The First Story I Ever Wrote

You might remember from last week’s post that I’ve been spending the break digging up forgotten family lore in the basement. Well, after further excavation I discovered what might just be the first thing I’ve ever written: the opening chapters of a novel entitled Secret Chain, which I now present in its entirety. I spent about twelve recesses laboring over the manuscript back in kindergarten and, looking back at it now, I think the effort shows. For the ease of reading I have corrected the spelling; added paragraph breaks, quotation marks, and periods; and made the letters all face the correct direction.

Chapter 1: The Leaf Map

I was playing with Emily at my house. Then I found a leaf map. It told us to go to a door. A secret door that we had been to before. It said “help me.” That was not happy. We asked my mom.

“Okay,” she said. “I will drive you there.”

We saw tons of things that looked like slime monsters. One of them charged at me. I pushed a button on my watch. It blew up. I did it again and the same thing happened. Then one of them bit Emily. I twisted the button on my watch and time stopped. Everything stopped except me. I threw the monster.

There were rocks across the water. We could get wet. The only way to go without getting wet was to follow the leaf map. It was something like a cliff of boulders. I started to climb. “Emily,” I told her. She did not move. Then I remembered something. I twisted a button on my watch. Then I let Emily look at the leaf map. We don’t want to get wet.

“NO, JOHN OSLER!” said Emily.

“OKAY EMILY, I WILL GO!” I said.

I climbed. Then I pushed a button on my watch. One boulder turned into lava. When all the lava went out there was a key but it was all in the lava. I got a stick and I got the key with the stick. The lava went away. I got the key in my pocket. “See, Emily?”

Then a rock released the lava so Emily had to go with me. 

At the top we saw a huge monster. The king of monster. Five monsters stuck together. Emily took a tooth out. Then it ate Emily, then burped her out with its heart. It blew up. There was an arrow pointing the way.

“So let’s go, John.”

Chapter 2: The Amazing Mess

It pointed to a secret door we had tried to open before. It was locked up but we had the key. We unlocked it. It was an amazing mess. I went in. It was wet. My shoes got wet. There were two ways to go.

“John, you go that way and I will go left, okay?”

After a little while we were lost. Then I said, “Anyone?”

“JJJOOOOHHHHHNNN!”

There was Emily. I went to her. 

“If we or I or maybe you can smash that wall we can make an exit now!” said Emily.

“What did you?” I said.

“MAYBE YOU COULD MAKE AN EXIT FOR US WITH YOU WATCH!” said Emily.

“NO!” I said.

“Why?” said Emily.

“I’m out,” I said.

Then Emily said, “What do you mean, John?”

I said, “I MEAN I'M OUT OF POWER!”

Then I removed the strange battery. 

“Why,” I said. Then the watch shut down. This was not what I wanted. Then I noticed there were five more hands. They were the year, ten years, and a thousand years. I started to drink it. Then I had some power. I jumped through the wall, then back with some power for my watch.

Then Emily said, “Now!”

Then I said, “No!”

Then the floor fell in. Then we jumped out and grabbed a key.

Chapter 3: Segregation

This is as far as I got. As disappointed as I am that my bold adventure story never took its planned detour into racial politics, I think this short but powerful fable teaches powerful lessons that we all can learn from, most notably that watches can blow up slime monsters and stop the world but rarely if ever tell time, the most important thing to keep in mind during an adventure is how wet your shoes are, and driving your son and his friend to a monster-ridden layer is a sign of good motherhood! Also, I was sort of a condescending jerk to Emily, huh?