Henry Fielding

William Shakespeare

Robert Penn Warren

Sue Grafton

MindyzTaken: neat story

Jessie Redmon Fauset

Harper Lee

Sir James Barrie
best known for creating Peter Pan.

Edward Lear

Lynman Frank Baum
wrote 'Wizard of Oz'

Yet Another Scrabble Tournament
All welcome to join !

Nirvana: If this is a story tag, it shouldn't be. It's great and you should be the one telling it.

Nirvana: Don't do it Dave, don't help him! It's a trick! This isn't part of the story tag but the suspense is killing me. Come on Nirvana, tell us what happens next!!

Skyking: and Cranky Franky: it is a story tag, so if anyone can add to it please do. But I will keep going anyway!

Born 19th May 1934

James Lehrer:

wrote:
Purple Dots; Blue Hearts; White Widow; The Special Prisoner; Flying Crows; Kick the Can; Crown Oaklahoma; A Bus of my Own; This Just In; Black.

born 20th May:

Honore de Balzac

Born 22nd May 1859
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
physician/author d: 1930

Zeke didn't believe in aliens. His crazy father in law did....well back before the accident with the train. He was just a good ol boy trying to make his way in the world. He was born in this small town. He always thought that he'd grow old and die there too. After his wife and father in law had died...it just seemed so peaceful.
He walked out of the five and dime with his weekend supplies. He had about a case of Miller Highlife, a carton of Luckies, some black jack gum, a couple bags of Lays potato chips, and a few other things. It looked like it would be a good weekend.
Zeke was about 5'10 although he tried to convince people he'd made it to 6'0. He was a lanky man. Not skinny. Not weak. He was one of those men who looked thin, but had toned muscles like wire. He'd worked all his life. Little of it was not physical, although he'd been to college and graduated. There was something about office politics he could never stomach, sales jobs just seemed like robbery by pen, and banks that used to pay interest now nickle and dimed people so much that it might as well be theft. Nope. He preferred the feeling of building a shed, or feeding his neighbor's livestock. It made sense. It didn't make him feel dirty this kind of work. Well, morally dirty. He liked the feeling of a good sweat from honest labour.
As he made his way to the old ford pick up. His steel-tipped workman's boots were worn and mud splattered, but that had not stopped him from flirting with Becky behind the counter. He was thinking about going back in ta ask her if she wanted to get something to eat later when IT happened.
"IT" was the big flash of white light that half-blinded him. At first he thought it was the legacy from some youthful experiments with chemicals. Then he found himself on the ship.

Now most people thought aliens were little guys with big black eyes, no nose, and a tiny mouth. Boy were they mistaken. At least for the type of alien that kidnapped Zeke and his groceries. These were about regular human size and bipedal. THey were covered in blue fur, and unbeknownst to Zeke had three sexes (male,female, and incubator...but enough about that for now). They had fangs, retractable claws, catlike eyes, and tails. Pale blue underbelly fur contasted the royal blue of the rest of their fur. For some reason Zeke could not help thinking of them as muppets...well, evil muppets that is.
It really ticked him off because his beer was getting warm. Damn aliens. Didn't even offer to put it in a fridge for him, he thought. Absolutely no manners. Angrily, Zeke lit a smoke with his zippo figuring that with such ill-mannered handling he didn't much give a damn if the alien's complained. He didn't ask to be sucked up into their flying saucer. He had places to be. He was going to ask becky out. Man, he had been looking forward to it. Besides he wanted to go fishing on sunday after church. Dang aliens. He finished his smoke and began to chew some of the black jack gum.
It was at this point a couple of the aliens came in and introduced themselves. They said that they were from some place humans called Sirius and seemed a little disgruntled that its common name was the Dog Star. They had a little telepathic ability, but sometimes their own thoughts leaked out. It was like while you were talking to them you could hear whispering at the same time. Apparently they told him that they wanted to make contact with the human species, that they were peaceful, that they had lots of technology to give us, etc. WHile at the same time he heard their thoughts...things like how he was a sample for the buyers at Elgoran. That it would be simple to round all the stupid humans up. How primative these things were. Why would anyone want one anyway? And a vast number of insulting insinuations leaking out. Apparently they could not read Zeke's mind. Weird. It was like listening in on a radio channel you didn't get normally while still hearing the local music. Dang aliens. As they smirkingly withdrew, convinced they had conned the stupid human into thinking that they were taking him to meet their ambassador (who was really just a biological salesman) he tapped his gum into the fur of one of the aliens. He did it by poking it from behind and getting its attention.
"SO you guys like humans then?" he'd asked when he did so.
"Of course,"lied the alien," We have so much to teach you." Continued with thoughts of cages, possible ways of cooking, slave possibilities...It seemed that biological specimens were one of the major means of trade in the galaxy.
Zeke pulled ou another peice of gum. Damn aliens.

Horseman: nice to see you again!

Nirvana:hi again Nirvana.

Zeke was led to a brightly lit room with another furry blue alien, this one wearing clothes of a sort. It was a simple grey outfit much like a suit. Its fur looked like it had some sort of palmade and it was impeccably groomed. Zeke might have thought it was a diplomat like the aliens said if it hadn't been for the fact that it reminded him of the banker who had handled his wife's will. Damn banker took even the house. Other than what he did overhear from the aliens.
The alien was introduced as Ambassador Summer. While it talked Zeke heard thoughts like tally marks peppering the conversation. THings like...oxygen breather...followed by pecentages of nitrogen and other gases...six....something percentage tall....weight....intelligence low...gullable...bad smelling...sensitive to light....etc.
"I hope you don't mind if we take a few tests so that we can bring such an imposing representative of his species before our monarch," it was saying. WHile thinking, "Diseased...addicted to nicotine...caffine...and various other substances...weaknesses obviously. Must get data to see if it has any use whatsoever. If worth enough will be shown to the head office so I can get a propper bonus for once...if not, I can always sell it to a zoo I suppose."
Zeke was suprised at the gall of the alien. He hadn't met a bigger liar than old Maynard at Tom's bar. Maynard would swear he fought in the war and aske for drinks. Maynard claimed to have been in Korea. Maynard was six when Korea was happening. THe war wound he sported was from cutting wood with a circular saw when he was drunk not from throwing an enemy grenade back. Maynard also claimed to have invented numerous things from fuel injection to bikinis. His stories were entertaining and that made him a better liar than the aliens.
Zeke struck up another smoke just to watch "Ambassador" Summer's nose twitch. "Tests?" he asked innocently, "Like paper and pen or needles and blood?"
"Needles?What is a needle?" the ambassador asked while thinking,"Primitive culture. A swab and a Quidex scan should work...it would be fun to jab a needle into him though...have not used those things in ages..."
Zeke definately did not like how things were headed. Happily he still had his bucknife. "I gotta take a leak," he replied.
Summer looked like a cat that had been petted the wrong way after being covered in dog slobber. "We have facilities down the hall," he said in an irritated way while wondering if this farce was even worth it. Zeke got the impression that summer wanted to do an autopsy old fashioned style on him while he was still breathing. Yeah, Zeke decided, he didn't really like these guys too much. They were like his wife when she used to get pissed at him. Only her weapon of choice was thrown wrenches from his own tool box. She would start out nice, which was a big hint...then start chucking crescent wrenches...the time she lodged a plumber's wrench into the wall he thought he was a goner. Man it was nice and quite until these dang aliens came in to foul things up. All he wanted was a little peace. Obviously that was too much to ask for.

Dashiel Hammett

born 27th May 1894

Arnold Bennett

born 27th May 1867

Ian Lancaster Fleming

born 27th May 1908

It was just another rainy Saturday and Sarah was stuck inside. Sarah was a young Cybunny and had just started school...and she loved it. Today, however, was just going to be boring. Staring through the rain at the miserable grey skies was about all there was to do... until she noticed that there was a light shining from the window upstairs. Remembering that her owner had left for a week she became very intrested in what was there. Slowly and carefully hopping up the stairs, she soon reached the door which the light was coming out from. Sarah reached for the handle, and slowly opened the door. It creaked softly, and opened to a bright room. Still a bit scared she took a step inside. Then she heard a laugh, not the beautiful laugh of her owner's, but a cruel, cold, blank laugh. Suddenly the light flashed and she wasn't in the room anymore, but in a strange and different world which she knew nothing about. She looked around wildly trying to keep calm while hundreds of questions raced through her mind. Where was she? Was this place dangerous? How did she get here? After a couple of minutes, Sarah got a hold of her thoughts and began to think more calmly. She assessed the situation and decided that because she did not know how she got there, the only way to go was forward. She began to walk and to discover where she was. She was in a deep, dark, musty forest. She looked up but she couldn't see the sky through the thick branches of the tree. She guessed it was night though from the eerie darkness that surrounded her. She heard strange sounds all around her, things hiding in the depths of the forest. She had this odd feeling that someone was following her, watching her. The air began get thick and musty when from behind her her a shrill scream. She turned around so quick that she stumbled and fell. She looked up saw feet in front of her. She slowly looked up and saw something that terrified her a big Skeith was right in front of her. She cried, "Don't hurt me!" "Why would I hurt you?" the Skeith asked. Sarah answered, "Because your a big mean Skeith!" "I know I'm big, but I'm not mean. My name is Joshua. Sarah felt calm now. "Hello my name is Sarah," she responded. "Your new here, huh?" Sarah nodded. "Why don't I show you around," Josh said with a sly grin.Over the next few hours, Josh took Sarah to what seemed like hundreds of places, all different in little ways. But as he took her around, Sarah couldn't help noticing Joshua's sly grin, and for every place they went to, it seemed to get much slyer. Finally, Josh stopped in front of a gate. Sarah looked through the gate and saw a beautiful house. She desperately wanted to get to it, but something was telling her that this house was more than the eye could see. Josh opened the gate, with his sly grin from ear to ear. Sarah took one step forward and heard a strange swishing sound. She was caught in a net and everything went black. Sarah awoke in a dark and damp cell. The last thing she could remember was Joshua's evil smirk as she was swooped up in a net. "Where am I?" she asked to no one in particular. A voice spoke to her from the other side of the bars. "You're in Dr. Frankenpet's dungeon." Sarah reconized that voice. It was Joshua! "Why am I here?" asked Sarah, afraid of what the answer might be. "Dr. Frankenpet has special plans for you." Then, she heard that evil laugh again. Sarah grew frantic knowing that she would probably not be able to escape Joshua or Dr. Frankenpet! The cell was small and musty. Her small hind legs were trembling just thinking of what might happen to her. "What am I going to do?" she pondered quietly to herself. Then the she heard a large door open across the hall. She also heard a loud, rusty voice that was like nails running down a chalkboard. The voice seemed like it was getting closer and closer by the second. She soon realized that it was a Korbat walking down a hallway, which was also lined with cells. Sarah thought it odd that a Korbat was walking and not flying, but she pushed this out of her mind. "Don't worry," he said, "I'm going to get you out of here." He pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked her cell. "Who are you?" Sarah asked. "I'm Steven. I was captured, too. Luckily, the guard near me fell asleep and I stole his keys and escaped." As they were making their way out, Sarah heard something. It was Joshua's voice echoing down the stairs! "Quick, hide!" Sarah said quietly. They both hid underneath a nearby desk before Joshua could see them. "Hey!" he yelled. "Where is she?" He quickly ran back up the stairs. "Phew. That was close," Steven said. "Yeah," Sarah agreed. "Now, let's get out of here." They both got out from under the desk and there was a red Lupe looking at her through a hole in the ventalation shaft. He whispered to her, "Here, grab my paw." Sarah thought and thought. Both Steven and Sarah looked at each other. They heard a voice coming closer to them. Sarah tried to jump as high as she could and the red lupe caught her hand. He did the same for Steven. He said, "My name is Zeus and this is my friend Veemon." Sarah looked around the shaft and saw Veemon the blue Kacheek. Zeus said, "I know the way out of here." He started to crawl down the shaft. "I didn't catch your name," said Zeus. She said, "My name is Sarah and this is my new friend Steven." After what seemed like an hour of crawling, they came to a big hole and they all jumped out into the dark woods landing in a big pile of twigs. As they all got up and shook off the little twig pieces, Zeus asked, "Are you okay?" Both Sarah and Steven nodded. "I've been better though," Sarah added. But then they all froze as they heard a noise coming from behind them. "Oh no," Veemon whispered, "it's the guards! They heard us!" The pets looked back and saw two Grrarls running toward them, so they took off as fast as they could."What a relief!" Sarah breathed. Although the woods were definitely freaky, it was nothing compared to Dr. Frankenpet's dungeon. "Well, I suppose we should keep moving. Who knows what'll happen if we should get captured again," Zeus suggested. They all nodded in agreement. Steven, being the oldest, took the lead and they started into the dark forest. After walking a great distance they found a hollowed out tree. "Here's a good place to stay for the night," Steven said as he went in first to make sure things were all right. They were and so they all went into the tree. "We'll have to take turns keeping watch. I'll take the first watch," Zeus said, setting up near the opening. The rest of the group went to sleep gratefully. The next day Sarah woke up and saw her snoring group of new friends huddled around her. She smiled but quickly remembered where she was, and she became very depressed. Once they all woke, she asked if anything had happened during the night. All shook their heads no, so she jumped up and said, "Let's find our way home!" Zeus cautiously went to the entrance and poked his head out, turning it right, then left. "All clear," he whispered and they all piled out of the tree. Things seemed different during the day in the forest, all seemed very dull, not scary like the night before. Sarah looked up to see a gray sky and wished there was a shining sun instead, but she kept her head high as they moved through the forest. They reached a road that had four directions. Why was there a road in the middle of this forest? And which way were they gonna go? They stood for a second when they heard Veemon scream "What is it Veemon????" Sarah asked, her voice quivering. " A...a....a...sp...spi...spider!" "A spider is nothing to be afraid o...o...o...OF!" Sarah froze. Right before her eyes hung a giant spider!!! "Soooo....what do we have here??? the spider questioned, "I didn't know Dr. Frankenpet was sending me lunch today...how nice of him...I am starving...but you look like a nice group of pets, so I shall give you a way out." Sarah breathed a sigh of reflief, but quickly caught it before the spider could hear. "If you can guess my age," the spider continued," I shall let you go, however, if you guess wrong, well...I shall not go hungry for long." Sarah had no idea of the spider's age. It could be anything!!! She looked at her group of friends. They all shrugged, not knowing the answer either. "But since I am a pretty nice spider, I shall give you a hint...a small hint." That did not do much for Sarah and her friends. "What...what is the hint???" Sarah asked the spider, trying to sound valiant. "Well," the spider said, "a man can't compare to my age and neither can his elder, but a cat is close. But a dog, well forget that!!!" the spider paused, giving Sarah time to think. "A cat has nine lives and the average man lives to 85..." the spider interrupted her thoughts..."Oh yeah, your answer must rhyme, too. Sarah was shaking in her shoes as she did a little mental math. However, when it all came down to it, Sarah hadn't ever been too good at that. She looked again to her friends. "Veemon, what's it all mean? Come here!" Veemon shyly walked up and said, "I know the answer." Sarah nudged the frightened animal up to the spider and whispered to him, "Good luck." The spider was quizzically filing his nails, if you could call them that. "Well?" it said, glancing down at Veemon. "I--I--I have the answer..." Veemon said. The spider said, "Better hurry up... I--I--I am hungry!" Veemon began: "Y-you've got eight legs, and I-I've got t-two, but both of us know your age, it's tr-true. A man can live to 85 not 82. The cat's in the bag, he's got nine lives. Times them together and what do you get? A seven, a six, and one more number, too! As all good things will come to end, this spider's meal isn't one of them! I won't delay, I'll tell you now...it all occurs with the cat's ME-OW! This spider has been quite alive up to the year of 765!" As the trembling Veemon finished, the spider smiled "You're a little off there...I'm 784..." The pets were looking around at each other with frightened faces, and when they were about to run, the spider said, "HOWEVER...since you made me feel younger, I'll let you go...everyone always guesses I'm 900 or something...must be all this ear hair." "Thank you so much!" chimmed the pets. "You know," continued the spider, "Dr. Frankenpet never feeds me anyway...so, do you mind if I...if...I can go with you guys? I'd really like to get a hotdog and Neocola." "Of course!" Sarah said happily. Veemon gave Zeus a nervous look and whispered, "I don't have a good feeling about this." The spider began to gather her things while Sarah and her buddies waited outside nervously. Sarah didn't like the way this spider suddenly decided not to eat them. Veemon was shifting his feet, Zeus looked stupefied, and Steven was glancing around anxiously. The feeling of gratefulness that Sarah had for the spider a minute ago was gone, and was abruptly replaced by bad feelings. Out came the spider, and everyone tried not to show their feelings, lest they should upset the spider into eating them. After walking a ways, there was a thicket of thorny bushes (of course they had to go through them) and beyond that, the Neopian High Street. How funny, that it was so close, when Sarah thought it so far away. But Sarah was pondering how this came to be, and where her friends would go once she got back to her dear owner. How she missed her owner! She wanted to rush back to her right away, but she didn't want to abandon her friends to the spider's care, or anyone else's. "Uh, so, spider, the, um, food store is, er, down this side street there." Sarah pointed. The spider grinned, showing all of its teeth, and trotted, sort of, down the road. It said, "Be lucky, friendssss, I am hungry still. Remember." Odd parting, but the point was, the spider left then and there. Veemon relaxed his shoulders, Steven and Zeus sighed in relief. "Where do we go?" Veemon asked Sarah with a naive tone. Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "My only idea is talking to my owner. She's very nice, and, let's see, there are three of you, and I'm her only pet, so, she could adopt you!" Everyone lit up. Sarah shouted for everyone to follow her, and she knowingly skipped down the path home. Her owner greeted everyone by saying, "Oh, Sarah, I've missed you! You've been gone for days!" Then she noticed Sarah's company. She looked at Veemon, Zeus, and Steven thoughtfully, and then without uttering a word about where they were going, she loaded the four pets into her car and drove down to the Neopian adoption center. She struggled to get the animals to come out of the car because they thought that she was just going to drop them off at the pound. Eventually, Veemon, Steven, and Zeus stepped right into the gaze of Ms. Worely. She disliked pets, you could tell. After five tense minutes of waiting for Sarah's owner to finish up with Ms. Worely and the friendly Blumaroo, who was working to help pets find homes, the three new pets were dragged off, kicking and screaming. Sarah, who was crying, sat in the corner of the waiting room. How could her kind owner do this to her and her new friends? Just then the Blumaroo bounced over to talk to Sarah. He showed Sarah his clipboard. When she saw it, Sarah jumped for joy. Her owner had put the three pets into the adoption center only to get them back out again. "That's the only way it can be done, Sarah," the Blumaroo explained kindly. A few seconds later, Steven, Veemon, and Zeus came running to meet Sarah with a big bear hug. Sarah's owner joined them and they walked to the car holding hands. "I'm so happy that you adopted them!" Sarah exclaimed on the way home. "Me, too!!" everyone else blurted in unison. And they all jumped back into the car. Sarah looked excitedly out of her window. She was finally going home! And with all of her new friends!!! Soon enough her owner had stopped the car. Veemon lead the way up to the large house, Steven, Zeus and Sarah followed. As their owner opened the door, the four pets jumped in. Sarah hopped into the living room and stared out of the window, the same window she sat in front before she began this bizarre journey. Her adventure was finally over. But what was her adventure in this world? As she looked out, millions of pets walked by. Each one had his or her own story to tell. And as she looked up into the stars, she realized there were millions of planets and stars and millions of pets that live on each planet. "Sarah?" Steven said as he walked up to her side. "It's all finally over," said Veemon, standing by the door. "Yeah," said Zeus, looking slightly depressed. The four pets sat in the room in silence for a while. "No! It's just beginning..." said Sarah giggling slightly, "It's all behind us now! Let's look to the future...by the way, my owner keeps some great chocolate in the fridge!" The other 3 smiled, the first true smiles she had ever seen on their faces.

THE END

Bebs: well done! more like that, please.

<Slowly, Bob the white Blumaroo crawled out his window, down a rope made of sheets and blankets. He brought all the essential items he would need with him in his backpack: food, a compass, NP, mittens, flashlight, his lucky scarf, Edmund (his pet Fungree), and a handful of stone snowballs he found under his bed. Bob was trying to be as quiet as can be as he slid down... Author : Neopets Staff
Date : 27th Nov
...He landed on the soft snow and looked around. The coast was clear. Edmund handed him his walkie talkie. "This is agent 102, do you read me agent 504? Over," Bob said as he crouched behind a bush. "Um, I'm right here. Over." He quickly turned around and saw his friend Philip the Blue Lupe hiding behind the same bush. "Are you ready to go?" Phillip asked. "Yep." Their original plan was to head out to the Happy Valley, but they were hired to investigate the newly discovered Ice Caves for an illegal stash of yellow snowballs. It would be a cold journey but they had their jackets on and they were both well armed and trained. "Compass," Bob said. Edmund handed Bob the compass and... Author : pallas45
Date : 27th Nov
...it told them to head north, all the way to the North Pole! With the extremely cold weather in their minds, they put on an extra layer of clothing. As they traveled further north, the snow storm was nothing like they expected. Edmund was now trying to stay warm in Bob's pocket, and Phillip was staying close. They could barely see anything through the vast, thick downpour of snow. Then suddenly, they heard a sound coming towards them. "What was that?" asked Phillip. Bob gestured to Edmund, "Quick, give me some stone snowballs, I think that sound might be..." Author : bayleef117
Date : 27th Nov
...the abdominal snowman!" "The abdominal snowman?" whispered Phillip. "Rookie," Bob said under his breath. Bob had been with the NeoInvestigators for years, but this was Phillip's first mission. "The abdominal snowman is one of the monsters that's rumored to live up here...this area is not very explored, so nobody knows for sure, but there are tales of this huge snowman with an enormous belly...here, take a snowball." A shadow suddenly loomed before them in the storm. It looked like a big snowman. "RHAAAUUUGGGHHH!" A big, BIG snowman. "Um, Bob?" whispered Phillip. "Yeah?" "If he's a snowman, why are we throwing snowballs at him? Won't they make him...well...bigger?" Phillip asked. Bob's eyes widened in horror. "Oh my gosh, you're right..." Author : nerdymel
Date : 28th Nov
..."We'll need something else." The blistering cold wind was slapping Bob and Phillip right in the face. Edmund was shivering inside Bob's pocket. "What should we do?" Phillip asked and continued, "We have no weapons. All we have is a smoothie and a grilled cheese sandwich...I could of sworn I brought a tomato, too." Bob yelled, "That's not the point, Phillip! We're going to be crushed by this snowman's belly and all that you can think of is a TOMATO?!" Bob shouted. Edmund popped his head out and gave Phillip a mean look. "Well, I thought he might be hungry," Phillip said. Suddenly, the fat snowman crumbled into small snowballs. "What the? How did that happen?" Phillip asked, holding up a tomato. They heard a female voice from over the hill. "Are you guys okay? It sounded like a little girl was screaming," she shouted as she ran over the hill. It was a blue Aisha named Sheridan. "Yeah, we're okay. The screaming you heard was my good friend here, Phillip," Bob exclaimed sarcastically. They both looked over at Sheridan. She suddenly had a scared look on her face and she was pointing behind Bob and Phillip... Author : chaddums
Date : 28th Nov
..."Is it...is it...another...ab-ab-dominable s-s-snowman?" Philip asked, stuttering from fear. "No...that fire behind you just reminded me that I didn't leave wood for the stove in my cottage. My poor grandmother..." she sobbed. "Well, phew. If you want to call her, I may be able to contact her on my telepathic telephone. Does she have a private number?" Bob asked. "No, we couldn't afford the psionic blocks after we lost our jobs...oh poor woman!! She's going to freeze and it's all my fault!!" Bob walked over to Sheridan and put his arm around her. "It will be okay, it's not your fault, don't worry about it. Thank you so much for saving us." Philip, who was standing uncomfortably off to the left due to the public display of affection, spoke next. "Guys, guys, guys...did you ever think that campfires do not occur naturally? Someone, or something, built it. And we know it couldn't have been the snowman. Which means...we're not alone..." Author : happyjedicat
Date : 29th Nov
..."Should we check it out?" asked Bob. "I don't know...it could be d-d-d-dangerous..." answered Phillip. "Big baby," Edmund said with his little voice. Bob pulled Edmund out of his pocket and set him in the snow. "I say we go." "Whatever it is, it has a fire and that means it may have some food," Phillip said, licking his chops. "What if it tries to eat you, Phillip?" Edmund asked. "W-w-w-h-h-a-a-t-t-t?" "I know almost everyone around this area, and most of them are very nice. So I'm sure it's a friendly...uh...thing, if there is one," Sheridan reassured Phillip. They went over to the fire to see if anything important was there. It had stopped snowing by the time they reached the fire. Edmund found some sticks and fed a few to the fire, and a few to rewarm some of the veggie sausages Bob brought. As the other two searched around, Phillip called them over. "Doesn't this tree look funny?" Bob answered, "Yeah...it almost looks like the Neopian Money Tree...except smaller." "That's what I thought, but what would a tree be doing all the way out here, near the Ice Caves?" Phillip said. Sheridan walked up to the tree and knocked. She started laughing and said, "It's hollow. Wait a second...IT'S PLASTIC!!" Bob hit the fake tree with his fist and it fell over and Phillip jumped back like a scaredy-cat. Underneath the tree there was... Author : black_castle
Date : 29th Nov
...a gigantic hole that seemed to be endless. "I don't like the looks of this," Sheridan said. "I mean, I know this area pretty well and I've never seen anything like that." "Well," Bob began, "we have some, erm, important exploring to do, and this looks like as good of a place as any to start." Edmund nodded. "Exploring?" Sheridan asked timidly, "well, I'm not much of an explorer, but I know everything there is to know about the creatures of this land. If you need information I might be of some help." Bob, Edmund, and Phillip all looked at each other. "Okay," Phillip quickly said. Bob took a long coil of rope out of his backpack and tied one end to a tree root. "I'll climb down first with Edmund in my pocket, and then you guys follow." Bob scooped up Edmund, put him in his pocket and began climbing down. The walls were icy and slippery, and Bob's hand were getting numb. He finally landed on a floor of solid ice. He looked all around him...everywhere was the sparkle of icicles and ice-stalagmites and stalactites. When Phillip and Sheridan finally made it down with him, Bob said, "You know, I THINK we found the Ice Caves!!" "All right!!!" Phillip said, "What we need to do is find the, um, well Sheridan, we're looking for illegal snowballs. We are special agents." Sheridan nodded. "There's a fork in the entrance there," Phillip pointed, "we have to split up. Me and Sheridan will go left...Bob, you and Edmund go to the right." Bob stopped for a second and gave Phillip a confused look. "Wait a second, mister scaredy-cat...what's going on here. A second ago you were afraid to even come down here...what gives?" "You just go to the right with Edmund and WE will go to the left." Bob glanced over to Sheridan, who was shivering slightly, and said, "Okay, Casanova." So they went into their separate tunnels. Bob and Edmund had only gone about twenty feet or so when Edmund said out of the blue, "Ice is pretty cold, now that I think of it." Bob rolled his eyes, "Ya think so? 'Cause I haven't really noticed,"he said sarcastically. They walked on and Edmund began to whistle. After he paused, they heard somebody or something whistle back. "Okay, now, I know that wasn't you or me and it wasn't Phil or Sheridan, so who or what the heck was that?" Bob asked suspiciously. "Dunno," Edmund answered. Just then, a large black and white snowball flew through the air right at their heads. "Ahhh!!!" Bob screamed as he ducked. The snowball landing against the icy wall. It jumped up and walked over to them. "Hey, it's not a snowball! It's Bruce, one of the Secret Agents!" Bob yelled. Bruce walked over and said, "Sup, guys what brings you to 'da ice caves?" the penguin said while flipping his red baseball cap backwards. "Searching for illegal snowballs," Edmund whispered. "Oooh, that's bad business, man. Might wunna go see 'Sleet.' He could help ya out where those snowballs are hidin'...ya dig?" "Who's this Sleet?" Bob asked suspiciously. "Oh, Sleet's the Gelert of 'da North, long white fur and ice blue eyes. He protects everybody who lives here." "Thanks for the tip. See ya around." Bob and Bruce gave each other the secret golden handshake of the Secret Agents and the little rad penguin waddled off, singing a song by the Killer Kougras. "Weird dude, man," Edmund said after Bruce left. "So what???? We've got a lead n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow!!!!" He screamed as they fell through some thin ice and landed on the floor of a large cavern. They gaped wide-eyed at a huge frozen Ice Faerie! Then the ice surrounding the two began to shake! Pieces of ice started to fall, a few just missing Bob's head. The ice below Bob and Edmund started to crack exposing yet another cave...a cave fill of stalagmites just waiting to claim their next victim. Leery to move and worried they might fall through the floor Bob stood perfectly still until the cave quake was over. Edmund jumped in Bob's pocket. There were cracks everywhere in the ice, above Bob's head and under his feet. Moving in any direction could result in a deadly ending. "Hey Bob, I don't have a good feeling about this. Maybe we should just stand right here till Philip and Sheridan come to look for us." Edmund suggested. "Edmund my friend, I think you are right." The pair stood there for about ten minutes when the cold began to get the best of them and they began to shiver, causing the cracks in the ice below them start to widen. "Okay Edmund, we are now going to ditch your idea, and try to climb back out." Bob tried to grab hold of a few cracks in the wallk they began to shake again. "Just keep trying Bob, don't look back!" Edmund exclaimed. "Philip! Sheridan! We need help!" Bob cried out. Just then Bob tripped over a break in the ice. Worried he was about to plunge through another ice cave, he reached out to grab on to anything he find. "Grab hold!!!!" Bob looked up to see Philip standing overhead holding on to the end of a rope. Sheridan was there standing with him. "You will have to climb up, we can't pull, the ice is too thin!" hollered Philip. With a bit of a struggle Bob made it back up into the original cave and the group now headed out to discuss the new developments of their journey. "What happened in there Bob?" Philip questioned. "There was some sort of quake, didn't you feel it in your cave? Answered Bob. "No, nothing happened to us, the cave turned out to be a dead end so we headed back out. That's when we heard you cry for help." "I don't understand," Bob began, "we were just walking along when the shaking began, so violently, I thought I had played my last game of Schorchio Slots for sure. How could you have not felt it?" Phillip shrugged. "Oh, but we did have a bit of luck, we ran into Bruce who told us about a Gelert named Sleet, then there was something we saw just before the fall, something frozen in the ice, I think it might be a clue, too. Hey Edmund, where did Bruce say we could find this Sleet guy...Edmund?" Bob searched his pocket but there was no sign of Edmund! "Philip, we have to go back"
"Come on!" yelled Bob, sobbing because he lost his best friend. "No, it's too risky. We can't go back down to that cave!" Philip said. Sheridan looked sadly at Bob. "Hey!" she yelled, "What's that?" Sheridan pointed down through the hole that had the frozen faerie in it. A little Fungree was climbing up the ice. "Edmund!" Bob ran and grabbed Edmund out of the hole. "Oh, thank God you're okay." The whole group cheered and then just remembered what their quest was--to find Sleet the Gelert. Bob took out his compass and found north. "Let's head up there!" Sheridan pointed. The whole group raced up to the north. All of a sudden Philip stopped dead in his tracks. "Yo, wassup?" Bob asked Philip. "Anything wrong?" Philip replied with great fear, "L-loo-look there!" He pointed up to a sign on the side of the road. It read, "ALL WHO PASSES SHALL NEVER RETURN!" Under it, it had, "THE ROAD TO SLEET, THE GREAT GELERT (this way--->)". Sheridan looked horrified. "Outta all the times I've been in this cave, I have never seen this sign before. But we Aisha's know how to sense bad things that are coming," Sheridan said. "So what d'you sense?" Philip and Bob asked at the same time. "This ain't the real Sleet! I bet the robber who put the illegal stash of snowballs just wrote that under the real message. See?" Sheridan walked over and rubbed her hand on the bottom of the sign. The message that read, "THE ROAD TO SLEET, THE GREAT GELERT" vanished. Sheridan tried to rub off the top of the sign, but nothing happened. "I say we go," Bob said triumphantly as a cold wind blew through his furry body. "Hey look over there!" Philip pointed passed the sign and there was Sleet the Gelert. Standing in all his Glory, he started to take off in the other direction. Bob screamed in anger as he took off after him. Phillp was hot on his heels, but he raced ahead suddenly and tackled Sleet. The white Gelert growled in pure protest, but his growls were silenced by the cold stare of Phillp. Sheridan pushed Phillp off of Sleet, and said, "I'm so sorry about what we had to do. We need your help finding the illegal yellow snowballs." Sleet stood up, and brushed himself off, growling, "And you need it why?" Bob frowned as he said gritting his teeth, "Because I said so, stupid. And the robber stashed them somewhere, now tell us where they are!" Sleet was taken back by the tone Bob was using with him, he growled, "You want it so bad? Then find it yourself!" Phillp stammered quickly, "No no we tried that. Now please mister sheet metal tell us where the yellow snowballs are!" Sleet smirked, "Sleet, it's sleet, not sheet. And they are over there," he said waving his paws towards the frozen lake. "I saw some animal over there earlier hiding them over there. Have fun," he said walking off. Edmund jumped out of Bob's pocket and started to run to the lake, jumping up and down shouting, "Come quick! I found them!" Bob, Phillip, and Sheridan all started to run over there.
When they got there the illegal snowballs had disappeared. "Where did the illegal snowballs go?" asked Bob. "I don't know, but something funny is going on," replied Phillip. Edmund said, "Over there. I see robbers running with them." Bob, Phillip, and Sheridan all started running after the robbers. They zigzagged through tunnels and snow paths as they followed the robbers. Sheridan and Bob caught up to the two robbers and jumped on them. Your under arrest for making illegal snowballs," said Phillip, who had caught up to Sheridan and Bob. Edmund came panting behind and said "Yahoo. We've caught them." Bob, Pillip, Sheridan, and Edmund dragged the robbers to Sleet. "Can you deal with them?" asked Bob. "We need to get back to bed." "Sure," replied Sleet. They started walking back to Sheridan's house, collecting firewood on their way. When they got to Sheridan's house her grandma was lying in bed sleeping. Sheridan started a fire and the cottage began to warm up. "We better get going. Our parents will get mad if they find us out of bed," said Bob. "Okay, bye," said Sheridan. Bob, Pillip, and Edmund left and hurried home. It had been another great adventure.

THE END

Robert Fulghum
born 4 th June 1937

Richard Scarry
born 5th June 1919

Nirvana: "Serena?" he yelled out. "Serena?" again, calling for her. An unnatural flash in the distance had me worried. Most likely it was the illumination of magic. The flash of light faded.

"Oookay...," were his thoughts spoken aloud. "Damn I hate magic." he again muttered the words out aloud as he slung his short sword over his back. Cautiously, he inched forward towards the base of the volcano. *No magic,.no magic,* were my thoughts as he rounded a bend at the monstrous volcano's base. He caught a glimpse of light skin within the etchings of the volcanic rock. Stepping forward was Serena.

"It's about to change again. I hope you've a strong stomach for it." This woman had him completely baffled now. She was as he saw her before - in one piece, whole, and absolutely fine.

*Wait a minute. Change? Huh?* he thought remembering hehad almost forgotten where he was. Between figuring it out and watching Serena as she closed her eyes, things began changing again.

The rush of a wind, the rustle of trees, a slope down within the mountain range behind Serena. One moment hot, the next cold. Climate was changing here - rapidly. Serena, was becoming further away.
The mountain range was taking shape under his very feet! The landscape was changing so fast and he had to be quicker than it.

Above the mountains, a full moon, beautifully eerie. Clouds to whisk here and there within the moon's glow.

"Damnit!!" Came the curse from Serena. Her eyes were fixed on the mountain range.

"Belldonna managed to keep the mountains here. Which means we are in for a rough night," Serena said.
"You grabbed at your ribs? You're hurt?"

"Nah!! I am fine; just a bruised rib. I'll be alright," he explained, waving her off.

"How well do you handle creatures of the night, from sky, to land?" she asked, as she was making ready her bow, an arrow already notched.

"Which creatures are we talking about?" There were several kinds of undead, as well as a few were creatures, but sky? Hmmm! Gargoyles as well maybe? Dave wondered which kind she was speaking of.

"Draw your sword, sir. We are about to find out!"

Nirvana: They climbed the mountain until they came to a locked door with a key left in it.

Taking the key to the door, Serena turned the lock. One small 'click' and the door gaped ajar. Serena took that opportunity to glance in Dave's direction.

"Me first," she said in a whisper. With a frown he nodded to her.

Following Serena, he stepped through the threshold of the keep while he was careful enough to close the door behind him slowly, gently, and without much sound. Once safely inside, she motioned him closer, then started towards the bend of the first corridor.

A stone statue resided at the end, where the corridor broke away left and right.

"Let me," he implored her, not willing to take any chances. With a frown and a simple nod, Serena let him take point.

As he made his way closer to the statue, hisleft hand made its way into his pocket. Clutching the small vile of stone to flesh, he poured the vial's contents over the statue. Nothing happened. He had hoped would to life and maybe hopefully, gain an ally.

Left, or right? Surely, she'd go right. It made perfect sense after all. In most mazes one was supposed to keep one's hand on the right side of the wall at all times.

Serena had turned left. As they started walking toward the second bend of the second corridor, they heard a thud behind them. Glancing about as they paused mid-stride, Serena made her way against a wall. Looking back, they couldn't see anything coming but a slow, steady thud could be heard from that direction.

"In here," said an old voice off to the side, a wall opening up revealing a door.

May hap going inside wasn't a good decision. Serena, however, thought it was. As Serena stepped inside quickly, he followed, a tiny old woman pushing the door closed behind them both.

Inside the room, the old woman, Serena, and Dave stood. The room was like a small kitchen for the hired help. As Serena and Dave gawked about the room, the old woman made her way back to the wood burning stove to stir the pot on top it.

"You'll be needing to earn your keep around here, little darlings. I'm not feeding those of you intent on sneaking about this here keep for a day's work."

Quizzically Serena turned her eyes on him while he was doing much the same, only in Serena's direction. They didn't have much time to get information though. That thud was coming down the hallway still.

Thomas Mann
born 6th June 1875

Bebs: hi babs u know who i am Vinnyx

A Tale of Six Boys"

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"

I told him that we were from Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.

"Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.

Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.

(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.

"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'

"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 .. ten years after this picture was taken.

"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.

"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.

"When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.

We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom. Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.

God Bless.

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.

John Hersey, the son of US missionary parents, was born in China on 17th June, 1914. After graduating from Yale University he became correspondent in the Far East for Time Magazine.

During the Second World War Hersey also wrote for Life magazine and the New Yorker. He accompanied the US Army in the invasion of Sicily and Italy. Hersey used some of the information he gathered as a war journalist for his best-selling novel A Bell for Adano (1944). The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945.

In 1944 Hersey covered the war in the Pacific and his many articles included one detailing the heroism of Lieutenant John F Kennedy when his Motor Torpedo Boat was sunk close to the Soloman Islands.

Hersey was one of the first western journalists to arrive in Hiroshima after the atom bomb explosion on 6th August 1945. Commission by the New Yorker to write a series of articles on the effects of a nuclear explosion, he decided to focus on the experiences of six people who had been in the city: two doctors, a Protestant minister, a widowed seamstress, a young female factory worker and a German Catholic priest. When the editor saw the articles he decided to devote one issue (31st August, 1946) to the material. Later that year it was published as the book Hiroshima (1946).

Other books by Hersey include the Child Buyer (1947), The War Lover (1959), Under the Eye of the Storm (1967), The Walnut Door (1977), Antonietta (1991) and Key West Tales (1993). John Hersey died in Key West, Florida, on 24th March, 1993.

1903
George Orwell born 25th June 1903


George Orwell

born 26th June 1892

Pearl S. Buck

Born 27th June 1850

Lafcadio Hearn

Beatrix Potter
born 6th July ...

Shirley Ann Grau

born 8th July 1929

Ann Radcliffe

born 9th July 1764

E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White

born 11th July 1899

Irving Stone(Tennenbaum)


Born 14th July 1903

Ernest Hemingway

born 21st July 1899

Nirvana: hi;i mistakenly thought this was a ite where members wrote little stories vignettes. i see you just point out authors & their works .thats fine. whats this story tag stuff .seems i owe you an apology.i see theres a story way down the page.i just kept seeing your name & authors. so my ? is answered i guess. mook53lhd

Nirvana: is this in serial form ,more tomorrow.i`m pulling for dave.if i come to stories again will there be another exerpt mook53lhd =the meister

Herman Melville (1819-1891), American author, best known for his novels of the sea and especially for his masterpiece Moby Dick (1851), a whaling adventure dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Born 1st August 1819

Alfred Lord Tennyson

born 6th August 1809

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