The Warm Breathing Truck

The Warm Breathing Truck

By Elle Laub

It was a hot summer day, the sun was out, the birds were singing and it was just the right temperature to play one incredibly fun game. Can you guess what it was? It has 2 teams. One team is “kicking” and the other team is “fielding.” How about now? Well, the game was kickball. I was around 3 or 4 years old and this was my favorite game of all time.
My family and I lived in a cul-de-sac of 4 families. Teddy and Katie, the Degrandmonts, the Kopecs, and some other family, which I believe had no kids at the time. The 3 kids from the Degrandmonts were definitely part of the kickball squad. Whenever we felt like playing we went outside with the ball and after a while the other kids would join in. At that time, I couldn’t just “text” them since I didn’t have a phone and I was only 3 years old.
Particular on this day, everyone’s parents were out of the house doing errands of some sort and it was just us kids wandering around the house. We had an amazing idea. Why not play a game of kickball? It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining at just the right temperature. Teddy, my neighbor next door, came out of the house with the oval shaped bouncy ball and called me over to play. He too knew it was a great day to play! We knocked on the Degrandmonts door; luckily all 3 kids were home and were eager to play kickball. After we gathered every kid from their houses in our col-de-sac, it was time to pick teams. I had a strong kick compared to my other friends, so I was picked first or second every time.
“Elle!” Courtney, my sister, said.
“ The teams are SO unfair Courtney…” Katie, the 7 year old neighbor, exclaimed.
We row sham bowed to figure out who got to kick first and who had to play in the field first. My team, as Courtney as my captain was in the field first. I could not wait to go up and kick the crap out of the ball! I had just been practicing the other day, since it was summer and this was the prime time of the year to play kickball. 3 outs went by quick with Teddy on our team. He played goalie in his recreational soccer team and he didn’t mind if he had to dive or slide for the ball every once in a while. As teddy as our number one outfielder, we had an amazing pitcher, Courtney. She played softball and knew exactly how to spin a ball so the kicker can’t kick the ball as far as they liked. And this is why people said our team was unfair.
Finally it was our turn to bat. I was so excited because I was put 4th in the kicking order. In basball, the fourth one up to bat is known as the one who sweeps up the people on the bases. This is because they have the best arm and usually get home runs. This goes the same for kickball, the one with the strongest kick, is 4th up to bat. As I came up to bat, someone yelled, “WATCH OUT!” I thought they were just trying to fool me since they knew if I turned around it would distract me from the game, so I didn’t check. As soon as I was about to boot the ball out of the park, this loud grunting sound came up behind me as if it had been creeping up on me for a long period of time. At that moment, I screamed and yelled! What was it? I didn’t want to turn around just in case it was some kind of warm-breathing dragon. The sound began to sound more like an engine, so I realized it might be just some type of car. It was my mother. My plain old mother with the big truck Lexus. The car had scared the bejeebers out of me and I never got to kick my homerun. Ill always remember the time my mom snuck up behind me in her gigantic truck and have my first at bat ever, NOT be a homerun.

3 Questions for Tobias

1) Which short story did you think everyone was going to like the best? the worst? How did that change?

2) How did you think of Nightingale? I think it is the most interesting and confusing story out of the ones I had to read and want to know where your mind originated in about thinking about this book. Do you even know?

3) How many books do you have out? Are you still a continuous writer? Or have you stopped? What is your favorite genre to write?

Zoom in and Zooming Out

Sentance: He looked back and saw the elephant running after the jeep.

Zoomed Out all the Way : Tim looked back at the zoo he had longed wished he had stayed at. He never got to see his favorite animal. The elephants. Peeking around a huge cage, Tim spotted something large and grey. He couldn't believe his eyes. Was it really what he thought it was?? An actual elephant escaping from the zoo?? No, it couldn't be. But, oh yes it was. Tim yelled to his mom.

Mom, mom! Drive Faster!! There is an elephant coming towards our jeep! No joke, mom! Come on!
She turned her head around to make sure her son wasn't being insanely delusional. There it was, completely out of the ordinary, an elephant was running after their jeep.

Zoomed In Half Way : Tim's eyes starring at gravel laying on the slanted surface. Sadness filled his eyes and he couldn't help but think he was never going to see those big grey footed mammals ever. He got into his nice car, sat down on the patted cushion, just comfortable enough for his small butt to fit right in. As he turned around to see his favorite zoo pass away in the distance, he noticed something moving behind a slightly slanted yellowish lampost. He had never noticed how slanted that post had really been. So many different things were going through his head at that moment. He had no idea what it was! A lion? A tiger? A bear? OMG it was an elephant! The stomping of the feet had a louder echo each step the elephant took. The toenails were grinding against the concrete as if it was chalk against a blackboard. Sprinting at Tim full speed was not something he wanted to see flash before his eyes. He told his witch-like mother to watch the creature crawl closer towards the jeep, but she refused until the very last second.

Zoomed In all the Way: Tim's sweldering pupils were looking at the animals legs running around in a circular motion. You could hear the sound of their nails grind against the bark of the trees and the sides of the gates the animals were enclosed in. The roars of the lions were echoing from far away. My foot crunched against the small pieces of cement as I walked past the entrance of my home away from home. Thinking about his past, seeing lions for the first time, and then monkeys today. The monkeys were grey with black spots that filled their back while their heads were white as panda fur. He remembers the day that his mom once handed him a small chimp that sat perfectly in his hand. But never has he witnessed such a beautiful creature, his favorite animal. They were rough, but gentle. Big, but kind. Sad on the outside, but then full of life on the inside.

The Yellow Jeep With Black Stripes

Sentence: Tub had been waiting for an hour in the falling snow.

Waiting there, aimlessly, nowhere to go. Where are his parents? Nobody knows. Does he? Shivering, pacing, and trying to swipe the snow off his brand new shoes. Tick tock. Time goes as fast a snail can travel across the world. Cars go by and yet the yellow jeep with black stripes is not one of them. The snow comes down softly, yet it hit his skin like a burn from a trampoline. Tub watches every flake as it flies past his face by the 60 mph breeze. The wind is carrying leaves and soft bristles from the trees whipping him in the face, as he stands their waiting for someone to pick him up. He spots a car, making its way up the windy road down below, he looks down with his eyes open wide. Is it his car? No. He walks away, not looking back, mad at the world. Why doesn’t anyone care about me? Why won’t they give me a cell phone? A million questions are going on in his head right now. Angry and confused, his cheeks begin to turn bright red; the color of a fly just being stepped on by a 6-foot size shoe. Black stripes appeared out of nowhere. They came around the bend as if they had been waiting for the right time to approach. Tub calmed down. He was no longer stuck in the middle of powdered ice. He was in a safe car ready to go home and snuggle in his bed with foot warmers nestled inside his socks.

Lies Lies and more Lies

Lies are a thing of human nature. EVERYONE tells them. No matter how big, small, fat, skinny. It's common knowledge. Everyone lies. When I was a little girl I always wanted to believe that when I make a wish at 11:11 then my wish will come true. Ever since I was a little girl I believed when you make a wish, it will always come true. Now I see that in reality, wishes don't just come true. You have to make them come true because I honestly don't believe in miracles. If something magical happens to me, I don't believe that a "miracle" has happened. I just think that karma is finally seddling in. A lie that I once told where I've been caught was when I told my dad I wasn't texting in the car. He told me that since I was in trouble, the whole ride home from Tahoe, I wasn't allowed to text anybody. Just listen to my Ipod. Since I have an Iphone, I realized he would never notice if I just texted because I would say I was just looking up a new song to play. Despite my actions, he asked me at the end of the trip to see my phone. He saw my texts. I had straight up lied to his face after he deliberatly told me not to text. I got in a lot of trouble, and even more trouble, since I was already in trouble. Another time where I had been believed when I told a lie was when I told my dad I went to bed 5-6 hours later than I had told him. He never found out the real truth because if he had than I would have been a lot of trouble. Sounds like he punishes me a lot huh? No, I just need to be more disciplined when I am around him.

Jonah at MHS

If narrated by Jonah, I think life at MHS would be very different. If all Bokonists ran MHS, since in Jonah’s opinion, the teachers would be like “Bokonons,” and they would be teaching their students in class trying to become Bokonists. Jonah would probably have Mr. **** as the ambassador of the “island.” Since he doesn’t leave his office normally. He doesn’t teach any classes, but yet all of his wisdom is spread throughout the school. I think the classes would function all around lies. The teachers would teach them the wrong things and say it’s the right thing. What do the students know? Just how in Cat’s Cradle, when you’re taught something and you don’t have the evidence to say it’s wrong, you just believe it. For example, with the ice-nine. It started out as such a made belief object, but then through Jonahs writing, he transformed it into a real live substance.

Chapter One- Call me...

Call me Elle. Elle is the name and it will always be the same. My parents didn't really give a damn to make my actual name longer because they felt it would be a lot easier to just give me a two syllable, 4 letter name. Boring? Think again. Not only does it really have just two letters, but it is also a palindrome. E l l e spelled backwards is just Elle right?
Listen here, 200 years from now, nothing from my life is going to even matter. I am going to be far dead and my spirit will just be flying around the earth. What will be left? Who knows because since no one I know will be alive, i guess i will never know. Since that nonsense about the future is basically a bunch of bologna, I am going to tell you about my life.
(start of next chapter)