Post by cinnamin on Jan 30, 2010 21:30:15 GMT -6
This one's from American Literature class about a year ago. Not my favorite work, but the teacher said that the ending surprised her.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bridge to Happiness[/glow]
The grasses waved golden fingers to welcome the world, and the trees bowed their golden heads. The fence shone like King Midas had touched it, and the sky turned so many different colors that you could compare it to a red and golden rainbow. Then the sun rose higher, and the colors returned to the world. The grasses became their usual dirty wheat color, the trees were green and brown again, and the fence lost its golden hue. Even with its shining precious metal dusting gone, the landscape was still beautiful.
Bridget sighed. It was the first day of summer vacation; her parents were already at work and had taken her brother to daycare. She was the only one at home, but she was as bored as she had ever been. There would be nothing on the television, the computers needed a password that only her parents knew, and the house was almost void of toys. Her parents had told her to go outside and explore, but what was there to find? Bridget had already been though every part of her backyard forest, except for the dangerous places like the caves and the cliffs.
Bridget smiled as she thought of all the places she had been in her forest. There were beautiful little clearings everywhere, and tiny trails wound through the trees like a spider’s web of roads. She would like to think that she had seen everything there was to see in her backyard forest, but Bridget knew that was not true.
On the other side of a little gorge that was just too wide for Bridget to jump across, there was a hollow that glowed in the sunlight. Bridget had barely seen a fraction of it, but she knew the hollow was an amazing place. An ancient tree, probably more than fifty feet tall, grew right in the middle of the beauty, and a shallow stream gurgled through the soft grass. The only way to get in, though, was across the gorge because great walls of smooth, vertical stone rose up to cut off every other side. Bridget had tried to climb one of the walls once, but the only things she had gotten from that experience were torn, bloody hands and a bruised bottom.
With a frown, Bridget jumped up. She decided that she was going to go explore her forest some more anyway. She did not have anything else to do, and staying in the large house, although marvelous when shared with multiple friends, was boring alone. The frown vanished then, replaced by a smile; it was always fun to just run along those trails, no matter how many times she had before.
Through the fields and down the path she flew, feeling like an eagle as it passed through a cloud. She loved the forest and trees, the grass and the trails; it was amazing. She let her feet carry her wherever they wished, and when they stopped, she found herself in the last place she would have expected.
There it was: the gorge to the hidden hollow, but there was something different. A dead log was standing vertical on the other side, and before Bridget could even think to move, the log tumbled down, the top smacking into the ground only inches away from her feet. Bridget was too surprised, too afraid, to say anything, but she did not need to.
“Hey!” a boy on the far side of the gorge called. “My name’s Alexander. Who’re you?”
“Bridget,” she just barely managed to whisper.
“Cool!” the boy said and then ran off into the hollow.
“Wait!” Bridget called, finding her voice. “Where’re you going?”
“To Lefton City!” came Alexander’s reply as he reappeared on the other side of the gorge. “You can come too! All you gotta do is cross the bridge!”
Disregarding the inexistence of “Lefton City,” Bridget looked at the log. “That’s not a bridge!”
“Yes it is!” Alexander said .“Come on! It won’t even wobble.”
Bridget was still afraid, but she really wanted to see the hollow. Taking a deep breath like she was about to dive into a pool, she took a running start.
“See, that wasn’t that bad!” Alexander smiled as Bridget stumbled off the log. “It’s just a bridge. Why were you so afraid of it?”
Bridget dusted off her jeans and frowned at him. “It’s a log across a gorge! Why do you think I was afraid?”
Alexander looked confused for a moment. “A log? No, it’s a bridge. But that doesn’t matter; you can call it what you want,” he said. “I have to find a Ruby Toad before they all turn into rocks again. You can help if you want.”
Once again, Bridget said nothing about the inexistent thing that Alexander was talking about; she was too amazed at what was around her. Up in the huge tree was the biggest, most wonderful tree fort she had ever seen. Twenty or more children could play tag up on those platforms and still easily avoid the person that was ‘it.’ In Bridget’s opinion, a small town’s worth of people could hide up there easily, and no one would know the difference because there were too many nooks and crannies to count.
“Wow,” Bridget whispered, astonished; but Alexander was unaffected, even looking a little contradictory towards her answer. He said nothing and went about his own quest of picking up and inspecting brown rocks.
Left to her own resources, Bridget was soon up on the highest platform and looking out over the tops of the trees. After she had her fill of the skyline, she ran along bridges connecting the lower platforms and explored every inch of the fort to the best of her abilities. There was a rope instead of a bridge connecting two of the lower platforms, a strange object that seemed to be a wooden spyglass attached to one railing, and an extensive set of rooms carved into the trunk of the ancient tree. Bridget was up in the tree fort until the sun was barely above the tree tops, but she wanted to stay longer. She still had a lot of things to investigate, but she came down anyway since she needed to get back home before her parents came back with her little brother, Toby.
“This place is amazing, Alexander! Who…” Bridget’s voice trailed off. Alexander was nowhere in sight, but she had not heard him cross the log – it made a hollow noise when you ran across it. He had disappeared, but Bridget shrugged it away.
Running back across the log, Bridget stepped onto the house’s front steps just as her parents pulled up in the car. She waved to them and ran forward to tell them about her adventures. They were all happy for her, and Toby was amazed. He asked her to explain everything, and the rest of the day passed as Bridget did. Night came and went, and the next day brought the golden sunrise again. Bridget was not alone in watching it, though, because her mother had the day off, which meant that Toby got to stay home too.
“I’m going into the forest!” Bridget called, running out across the field of grass.
“I’m coming too!” Toby shouted, pumping his little legs to keep up. “I wanna see the tree house!”
“No,” Bridget said, turning to face her little brother. “It’s my tree fort. How ‘bout you find your own place to go for once, or go play with your toys.”
Bridget did not want to share her find with her little brother. It would lose its splendor if Toby was there, so she ran as fast as she could to get her brother off her trail. When she finally pounded across the log into the hollow and looked back, her brother was nowhere in sight. Satisfied, she ran up into the platforms and continued her explorations from the day before. As she swung across the rope, though, a sound came and told her that something was terribly wrong.
A little scream echoed through the hollow, and in horror, Bridget looked down from her joy. Toby was there above the unendingly deep gorge and clung desperately to the log as his legs dangled helplessly.
“I’m coming, Toby!” Bridget shouted as she sprinted down the platforms. “Hang on!”
“I can’t!” Toby screamed, his little fingers slipping. “Bridget!”
Bridget dove for Toby’s hand, but her fingers closed around nothing but air. “Toby!” she screamed, but her voice did nothing to stop him from falling into the black depths.
Pushing herself away from the edge of the gorge, Bridget curled up into a ball, and her tears stained the knees of her jeans. “Toby…” she sobbed. “How could I let you fall, Toby? I’m…I’m sorry, Toby…”
“Bridget? Are you alright? What happened?” Alexander’s familiar voice asked.
“He fell. Toby fell!” Bridget wailed.
“It’s alright,” Alexander said softly. “It’ll be okay. Come on, now, don’t cry. Everything’ll be fine.”
“No, it won’t,” Bridget sobbed as Alexander helped her up “I let him fall.”
“You did your best to save him,” Alexander said, walking beside her across the log. Bridget wondered how he did this but did not care to ask, and when she looked back at the gorge as they walked away, the log was no longer a log. It was really, and truly, a bridge just like Alexander had said; and she thought to herself that maybe if she would have seen that before and had been more willing to share, her brother would be running in the tree fort with her instead. Now it was a forlorn bridge over the troubled waters of her life, and she could do nothing but wonder what would have happened if she would have shared the bridge to happiness with Toby.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bridge to Happiness[/glow]
The grasses waved golden fingers to welcome the world, and the trees bowed their golden heads. The fence shone like King Midas had touched it, and the sky turned so many different colors that you could compare it to a red and golden rainbow. Then the sun rose higher, and the colors returned to the world. The grasses became their usual dirty wheat color, the trees were green and brown again, and the fence lost its golden hue. Even with its shining precious metal dusting gone, the landscape was still beautiful.
Bridget sighed. It was the first day of summer vacation; her parents were already at work and had taken her brother to daycare. She was the only one at home, but she was as bored as she had ever been. There would be nothing on the television, the computers needed a password that only her parents knew, and the house was almost void of toys. Her parents had told her to go outside and explore, but what was there to find? Bridget had already been though every part of her backyard forest, except for the dangerous places like the caves and the cliffs.
Bridget smiled as she thought of all the places she had been in her forest. There were beautiful little clearings everywhere, and tiny trails wound through the trees like a spider’s web of roads. She would like to think that she had seen everything there was to see in her backyard forest, but Bridget knew that was not true.
On the other side of a little gorge that was just too wide for Bridget to jump across, there was a hollow that glowed in the sunlight. Bridget had barely seen a fraction of it, but she knew the hollow was an amazing place. An ancient tree, probably more than fifty feet tall, grew right in the middle of the beauty, and a shallow stream gurgled through the soft grass. The only way to get in, though, was across the gorge because great walls of smooth, vertical stone rose up to cut off every other side. Bridget had tried to climb one of the walls once, but the only things she had gotten from that experience were torn, bloody hands and a bruised bottom.
With a frown, Bridget jumped up. She decided that she was going to go explore her forest some more anyway. She did not have anything else to do, and staying in the large house, although marvelous when shared with multiple friends, was boring alone. The frown vanished then, replaced by a smile; it was always fun to just run along those trails, no matter how many times she had before.
Through the fields and down the path she flew, feeling like an eagle as it passed through a cloud. She loved the forest and trees, the grass and the trails; it was amazing. She let her feet carry her wherever they wished, and when they stopped, she found herself in the last place she would have expected.
There it was: the gorge to the hidden hollow, but there was something different. A dead log was standing vertical on the other side, and before Bridget could even think to move, the log tumbled down, the top smacking into the ground only inches away from her feet. Bridget was too surprised, too afraid, to say anything, but she did not need to.
“Hey!” a boy on the far side of the gorge called. “My name’s Alexander. Who’re you?”
“Bridget,” she just barely managed to whisper.
“Cool!” the boy said and then ran off into the hollow.
“Wait!” Bridget called, finding her voice. “Where’re you going?”
“To Lefton City!” came Alexander’s reply as he reappeared on the other side of the gorge. “You can come too! All you gotta do is cross the bridge!”
Disregarding the inexistence of “Lefton City,” Bridget looked at the log. “That’s not a bridge!”
“Yes it is!” Alexander said .“Come on! It won’t even wobble.”
Bridget was still afraid, but she really wanted to see the hollow. Taking a deep breath like she was about to dive into a pool, she took a running start.
“See, that wasn’t that bad!” Alexander smiled as Bridget stumbled off the log. “It’s just a bridge. Why were you so afraid of it?”
Bridget dusted off her jeans and frowned at him. “It’s a log across a gorge! Why do you think I was afraid?”
Alexander looked confused for a moment. “A log? No, it’s a bridge. But that doesn’t matter; you can call it what you want,” he said. “I have to find a Ruby Toad before they all turn into rocks again. You can help if you want.”
Once again, Bridget said nothing about the inexistent thing that Alexander was talking about; she was too amazed at what was around her. Up in the huge tree was the biggest, most wonderful tree fort she had ever seen. Twenty or more children could play tag up on those platforms and still easily avoid the person that was ‘it.’ In Bridget’s opinion, a small town’s worth of people could hide up there easily, and no one would know the difference because there were too many nooks and crannies to count.
“Wow,” Bridget whispered, astonished; but Alexander was unaffected, even looking a little contradictory towards her answer. He said nothing and went about his own quest of picking up and inspecting brown rocks.
Left to her own resources, Bridget was soon up on the highest platform and looking out over the tops of the trees. After she had her fill of the skyline, she ran along bridges connecting the lower platforms and explored every inch of the fort to the best of her abilities. There was a rope instead of a bridge connecting two of the lower platforms, a strange object that seemed to be a wooden spyglass attached to one railing, and an extensive set of rooms carved into the trunk of the ancient tree. Bridget was up in the tree fort until the sun was barely above the tree tops, but she wanted to stay longer. She still had a lot of things to investigate, but she came down anyway since she needed to get back home before her parents came back with her little brother, Toby.
“This place is amazing, Alexander! Who…” Bridget’s voice trailed off. Alexander was nowhere in sight, but she had not heard him cross the log – it made a hollow noise when you ran across it. He had disappeared, but Bridget shrugged it away.
Running back across the log, Bridget stepped onto the house’s front steps just as her parents pulled up in the car. She waved to them and ran forward to tell them about her adventures. They were all happy for her, and Toby was amazed. He asked her to explain everything, and the rest of the day passed as Bridget did. Night came and went, and the next day brought the golden sunrise again. Bridget was not alone in watching it, though, because her mother had the day off, which meant that Toby got to stay home too.
“I’m going into the forest!” Bridget called, running out across the field of grass.
“I’m coming too!” Toby shouted, pumping his little legs to keep up. “I wanna see the tree house!”
“No,” Bridget said, turning to face her little brother. “It’s my tree fort. How ‘bout you find your own place to go for once, or go play with your toys.”
Bridget did not want to share her find with her little brother. It would lose its splendor if Toby was there, so she ran as fast as she could to get her brother off her trail. When she finally pounded across the log into the hollow and looked back, her brother was nowhere in sight. Satisfied, she ran up into the platforms and continued her explorations from the day before. As she swung across the rope, though, a sound came and told her that something was terribly wrong.
A little scream echoed through the hollow, and in horror, Bridget looked down from her joy. Toby was there above the unendingly deep gorge and clung desperately to the log as his legs dangled helplessly.
“I’m coming, Toby!” Bridget shouted as she sprinted down the platforms. “Hang on!”
“I can’t!” Toby screamed, his little fingers slipping. “Bridget!”
Bridget dove for Toby’s hand, but her fingers closed around nothing but air. “Toby!” she screamed, but her voice did nothing to stop him from falling into the black depths.
Pushing herself away from the edge of the gorge, Bridget curled up into a ball, and her tears stained the knees of her jeans. “Toby…” she sobbed. “How could I let you fall, Toby? I’m…I’m sorry, Toby…”
“Bridget? Are you alright? What happened?” Alexander’s familiar voice asked.
“He fell. Toby fell!” Bridget wailed.
“It’s alright,” Alexander said softly. “It’ll be okay. Come on, now, don’t cry. Everything’ll be fine.”
“No, it won’t,” Bridget sobbed as Alexander helped her up “I let him fall.”
“You did your best to save him,” Alexander said, walking beside her across the log. Bridget wondered how he did this but did not care to ask, and when she looked back at the gorge as they walked away, the log was no longer a log. It was really, and truly, a bridge just like Alexander had said; and she thought to herself that maybe if she would have seen that before and had been more willing to share, her brother would be running in the tree fort with her instead. Now it was a forlorn bridge over the troubled waters of her life, and she could do nothing but wonder what would have happened if she would have shared the bridge to happiness with Toby.