****As you may or may not know, I am taking a creative writing class this summer (along with two other classes), so I feel that I want to share what I write in class. This first paper is a Creative Nonfiction short story.*****
There was once a little girl who had
hair like Goldilocks and bright brown eyes that shimmered like stars
in the night sky. With each day her golden hair turned darker and
darker. Her mother, who had hair the color of bark, would sob and sob
over this. She would exclaim, “My Goldilocks keeps growing! Her
hair is looking like my hair!” Why was the mother so upset about
this? Well, the little girl's golden hair resembled the mother's
mother's once flowing hair. Now that the mother's mother had passed,
the mother had little to remember her by. The mother also secretly
sobbed, because the little girl was not like her at all. The little
girl rather play alone and was reserved. She spoke little, but when
she did speak she carefully chose her words and to whom she spoke
to. It was not that she was a rude little girl, but she had had her
heart broken by the man she loved: her father.
After the mother left the father due
to his unfaithfulness and his horrid temper, the little girl stopped
talking and clung to the mother's leg as they ventured cross country
to a colder land that the little girl was not use to. They arrived at
a little yellow house who belonged to Grandfather, the father of the
mother. Grandfather brought the two in with no questions at all. He
offered many a cookie and treat to the little girl, who only muttered
a “thank you” to his deeds. Grandfather never forced her to speak
or do anything she did not want to do, for he understood and was
quite the quiet one himself. It took no time at all, though, for the
little girl to finally break the ice over her heart and love
Grandfather. Alongside this, her adventurous side was reborn and she
had no choice but to roam the halls of the little yellow house.
The house smelled of many years of
memories. Old and dusty items were scattered throughout the house.
Some of these old and dusty items seemed to be older then the little
girl, perhaps even older then Grandfather! Every room held a new
mystery that enchanted the little girl. She played everywhere and
tried to play with everything, but the mother would intervene and
carefully place the item back and say, “One must be careful,
sweetie, because this is old and will break if handled too roughly.”
The little girl didn't quite understand, but she listened to her
mother's words and never touched those items again.
The little girl loved the little
yellow house. She loved every room and every item with all her heart!
There was one place, though, that was her favorite and she did the
majority of her playing and dreaming there. This was the most
unlikely of places for a little girl, but the little girl loved the
coolness and solitude of it. What is this place? Nowhere, but the
gray basement on a little black cot set up just for her. Grandfather
and the mother were rather confused as to why the little girl liked
the basement the most, but they didn't ask questions and set up her
black cot there. This basement was a spacious basement, but the walls
and shelves were filled with more old things that amazed the little
girl. There was a pantry tucked away next to the white laundry and
dryer. There was a small shower and a toilet on the other side, which
baffled the little girl, because she never seen a toilet in a
basement before. Next to that was an old, overfilled tool bench that
the little girl never, ever touched for it was Grandfather's tool
bench. Near her black cot was a bed as huge as a car! It was pushed
up against the adjoining wall from the cot. The little girl, again,
was amazed and confused as to why a bed was in the basement. Beds
belonged in bedrooms, didn't they?
“Perhaps,”She whispered to
herself, “It was put there for me to play on!” She ran to the bed
and began jumping on it. It was not as good as a trampoline, but it
was still fun and softer on her feet! After a few hoots and sadly
attempted back-flips, the mother came flying down the stairs and
grabbed the little girl off the bed and set her down on the cool
floor. She glared and yelled, “You know better! Beds are not made
for jumping! They are made for SLEEPING! This bed is for guests, not
for you to be jumping on.”
With a sniff and some tears, the
little girl apologized, “I'm sorry.”
“Good.” With that, the mother
patted her head and went back upstairs.
The little girl flopped back onto the
black cot with a pout and wiped away the remaining tears on her face.
She contemplated going up to her room, but she was currently mad at
her mother, so she decided to stay sitting on the black cot
surrounded by her dolls. As she went to slip on the new dress for her
doll, a noise by the bed froze her.
Meow
The little girl
squinted her eyes looking for the sound. She was too scared to
actually get up and go to the bed and investigate.
Meow
The sound
was getting louder!
Meow
Suddenly
the thing making the noise slid out from underneath the bed. It was a
black cat with bright green eyes! However, the black cat was not
completely black, but a large white mark circled the cats neck. It
liked like a pearl necklace that her mother had given her that had
belonged to the mother's mother. The little girl squealed with
excitement! She called for the cat to come closer. The black cat at
first refused, but soon sauntered over to the little girl. The little
girl patted the cot and told it to come up and play with her, but the
black cat just cocked its head to the side and slid under the cot and
laid down there.
The little girl
was a little upset that the cat didn't want to play with her, but she
was never one to force an animal to do anything it didn't want to do,
so she then went on playing with her dolls. It seemed like no time
passed at all when her mother called downstairs, “Sweetie, dinner
is ready! Wash your hands!”
The little girl,
who was starved at this point, jumped off the cot and crouched to
look under the cot, “Mr. Kitty, it is time for dinner! Maybe momma
can give you some.” But as she looked under the cot, she could not
see the black cat. An eyebrow raised and she whispered, “That's
weird...I didn't see you leave kitty.” With a shrug, she skipped
away to wash her hands.
Later that night,
the mother tucked the little girl into bed and kissed her forehead,
“Good night my angel.” The mother cooed. She went and turned on
the little girl's night light and left the room. The little girl
smiled as she stared up at the green glowing stars that Grandfather
stuck on the ceiling for her. With a little yawn, she closed her
eyes.
Meow.
She jumped
up to a sitting position. The cat was back! She called softly,“Come
here kitty! Where are you kitty? Did you get dinner?”
Meow.
“Come lay
on the bed with me, kitty.” The little girl pleaded.
The
black cat slid out of the closet that was opened just a crack. The
cat came to the foot of the bed and looked up at the girl with a look
of curiosity. It seemed that the cat was tempted to lay on the bed
with the little girl, but instead it slid under the bed and laid
there. With a pout the little girl demanded, “Why won't you play
with me, kitty?” She jumped out of bed. Flicking on the light and
she ran back to the bed. Crouching by the foot of the bed, she lifted
the blanket and looked under for the cat. Again...the black cat had
disappeared! She was rather confused.
Quickly, she slid
on her bunny slippers and ran out of the room. Her mother would know
what was going on! The little girl hunted down her mother until she
found her sitting at the dinner table playing with paper and looking
rather serious about it. Not caring that her mother was busy, she
demanded, “Mom! Why does Grandfather's cat not want to play with
me?”
“What?” The
mother asked without looking up.
“There is a
black cat with white around its neck! It refuses to play with me!
Tell Grandpa I want to play with it!”
The mother put
down her papers with a wide-eyed expression, “Grandfather does not
have a cat, sweetie. You must be imagining it.”
“NO! No, I'm
not! I promise! It was downstairs by my cot and then it was in my
room! It keeps disappearing!”
The mother chewed
her lip and thought a moment. She went to say something, but instead
stood up and began ushering the little girl towards the bedroom,
“Come, come. There is no black cat. You must have been dreaming.
Back to bed with you.”
“But momma!”
The little girl whined
“No...time for
bed.” She replied sternly. Again, she tucked the little girl in and
flicked off the lights.
The little girl
was not happy to be ignored and put back to bed. She again jumped out
of the bed and went to the door. Before she could swing it open, she
heard Grandfather's voice and her mother's voice. She peaked through
the creak and they were in Grandfather's room which was across the
way from the little girl's room. Sitting down, she decided to listen
to their conversation like a bad little girl.
“Dad, she seen
that black cat!” The mother hissed.
“Impossible!
That cat died five years ago. I buried it myself. It must be a stray
or her imagination” He responded with annoyance.
“ No, Dad. She
does not lie and you know that. She said the cat was black with white
around the neck. It came to her by the black cot from the bed and it
was in her room.”
There was a
momentary silence.
“Dad?”
“It died under
that bed a few days after your mother passed five years ago. I buried
it myself.”
Again...silence.
“Maybe she did
see it...maybe it's a ghost.” The mother whispered.
Grandfather
shrugged and replied, “It's possible. Don't tell her
though...she'll get scared.”
The little girl,
hearing enough, slipped back into bed. A ghost? A ghost cat? She
didn't quite understand what that meant. How does one become dead and
become a ghost? She knew Casper was a ghost and he was friendly. The
little girl hoped that the black cat was friendly like Casper. With a
sigh, she concluded that the black cat had to be friendly, it hadn't
done anything to hurt her yet. After some more thinking and
convincing herself the ghost cat was harmless, she fell fast asleep.
Meow.
The
black cat appeared again and jumped on the bed and laid next to the
little girl.
