Joel's+Writing

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__**New Endings Warmup**__ 10/31/07

Bobbie woke up in a dimly lit room. It seemed deserted at first, until he saw a dark, hooded figure in the corner near a door. The shape shifted, and Bobbie decided to strike up a conversation. "Hey, how long have I been here?" A gruff voice replied, "Nineteen hours or so." "Nineteen hours?!" yipped Bobbie. "That means it's about... seven in the evening on Halloween!" "Yup," agreed the figure. "Now wait here, the Boss is coming in." Bobbie wondered why he was here and what the boss was going to do to him. The door suddenly was flung open, and a robot rolled in. "I am the Boss," it droned. "Now I will grant your wish. You can trick-or-treat tonight after all... but as a zombie!" A bright flash of light filled the room, and Bobbie felt that he now had a rough face and mangled hands. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed. In his anger at the Boss, the hooded figure pushed him through the doorway, into a street full of children in costumes. Bobbie began sobbing, when a group of kids ran up to him. "Nice costume, mister!" one said. "It's not a costume," Bobbie moaned. "I'm the real thing." "Well, then, can I get your autograph? I've never seen a real zombie before!" The kid shook his arm. Bobbie felt the skin flopping loosely. He suddenly realized that real skin didn't flop like that. Bobbie cautiously peeled at the zombie skin, and miraculously came off! "Yahoo! Yes!" Bobbie cheered. The kids ran away screaming and Bobbie ran back to his house, which he found right where he had been. Bobbie slammed the door shut, thankful to bring that chapter of his life to a close.__**
 * __Bobbie woke up to birds singing, sunbeams dancing along his floor, and the wind blowing softly past his window. It was the perfect weather for a summer day ... except that today was supposed to be October 30. And it was midnight. Bobbie was very intrigued at this turn of events, so he got out of bed and ran to wake his mom. As he jogged down the hallway, he noticed that the pictures on the wall were unfamiliar and the doorways weren't in the right spaces. Bobbie came to the shocking conclusion that this wasn't his house, after all! He started feeling sick and wobbled down to an open window. Breathing in the warm, fresh air, he failed to hear the heavy footfalls filling the house. Bobbie felt a presence behind him, and turned to see a large, metal-plated hand hit him on the head. His last thought was that he wished he could have gone trick-or-treating one last time.

Writer's Guild Warm-up**__ 10/11/07 The alley emitted a putrid stench. It was lined with several dumpsters, but it was completely empty of inhabitants. A light rain fell upon the scene, kindling a feeling of anxiousness. Suddenly, a pair of headlights lit up everything, and two fierce-looking men jumped out. They had machine guns in their hands. Out of the car they dragged a bound man, shoving him to the ground. They bent his arms until he screamed beneath his gag. "Tell us where the treasure is, fool. If you do not yield a result, things could get messy..." The man held up his weapon. A soft melody floated up the alley, causing all the men to look up in confusion. Abruptly, a red and yellow sports car sped up the alley, hitting the man holding the prisoner. He groaned, eyes wandering, until he fell still. "Uh, sorry, mate, did I kill you?" said the driver apolegetically. "Sorry about your loss," he added to the other man, ignoring the fact that he was holding a gun to his head. "I'll just go now... ow!!" The Australian toppled forward onto the prisoner, blood seeping into his sports trainer he was wearing. "Ooh, sweet car," said the killer. Another van rolled up the alley, causing him to jump. It screeched to a stop, but not before it smashed the back bumper of the convertible. "Aww, you ruined it!" he whined. "Shut your mouth, insignificant rodent!" shouted the driver of the new van. "Boss!" the killer gasped. "We... we.. don't deserve this honor!" "You don't deserve anything, so you will die! Bwah, ha, ha, ha, ha!!" Ten men leaped out of the van, pistols pointed at him. At that moment, a more disturbing melody filled the air. Sirens! Four police cars screeched to a stop, and, guns pointed, ran at the gang. Seemingly in slow motion, everybody fired their guns ...


 * The Great American West**

It’s not every day that you get to drive three-fourths of the way across the country, but that’s just what my family did in the summer of 2005. Of course, being such a long distance between here and there, the entire vacation took three weeks, with many stops along the way. My dad had discussed going to Yellowstone National Park several times over the previous year. I never really took him seriously, though, because it was quite far away and I figured it would take way too long to drive there. But in late spring of 2005, he announced that we were indeed going on that trip. We were combining it with a meeting that my dad was attending in Minnesota, so out vacation would consist of two parts. In the first half, my mom, my sister, and I would explore around the town where our hotel was while my dad was busy, up until July 22. The second half would be the part I desired more because it was the true vacation. Near the midpoint of those two destinations lay the Black Hills and the Badlands. The Badlands had some strange formations that were fun to climb on and look at, but the heat was killing me. It was a very dry day, with the high temperature at 119 degrees! Fortunately, we got there in the afternoon, so the sun wasn’t as bad. And who could go to South Dakota and not stop to view Mt. Rushmore? We sure didn’t! I was quite amazed at the quality of the work, with exact details on the nose and glasses. Later that day, we went on a “safari” around the Black Hills. We parked our car at the edge of a herd of bison to watch them and to take pictures. Then one of the most memorable parts of our trip took place. A baby bison that had wandered away from its mom wobbled up to our van, wondering what it was. It nudged the back end of the vehicle next to the fuel tank, which left a mark! I was very excited because I thought we would have a souvenir of this trip that would stick around for a while. Sadly, rain washed it away later that same day. Finally, on July 26, we got to see Yellowstone. I learned, while watching Old Faithful, the geyser that has been spouting regularly over the centuries, that it has been getting slower in its eruptions due to earthquakes. That area of the park emitted a very strong smell of sulfur, which reminded me of rotten eggs! One of Yellowstone’s finer and well-known features is the wildlife. You wouldn’t believe the variety of animals, many of which were the same species I saw in the Black Hills. There were coyotes, bears, elk, deer, bison, wolves, and more. We started heading back east on July 30. My grandma’s house was along the way, so we stopped there for a couple of days. I think that my trip to Yellowstone was a very valuable experience for me because I learned a lot about nature and other facts pertaining to America’s history. I hope that I get to visit there again!