Chatterbox: Inkwell

MY STORY WON SECOND PLACE!!!!!! Yay!!!! I am so happy. Here it is (it is kind of long but please post it admin!):

A
Small Victory

by
Adina

During the spring a
few years ago, the Harley children planted a garden. They were a
rowdy bunch of kids ranging from 10 months old to 10 years old with a
pair of five year old twins in between and a seven year old on top.
It all started when Mrs. Harley
learned from her children that all food grows in supermarkets,
except nuts, because those come from bird poop. Mrs. Harley was
alarmed. What were they teaching kids in school these days? So she
asked.

The ten year old,
whose name was Tina, answered: “ Today we learned something about
the mummies of ancient Egypt.” Mrs. Harley thought this sounded
pretty good.

“Go on.”

“The mummies were
inhabitants of ancient Egypt and they lived in the Sarah Dessert and
traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah was so bad, the mummies
had to live somewhere else, they irrigatated certain areas, so that
Moseses would go away. When someone in Egypt would die, they put lip
balm on them. This holy process was called lip-embalming. The first
person to get lip-embalmed was king Tutenkhamekamekhatamenen. En. The
Egyptians built huge triangular cubes called Pyramids. The Pyramids
are a range of mountains between France and Spain going into Austria
at times, which is were kangaroos live.” Mrs. Harley stared. Tina
continued,

“Oh yeah, and the mummies stuck
spoons inside each other's noses and ate the brains.”

“ We learned that too!” said the
seven year old Laura. “And the revolutionary war started because
Paul Revere yelled too loud and woke up the British. They got really
mad, so they put taxis on tea. So people couldn't drink tea, and
Pepsi did not exist back then, so they had nothing to drink! Then the
Indians came dressed as normal people and threw away the tea, because
they did not like taxis very much. This was called a tea party,
because they parted with their tea. My Teddy really loves parties!”
Mrs. Harley stared. Laura continued.

“Then, America won the war, and they
never had to pay for tacks again. All this was written down in the
Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer Simpson.” Mrs. Harley almost
fainted.

“ Wait!” said John, one of the
twins. “We didn't tell you what we learned yet!” finished
the other twin, Jordan.

“ What did you guys learn, then?”
asked Mrs. Harley.

“We learned the alphabet,” Said
John, and together with Jordan, they proceeded to sing it.
Incorrectly. With a few numbers thrown in here and there. And a
decimal point.

Mrs. Harley looked at her youngest,
Caroline, and smiled. Luckily, the girl was still too young for
school. Was it time to take her children's education into her own
hands? Caroline smiled back and drooled.

Mrs. Harley decided that the first
lesson she will teach her children is that food does not grow in
supermarkets. It comes from hard work.

The kids were very excited. First they
planted a seed. And they fussed and fussed and fussed. They all took
turns watering it until the poor seed was drowning. Then
they sat down in front of the seed. And waited.

“ Mom!” yelled Jordan, “I think
the seed is broken!” Mrs. Harley came outside.

“ Inside this seed,” She said , “Is
a little baby, like Caroline. Remember when she was in my tummy? The
seed protects the baby until it is old enough to come out. That may
take a little longer then a few minutes, maybe a few weeks, or even a
month.” John looked bug-eyed.

“ Mooooom!!! I don't want another
Caroline!!!” He was really scared. Mrs. Harley came and hugged him,
and after a few moments, Jordan too came running up for attention.

“ Don't worry, it won't be another
Caroline,” Mrs. Harley comforted them. “ You can't eat her.”

The kids' excitement dwindled when,
after a few mornings, the plant did not sprout. A week later, it
rekindled again when a little bit of green poked out of the ground.
When the twins saw this, all suspicions that this could be another
Caroline were gone. The kids worshiped this plant, watered it
excessively, had fights over who was going to pick the tiny weed that
sprouted over night. They touched it, brushed it, handled it, sung
the messed-up alphabet to it. They were in awe of this little thing.
Despite all that, the little plant kept on growing. It was amazing
that life could push on in such conditions. Finally, after
fifty-seven days of obsession, on a warm day in July, the harvest
was ready. It was a cucumber -- small, lopsided, a little odd -- but
it was their very own, and the Harley children loved it, as if it
really was another Caroline. It was a little victory for the
children, Mrs. Harley, and life itself. It went into the next salad.
Mr. Harley made sure to comment on how well Baily ( what the children
named the cucumber) tasted.

The next day Laura asked Mrs. Harley,

“ Mom, I've been wondering about
candy, how it is made, and stuff like that.”

Tina butted in: “ And I need an iPod,
for technological studies, of course.”

The twins joined in: “ And we want to
get a dog to know more about them”

“We were hoping,” said Tina “
That you would give us one of those lessons, like with Baily.”

Caroline giggled. Mrs. Harley smiled.

Everyone laughed.