Welcome to our e-class magazine. Copy your best pieces of writing from wherever you have them saved and paste them as comments under the appropriate assignment. To read posts, click on the main assignment title. Happy posting and reading! - Miss Miller
An old man was sitting on a bench, checkers laid next to him, cars on the road passing fast beside and he was there, simply sitting alone. His sight was focused on those uninteresting cars, but he looked like a person whose mind is flying in the clouds and isn’t present in the real world around him. Because of that, he didn’t perceive a little girl who suddenly appeared behind him. She didn’t say anything and stood there until he finally noticed her breath. An old man slowly turned his face to see the one who disturbed him from his daydreams. When he saw the face of this five or six years old girl, he stayed astonished for a long time. It wasn’t the presence of this dark-haired girl standing shyly near and watching around that made him surprised. The thing, which made him so amazed, was the similarity of this girl to someone who had appeared in his life a long time ago. But however deeply in his mind his researches went, he couldn’t find any trace of somebody like this girl. After both of them were done with looking at the other from top to toe, the little lady, without any greeting or introduction, asked, „How can you play checkers alone?” The old man only smiled. After a moment, the girl discovered she won’t get answer to her question, so she asked a better one. “May I play with you?” His smile was the same as before, but he added a gesture to let her know that she may sit. So she sat opposite him on the bench. They started to play the game quietly. But while sitting there, the wind had blown her hair so it touched the old, rough skin of the old man. This was the missing piece of a mosaic in his memory, the trace of a little girl in the past life of this old man. Only one sentence came out of his mouth, “My little girlie, where are you now?” It was the first thing which the girl sitting on the bench heard from this old man and she didn’t understand it. She knew that this wasn’t the answer to her questions and the girl mentioned in his cry wasn’t herself. And during their short meeting she started to understand, that even if she asked a question, there would be no answer. So she only sat and played checkers like before. While she was trying to do her best in checkers, his thoughts were about sixty years ago in a dock of a big port city on the western coast of America with a young traveler waiting for a ship into Mexico. In his mind, he told himself the story of this lonely traveler. This traveler was himself. ‘The ship came and I bought the boarding card. Then, without any useless stuff, only with a small backpack, I got on the shipboard and found a place for sitting. After an hour, the ship sailed into the sea and step-by-step, the coast disappeared. Only the open sea with its waves... First days of the journey were tranquil, everything was going as scheduled. But then while the last night of traveling, the ship sheered from the route and lost the right navigation. But we were now in the Caribbean so we had a big chance of finding land. And it really happened so. We came to an island and we struck the ground. I needed to travel to Mexico, so I spent my last money to rent a small boat and a guide. This journey was extremely horrible and in such a way I came to my target- Mexico. As soon as the guide had left me, I realized that I was lost in a foreign country. This was an adventure I desired in my life, in the life of a traveler. But I had never dreamed it to be so hard. After a day, I came to town, with my backpack, but without money. Exhausted, I sat on a bench and fell asleep. When I woke up, a little girl was standing in front of me and when she saw my eyes were open, she told me a simple three-word statement, which probably saved my young life. “Come with me.” And I stood up and went. In those times, Mexico was a very poor country and there were no paid jobs neither for native people nor for me. So I followed the lovely girl in a white dress to her poor, but so rich home. Her parents helped me more than I could believe. They gave me a small room with a bed to live in and they, with their only daughter, lived in the kitchen. But it wasn’t important for them, they were happy that they could help me. I was trying to earn some money, but my endeavor wasn’t successful. And these nice people were keeping me already for two weeks. They were very poor, their house didn’t have real glass windows or door, and the only valuable thing the family had was an old, but still functional light-green car. But they were always happy and nice to me. Simultaneously, I was becoming the best friend of their child. We were always together. She loved me with the love of a child which was so sincere and believing. But I loved her too, like a parent loves his child, like a brother loves his sister and like a friend loves his friend. She was for me a small god. And so we spent those three weeks in many games and conversation. But then… From the next day comes my last memory of my little girlie, my saviour. In my mind I can still see it: In the background of my mind-photo is a house, the house and home of my little friend. This house looks really poor. It looks from outside like a big house, but appearances are deceptive. Only a quite big porch causes this semblance. Not all of the windows have glass in it, also the door isn’t good. Whole house is covered with old wooden pieces and on the poles of the porch are hung some old clothes or carpet. Four old, but nice wooden stairs empty into the entry to the house. I still feel like sitting on them and talking with my little girlie. The yard is surrounded by the wooden fence of laths and those laths are covered by white plates which look wooden. In the yard, there is one red bicycle leaning against the wall next to the waste bin “decorated” by “beautiful” writing. And in the middle of this yard you can find a tree, half dried and half flowery tree with small and nicely smelling pink flowers. We often sat there. But what’s the main part of this mind-photo is she, standing there and leaning against their old light-green car. Her height is the same as the height of the hood of the car, she is dressed in her best, long, white dress - the only one she had. And she is wearing simple leather shoes with white pantyhose. She is smiling and her eyes are shyly looking around and probably at me. Her hair is black and they are covering whole her forehead. They are also a bit wavy and their length goes only to her shoulders. Her fingers are touching each other and look so vulnerable. And she shines there like a small star in whole this uninteresting, ugly surrounding. This is the mind photo showing our last meeting. And the same day, few minutes after that pleasant situation, nobody knew why, the car started to move and the flame of the life of my little friend was lit off in the next seconds. I couldn’t believe it. She saved me, she gave me a reason why to live. And now she was dead. I was so depressed that the only person in my lonely life who loved me and who I loved won’t be with me any more, that I urgently borrowed some money and I departed. When I came home, I promised myself I wouldn’t travel any more and that I wouldn’t say her name loudly or in my thoughts any more. And so I did. This girl who is quietly sitting with me is the same as my little saviour. ‘And he knew that during their short meeting he started to love her with the same love with which he loved his little friend from the past. But when he wanted to tell her about it, he suddenly saw a light-green old car which parked on the path and a lady who came from there coming to them. She loudly shouted to the girl on the bench, “Come here, quickly, the moving van is already gone and we have to follow it. Alaska is waiting for us!” The girl stood up, smiled and without saying a word followed the lady. And so, on the bench in the park, one sad old man was sitting there. He was watching the hot, bright sun falling into the ocean. He was thinking about a girl in a simple short dress who had just a moment ago been sitting next to him. And same as in the past the light-green old car took him forever the little girlie he loved, now in the present this same light-green old car took him the girl who he had just started to love.
1 comment:
Girl from the past and girl from the present
An old man was sitting on a bench, checkers laid next to him, cars on the road passing fast beside and he was there, simply sitting alone. His sight was focused on those uninteresting cars, but he looked like a person whose mind is flying in the clouds and isn’t present in the real world around him. Because of that, he didn’t perceive a little girl who suddenly appeared behind him. She didn’t say anything and stood there until he finally noticed her breath. An old man slowly turned his face to see the one who disturbed him from his daydreams.
When he saw the face of this five or six years old girl, he stayed astonished for a long time. It wasn’t the presence of this dark-haired girl standing shyly near and watching around that made him surprised. The thing, which made him so amazed, was the similarity of this girl to someone who had appeared in his life a long time ago. But however deeply in his mind his researches went, he couldn’t find any trace of somebody like this girl.
After both of them were done with looking at the other from top to toe, the little lady, without any greeting or introduction, asked, „How can you play checkers alone?” The old man only smiled. After a moment, the girl discovered she won’t get answer to her question, so she asked a better one. “May I play with you?” His smile was the same as before, but he added a gesture to let her know that she may sit. So she sat opposite him on the bench.
They started to play the game quietly. But while sitting there, the wind had blown her hair so it touched the old, rough skin of the old man. This was the missing piece of a mosaic in his memory, the trace of a little girl in the past life of this old man. Only one sentence came out of his mouth, “My little girlie, where are you now?” It was the first thing which the girl sitting on the bench heard from this old man and she didn’t understand it. She knew that this wasn’t the answer to her questions and the girl mentioned in his cry wasn’t herself. And during their short meeting she started to understand, that even if she asked a question, there would be no answer. So she only sat and played checkers like before.
While she was trying to do her best in checkers, his thoughts were about sixty years ago in a dock of a big port city on the western coast of America with a young traveler waiting for a ship into Mexico. In his mind, he told himself the story of this lonely traveler. This traveler was himself.
‘The ship came and I bought the boarding card. Then, without any useless stuff, only with a small backpack, I got on the shipboard and found a place for sitting. After an hour, the ship sailed into the sea and step-by-step, the coast disappeared. Only the open sea with its waves... First days of the journey were tranquil, everything was going as scheduled. But then while the last night of traveling, the ship sheered from the route and lost the right navigation. But we were now in the Caribbean so we had a big chance of finding land. And it really happened so. We came to an island and we struck the ground. I needed to travel to Mexico, so I spent my last money to rent a small boat and a guide. This journey was extremely horrible and in such a way I came to my target- Mexico. As soon as the guide had left me, I realized that I was lost in a foreign country. This was an adventure I desired in my life, in the life of a traveler. But I had never dreamed it to be so hard.
After a day, I came to town, with my backpack, but without money. Exhausted, I sat on a bench and fell asleep. When I woke up, a little girl was standing in front of me and when she saw my eyes were open, she told me a simple three-word statement, which probably saved my young life. “Come with me.” And I stood up and went. In those times, Mexico was a very poor country and there were no paid jobs neither for native people nor for me. So I followed the lovely girl in a white dress to her poor, but so rich home. Her parents helped me more than I could believe. They gave me a small room with a bed to live in and they, with their only daughter, lived in the kitchen. But it wasn’t important for them, they were happy that they could help me. I was trying to earn some money, but my endeavor wasn’t successful. And these nice people were keeping me already for two weeks. They were very poor, their house didn’t have real glass windows or door, and the only valuable thing the family had was an old, but still functional light-green car. But they were always happy and nice to me.
Simultaneously, I was becoming the best friend of their child. We were always together. She loved me with the love of a child which was so sincere and believing. But I loved her too, like a parent loves his child, like a brother loves his sister and like a friend loves his friend. She was for me a small god. And so we spent those three weeks in many games and conversation. But then…
From the next day comes my last memory of my little girlie, my saviour. In my mind I can still see it: In the background of my mind-photo is a house, the house and home of my little friend. This house looks really poor. It looks from outside like a big house, but appearances are deceptive. Only a quite big porch causes this semblance. Not all of the windows have glass in it, also the door isn’t good. Whole house is covered with old wooden pieces and on the poles of the porch are hung some old clothes or carpet. Four old, but nice wooden stairs empty into the entry to the house. I still feel like sitting on them and talking with my little girlie. The yard is surrounded by the wooden fence of laths and those laths are covered by white plates which look wooden. In the yard, there is one red bicycle leaning against the wall next to the waste bin “decorated” by “beautiful” writing. And in the middle of this yard you can find a tree, half dried and half flowery tree with small and nicely smelling pink flowers. We often sat there. But what’s the main part of this mind-photo is she, standing there and leaning against their old light-green car. Her height is the same as the height of the hood of the car, she is dressed in her best, long, white dress - the only one she had. And she is wearing simple leather shoes with white pantyhose. She is smiling and her eyes are shyly looking around and probably at me. Her hair is black and they are covering whole her forehead. They are also a bit wavy and their length goes only to her shoulders. Her fingers are touching each other and look so vulnerable. And she shines there like a small star in whole this uninteresting, ugly surrounding. This is the mind photo showing our last meeting.
And the same day, few minutes after that pleasant situation, nobody knew why, the car started to move and the flame of the life of my little friend was lit off in the next seconds. I couldn’t believe it. She saved me, she gave me a reason why to live. And now she was dead. I was so depressed that the only person in my lonely life who loved me and who I loved won’t be with me any more, that I urgently borrowed some money and I departed. When I came home, I promised myself I wouldn’t travel any more and that I wouldn’t say her name loudly or in my thoughts any more. And so I did.
This girl who is quietly sitting with me is the same as my little saviour. ‘And he knew that during their short meeting he started to love her with the same love with which he loved his little friend from the past.
But when he wanted to tell her about it, he suddenly saw a light-green old car which parked on the path and a lady who came from there coming to them. She loudly shouted to the girl on the bench, “Come here, quickly, the moving van is already gone and we have to follow it. Alaska is waiting for us!” The girl stood up, smiled and without saying a word followed the lady.
And so, on the bench in the park, one sad old man was sitting there. He was watching the hot, bright sun falling into the ocean. He was thinking about a girl in a simple short dress who had just a moment ago been sitting next to him. And same as in the past the light-green old car took him forever the little girlie he loved, now in the present this same light-green old car took him the girl who he had just started to love.
baro(meter)
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