This and That (Upper Grades)

Becky’s Return

A Story by Jake Yogi

Becky Thatcher was merrily skipping along, her curly, blonde hair bouncing in the afternoon sun. The weather was a mild temperature, with a blow of wind being the only thing to disturb. She and Tom Sawyer were going up the dusty dirt path heading towards the Widow Douglas’ house.

“Tom, don’t ‘cha think we oughta turn back? My momma’s gonna be worried ‘bout me.” She had a hint of worry in her eyes which Tom took notice of. “Aw, shucks, ya mamma’s not gunna’ be worried, yer only going to the Widow’s house fer ice - cream, ” he was a troublesome boy and was very persuasive. “What’s the wurst thing dat could ‘appen? But Becky was having doubts... She knew that she should have been at Susy Harper’s, but nevertheless, ice cream sounded good. She stumbled on some pebbles and watched them slide down the hill.

They soon arrived at the widow Douglas’ house and knocked on the hand carved wooden door and etched into it, it said Douglas’.

“We’re here,” said Tom.

The door slowly creaked open and there stood, towering over them like a gorilla, the kindly old widow Douglas.

“Come in! Come in! I haven’t had any visitors in such a long time! Do you want some yummy ice cream? Her voice was as soft as butter and her kindly manner put ease on all her visitors, especially Becky.

“Why, we just wanted to come for a visit,” said Tom, lying through his teeth with a bow. “But with your kind offer, we will of course have some ding dang ice cream!” Tom tried desperately to sound educated, but did not come close in a manner of different ways. Set on getting ice cream, the two stepped into the widow’s house and shut the door. It was sunset now and a gentle breeze was able to slip through the cracks. The warm colors reminded Becky that she needed to go to Susy’s place, but Ms. Douglas’ lovely hospitality and the sound of ice cream put a spell on her and forced her to stay. Of course she couldn’t deny the offer.

“What flavor would you two like?”

“Oh, any flavor will be fine fer me miss.” said Becky.

Tom looked offended at Becky, and replied, “Two heapin scoops of chocolate fudge.”

“Coming right up darlin’s.” she said. She skipped away and returned with vanilla for Becky and chocolate fudge for Tom. The ice cream instantly started to melt.

With a mischievous chuckle, “Eat up, children.”

THUD. THUD. The two children fell to the ground unconscious, lying there, the ice cream half eaten, now working around in their stomachs, the Sleeping Nightshade beginning to work. It would only be a matter of time until they either wake up, or die. A hooded stranger opened the window and jumped through, landing softly, their black robe swishing back and forth from the breeze of the silent night.

“Simple children, eh, falling for some toxic dessert.”

“Yea, I wonder if this is the final one that we need for our master plan.”

Darkness. Tom was thrown into a dark black cell dug into the ground. He had only a few things, only some dry bread and filthy water. There were 4 other filthy kids in rags, disheveled and almost starved to death, with a few dead corpses that carried a smell that would make the nose hairs on a skunk dance until they dropped, rotting away in the corner.

Tom awoke first, and was greeted by 4 eyes right looming over him, with 3 having scars.

“Ugggh, what ‘appened to me?” Tom said, still in a daze.

“You had some strychnine in your ice cream. I ‘ad some too. I over‘eard them talking about it. Yer lucky ter still be livin’, some o’ those kids weren’t as lucky,” said the girl, pointing to the dead bodies in the corner. “Those kids fell asleep, fer ever. I’m Ellen, how d´you do?”

“I was POISONED?! Why did no one tell me! Am I dead? Who are they?! GIMME ANSWERS!” Tom shouted, shaking Ellen vigorously. “Calm down, yer not dead and the boy is Henry, that’s John, and that’s Krista. They all ‘ad tad bit of the ice cream, and are now here.”

“Do you have a cell phone at least!?”

“It’s the 1800s, the cell phone hasn’t been invented yet.”

“Oh. Right.”

Becky was still lying, unconscious on the floor, the Sleeping Nightshade working around in her intestines. She slowly stirred awake mumbling, saliva running down her mouth. She slowly sat up, only to find a wall in between her cell and Tom’s cell. She was not with the other girls and struggling to regain control over a throbbing headache, sat up.

“Wheeereee aaam I?”

The lights went off and everything was pitch black. She froze in her tracks. She felt a little metal piece on the floor. She felt a tap on her toe and heard the clink of the object rolling away. She rolled around, hoping to find it and have something to defend herself with, but she rolled onto a grate and felt the metal bar roll down the grate. She continued to panic until she felt a hand drag her into another cell where she met the other kids and this time, there was Tom. The other kids found their new companion was rather confused and they introduced themselves.

“Hi, I’m Krista. We’ve been working on an escape plan by digging through the hill. We have a tunnel, right ... here.” She said with a grunt as she pulled some planks of wood off of the dirt and there was the tunnel, but still unfinished.

“With two more people digging we should be done soon.” said John, scooping handfuls of dirt away, and the others joined in, dirt crumbling away. Filthy from digging for only ten minutes, Tom leaned against the spot they were digging at, which gave way and Tom fell and hit his head on the grass outside with a thud. They kept digging and expanding the tunnel out toward the side of the hill, golden sunlight however, not appearing. It was night time, and they stepped out, barely seeing anything. They looked around and saw a massive, roaring fire coming from the village. The townspeople were panicking, in screams of terror. The fire crackled in the town, and a spark flew off, and lit the dock on fire. Becky knew that Susy Harper’s house, which she should have been at, was by the port. Her mother would be there by now and she couldn’t let her best friend or her mom die. Unexpectedly, she ran out down the mountain.

“BECKY! WAIT!” Shouted the other kids.

Becky raced down to the port through blazing fire and rushed to save her mom and Susy. The fire crackled and a beautiful limestone archway gave way from the heat and fell with a loud crash right in front of Becky. She bravely climbed over the heap and kept running until she finally reached the port. The new sailing boat, the Titanlike, caught fire in the hull. A new spark jumped off of the roaring flame, and started to consume her mom’s house. There was neither a hose, nor a pipe for water anywhere, but the resourceful Becky ran inside the burning house and grabbed a wooden basket and a circle plank of wood that was on top. She then ran out just before the rafters gave way and crashed down less than an inch behind her. She ran to the lake and dunked the bucket in the water. She heard her mom inside the building and ran to save her. She pushed the wood circle through the bucket of water with such force that a stream of water gushed out of the small gap between the edge of the bucket and the edge of the hole and started to put a bit of the fire out. Her mom’s silhouette was now more apparent and she could see her huddled down, with Susy right next to her. She kept spraying the water around, and the fire was put out for long enough for her mom to get out.

“MOMMA! GET OUT NOW!” The heat intensified, and Becky’s legs began to waver. Luckily, her mom also saw Becky, reaching her hand out for her. She rapidly reached out and grabbed her hand, Becky pulling to help lift her up. They scrambled out of the house, with Susy in the back, and managed to escape the roaring inferno of a fire.

Back with the other kids, they were anxiously waiting until Becky returned, when Krista noticed two dark figures looming around in the forest, one of which looked like Ms. Douglas!

She whispered, “I thinks I sees we’s kidnappas. Let’s follows thems.” They carefully tiptoed along the dry mountain until they found a cave where the figures disappeared into. Krista took a peek in and found ransom notes, one currently being made by a bearded man, who was a bit plump, with a dark robe wrapped around his pudgy body. The note read,

“$100,000 for each child, or they die.” They felt an ominous presence and turned around to find Ms. Douglas looming over them.

“You children really had to escape? Well, how ‘bout a present for that. A knuckle sandwich.”

“No,” growled Tom, “how ‘bout youse gets a knuckly samdwich.”

Tom whacked Ms. Douglas with a hammer, right in the head, and with a loud thud, she fell to the ground stunned and frozen.

Back at the burning village, Becky and her mom were gasping for air, while Susy jumped in the lake.

“Thank you child, I didn’t know what to do.” She said, panting.

“I knew you were at sniff* Susy’s sniff* and I had gone sniff*to get ice cream at the widow’s, sniff* but the widow on the hill sniff* kidnapped me!” weeped Becky, both tears of joy and tears of sadness running down her ashy face. They were both out for now, but the fire was still raging on and Susy’s house caved in under the heat and pressure. They two ran off on the cobbled brick pathway, past the burning houses, past the crumbling church, past the burning bell tower, and past the road to the mountain.

“Mamma, wait! We have to go up the hill, my friends are waiting for me.”

“Sure Becky, it's the least I could do for you, you saved my life.”

They scrambled up the hill, like eggs in a bowl, bumping into each other frequently, but with a bit of persistence, they were able to make it up to the hill where Becky remembered where her friends were, yet… they were not there. They heard a screech and followed it through the woods. The dense forest threw them askew and they had no clue where they came from, or where they were going.

“Mamma, I don’t think we are in Kansas no more.”

“Child, we live in Arkansas, you mind alright?”

“Yes mamma,” Becky answered, “I’m alright, I saw that in a works of fiction. Imagine if you wur a lady on a page o’ words.”

“That’s impossible Becky. Get your mind straight.”

The two kept talking until they came to a cave, where they heard the scream louder than ever. They raced in, only to find a cup with a poisonous smell to it. Turns out, it was a bunch of Strychnine lost by the bad guys. They heard the scream and stepped out, and found the cave next to them had the scream. Tom was being roasted on a rotisserie, taped to the stick, the other kids muffled and taped up. The fat man was sleeping on the cave floor which proved quite easy for them to dispose of.

“BECKY YER BACK!!!” Shouted Tom, which was an idiotic move, as the large man worke up from his nap, just as Becky was untying Tom, and her mom, untying the other kids.

“GET OVER ‘EAR!” Roared the man. He raced to the two, and with a swift side step and a strong leg pointed out, the man tripped right over Becky’s leg, but Tom was pushed by the bad guy right next to the flames. Almost immediately, the rain poured down outside, extinguishing most of the flames in the village, and running down into the cave. Becky suddenly felt an immense pain right in the stomach, as did Tom. Tom curled up into a ball and Becky winced over.

“You alright Becky?” asked the concerned Mrs. Thatcher.

“No, mom,” Becky faintly responded. “I’m not felt too good.”

“ARRRRGHH! ME BELLY!” shouted Tom. Then, with a dying breath, Becky fell to the ground, collapsed, dead from the strychnine. Tom rocked around in circles, and slowly fell to the ground too. The other kids just watched in a bit of awe, terror, and confusion mixed together. Becky’s mom froze in shock… and then started weeping. She couldn’t believe her daughter had died so soon. The world seemed to crumble around them, nothing at all worth anything.

“And that Tom, is the wurst thing that could ‘appen. So I’m not going to the widow’s.”

“Sheesh, that was longest and dramatish and it’s awredy sunset.”

“For reals?” She turned around to find a setting “I gotta go to Susy’s. Bye Tom.” Just as she turned away and walked down the hill, Tom saw four kids coming out of the hill side, and he heard a crackle and felt heat toward the village’s area.

“Wait-a-minute,” exclaimed Tom. “Oh no, really?!” as he ran off to the other children.

The End

The Haunted Hallways

A Ghost Story

By: Maddie Griffin

A while ago, my school used to be a normal place where kids went to learn and have fun. But now, it’s a place covered in golden caution tape, and guarded by government agents. Some say that chemicals leaked out of the science lab. Others say that there was a killer rat invasion, whatever that is. But I know the truth, which is that my best friend went missing at school.

“So class,”

Mr. Stein began, his voice glitching because of his terrible Wi-Fi,

“Today we are going to learn about geometric shapes and quadrilaterals which are four sided shapes and…”

That was all I heard because I was too busy thinking about school and my friend Riley who went missing. Ever since “the incident” school has been blocked off and the teachers won’t give us any answers. I have been wanting to go there myself, but the guards don’t let anyone in.

“Mr. Stein!!”,called out Mark, (the “teachers pet”)

“You know who is not paying attention in class again!”

Mr. Stein groaned, “Mark, what did I tell you about tattling and calling her “You know who”!”

I groaned. It was going to be a long day. After school was over, I decided to find out the truth. If no one was going to tell me, then I would figure it out myself. I planned to go at midnight, so my parents wouldn’t know. I had everything planned out except for getting in. How was I going to do that? Then I remembered that about 2 years ago, Principal Webster had shown us kids a secret exit on how to get out of school in case of an emergency. Maybe it would work as an entrance too! I just had to go there and see.

When I got to my destination, I looked at my watch. It read 12:13 AM. In 2 minutes, the guards would go on their dinner break.

“This is a late time to have dinner,” I said in my head.

Finally, after what seemed like HOURS, they left. I knew that I would have to make my move right now if I wanted to succeed. I tiptoed over to the secret exit and… it worked! I was in in no time. Time to get to work. I checked every corridor and every hallway in search of any evidence on what happened, but the school was as clean as a bottle of hand sanitizer. I was just about to give up and go home, but then I saw a flash of white whirl past my head into the empty math classroom, where I could still see Mr. Stein’s handwriting on the board. My heart was a pounding hammer in my chest as I carefully approached the classroom and looked inside. I couldn’t believe my eyes! There was a ghost girl in the classroom, working at the board! The ghost turned around, and when she saw me, her jaw (or what was left of it) dropped to the floor. We stared at each other in silence until finally I said,

“Riley is that you?”

“Uhh, yeah.” She replied, “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you!” I replied, starstruck that 1. I found where my friend had gone and 2. I was COMMUNICATING WITH AN UNDEAD BEING!!!!

“So uh, what happened to you, you look a little more pale than usual…” “Locker accident.” She replied, still working at the board. “Excuse me, what?”

“Ugh, remember when someone took all of the bolts out of the lockers?” “Yeah.”

“Well turns out that the lockers were BOLTED TO THE WALLS! So, when I was walking down the hallway, they fell on me.”

“Wow!” I said,

“That was why the teachers kept yelling, “Locker emergency! Locker emergency!” I just thought that Mr. Stein locked himself inside my locker again.”

We talked for about two hours, when I decided that I better go home. I wished Riley good night, and I left. But every other night, I sneak out, and I go to the school to visit her. My parents never found out, not even five years later when I still went through the secret entrance into the school. Those times with Riley were probably the best days of my life! We celebrated each other's birthdays, we ran around the school, we used the principal's old loudspeaker to see if it worked, (it did!) Even to this day, when I am in 10th grade, I still go, and have the time of my life.

Becky Returns 1

By Ellie

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stay for a little bit.”

“C’mon, let's go!”

As they headed up the hill they heard a bush rustle, but assumed it was just a rabbit.

When they arrived at Widow Douglas’ Becky opened the door and was welcomed into the little cottage filled with the smell of apple pies and freshly chilled ice cream.

“Mornin’! How are yall doin’?” Asked Widow Douglas.

“Would you be so kind to serve us some ice cream?”

“ Why, that’s not a chore at all! “

“What flavor are yall lookin’ for?”

“ I would like” - “just vanilla.” Becky interrupts.

“You shure ya ain’t wanna good ol’ strawberry?”

“Well, I was thinking we could get sum cho” - Becky glares at Tom, -” no, just a scoop a’ nilla please.”

“OK, lemme go get that.”

“Tom, didn’t she seem to be suspicious of our choices today?” “Tom?” “TOM, answer me!” Tom was gone. “Sorry, I-I-have to go, thank you for your time” - Then she pauses, if I was Tom, where would I go? Becky walks cautiously to the back of the kitchen, and what she saw was unbelievable, it wasn’t Tom. It wasn’t a person. It was three bottles of poison. One was dropped in a bowl of-vanilla ice cream. A hidden door was opened with a staircase, an unsturdy, bottomless staircase.

“TOM!”

Then she heard faint, fast, footsteps fumbling up the stairs.

“Tom!” “Are you down there?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Help us!”

Becky got all caught up in who was yelling , she forgot about who was walking up the stairs. Before she knew it she was in a small, rough room. It seemed to be moving, but there was no noise besides the footsteps walking on the stairs, which didn’t seem to get any further away. She pondered on who she saw come through the door to the creaky staircase. She was somewhat wide, like Widow Douglas. She had short, black, shiny hair, like Widow Douglas. The only thing she had that Widow Douglas didn’t have was a scar, straight down her face. Suddenly, the soft footsteps stopped and the dark room had a hard, wet floor.

“ Becky, help us!”

“ Who are you?”

“ It’s Tom and Widow Douglas!”

“ Where are we?”

“ We be in some room that ain’t never been or seen before. Something ain’t right ‘bout it! Suddenly water out of nowhere starting to blanket the ground of the cave.”

“ How do we get out?” 2

“ I ain’t know.”

“ Wait, if Widow Douglas didn’t take us here, then who did?”

“ We don’t need to worry bout’ that, we need to find a way to get outta these bags!”

“Maybe there is a seal at the top.”

“Or maybe they're rocks on the ground.”

Tom began to slowly move in his bag across the wet floor, now past his ankles. Suddenly, the scratching noises of his bag stops, there is a slam, and Tom isn’t responding.

“Tom!” “ Tom?” “TOM!?” “Are you ok?”

“ Yeah, ima’ little shoken an’ confused but I’m fine.”

“Where are you?”

“ My bag got stuck on a rock, there seems to be n-n-no ground.”

“ Well let’s find the rock you’re hangin’ offa.”

“ Here it is!”

Becky was trying to tear her bag as best as she could then-RRRIP! Her bag was gone! She then helped Widow Douglas out. They both pulled Tom up.

“ We better get out of this cave!”

They looked up and the staircase was gone.

“ Where the heck did it go?”

“ We must’ve drifted in this water.”

Tom looked down where he was hanging, there was a seemingly bottomless pit.

“ No, no-no-no-no-no, we are not going down there.”

“ Cmon’ it’s our only hope.”

“ W-w-we could walk back to the stairs, o-o-or- no that wouldn’t work.”

“ The waterd’ be too high, wed’ drown.”

Becky knew either way she had a one percent chance of surviving.

“ OK, let’s jump.”

“ Onna’ countta’ three, one, two, three.”

She tried to stop herself, but Tom had already pulled her down. The time she was falling for felt like forever. There was no sound, no light. Not until she saw a faint purple light, more and more of them appeared, but in different shades. It was like she was in a new place, a quiet, beautiful place. She was admiring everything surrounding her, then - KABOOM! All of a sudden she was soaked, but the water wasn’t dark, it was green, purple and blue, like the northern lights. She could see clearly and it wasn’t like anything she had ever seen before. She had forgotten about the entire situation of Tom and Widow Douglas. Then she heard him,

“ Becky, are ya OK?”

She opens her eyes,

“ Yeah I'm OK.”

Tom starts to yell,

“ Woah!” “ That’s awesome!” “ I can’t believe we survived that!”

“ Yeah, we did!” 3

“ I love the lil’ celebration you are havin’ here but, we really need to find a way outta’ here.”

“ Let’s go to the darkest spot.”

“ Well, I'm going to the light.” disagreed becky.

“ I’m the grownup here, I choose the darkest path,” declares Widow Douglas.

“ Why?”

“ Cause’ last time we went for the darkest route, it led us to the lightest place.”

“ I’m agreein’ with Mrs. Doug here.”

Becky’s brain was in a knot. She wanted to go toward the light, but there was more safety in numbers. Alast, Becky decided to go with Tom. If Tom gets us into this, he can get us out.

“ OK, let’s take the dark path.”

As they were walking down the pitch-dark path, they saw a dark hole ahead of them. It looked as if the end of the cave was painted black. They were in total darkness, with water up to their knees. Becky walked toward the dark hole, but didn’t feel a wall. She, and the others kept going.

They were in total darkness, with water up to their knees. Becky walked toward the dark hole, but didn’t feel a wall. She, and the others kept going. Eventually, they reached a small light, they ignored what was behind them and went on. As they reached the end of the tunnel, they came out in a fenced patch of fresh grass and dandelions. They saw a brown dot, but it was too blurry to tell what it was. It got closer and closer until it came to a complete stop. It was a quarter horse, and a gray paint horse.

“ Let’s ride them, it will be faster than walking.”

“ I say we don’t get too off track again Becky.” said Tom accusingly.

“ Just let me make a choice for once!”

“ Kay, sassy-pants, let’s ride em’.”

“ Do you know how to ride 'em?”

“ I’ve taken some lessons.”

Becky grabbed onto the brown quarter horse, which was three times her size. Widow Douglas boosted her up. Then, she and Tom rode off, this time in the lead of Becky. After about ten minutes, they saw the sheriffs. They told them about the Widow Douglas impersonation and the poisoning and kidnapping, they said they would try and find her. They took Widow Douglas home then rode off to the picnic. When they arrived at the old picnic site, it was like a remote island. She decided to head to Suzy Harper’s house. When she got there, her mom was standing at the door, crying.

“ My Becky!” “ I was so worried!”

“ OK - OK mom, you can stop hugging me now.”

“ Wherever did you go?”

“ Well, you see, I saw Tom, he invited me to ice cream and then someone who was impersonating Widow Douglas tried to poison us but, instead, kidnapped us. We were stuck in a cave filling with water until we jumped into this pit and took a dark tunnel to a field of horses, rode the horses, and told the cops what happened.”

“ Well, sounds like you had an adventure, and learned a good lesson.”

Her mom paused looking at her like there was something to come.

“OH!” “ Always listen to you, no Tom.”

That night, Becky went to sleep, and couldn’t believe what had happened the other day. And it was all for a scoop of ice cream.

This excerpt from The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain was completed by Ellie Haynie.