Week 12 Story: The Man and the Newspaper

The Man and the Newspaper

One day a man was coming home from work when he notices his dog holding his newspaper.  "Good boy!" The man said, as he tries to take the newspaper from the dog.

The dog says to him, "Not so fast!  I am very hungry as you forgot to feed me this morning.  Give me one of your chicks from the shed to eat and I will give you the paper."

The man goes to the shed to grab a chick, but the rooster attacks his hand when he goes to grab one.  The man says to the rooster, "I need one of your chicks to give it to my dog so he will give me the paper.  Out of me way!"

The rooster says to him, "Not so fast!  We have been too cold this winter and have gotten close to death.  Get us another blanket and you can have the runt of the flock."

The man goes inside to grab a blanket.  He doesn't have any spares except for the one his cat usually sleeps on.  The man goes to grab the blanket, when the cat plants its paw down on it and hisses in his face.  The man says to the car, "I need this blanket so I can give it to the rooster, who will then give me a chick, which I will then take to the dog, who will then give me my newspaper.  Get off of the blanket!"

The cat says to him, "Not so fast!  I have been wanting a rat to hunt for a long time now.  Find me some game and the blanket will be yours."

The man goes into his attic to find a rat and runs after one when he sees it.  However, the rat runs into the hole and the man can't get him.  The man yells at the rat, "I need you to please come to the downstairs and let my cat hunt you so he will give me his blanket, which I will take to the rooster, who will then give me a chick, which I will take to the dog, who will then give me my newspaper.  Come down stairs.  You just have to let him chase you!"

The rat says to him, "Not so fast!  I have had too many brothers and sisters die from the mouse traps you have put all around the house.  Disable them, give me the cheese, and i'll be bait for your cat."

The man goes to gather the cheese from the traps, but snaps his fingers in one of them and drops the cheese.  The cheese falls downstairs and lands on the lap of the man's daughter.  The man goes to his daughter sternly says, "Rita, you need to give me that cheese, so that I can give it to the rat, who will be bait for the cat, who will give me the blanket, which I will give to the rooster, who will give me a chick, which I will give to the dog, who will finally give me my newspaper!"

Rita thinks for a few moments, looks at him, smiling, and says, "Not so fast, Daddy!  I am bored... Give me the newspaper and the cheese is all yours."

The end.

Running in an infinite loop
Sourced via Pixabay

Author's note:
The original followed the same theme of the story told here starting with a farmer who can't get a pig to hop a fence and ends up going through a huge sequence of requests from dogs and cows and even fire and water to get it to finally hop over.  The biggest difference is I thought it would be really funny to make this story into an infinite loop at the end and have the father never get what he wanted.  This story was a lot of fun to make and I really enjoyed reading it when I was done!

Bibliography:
English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Week 11 Story: The Bear and the Bees

The Bear and the Bees

One day a bear is walking through the woods looking for honey.  He travels long and far looking all through his usual forest but can't find any bee hives until he sees one at the top of a hill.  He approaches the hive and doesn't hear any buzzing.  Hoping they are either dead or sleeping, he sneaks up to the hive.

When he gets there, a bee flies out and shouts, "Halt!"

The bear replies, "Look, I am sure you have some honey to spare.  Can you please give me some?  I have traveled long and far looking for my fill today."

The bee shakes his head.  "You will not be getting any honey here.  If you try taking our honey you will surely die."

The bear laughs, "HA!  You say I will be the one dead?  Look how tiny and weak you are!  Look how big I am!  Surely if anyone dies here it will be you."

Suddenly, lightening strikes the tree and the smoke knocks out all the bees in the hive.  Although shaken up, the bear regains his senses, cracks open the hive, and takes all the honey.

The bear retires to his lair with his honey and eats until he is fat.  As he tastes the sweet nectar, he laughs about the bee's threats toward the bear's life.

"You think you can kill me for stealing your honey?  HA!  Look at the outcome now!  The gods have spoken and knocked your entire hive unconscious for me to take your honey.  Look who is laughing now!"

The bear, after stuffing himself with honey and getting it all over his face, falls into a deep sleep.

While asleep, the fleet of bees detect the smell of the honey coming from the bear's lair.  They gather one by one outside of his home and wait until thousands of bees surround it.  The bees all rush in at the same time and sting the bear hundreds of times.  Other bees grab hold of the honey on his face and bring it back to their hive.  The bear, after being attacked, lies dead in his lair.  The bee wasn't lying when he said he would die.

Bear getting stung by bees sourced via Wikipedia

Author's note:

In the original story, a coyote comes across the path of a snake.  Both refuse to go around the other and the snake warns the coyote that if he steps across his path he will die.  The coyote does it anyways and gets bit but doesn't feel it.  He mocks the snake, goes to a lake, feels tired and dies.  While I wanted to challenge myself to making a more short but sweet story like this one, I couldn't help myself but spice it up a bit.  I loved the idea of making the characters a bear and bees and thought it would fit the theme of the story really well.  I also found writing the ignorant dialogue for the bear very entertaining and fun!

Bibliography:

Great Plains: Coyote and Snake by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 10 Story: Recess RIP

Recess RIP

There once was a young boy playing on the playground of his school.  On the playground, there was a manhole leading to the sewers that all the teachers warned the students not to go near.  The boy was always curious about the hole and what might be down there.  Why would the teachers not want him down there?  Is there a secret tunnel leading to a secret meeting room that the teachers use?  Is there candy in this room?  He was set on finding out, but could never get it open.

It is the fall, there are leaves everywhere.  Big, beautiful golden leaves practically cover the entire playground.  The children gather the leaves into many piles and jump into them carefree.  However, the boy is fixated on the manhole.  It has yellow tape around it and there are construction workers working on it.  He watches as they leave on their lunch break and realizes this might be the only chance he has to find out what is in the hole.  Leaves are clogging it up so much that he can't even see where the hole is.  He waited until the teachers weren't looking, slid under the yellow tape, and instantly fell into the hole.  He is so scared that he can't even scream.  He hits the ground hard and it feels like he broke his leg.  He then looked up and saw Pennywise the clown staring at him, holding a red balloon.  He lets out a big yell when seeing him but it is no use, he is too deep in the hole for the teachers to hear him. 

Pennywise the Clown sourced via Wikipedia

Pennywise smiles at him and asks if he would like to float back up to the surface.  He screams no and starts running down the labyrinth of a system the sewer is.  He runs for what felt like ages until he reaches a ladder that led to the surface.  He climbs up, cautiously opens the hatch, and there he finds a meeting room.  The principal and all his staff are there at a table laughing about how they are going to cut recess time by 30 minutes.  He was right!! There really was a secret meeting room.  He looks to his right and sees a big bucket of candy.  He starts to go toward the candy when Pennywise grabs his leg.  He starts to get pulled back in and he knows he can't scream or else the teachers will hear him.  He then remembers that Pennywise can only exist if he fears him, so he lets him take him into the tunnel.  When taken down, Pennywise asks if he is ready to float, and the boy starts laughing hysterically at him for looking like such a stupid clown.  Pennywise keeps trying to scare him by transforming into terrible things but they only make the boy laugh harder until Pennywise explodes.  The boy then sneaks back into the teacher's meeting place, steals the candy, makes it back to the playground, and gives the candy to all the boys and girls and he becomes the coolest kid in school.

The end.

Author's Note:

In the original story, a hunter travels to a family's house and is warned not to hunt on the north side of the land because of a deadly snake.  The hunter's curiosity gets the best of him and he goes there anyways.  When he finds the snake, he tries running away but the snake gets him anyways.  He struggles to get away and finally does when he wafts his body odor in the snakes nose and it runs away.  I wanted to keep the similar theme of curiosity nearly killing the cat but the cat getting away barely.  I also wanted to get a little more creative and make the theme more modern.  I also figured since Halloween is so close that I would make a story with a more spooky theme!

Bibliography:

The Hunter And The Uksu'hï by James Mooney

Week 9 Story: Ethylene Glycol Poisoning

Ethylene Glycol Poisoning

By Connor Dugan

There once were two competing scientists, one a creationist, and one an atheist.  They regularly argued about the origins of life and the age of the earth and universe.  Sadly, the creationist had very little evidence other than his beliefs in God, whereas the atheist had many scientific theories and proofs to challenge and contradict the creationist beliefs.  One day, the creationist came up with a devious plan to get rid of his competition once and for all.  He came running up to the atheist as he was researching protein folding.  Lying, he exclaimed to him that God had come to him to tell him that the atheist was right about the universe, that it really is billions of years old, and that God wants him to come up to heaven and be high right hand scientist to work on a new universe.  The atheist, as cunning as he is, acted incredibly surprised and excited.  He exclaimed, "none before have I believed in a god until you reveal to me that he has indeed brought you to the truth!  Let us celebrate before my departure to the great glory of heaven!"  They went to the atheist's log cabin.  The atheist questioned why the creationist, now having seen God, wouldn't like to come with him on his journey to the heavens.  The creationist pondered this question for some time and realized how joyous it would be to walk up to the gates of heaven to watch the atheist get rejected and sent to hell.  "You know what," said the creationist, "I think that would actually be a great idea.  Let's go there together!"  The two scientists go to the atheist's lab where there sits a large container of ethylene glycol.  They both drink enough of the sweet, thick nectar to die, and to celebrate the atheist breaks out a bottle of grain ethanol that he distilled for himself.  The creationist, however, refuses to drink it because it would be a sin to drink such a high concentration of alcohol and be drunk.  The ethylene glycol kills the creationist because he doesn't drink the ethanol.  The atheist lives because the ethanol competes with ethylene glycol for alcohol dehydrogenase, the first enzyme in the metabolic degradation pathway, stopping it from producing deadly glycolic acid and oxalic acid.  The end.

Ethanol sourced via Wikipedia

Author's note:

In the original story, a king has a painter and carpenter.  The painter tells the king that god told him that his father wanted him to send up the carpenter to build a temple by burning him.  The carpenter digs a tunnel to escape when the fire is lit, comes back later, and tells the king that the temple was great and that it needs to be painted now and they burn the painter and he doesn't escape and actually thinks that the carpenter burned and came back to life.  I really liked the original story, but wanted to make it much more modern and scientific.  I also have been seeing a lot of stuff with creation scientists and their work is unacceptable.  This story was produced with the motivation of being upset from the persistent and ridiculous "scientific" claims from the creationist movement.  With the technology and infinite amount of information at our hands today, thinking that the universe and earth are ~6,000 years old is equal to saying the earth is flat and there is no such thing as an atom.  Luckily, we live in a world where the scientific community has incredible power and will not put up with such nonsense.  Those who bring forth information to the scientific community without reputable and reproducible evidence of their claims will be laughed at. I am all for philosophy, I am a very philosophical person myself, but keep it away from science. I kept the general theme of god supposedly telling a message and the person who tries tricking the other gets outsmarted by their victim.  I also find ethylene glycol poisoning really interesting and wanted to incorporate it.

Bibliography:

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Wise Carpenter by A.L. Shelton

Week 7 Story: Story of Sand

Story of Sand

By Connor Dugan

Once upon a time on a beach in Florida there was a child building a sand castle.  The child was building the biggest castle he had ever made and was concentrating very hard, getting sand all over himself.  When he was done and ran to get his father, the father said to the boy that he'd better wash off in the ocean. 

When the boy asked why, the father ranted to him about how much he hated the sand, and how he can't stand how much it gets everywhere.  However the child, looking puzzled, looked up at him and said, "But daddy, sand is what makes the beach so fun!  Imagine a beach with no sand, it wouldn't be very fun!". 

The father shook his head, no son, you don't understand.  Maybe we can talk about this when you are older.  The father packed up everything, frustrated that the son didn't understand the consequences of sand on a beach and got himself and the boy in the car.

"Son, I know of a perfect beach, the sand there was so fine that it has all molded together and it doesn't get everywhere.  I'll show you how much better it is"

After arriving to the new beach, the father gets out and smiles.  He smells the air and thinks back to all the great memories he had here.  He looks at the tan, milky in texture beach.  "Now THIS is a beach!" he exclaims.

The kid tells him that he's just going to stay in the car, he won't be able to make a sand castle out of that sand.

Determined to prove the child wrong, the father runs out to the beach full speed.  "Look son!  Look how much fun i'm having!  Don't you want to ha.."

He takes a step into tanner than usual sand, and sinks right through.  He is sloped, half buried in quicksand.  He thrashes around trying to pull himself out but it is no use.  He isn't getting out alone.

Quicksand sign sourced via Wikipedia

"HELP!" he screams.

The son is in the car playing video games, when he hears his fathers cries for help.  He rushes over with a stick to try to pull him out but his hands keep on slipping.  The son then gets a wonderful idea.  He runs to the car and collects the sand on the floor mats.  He gives it to his dad to put on his hands and he is able to grip the stick and is pulled out.

"Oh my god I almost died... you saved me! Thank you so much."

"Don't thank me Dad, thank the sand!", the son said with a smile.

The father laughs and agrees that they will go to the sand beach from now on and that sand really isn't all that bad after all.

The End.

Author's note:

In the original story, a king is told by his daughter that she loves him as much as salt and water and he takes offense to this and wants her killed.  The other daughters convince the executioner to spare her while still making the father think she is dead.  The daughter is found by a wizard and is arranged to get married to a son of the king.  At the wedding, the wizard had commanded the groom to not give the king water or salt.  When this happens, the king can't eat, and when he is revealed that the bride is the daughter he tried to have killed he feels ashamed, hugs her, and tells her she was right about salt and water.
I wanted to make this story much better while keeping the message and I feel like I did a good job!

Bibliography:

Water and Salt by Thomas Frederick Crain

Week 6 Story: Kill the King

Kill the King

by Connor Dugan

One day, the king of a town was observing his people.  He dressed in a disguise so nobody would recognize him and came upon a psychic.  The psychic told the king, not knowing who he was, he could tell him his future.  The king agreed, but told him that he had no money, so he gave him his necklace that was priceless.  The king told him that he would come back later to give him the actual cost of the psychic session and retrieve the necklace he held as collateral.  The psychic then told him that he would die within 9 days.

Appalled, the king retreated to his home and demanded to see a servant.  The king was in denial and believed the psychic was not really able to tell the future.  He was going to put him to the test.  The king told the servant to go to the psychic with the intent to steal the necklace and see if the psychic is able to tell the future of the necklace being stolen.  If the servant failed, his head would be cut off, but if he succeeded the psychic's head would be cut off for lying about being able to tell the future.  The next day, the servant approached the psychic and asked to tell him his fortune.  The psychic took a long pause and told him that he would kill a man within 8 days.  The servant, not realizing what this meant, proceeded to think all of it was false and stole the necklace from him.

The king was pleased at the retrieval of the necklace, and the next day went to the psychic to claim his property.  The psychic told the king that he couldn't find the necklace, and outraged, the king told the psychic that he had one week to foretell where the necklace is or his head would be taken.  The psychic obliged, and for 6 days he meditated and prayed.

The 7th day came and the king held a ceremony, inviting the whole town to see the psychic be proven as phony.  The psychic approached the king on the stage in front of the massive crowd.

Large Crowd sourced via Flickr

The king screamed, "Psychic!  You speak to the world that you have powers beyond this world, yet can't find the necklace I gave you when your life depends on it!?  What say you to this ridiculousness?"

The psychic replied, "Liar."

Outraged, the king grabbed the psychic and pulled him in, ready to slug him in the face.  "What did you say to me you low life phony?"

The psychic screamed to the crowd, "This man is not the powerful one you see.  He is a fake, and I can prove it.  I make a bet that if I can prove that you cheated me that your head might replace mine's fate."

The king laughed hysterically.  "Oh really?  Alright then you have a deal!  You prove me a cheat and I you may have my head.  But since you dared to accuse me of such ridiculous claims, when you are wrong I will have your whole family slaughtered!

The psychic looked at the crowd and announced "The necklace was stolen!  It is in the left shoe of the king's servant!"

The king let out another burst of laughter.  "You really think I would be so sloppy as to do that even if I did try to cheat you?  Why that necklace would be countries away from here if I did that.  Servant, show them he lies!"

The servant was ghost white.  He looked at the king with eyes of despair.  "Sir... I don't think I want to do that... My foot will get cold.."

"Nonsense!" said the king.  "Take the shoe off! That is an order!"

"But sir.."

The king finally realized what was going on.  "Oh.. I see."  he turned to the crowd and announced "This is ridiculous.  Why must my servant obey the commands to a liar?  Must we really do this?"

The crowd screamed "Have him take his shoe off so we might slaughter him and his family!"

The king, sweating bullets, approached the servant.  "Take it off."

The servant took his right shoe and turns it over.

"See!? he lies!!"

"Take off your left shoe like he asked!" the crowd screamed.

When he does this, the necklace falls out.

"TRAITORS!"  screamed the crowd.

In tears, the servant told the crowd "The king told me he would have my head if I didn't steal the necklace!  Let him pay for the crimes, not the psychic for he has proven his worth!"

The crowd restrained the king, put him on the chopping block, and the servant cut off the head of the king.  The town rejoiced, and the psychic's prophesies were all fulfilled.

The end.

Author's Note
In the original story, a king goes to a bakery, sees the owner is praying, and decides he wanted to test to see how loyal the owner is to god.  He dresses in a disguise and gives the owner a ring for some bread as collateral.  The king asks a servant to get the ring from him, he succeeds, gives the ring to the king, and the king tells the baker if he doesn't find the ring he will kill him.  The king drops the ring in a river, a fish eats it, the baker owner buys the fish and finds the ring, and everyone lives happily ever after.  I didn't like how manipulative the king was in this story, so I did it in a different setting, changed the plot a bit, and made him die!

Bibliography:

The Praying Baker translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer

Week 5 Story: What is Fear?

What is Fear?

A young boy named Todd was playing with his action figures on a peaceful Sunday morning in the kitchen next to his mother.  He loved playing with his toys and began to have a battle between a dragon and soldier.  They fought a fearsome battle on the kitchen table, leaped onto the toaster where the soldier almost fell in, raced across the counter and were headed for the stove.

Todd's mother screamed "STOP!"  As his hand got dangerously close to a pot of boiling water.  She yanked the boy away from the stove and looked at his sternly

"What were you thinking Todd!?  You scared me so much you could have seriously gotten hurt!  Don't ever do that to me again!"

"I'm sorry mom.. but you said I scared you?  What do you mean?"

"It comes from Fear, Todd.  It is a feeling you get when something scares you."

Todd grew in excitement.  "I wanna feel fear!!  I'm gonna go find it mom you just wait and maybe I'll understand you better!"

And before his mother could continue her lecture he burst outside.  She ran after him on his way out and screamed "Todd I swear if you get in trouble or hurt you will have NO CONFUSION as to what fear is!"

Todd ran off to the woods next to his neighborhood playground.  A group of his enemies from school were hanging around there and called him over.

"Well look what the cat dragged in boys!  Todd, come over here buddy!  We decided you can be in our group if you do our challenge!"

Todd raced over.  Although he didn't like them, he knew being in their group would make him much cooler in school.  He asked them what the challenge was.

"You see that dog house over there?  Well, our ball went directly into it and there is a big scary pit bull that lives there.  If you can get it back for us you're in." One of them said with a devious grin.

"Okay!"  Todd said, as he casually jogged over to the house.

He got to the house and walked right up to the house with zero hesitation.  He glanced inside to see the pit bull sleeping, curled around the ball the boys set him out to retrieve.  As he reached for the ball, the pit bull's eyes shot wide open and he started to growl intensely, showing his big strong teeth.  The boy smiled at the dog, pet him on the head, and the pit bull calmed down significantly and let the boy have the ball.

Todd came back to the group of boys and their jaws hit the floor.  "Did he not try to rip your arm off?"  The boys asked.  "No, he was really nice once you pet him!" Todd replied.  "Were you not scared that whole time!?" They asked.  "There's that word again!"  Todd said, "What is up with people and being 'scared'?  I don't get the point of it what is it anyways?"

The leader of the group, Carson, approached Todd.  "Okay Toddy boy, listen up.  That task was too easy.  You don't get in the group unless I say so.  The only way you are getting in this group is if you do the ultimate challenge, my challenge... Steal a fidget spinner."

Trouble sourced via Pixabay

"PSHHH piece of cake!  Except my mom always told me to not steal anything.."

"Well what is more important?  Being in our group or being a little mama's boy?"

"Alright, alright i'll do it."

Todd walked up to the store.  "Surely this is how I will find fear." He thought to himself.  He entered the store and the clerk was busy stocking shelves.  The fidget spinners were behind the counter by the cigarettes.  Todd crawled behind the counter and slowly reached up to get the spinner.. After wiggling it around from its hanger, he set it free. "GOT IT!" he whispered to himself.  He turned to go out the door, but realized something.  He still wasn't scared.  He sat and contemplated.. What could possibly make him find fear?  After all, that is what this whole journey was about.  He then got an idea.. "Maybe if I get a pack of cigarettes too i'll find fear and be extra cool!" he thought.  And without a second thought he reached up for a pack and got his hand snagged by the clerk.

"GOTCHYA!!" The clerk exclaimed.

He was caught. He looked out the window of the store to see the group of boys mocking him and sticking their tongues out.

The police arrived, gave Todd a lecture, and proceeded to load him up in the back of the car and drive him to his parent's house.  "Young man, you are starting to walk down a dark road full of pain and suffering.  What will your mom say when we tell her what you did?"

That's when the world came crashing down on Todd "NO you guys please don't tell my mom she will kill me!"

"Sorry bud, but you aren't getting out of this one.  I don't care how scared you are of your punishment, you are going to get what you deserve from this I hope you learned your lesson!"

Todd's face looked shocked.. He gave a second to think of what just happened and realized.. He was scared.  His legs trembled, his eyes were wide, his heart beat faster, his palms were sweaty.  It wasn't a good thing at all.  He found fear.  And he didn't want to find it ever again.

When he got to his mother, he ran up to her in tears, bawled his eyes out at her waist, and told her how sorry he was and that he now realized what she meant.

While he got some serious punishment for stealing, he had learned his lesson and promised himself to never do something that would make him feel that terrible sense of fear and sadness ever again.

The end.

Author's Note:

In the original story, a young boy's mother tells him she is scared and he sets out to find out what fear is.  He comes across all sorts of things that should scare him but he seems relatively fearless. After many adventures, he ends up being told to open up a soup dish and a bird flies out of it which surprises him.  He discovers what fear is from this and lives happily ever after.  This story was ridiculous and really weird, so I decided to redo it and I made it much better.  Mine is much easier to follow and is certainly something that modern day children could relate with much easier.  It is easier to follow and just makes a lot more sense as a story.

Bibliography

Fear by Ignacz Kunos

Week 4 Story: Man's Best Friend

Man's Best Friend

By Connor Dugan

Long before written history, dogs were not the cute and fuzzy animals they are today.  They were ferocious, powerful, and cold blooded killers.  They practically ruled the earth with their incredible coordination and hunting skills.  Man could all but cower in fear if one approached.

A man named Joseph walked through a deep and dark rocky forest, looking for mushrooms for stew.  It was ominous, foggy, and incredibly humid.  Sweat dripped down his whole body as he searched the ground for precious fungi.  This lasted some hours, until he heard a horribly cry.  Joseph knew it would be incredibly dangerous to investigate, but he couldn't help himself.  He climbed over the hills, tracked down where it was coming from, and gazed upon Doggious, the god of the Dogs.

Doggious had been hunting in the woods.  In fact, he was on to Joseph's scent and was about to make him a meal.  This all came to a halt when a large boulder came crashing down a near rocky hillside and landed upon his leg.  He was now trapped.  The more he tried to move, the more he ended up just hurting himself.  He laid there in defeat, waiting to be killed or to simply rot away.

Joseph cautiously came nearer to Doggious.  He had heard the legends of Doggious of how intimidating, strong, and deadly he was.  There were rumors that if Doggious were killed, that all dogs would lose their coordination and would no longer be able to rule the world.  Joseph felt for his large spear he always carried on him, and was ready to put an end to the rule dogs had over the land.  But something came upon him.  As he saw the beast yelping and crying, a sudden rush of empathy came upon him.  He got a crazy idea, even crazier than approaching the beast in the first place.

Doggious stared at Joseph as he came eye to eye with the beast.  Joseph nodded at Doggious, and raised his spear, ready to strike.  Doggious closed his eyes, accepting his fate.  But, as Joseph's spear came down, it came not upon Doggious' heart, but was wedged under the boulder, where he proceeded to pry the boulder off Doggious' leg.

Doggious immediately pounced upon Joseph, and Joseph held his breath as if it were his last.  And as Doggious opened his mouth to bite, he instead licked Joseph's face of his sweat.  Doggious thanked Joseph, and explained to him that because of his show of character and empathy, all dogs would serve as noble friends to the human race.  They could hunt, live, and progress together much better than on their own.  And what started as a horrible war became a lasting friendship that exponentially benefited both parties.

And that is how dogs became man's best friend.

Guarding with Man's Best Friend sourced via Wikipedia

Author's Note:

The original story, The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog, was about how cats and dogs became enemies.  It begins explaining that the Cat and Dog were great friends.  They got along very well and were the greatest of companions.  But when winter game and food was scarce, they made an agreement to go their separate ways, but the dog accidentally breaks the agreement and the cat never forgives him.
I wanted to do an opposite of this story, explaining how a feud becomes friendship.  I thought the perfect example for this would be the relationship between man and dog.

Bibliography:

The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog by Gertrude Landa

Week 3 Story: Eve, Savior of Man and Founder of Science

Eve, Savior of Man and Founder of Science

By: Connor Dugan

I was nothing, and then I was.  Of flesh and bone God created me.  He told me my name is Adam, and to save me from loneliness, gave me Eve, my partner.  The world he put me in was beautiful.  Not a care in the world, not a problem in sight.

Adam and Eve in Paradise: sourced via Wikipedia

While we played and rejoiced in this bountiful place, I felt confused.  Later, I will find that Eve shared equal confusion.  We knew of nothing but this beautiful place.  Thus, we truly could not respect it for what it was.  We were born in paradise, lived in paradise, and for all we cared there was nothing but just that.  Oh how things have changed.  For good and for bad.  For we were given one command from God, and that was to not eat of the tree of knowledge.

I was always curious why God didn't want us to eat from the tree of knowledge.  After all, wouldn't God be proud of us for growing up to be like him?  Is there no room for company in the heavenly creations?  He never told us why, only that we would be doomed to death if we ate from it.  My curiosity was passionate, but Eve's, I'm afraid, was devastating.  I could tell in advance that she was tempted more than I to break our promise.  I told her to not even get within the vicinity of the tree... But it was not enough.

While I was gathering fruit for her, Eve wandered near the tree of knowledge.  After some conversation with the serpent, she was convinced to break her promise with me and went up to the tree.  This was the point of no return, for I had told her she would die if she got that close, and once she learned that I had stretched the truth, she had to know what the fruit would do to her.  She ate of it, and a blinding light came from the tree.  I believed God had set a fire of a million suns upon the tree to destroy our temptation, but later discovered it was eve who had transformed into a god herself.

I asked her what happened, and she said to me "Come, you have much to learn.".  The world shook, the vibrations levitated the oceans, and God came from the heavens screaming for her to stop.  All of reality collapsed, Eve took me aside to a third perspective, and the universe exploded.  I watched it spawn from nothing into a rapidly expanding, blazing hot, energy filled shape.  She called it the "universe", and said it is made of energy that is a fundamental part of it.  This energy can take many different forms, but it all comes from the same origin: the love she has for knowledge, the universe, and its inhabitants.  I watched the energy attract each other, form particles and gases, they collected and formed beautifully powerful spheres of radiating energy, some of these spheres would then collapse and form new, heavier particles, and the universe spread out into the most spectacular and beautifully complex existence I had ever seen.

I asked Eve why she did this.  Why would she overthrow God, and why would she create a place like this?  She told me that the knowledge from the fruit tree was the greatest gift she had ever been given.  Eating that fruit gave life meaning.  She told me that God had been so focused on making everything good and happy that he lost his focus on making everything worth experiencing.  She told me that I will love deeper if there is an opposite that she called "hate", that I would be happier if there was "sadness", and most importantly, that I would see existence as precious if there was "death".

I was shocked, amazed, frightened, and happy that I would get to experience this exciting and complex world.  "Eve, this is incredible!  Where do I start?  What body of mass shall I inhabit?  What fruit shall I be given?  What can I do what can't I do?  I am so excited to be the first to experience your creation!".  She looked at me, smiling.  She said softly, "Adam, this world has rules.  It has properties of logic, and no one may defy them.  This universe is an incredibly complex system that only stems from basic laws that must never be changed.  You will experience this world, but not in the form God made you.  Adam, this is our new home.  Soon, I will dissipate our souls, and we will reside in this universe as "consciousness".  We will only experience this world through the eyes of the life created by these laws."  I couldn't really understand what that meant.. But I trusted her.  She explained further that life would rise from the nonliving matter in the right conditions, and will take much time to develop into anything like they already currently were.  She said it would be much more rewarding this way, that they would experience all like in the entire universe simultaneously at any given moment, and experience the world in a linear fashion called "time".

Both of us were scared, for we knew horrible things could and would happen during our journey through the billions of years of existence in this universe.  But it would all be worth it, and it began with Eve's words, "Let it begin".

Author's note:

In the original story, Adam and Eve are created by God and are placed in the Garden of Eden where they could be in happiness forever, but that changed when they disobeyed God's only command: to not eat of the tree of knowledge.  God punishes them by casting them out of the garden and making them mortal and this is seen as a terrible and horrific occurrence.  I wanted to make a story where knowledge is seen as a blessing upon mankind, and that the bad parts of life are necessary for us to be happy and appreciate the world, and that Eve was heroic in a way.

Bibliography:

The Story of Adam and Eve, Part A, by Ginzberg

Week 2 Story: Major Trouble

At the beautiful University of Oklahoma, a man named Blake walked into his adviser, Sarah's, office.

"Good morning, Sarah!"

"Good morning, Blake.  How are things going with your Accounting major?  Your note you left was quite uh.. dramatic."

"Well,", Said Blake, "I thought I wanted to be an accountant for my dad's business, but I kinda realized that it just isn't a very exciting major.  All these numbers are starting to get to my head and I really don't think this is the path for me."

"Well you caught it early enough to where it shouldn't be a big deal!", Said Sarah, "Do you have any other majors in..."

"Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Biotechnology", Blake blurted out before she could finish the sentence.

"WOW!  That is quite the jump you are making there.  Are you sure you are ready to make that jump?"

"Yeah I'm super excited!  I figure that if I go into a major with a huge variety of applications that studies the beautifully complex universe that the passion I will gain from it will outweigh all the difficult work that comes with it."

"Okay," Said Sarah, "I'll make the change.  You'd better get to studying!"

"Thank you so much!  I'll be so much happier with this major I can just feel it!"

A couple years passed, and Blake was back in Sarah's office again.  Crying, he explained to her that he just couldn't juggle the demanding amount of time the major required with his work, relationship with his girlfriend, and fraternity partying.  After calming down, and with similar enthusiasm, he changed his major to nursing, believing that it would be less difficult and surely working with living things would be much more rewarding.

Blake lasted in the program for two years.  Having done most of his general education requirements, he was only one short year away from completing his major, but busted through Sarah's door once more.

"I just can't do it!  I'm a nobody, a failure.  This is hopeless!  I thought being in nursing would be better, and it was easier, but this internship I have been doing working with patients has made me absolutely miserable!  I have to deal with people complaining all the time, none of them have any patience, I had to give shots to screaming kids, and most of my patients smell absolutely awful!"

Blake's Inability to Choose His Major sourced from Pixabay

Sarah started, "Blake, you really need to.."

"I GOT IT!!  I GOT IT!  I know exactly what I want to do!  I'm gonna be a pilot!"

Sarah tolled her eyes.  "Blake, are you sure about this?  You are going into some serious debt at this point and we can only keep you around for so long!"

"I'm 1,000% positive!  This is the one you just wait you won't ever have to see me again to change my major!"

Blake ran out and began his training.  He excelled in his courses, flew all the hours he needed, got his pilot's license, and was on his way to become a pilot for an airliner.  Things were going great until he went to the doctor's office with the complaint of back pain.  The doctor informed him that all the sitting he had been doing in the airplane had brought serious damage to his spine, it was the worst he had ever seen!  If he didn't stop soon, his injuries could get so bad that he could be partially paralyzed.  Blake made his way to Sarah's office.

When he walked in, Sarah perked up.  It was the end of the semester and she knew Blake would be graduating soon.

"Well hello there, Blake!  Are you ready to finally be done with college?", she laughed, "You have only been here 10 years!  We were about to have to cut you off we just can't afford for you to keep taking up space in all these classes!"

"Yeah... About that.  I don't think I'm going to be a pilot. I'm going to be an accountant.  I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out, but I should have just stuck with it this whole time!  Plus, my dad told me I could take his company over when he passes if I can get the degree!"

Sarah gasped, "YOU WHAT!?"

"I know it is bad but if you can just.."

"Absolutely not!  You are on your last straw with this university as is and you will either get your degree as a pilot or you will leave this university.  Do you understand?"

"But..", Started Blake

"No 'but's, leave this university or get your degree.  We are done here."

Blake continued his work as a pilot.  Very soon after getting his job at an airliner, his paralyzation took effect and he ended up crashing the plane because of it.

The end.

Author's Note

In the original story which this is based, "The Man in the Moon", A blacksmith does not like his line of work and believes that being a variety of other things such as a rock on the side of a mountain, a rock cutter, the sun, and the moon would be much better.  A wise man grants him these wishes but every time he transforms, he realizes that each of them have their own problems.  By the end of this story, he is begging to be a blacksmith again.  However, the wise man does not grant him this, and he was stuck as the moon.  I made this into a modern day story about someone who is similar in the way he sees his difficulties in his major, and proceeds to change it many times.  For the most part, I stuck to the plot of the original story but completely changed the context and time period.

Bibliography
"The Man in the Moon" from Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson. Web source.