break and have story time. That day when she tuned into the station, it was a story of How Brer Rabbit Got a House.

The radio announcer said, “Well, kids, it is 1:00. That means it is time for a story. Today’s story is about a trickster named Brer Rabbit. We will hear about one of his tricks that he pulled on Brer Bear today. So let’s get this story started.”

The radio announcer turned over the mic to the storyteller Mrs. Hodges. Mrs. Hodges began reading the story with voices for every character saying, “Once upon a time the animals of the woods all came together for a town meeting. At this town meeting Brer Possum came up with an idea.

Brer Possum said, “I think we should build a house to keep out all the bugs.”

Brer Wolf asked,” Who would live in this house?”

Brer Possum answered,” Anyone can live in this house. We can build it large enough that everyone can fit! We can even build a room where animals can go when they are sick.”

With this, the animals all agreed to building the house. The next day, they started building the house. All the animals were working hard except for one, Brer Rabbit.

Brer Possum asked Brer Rabbit,” Hey, Brer Rabbit, can you climb up the scaffold and help Brer Wolf with this wall he is working on?”

Brer Rabbit climbed up the scaffold. When he reached the top of the scaffold he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Oh, I feel so dizzy up here, I don’t think I can stay up here very long.”

Brer Wolf (not wanting anyone to get hurt) told Brer Rabbit, “Climb back down and go help Brer Fox with his work.”

Brer Rabbit climbed back down the scaffold, but instead of helping Brer Fox he started telling the other animals what to do.

Brer Rabbit went on to tell Brer Coon, “Climb up the scaffold and help Brer Wolf with the wall. Brer Possum, why don’t you go help Brer Fox? He looks like he could use some help.”

It didn’t take the animals very long to finish building the house. Brer Rabbit was giving orders left and right. After the house was finished it looked amazing! Brer Rabbit decided that he wanted the room on the second floor to himself. He then came up with an idea of how to trick the animals into leaving the house.

A few days later after they finished the house, all the animals came home and Brer Rabbit told the others, “I don’t feel so well. I am going to go upstairs and sit for a little while.”

Brer Bear answered for the group, “Well, we will stay downstairs. We will also try to stay quiet.”

Brer Rabbit went upstairs. Instead of sitting down he crawled under his bed and got out a double-barreled shotgun, a tub of water, and a cannon. After being upstairs for a few minutes he loaded the double-barreled shotgun, and fired off two rounds. This made the other animals jump. They weren’t sure what was going on.

Then, Brer Rabbit called down the stairs, “I need to spit! Where do I spit?”

Brer Bear replied, “Wherever you can make it to!”

Brer Rabbit then ran towards the door near the stairs. He used the tub to throw water down the stairs. The water soaked Brer Possum and Brer Bears daughters'. This made them worry.

Brer Rabbit called down the stairs one more time, “I need to sneeze!”

Brer Possum said, “Well then, sneeze Brer Rabbit!”

Brer Rabbit went to the cannon and fired off a round. This scared all the animals so much that they took off for the hills! The animals never came back to that house. That is how Brer Rabbit got his house.

Now, boys and girls, that is all the time we have for story time today. Tune in tomorrow to hear another trick of Brer Rabbit's!”

Jenny got up off the floor turned the radio off and lay down, again waiting for the story that she would hear tomorrow.

Bibliography:

More Brer Rabbit: How Brer Rabbit Got a House

Joel Chandler Harris

The plan's for the animals house.

Laura Gibbs Blog

Author's note:

  The stories of Brer Rabbit came from the 19th century. It is told in a language that uses slang that was well known in the African-American culture. The story that I read is a version of the story that is being retold as a verse. The original story kept tradition with the dialog from the country. I basically took the original story and changed the way that it was told. I added more dialog to make the story interesting along with the way that the story was told. My version of the story takes away from some of the traditional dialog. I struggled reading the dialog so I wanted to change it to be easier for little kids to read. I liked the way the original story went along. I couldn't think of anything creative to change this story. When adding dialog to the story, I was able to be a little creative with the events that were happening in the story. I tried to think up a way to change how Brer Rabbit got his house but I couldn't think of anything that would be different than the way the story ended. I also added the character of Jenny who made a short appearance in this story. This came from the inspiration of the stories being told by Uncle Remus to a little boy. 

Story: The Princess and the Penguin

One night a girl named Katy was curled up in her bed all tucked in to go to sleep. She was drifting off to sleep when a loud clap of thunder sounded and lightning struck and woke her up. Scared, she ran to her mother’s room with her blanket in hand. She crawled up next to her mother and shook her until she woke up.

 Katy said, “Can you tell me a story to keep my mind off the storm? I want to hear a story about a princess and some penguins!"

The mother thought about it and said, “Okay, I can do that.”

“Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who loved animals. One day she asked her father if she could have a pet penguin. Her dad said, “You can have a penguin as long as you take care of it yourself!” So the princess set out to acquire the perfect penguin.

On her journey she found many lovely penguins. She just had not found the one that seemed to be the perfect companion. The princess found a penguin who she thought was kind, that loved her, and a friend.

On her way home she decided to name the penguin Penelope. Penelope loved the princess and wanted to keep the princess happy. Her favorite place to be was at the princess’s side. The princess, however, was not sure that Penelope would make her happy.

Penelope asked the princess, "What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?"

The princess went on about her hobbies until they made their last stop.

On the last stop before the castle a penguin walked up to the princess and tapped her on the leg. She looked down and saw a beautiful penguin. She bent down and asked the penguin, "Where is your family?"

The penguin replied, "I don't know. I haven't seen them in a few days."

The princess picked the penguin up and carried him toward the carriage. They searched for his family and were unsuccessful. The princess decided that he should come home with her as well. On the carriage ride home the princess fell in love with the penguin. She decided that he should be named Paul.

Paul showed his love to the princess, but not as often as Penelope did. Paul didn't constantly want to be in the princess’s lap. To the princess, Paul was the perfect pet penguin.

When they arrived at the castle the princess showed them around the grounds. When they arrived at Paul and Penelope’s room she told them," There are a few rules that I need you to follow. The first rule is you do not go outside without letting someone know. The second is don't go exploring the castle by yourselves. Someone needs to know where you are to keep you out of danger."

The princess spent most of her time with Paul. They did everything together from playing together to having tea. This angered Penelope because the princess didn't want to spend time with her. The princess was more enthralled with Paul. She seemed like she didn't care what happened to Penelope.

Penelope was starting to feel left out. Slowly this anger started to turn into jealousy. Penelope let jealousy get the best of her and came up with an idea of how to get rid of Paul. She was going to go outside to “play” while the princess was in class. When she got Paul outside she would take him into the cave that she found when she was exploring near the castle and they would "get lost" and go separate directions trying to find help. Penelope being the smart penguin she was had a map ready for her escape from the cave.

 So the next day while the princess was in class she walked up to Paul and asked, “Don’t you think it would be fun to get out of the castle and go explore?”

Paul, looking at her confused, asked, “Why would you want to go outside this great place?  The princess will be out of class shortly. We can ask her if we can go explore.”

 Penelope looked at him with her eyebrows raised and said, “Don’t you want to explore now? Why do we have to always do what the princess wants to do?”

Finally, after a little more convincing Penelope's plan was starting to go as planned. She convinced Paul to go explore outside.

Once outside Penelope found a cave and told Paul, “Let’s go explore this cave! It looks like fun!”

Paul looked at the cave and responded, “I don’t like the dark, so I think I will stay out here and explore in the light.”

 The princess came busting out the castle door calling for Paul and for Penelope. Penelope was shocked that the princess was looking for her, while Paul was suprised that the princess was scared.

The princess softly asked them, “Why are y’all out here? You know it is not safe for you to be out here."

Paul looked at her with guilt-filled eyes and said, “I am sorry, princess. I just wanted to explore with Penelope.”

The princess grabbed both of them up in a hug and said, “Please don’t ever do that again!” Penelope felt the princess’s love once again, and they lived happily ever after.”

Katy looked at her mom and asked, “Why was Penelope so mean to Paul?” Her mom took her in her arms and said, "Sometimes when someone spends too much time with one friend another friend gets jealous because they feel left out. When they feel jealous they will be mean because they feel like their friend was mean to them. Now, Katy, it is time for you to go back to your own bed."

Katy said, “Do I really have to?"

Her mom replied, "Yes, I love you, Katy!"

Katy hugged her mom and headed back to her own bed.

I used the plot summary from the Greek King and the Physician to come up with my story. The summary of the story was that the vizir was jealous of the physician. The vizir tried to cause harm to the physician because of this jealousy. The king had been sick and no one could heal him. The physician came and talked to the king and made him a cure. The physician had used a polo club that he filled with drugs to help heal the King. The physician gave the King strict orders on what to do with the club. When the vizir figured out that the physician had used drugs in the club, he told the King that the physician was trying to kill him. The vizir was attempting to make the king mad at the physician.  This translation of the story was written back in the 1800's. This story came from a story inside a story. The main changes I made were the setting and time period, along with the fact that I added penguins. I had a character that came into the story who caused someone else to become jealous. The stories are similar in the fact that there were two characters who tried to get another in trouble because they were jealous of the other person.  I changed the time period and the setting because I thought it could become a fairy tale. The image that I chose for this story reflects the two main characters of the story Penelope and Paul. My overall motivation was to write a story that reflected the values that were taught in the original story, but a story that my nephew would enjoy listening to.

Bibliography:

Arabian Nights

by: Andrew Long

Link: The Greek king and the Physician Douban

Paul and Penelope

By: D-Stanley

Link: Flickr

The Story of Mercede's horrible plane ride

One day Mercedes and Lucas decided to go to Africa to see animals they had never seen before. Mercedes loved wild animals and luckily Lucas loved Mercedes and decided he would go with her. They packed up their bags and headed to the airport. Mercedes had never flown before and she was pretty scared about flying but the excitement of seeing such a new environment kept her going. Once she was aboard the plane she thought all was well. Halfway across the ocean between America and Africa the seat belt light came on and the captain came over the intercom, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be prepared we are headed right towards a storm so the turbulence will be pretty rough. Please stay in your seats if at all possible.” Mercedes started to get nervous, she had heard of turbulence but didn’t know how bad it would be. A few minutes after the captain came over the intercom the entire plane started shaking. Mercedes and Lucas were scared and they didn’t know what to do, the plane was shaking so much that the oxygen masks fell down and they were told to put them on as an extra precaution. The captain came over the intercom one more time, “Ladies and Gentlemen I just need you to know that the storm clouds we thought we were going through is actually a hurricane. Please brace yourselves as the plane might be going down. After about twenty minutes they thought they were going to be okay and not have to make a water land until there was one flash of lightening that hit one of the engines. One of the stewardesses grabbed the intercom speaker and gave them the instructions to prepare for landing, “Brace! Brace! Brace! Your seat is a floatation device! Brace! Brace! Brace! Please follow the exit signs when we land!” Everyone was going insane; they were screaming at the top of their lungs. After a few minutes the plane made a water top landing, the captain cleared out the plane and everyone made it into the life boats. The life boats got separated but were going in the same direction. After what seemed like days of being stuck on a life boat they finally made it to an island. Once they arrived on the island everyone was so happy to see land. Once everyone was on the land the captain set search groups to look for food, water, shelter, and people. Each group had a responsibility, each group came back almost empty handed. There were no people on the island, very little food, and there wasn’t a good place for a shelter that would be big enough to fit everyone. The captain then decided that it was fend for yourself because he knew that there was no way that everyone was going to make it off the island if there weren’t any people or ships around. They started getting their supplies together and split up all of the goods and tools that were on the plane. After dividing all the supplies from the plane each person only had one days’ worth of food to last them who knew how long on the island. After being stranded on the island for 9 days they experienced their first death. Every day after that more and more people were dying from starvation. Mercedes and Lucas were among the last 5 of the passengers that were still alive after 2 months. They had the mindset that they knew people were coming to save them. People knew the plane went down, now they just need to find the passengers. After 2 months and 5 days they finally saw a helicopter. The helicopter lowered down a rope ladder which they then climbed up and into the helicopter. The crew gave them food and water. Once they finished the food and water one of the crew members asked, “How many of you are there left?” Mercedes answered, “We are the last 3” signaling to Lucas and the Captain. The helicopter took them back to the United States. The next day the president awarded them all with medals of bravery for fighting to live so long on such a deserted place. They also set up scholarships in their names, and gave them a place to take a vacation and recuperate from their journey.

Africa trip

Wikipedia

Bibliography:

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang

Link: Sinbad: Fifth Voyage

Authors note:

For this story I took the fifth voyage of Sinbad and mixed it a little bit with the plot line of Cast Away. I tried to be creative and come up with another way to be left alone on a secluded island but plane and ships are about the only way to get to those islands. 

Story: Destination Destroyed

It was the year 2076. Claire along with the people of Struny Island were fighting to keep their town in one piece. It was the middle of a civil war, on an island off the coast of Europe. The island was leading in the growth of a special fruit called strunberries. Strunberrys were used to heal wounds of any type. The island was controlled by President Hoffman.

Hoffman was secretly working on storing all the fruit away and killing each plant off as he went. He wanted to be in control of the island and the medical help it kept. Nellie was his faithful servant who kept this secret from everyone who lived on the island. President Hoffman was suffering from a sickness the strunberries couldn't cure. The president passed away leaving the people of the island in shock of what was to come.

Sean was the Vice President who thought he should fill in while Nellie was the President’s personal representative, who believed that she should take control of the island. This civil war had been in the making for many years. The island was divided in half, one half following their fearless leader Nellie, the other half following their leader Sean.

Sean wanted to keep peace but believed that their main concern should be for the environment. He believed that they killed off the produce with the pollution that was caused by machines and vehicles. Nellie wanted to be the best in every category no matter what the cost was. She wanted this to be the island with the highest exportation rate.

Sean told all the people of the island, “Nellie is a liar! I don’t have the hard evidence yet, but she has been helping President Hoffman keep secrets from us for many years.”

When Nellie heard this she went after Sean saying, “Sean is lying! He just wants to take over this island so he can get rid of all the machine shops and vehicles. Sean only cares about the environment, not the people who live on this island!”

This disagreement caused a civil war within the island. The civil war had been going on for a while when it finally made its way to the town that Claire lived in which was Superville.

Claire really didn't want her beautiful city destroyed. The people of Superville loved their city so much and it was filled with so much beautiful art and architecture. It would be a shame to demolish such a beautiful place. The people of Superville tried everything to detour the war from coming to their city. After their final attempt failed, Claire ran to the mountains and watched her beloved city become a pile of ash.

After the war moved on into another city Claire went back to the city to see if anything was left. She was crushed to find that the whole city was gone. There were bits and pieces of furniture and pictures everywhere she looked. When she found a couch that was still partly intact she sat there trying to calm herself down. She started sobbing and just couldn't stop. After a few minutes she had eventually cried herself into a deep sleep. Her sleep lasted a few years.

Finally, when she woke up she was strapped down to a metal table. There were I.V.'s in her arms and beeping machines all around her. She was scared and didn't know what was going on. Suddenly the doors opened and a robot nurse came in with a tray of supplies. The robot noticed that she was awake and hit the button on the side of her bed.

Her room was quickly filled with robots. When Claire talked to them, trying to figure out where she was and what was happening, the robots never responded. Finally, a bigger robot came into her room and noise filled the room. Claire noticed that the arm of the robot said BOB. The noise coming from the robots was a noise that Claire had never heard before. She tried to ask BOB what was going on and where she was when BOB answered, "We are the new inhabitants of Earth. You have been asleep for 25 years. There are no more left of your kind, and we are trying to figure out why that is. Do you know what happened to the rest of your species?"

This news frightened Claire. Looking down and shaking her head she said, "I have no clue what you are talking about. The last I knew we were in the middle of a Civil War. Why can't I leave here?"

The BOB responded, "You are here so we can monitor you. You can't leave until we figure out what happened to the rest of your species and why they disappeared."

Their conversation finished and the robots left her room. Every day after that day Claire refused to eat or communicate with anyone because she felt so out of place. One day she finally asked BOB what his name stood for.

BOB replied, "Biomedical Orthopedic Body."

BOB then went on to tell her that he was a robot that was controlled by something other than himself. Someone sent him orders of what to do and say. He was pretty much like any other robot body or droid. She asked who created him and BOB went on to tell her that the information she was asking for was classified. They went on and talked for a few hours until Claire was worn out. When Claire was trying to fall asleep, she couldn’t stop thinking about what was in her future. She worried about what will come next in her journey with BOB.





Author's note: I used the story of The Sleep of One Hundred Years. This story is about Onias who saw Jerusalem destroyed and then fell asleep for 100 years. The story of Onias is over 2000 years old and has been passed down since first century B.C.E. Onias fell asleep after his city was destroyed by a fire. When he awoke he knew no one and the place he was at seemed unsettling to him. He felt out of place because things had changed in the years he had been asleep. After he had gone into town he found out everything he knew was gone. He found some of his relatives that still lived near the town. When he talked to them he realized he could never live here because this is not the time and place he belonged in. I got the idea of a civil war from a series that I read a couple years ago called Divergent. I used Divergent and Hunger Games to lay a ground plot for the way I formatted this story. The major changes I made were changing the setting to be in a dystopia and making it in the future. My changes were based off the impression I got the first time reading through this story. I chose the image to represent BOB. I did this because BOB is Claire's only link to anything left after her sleep.


Bibliography:
Gertrude Landa, The Sleep of One Hundred Years 

 

The body of the Future.

Photo by: TexelGirl-Stock

Link:Robot Picture

Story: Ester

Authors Note: So this story is based of the story of Ester. A girl who was raised by her uncle. She was then taken from her uncle to be prepared to meet the king. The king was looking for a replacement queen. Once she had been fully prepared, she got to meet the king. The king loved her, and asked her to be his queen. Her uncle worked at the palace that Ester was queen of. Haman was one of the kings top men, one day Mordecai angered Haman by not "respecting" him because of his beliefs. Haman then went to the king and asked for there to be a decree to kill out the Jews. The king agreed, and Haman sent out his decree. Ester was worried and her uncle Mordecai went into mourning. Ester went to the king and asked to have dinner with him and Haman and they agreed. Then at that dinner she asked if they would come to dinner the next night that she had prepared and they agreed. At that dinner she asked the king to revoke the decree because it was killing her people. The king agreed, he then found out that Haman had planned to kill Mordecai by hanging him by the palace gate. The king had Haman hung on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then Mordecai made a decree that allowed the jews to go after anyone who were killing Jews. This scared people and a lot of people changed their faith.

 Ester was living with her uncle Mordecai when there was an invitation to Ester to come to the king’s palace. After she arrived at the palace the king fell in love with her. The king ended up making her his queen. As the years passed by a man name Haman worked his way up in the king’s guard. While he was working his way to the top Mordecai got in his way during an attack on the palace. Mordecai ended up saving the kings life and that made Haman furious. Once he made his way to the top he decided it was time to go after Mordecai for getting in his way. One day on his way into the place he noticed that Mordecai didn’t bow to him. Haman asked Mordechai, “Why do you not bow when a royal walks by?” Mordecai answered, “I am of the Jewish faith, it is against our religion to bow before anyone but our God.” Mordecai was once again furious. He then used that knowledge to lead his attack on Mordecai. Haman decided that he was going to go to the king with the thought of a decree that would allow the people to kill the Jews because of their faith. After Haman made the decree allowing all races to kill the Jews, Ester and Mordecai were scared. Neither one of them what they were going to do. Ester realized the only way to face this problem was to go to the king herself. She went in to the throne room and kneeled before the king. The king asked, “My dear queen, what brings you in here?” Slowly and softly Ester answered, “My king, I know this is none of my business, but I was wondering if you would mind changing the decree that Haman has made about killing the Jews. Sir, those are my people, the people who look up to me when thing get tough. Please my dear think about it.” After he heard this the king was aggravated he threw his scepter at her screaming “Why did you hide your faith from me?”. He was so outraged that he called his guards in and had Ester taken to the dungeon. Ester pleaded to the king apologizing for keeping this hidden from him. The king went through a major breakdown unsure of what his next move was going to be. What is he going to do about Ester? Should he recall Haman’s decree? Should he put Ester in harm’s way and allow her to die? He stayed in his royal bedroom for 2 week pondering these questions. After the weeks had passed the news of what happened between the king and Ester had finally made its way through the grapevine to Mordecai. Once Mordecai found out that his niece was in trouble he knew that it was his job to go save her. Mordecai headed towards the palace on a mission to save his niece. When he got there Mordecai had to wait two days before the king would see him. Finally, after waiting the king welcomed Mordecai with open arm, “Mordecai, my friend, what brings you to the palace?” Mordecai answered, “My king, you have my niece in your dungeon, I was wondering what it would take for you to release her?” The king answered, “For you I would do anything.” Mordecai got an idea and he and the king agreed that Haman’s decree was too harsh, he told Mordecai that he could not withdrawal the decree but he could write another decree. The king and Mordecai agreed that Haman was in the wrong, together they planned their revenge for Haman. Mordecai released a decree that stated if you hurt a Jew you were then opening up yourself to allow Jews to kill you. It also state that the Jews had royal authority to kill Haman, who would be trapped in front of the palace gates. This decree scared many people and they decided to change their beliefs. The king apologized to Ester for locking her in the dungeon for so long, she accepted his apology and they went on to live happily ever after. 

Bibliography

Ester, The Bible, Ester

A Fight for freedom,

By:Last Man Link

The story of Josh and Lilly's vacation they'll never forget.

One-day Josh and Lilly decided that they needed a vacation. They couldn’t decide on where they wanted to go, Josh wanted to get away from people and go camping, while Lilly wanted to be on a beach somewhere in Mexico. After talking it through they decided to compromise by going to a cabin. They went online and found a great place that was in the middle of nowhere. They both agreed this was the place they wanted to spend their vacation. They packed their bags and headed toward the Cabin. Once they got to there they were surprised to see that the cabin was pretty much deserted. It was covered in cobwebs and there was dust on all of the furniture. It looked like there hadn’t been anyone there in a few years. After finding the key that was hidden in a flowerpot near the front door they took their bags inside, packed some lunch, and set off to explore the property. They headed off to find the perfect place to have a picnic lunch, they found a big empty space that would be the perfect spot for lunch. They sat down and started eating, then all of a sudden they heard something coming up behind them. Before they knew it there was a bear coming towards them. They took off running and ended up finding what looked like another abandoned building. They quickly got inside and barricaded the door so the bear could not come in. Once they felt safe they started exploring the building. They walked into the first room and found a Bunsen burner going with some kind of chemicals boiling. Then Josh said, “Hello? Is anyone here?” while looking around to see if he could see anyone. There was no answer so they kept walking to see what else they could find. They walked into the next room to a desk full of blueprints that were of the county jail. They were surprised to see such elaborate plans in such an unordinary place. They were looking at all of the details leading to an underground tunnel leading to a cell in the jail when someone jumped out from behind them and hit them over the head with a baseball bat, knocking them unconscious. When they woke up they found that they were chained to chairs in another room with two guys staring at them. Lilly asked, “Where are we? Who are you? And Why are we chained to these chairs?”. One of the guys named Luke answered, “You don’t need to know who we are, you just need to know we have one rule. That rule is you stay quiet.” Then they turned around and left the room. After they left Josh looked around the room for any details of where they might be when a poster on the wall caught his attention. It was a picture of what looked like Luke when he was a little bit younger, after seeing the picture he noticed that not only was it a picture but it was a wanted poster for a murderer. He nudged Lilly and motion with his head toward the sign. That was when they realized that they were in a serious situation. Josh knew he had to get Lilly out of there and protect her from whatever their plan was. Josh studied the room carefully, he noticed that there was a knife on the table to his right and an air vent that lead outside right in front of them. He slowly started inching the chair towards the table so he could retrieve the knife, once he got the knife he used it to pick the lock that was on the chain. Once he freed himself he freed Lilly. He got the vent open and when they got out side Josh whispered to Lilly “Lilly I love you, but I need you to run back to the cabin and call 911.” She tried to get him to come with her but he told her, “I needed to find out more information about Luke and his friend.” He took off to see if he could find out where the guys went. When he looked around he noticed that they weren’t in the abandoned laboratory anymore, he was at another building. This building didn’t look like a shack like the other buildings they had ran into before, this place was taken care of. All of a sudden he heard Luke talking and he was about to come around the corner. Josh found a tree and quickly scrambled up the tree so he would not be caught. Luke and his friend came around the corner and sat on the porch. Josh soon realized that this place is their criminal hideout. After dark Luke and the other guy headed off to what Josh guessed was the abandoned laboratory. After he was sure he wouldn’t get caught Josh took off toward the direction he thought the cabin was in. After a couple of hours of wondering around in the Josh found the Cabin. He walked inside to find Lilly who had an arrow aimed towards him, after Lilly saw it was him she put the bow down and ran up and gave him a hug. Shortly the cops showed up at the cabin and Josh lead them to where the criminals hideout. They found Luke and Greg and made a surprise attack ending with them being hauled off to jail. Josh told them about the blue prints that they had found in the abandoned laboratory. When the cops were done questioning Josh and Lilly they thanked them and told them to enjoy their vacation. When they got back to the cabin Josh and Lilly decided that they didn’t want to stay there anymore. So they packed their bags and set off for Mexico.

The layout of the property the story is based off of.

Author's note: I used the Map of the Area Surrounding our Holiday Home by Tom Gauld to build my story. I used motifs from the map to help plan out and set events that happened within his settings. 

Bibliography: Map of the Area Surrounding our Holiday Home, by Tom Gauld. Map