Anchor Boots
Following is a short story written as a high school assignment. The student was studying gravity at the same time and chose to integrate that topic into the story.
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It has been a rough year. For my own sanity, I need to get away. I could always go up to mother’s cabin in the woods. She is in town for the year, the emptiness would be nice. I need some time away from all the incompetent fools at work, who feel I have the answers to everything all the time.
Yes, a vacation would be nice, after all, I do deserve one. These circuitous roads bring back fond memories of my yester years, back when I was alive. Ah, what a refreshing scene, birds chirping, squirrels scurrying, and the vegetation, a breathtaking assortment of greens. The house looks good, lonely, but that is part of its charm. I have spent many hours down at the lake as a girl constantly trying to break the latest rock skipping record, set by me of course. “There’s a good one”, almost a perfect pancake shape, “My, that went far”, I felt as if I had barely tossed it.
I make my way back to the gate. I prepare myself to pick up the large rock. That acts as the door stop, the latch has been broken for year. Surprisingly, it takes little to no effort at all to lift. I am beat, a nap would be great. I walk through the house, there seems to be an extra bounce in my step for what ever reason. I fall, in what feels like slow motion, onto the bed. It seems stiff, naturally with the lack of human contact it has endured. I awake in what seems no time at all, refreshed and energized.
Dinner time is right about now. I haven’t eaten all day. I prepare a sandwich and tomato soup, and went to enjoy it on the porch. I watch two squirrels participate in a tag-like same, quite entertaining. They wrestle their way up the tree when one squirrel has enough, he leaps an amazing distance, virtually weightless, and looks confused as he slams into the roof. For some reason, witnessing this feat, gives me an eerie feeling. I continue my day but I just cannot get this feeling out of the back of my head. The rocks, the squirrels, my own lightness, do not seem normal.
I cozy up by the fire with a book and begin to unwind. Until there is a snap outside the window, I cautiously peer into the dark, when I see, what seems to be a branch, it slowly made its way down, hovering over the ground as if there is no reason for it to land. My palms begin to sweat, my breaths grow shorter, and my knees buckle beneath me. I run out of the house my strides begin to cover a lot of distance I felt nothing, weightless.
I jump in my car, and speed through the wilderness. I realize in my state of panic that I have to be overreacting, this is all in my head. It has to be all the stress from work and daily pressures releasing in a very odd way. As I begin to calm down a deer leaps out in front of me, once again in the slow creepy manner as before. I slam on my brakes to find they are useless, the road seems to separate itself from any friction at all. I manage to swerve away from the deer and soar into another, far more intense, state of panic.
I drive straight into the side of the first building I spotted. Luckily it is after hours and no one is inside. Through the broken glass I notice a sign that reads “Anchor boots sold here.” The ambulances and fire trucks approach, almost floating, I notice all of them are wearing these “Anchor boots”. I ask the fire chief just what they are for and he looks at me strangely and explains the state of our planet. The gravitational pull is weakening and the federal government is in a state of alert. I breathe a sigh of relief that I am not insane after all, but a bigger fear immediately engulfed me as I realize our beloved world is coming apart at the seams. -- Amanda Gilley, School: Fort Worth Christian
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It has been a rough year. For my own sanity, I need to get away. I could always go up to mother’s cabin in the woods. She is in town for the year, the emptiness would be nice. I need some time away from all the incompetent fools at work, who feel I have the answers to everything all the time.
Yes, a vacation would be nice, after all, I do deserve one. These circuitous roads bring back fond memories of my yester years, back when I was alive. Ah, what a refreshing scene, birds chirping, squirrels scurrying, and the vegetation, a breathtaking assortment of greens. The house looks good, lonely, but that is part of its charm. I have spent many hours down at the lake as a girl constantly trying to break the latest rock skipping record, set by me of course. “There’s a good one”, almost a perfect pancake shape, “My, that went far”, I felt as if I had barely tossed it.
I make my way back to the gate. I prepare myself to pick up the large rock. That acts as the door stop, the latch has been broken for year. Surprisingly, it takes little to no effort at all to lift. I am beat, a nap would be great. I walk through the house, there seems to be an extra bounce in my step for what ever reason. I fall, in what feels like slow motion, onto the bed. It seems stiff, naturally with the lack of human contact it has endured. I awake in what seems no time at all, refreshed and energized.
Dinner time is right about now. I haven’t eaten all day. I prepare a sandwich and tomato soup, and went to enjoy it on the porch. I watch two squirrels participate in a tag-like same, quite entertaining. They wrestle their way up the tree when one squirrel has enough, he leaps an amazing distance, virtually weightless, and looks confused as he slams into the roof. For some reason, witnessing this feat, gives me an eerie feeling. I continue my day but I just cannot get this feeling out of the back of my head. The rocks, the squirrels, my own lightness, do not seem normal.
I cozy up by the fire with a book and begin to unwind. Until there is a snap outside the window, I cautiously peer into the dark, when I see, what seems to be a branch, it slowly made its way down, hovering over the ground as if there is no reason for it to land. My palms begin to sweat, my breaths grow shorter, and my knees buckle beneath me. I run out of the house my strides begin to cover a lot of distance I felt nothing, weightless.
I jump in my car, and speed through the wilderness. I realize in my state of panic that I have to be overreacting, this is all in my head. It has to be all the stress from work and daily pressures releasing in a very odd way. As I begin to calm down a deer leaps out in front of me, once again in the slow creepy manner as before. I slam on my brakes to find they are useless, the road seems to separate itself from any friction at all. I manage to swerve away from the deer and soar into another, far more intense, state of panic.
I drive straight into the side of the first building I spotted. Luckily it is after hours and no one is inside. Through the broken glass I notice a sign that reads “Anchor boots sold here.” The ambulances and fire trucks approach, almost floating, I notice all of them are wearing these “Anchor boots”. I ask the fire chief just what they are for and he looks at me strangely and explains the state of our planet. The gravitational pull is weakening and the federal government is in a state of alert. I breathe a sigh of relief that I am not insane after all, but a bigger fear immediately engulfed me as I realize our beloved world is coming apart at the seams. -- Amanda Gilley, School: Fort Worth Christian
posted by Selby Evans at 8:40 AM
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