Week 10 Story: Recess Love

Recess Love

“So, I think I’m going to ask Ainsley out at recess today” Carter whispered to Keaton.

 “Dude, I was going to ask her out today and you know that I’ve liked her for 2 weeks now!” Keaton fired back a little above a whisper.

 “Then you’re going to have to beat me in a race to her” Carter said back.

So, the two went to lunch just waiting for the moment when the loud bell came on to signal that it was recess.

“We have to at least make this fair, we should both wait for her to get outside with her friends and then we will line up and race towards her. The first one to get to her gets to ask her to be their boyfriend” Keaton said to Carter.

The time came and the two walked slowly out their both staring at Hailey making sure the time was right. But Carter knew he wasn’t as fast as Keaton so he decided that he was going to have to make a new attempt to get her.

“I think the coast is clear, she is in line to play tetherball, so now is the perfect chance” Carter said.

The boys lined up evenly on the playground and looked each other down as if they were about to run in the Olympics. They both counted to 3 and on “Go” they both took off sprinting as fast as they could.

Keaton and Carter were dead even for about the first 10 yards, and then Carter started to slow down. Keaton thinking, he had it in the bag kept running as fast as he could until he reached Ainsley.

With a slight sweat and a heavy pant of breath Keaton ran up to Ainsley and asked, “Do you want to go out with me?”

Ainsley looking at Keaton strangely said “Uhhh.. look Carter seems to be hurt over there we need to go check on him”

This is an image of a child hurt which I found on Brian Bajakian's chiropractor website.

The two walked over to Carter who was laying on the ground pretending to be in agonizing pain.

“What happened Carter?” Ainsley said in a very concerned voice. “I was going to come ask you to be my girlfriend but Keaton shoved me down and kept running towards you.” Carter barely working the words out.

“I would never date someone who would do such a terrible thing. How would you like to be my boyfriend Carter?”

Carter just smiled and said “Yes!” as he gleamed over at Keaton in complete disgust.

Authors Note:

This story is loosely based off of “Why the Possum Plays Dead” which is a short story about a rabbit and a possum. Both of the animals in the story desperately wanted wives so they would travel to a nearby village in which they would search. The rabbit was much faster than the possum so he reached the village first in which he delivered a message to the Chief that everyone must get married. By the time the possum reached the village, everyone was married including his friend the rabbit. So, the rabbit said that he would go to the next village and do the same making sure there would be a wife for the possum, but instead he decided to bring the message that there must be war at once. So as fighting started to break out, the possum reached the village in which they tried to attack him and instead of fighting, the possum played dead instead. In my story, I felt that there was no need for war but I also wanted some deception. I symbolized Keaton as the rabbit since he was much faster and could beat Carter, and I symbolized Carter as the possum since he knew he was slower. I had him pretend to be injured like the possum playing dead, except instead of the rabbit tricking the possum, I had Carter tricking Keaton. Overall, this story is more of a tortoise versus the hare but instead of just being slow, there was trickery involved in winning.

Bibliography:

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The specific story of "Why the Possum Plays Dead" can be found in this link. 

Week 7 Story: The Lucky Shirt.

The Lucky Shirt. 

"You have to quit wearing that ridiculous shirt," Carter told Grant. 

"I'm telling you Carter, every single time I wear this shirt great things happen," Grant fired back.

"If it is so lucky, then let me try it out for a night," Carter exclaimed!

Wanting to prove his point, Grant tossed the shirt over to him and said, "Trust me, this will work magic for you tonight in some way." 

So, Carter put the shirt on in disbelief as he would a normal shirt and the two went out for a night on the town. They went to the campus bar to get some drinks and party like they normally would. As the two were sitting at the bar enjoying some ice-cold beer, a well-dressed rich looking guy walked over to Carter and said, "Drink whatever you want tonight, I got you covered." Grant just looked at Carter with a smile. Then about 20 minutes later, Carter's dream girl from class who he had never said a word to walked over. "Nice shirt, but I think you dropped something," as the girl sat a piece of paper down with her phone number. 

Slightly intoxicated from all the free drinks, Carter said to Grant "Okay I believe you! This shirt is magic, there is no way that girl would randomly come over here and do that normally."

Grant slightly jealous said, " Don't get used to it."

The two went back that night as normal, but in the morning Carter knew that he couldn't give the shirt back to Grant. After thinking for some time, he realized there was no way that Grant would just let him keep the shirt.

Being that the two were roommates, Grant knocked on Carter’s door asking for the shirt back later that day. Carter came out of the room holding the shirt and said, “Either we share the shirt or I’m not giving it back.”

“No way man that shirt is mine and last night was only a test trial for you.” Grant said.

Grant then reached for the shirt and grabbed it, but Carter began forcefully pulling back. The two yanked back and forth harder with each pull. Finally, Carter yanked the shirt as hard as he could from Grant’s hands as they heard the unforgettable sound.  

They both looked at each other with their eyes wide open as if there was a murder that had just taken place. The shirt was ripped from the collar half way down the front of the shirt.

“Look what you have done!” Grant screamed at Carter.

Grant just threw the shirt at Carter’s face like a baseball and stormed off to his room. Carter immediately felt horrible and decided to get the shirt fixed. So, he went to a clothing store and had the shirt fixed to where the shirt looked brand new. He brought the shirt home and gave it to Grant. Grant in disbelief thanked Carter and put the shirt on. Five minutes later Grant then received a call from his mother informing him that he had won a thousand dollars in some drawing that he had entered.

The shirt was still lucky. 

The lucky shirt as described in the story found on Wikimedia Commons.

Author’s Note:

This story is loosely based off of Why the Dog and Cat are Enemies from The Chinese Fairy Book written by R. Wilhelm and translated by Fredrick H. Martens. In this tale, there is a couple who has a lucky ring that makes whoever wearing it rich enough to get by. The couple did not know the power of the ring so when times of financial trouble came for the two of them, they sold the ring which actually led them to worse issues. The couple owned a dog and a cat who also suffered by losing meals due to their owners selling the ring, so the dog and cat formed a plan to get the ring back to solve their problems. As they got the ring back, the cat took the ring and sped off to give it to their owners before the dog could join. The couple praised the cat for the return of the ring, yet they shamed the dog for not doing it as well. My story is related to the part of the shirt symbolizing the ring and bringing upon good fortune. I also have the shirt be ripped to slightly represent the loss of the ring, and have the shirt fixed to represent the return of the ring.

Bibliography:

The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The specific story of Why the Dog and the Cat are Enemies from the book can be found here.