The Lady Across the Street.
Haha! I have written fiction after all! Perhaps those crazy Washington BoyScouts will enjoy it.The Lady Across the Street
By Marguerite, Aurora, Joe and Collin
A petite, black-haired, blue eyed woman tucks her sweet-tempered, darkhaired, brown-eyed munchkin in rocket-covered long john pajamas into bed, kisses him goodnight with full, dark cherry red lips and turn out the light as she leaves the darkened bedroom. Jonny slips out from under his thick, dinosaur comforter to sit on the end of his bed, his elbows tucked on the window sill, his impish face resting on his tiny hands.
Across the street, there stands a Pepto Bismol pink, two story Victorian house with plum purple, fancy, curlicue trim, its huge, sagging porch covered in faded white wicker furniture. Around this fantastic monolith are small, proper houses, each looking like they came from the same cookie cutter. Jonny has heard his friends’ parents calling the old house an eyesore, but he thinks the old lady that lives there is right, they wouldn’t know beauty if it hit them in the face.
The curved front walk, paved with large cracked stones threatened by overwhelming weeds, wanders to the bottom of the warped wooden stairs. The crazy patches of vines all over the front yard makes it seem like a wild jungle worthy of the deepest exploration. His curious gaze takes in the peeling white picket fence where it shows, in small sections, through the heavy leaves and grasses. Watching silently, he notices the regal lady herself through a softly lit window, settled in her sky blue paisley wingback chair, knitting with rainbow-colored yarn, the long, fat, mint green needles clacking rhythmically. Her neon green crown of hair nods slightly above her aged face as she speaks to her grandson across the room. Her back, bent with the weight of time, is a sharp contrast to her chin, betraying obstinate stubbornness. At her feet is the most flea-bitten, mangy, loyal subject ever to grace a person’s presence. King lifts his head long enough to gaze at his mistress with adoring, brown doggy eyes before settling his huge head on his crossed forepaws, his brindle coat making him appear even more moth-eaten than he is.
Jelly’s voice, nasal and complaining floats on the evening breeze, “Awww Granny, come on! Don’t be so old fashioned!” Jonny’s scrutiny shifts to Jelly, his bowl-cut hair in black with orange streaks, his Pinocchio nose, his thin lips and skinny, wiry frame as he perches restless and tense on an ancient straight-backed chair that threatens to overthrow his balance at any moment. Jonny tries not to giggle as Jelly’s bulging eyes appear to be ready to pop out at any second.
Dusk casts its pall over the neighborhood, settling a shroud over everything. A dark grey car slides up to Granny’s unkempt house and three figures in long black coats and black felt fedoras exit the car. Picking their way gingerly up the path, they get to Granny’s door and knock quietly. King raises his head and growls at the door as Granny slowly rises from her throne and hobbles over to answer it. The police flip open their badges as the old wooden door slowly creaks open, a watery hazel eye appearing in the crack. Throwing off their coats and fedoras, the three men reveal black ninja garb and thrust the door open, Jelly jumping up and running to catch Granny as she stumbles back. King howls then grabs a small porcelain lamp in his ugly yellow teeth, dragging it to the puddle he had conveniently left just inside the front door, electrocuting the three ninjas as Granny and Jelly dart through the house and out the back door.
The ninjas laugh as their rubber waders insulate them, saving them from death and trip over the huge mutt blocking their path. King nips one on his way around them to follow Granny. In the darkening gloam, the screen door slams as two figures and their faithful guardian lopes along beside them, barking encouragement and turning to growl and snarl at the house. Fitfully traversing the overgrown path to a rickety old dock, Jelly and Granny reach the end of it and stumble into a leaky, faded rowboat, King jumping in beside them. Jelly shoves against the rotten boards of the dilapidated dock and turns as they glide slowly onto the dark, still lake, then snaps in frustration as he realizes the oars are still on the dock. *oh snap*
The three ninjas suddenly appear on the dock and jump into the lake to swim out to catch Granny and Jello but their black waders fill with water and drag all three under the unexpectedly deep water, causing agreat splash. The wave they made turns into a wild tsunami, pushing the half-sunken rowboat to the far side of the lake, beaching it on the gray sand. The shadowy figures crawl carefully out of the boat as it starts to rain.
Jonny startles awake as the ice-cold drops hit his slack face. Blinking owlishly, he slowly stands up, toddles through his dark, toy-strewn room and out the blue-painted door. The toilet flushes and he stumbles back into his room, tucks himself back into his single bed and rolls over, long lashes fluttering softly on creamy cheeks as he falls back into dreamland.
The End
posted by Marguerite @ 10/19/2005 10:24:00 PM
7 Comments:
My English teacher would have much appreciated your writing style. She's always telling us to "show don't tell" your story. Even though I'm just the scout-master's daughter, I really enjoyed reading it! It's funny...this is the 2nd story I've read this evening about ninjas. Go figure.
thats because ninjas rock!!
and those were lesser ninjas. real ninjas would have cut there heads off when she opened the door.
The Ninja's were Collin's idea.
We wrote that for english, too, talking about the Iceburg Theory, hemingway and all. It was a contest in English class, we had five teams and we wrote stories, whoever won got to be exempt from a paper. We came in second. first it was a tie, then we voted again, and we lost. :P
We didn't do any research on ninja before we wrote this, and after reading your blog, ninja wouldn't have acted like that. But it's all good, cause it was a little boy's dream. (that was my favorite part. It made anything logical)
That was so cute! (My lil bro.'s name is Jonny...) The ninjas were different from the Boyscout version (heheh) but that made it funny. I loved it. I didn't know you wrote fiction.
Thanks. :) I don't write fiction. It was an English assignment. :) A really fun one. And I didn't actually write that much of it, Aurora did. Collin and I came up with the story line and I threw in a bunch of descriptions and he threw in ninjas and tada! :D
so yeah, I don't write fiction.
Oh. Well it was good!
thanks. muchas gracias, spaceva, merci, danke. oh and anks thay
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