Noodle Earth

Chapter 1

This is was not home! The grass (which looked like noodles) was orange and in the sky I saw two flying dogs (with arms that looked like noodles)! Where was I? I wondered.

“Hello,” I shouted, hoping someone that understood English would hear me. No one answered but a few minutes later, when I almost started panicking I heard a tractor coming my way. I jumped up and down in the grass waving my arms and yelling as loud as I could. Success! The man driving the tractor had seen me and had started to come my way! As the tractor neared me, I saw that the man looked strange! He had a square face and purple hair. Also his nose was above his eyes! I hoped that wherever I was, they did not care about manners. How was I supposed to keep from staring? When the tractor reached me, the man jumped down and said “Hi April.”

How did he know my name? I wondered. This place was really weird! “Hi,” I said. “Could you please tell me where I am?”

“Sure. You are on an unknown planet named Noodle World!”

Now that he mentioned the word “noodle”, I noticed that his arms and legs were noodles too!

“How did I get here and why is everything made of noodles and why do you look so strange and how did you know my name and who are you?”

“Slow down!” exclaimed the man in a voice that sounded like a laugh but his mouth was shaped like a frown so I did not know if he was mad or happy! “I can only answer your questions one at a time! I do not know how you got here. There have been other people that look like you, that have shown up in the very same strange manner. Since they did not know how to leave, they still live here. No one knows why everything is made of noodles, but we found a sign, by the lake that said when we unlock the mystery of how people show up here, we will all be able to leave and it will also lead us to another hidden sign that tells us why every thing is made of noodles.”

Before he could go on, I exclaimed, “I do not want to stay here for ever! You have to solve the mystery!”

“Oh, I am sure you will like it here. Every one else thought the same thing but now they like it! You will to. I knew your name only because I am a Noodlite. When we see a person, we automatically know their name. Once you have been here for a year, you will have the same ability as all of us. And last of all, my name is Mark.”

“Mark! That does not sound strange at all!” “I thought you would have strange name!”

“Every one that lives here has non-strange name. We all came here just like you and then after we had been here a while, we noticed that we were changing!” Mark explained. “We better get back into town. This is my field that you showed up in. I bet your hungry!”

“I sure am. I can’t wait to meet some more people and hear more about this place. I am especially interested in the mystery!” I said as he helped me up onto the tractor.

I decided that these people were friendly and that they would help me.

“Are there any children my age?” I asked. Before he answered I added, “ I’m 10.”

“Yes. There are quite a few. You see, they have lived here all their lives because they were born here. Right now our neighbor is pregnant!” Where am I going to stay? I wondered. Just then, as if Mark could read my mind he said, “You can stay at my house. I have an extra room and two girls that you can play with.”

“Thank you very much. You are very kind,” I said. Then I saw that we were nearing the town. When we were close enough, I saw that the fences were made of noodles. I could’ve guessed that! I thought. Pretty soon we were at Mark’s house. He helped me down off the tractor, and lead me to the door of the house. He opened the door and walked in motioning me to follow.  As soon as the two girls heard their daddy open the door, they bounded down the stairs and ran to give him hug. His wife did so more slowly though. After all the greetings, he introduced me to the family.

“This my wife, Megan McCormick and my two girls Melissa who is 12 and May who is 10.” “Ladies, this is April.  She just showed up in my field like all the other people did.

“Hi!” I said not knowing what else to say.

“Hello,” said May “Follow me and will show your room.”

Not knowing what else to do I said “Thank you” to Mark and followed May to the bedroom.

Chapter 2

“This is delicious!” I said. We were eating supper. “Tell me more about the signs.”

“Well I have told you all that I know, but after supper I can take you to the first man that ever landed here. He knows more than any of the people that live here, because he discovered the sign. He is three hundred and fifty years old!”

“Three hundred and fifty years old!

Madame Pompadour: If you walked up to Madame P., you would see a lady with curly gray hair, dangling earings, and a pearl necklace around her neck. She never wears any different jewelry.

She loves poodles so much that she treats them like humans! She will hold parties for her dogs and invite all their favorite poodle friends. She even had her servants dig 158 tunnels under her winter hideaway in Minneapolis so that she could walk her dogs without them having to endure the frigid weather. (I personally think that she had them dug so she wouldn’t have to endure the coldness)

Madame P. eats plenty of all the finest foods (maybe that is why she is so plump…) and she always shares generous portions with her poodles. She claims they have delicate stomachs so they can’t eat dog food. Her 50 poodles sit at the table with her in special chairs designed by her personal inventor, Freddie Fandango!

You can’t her call house a house, and be telling the truth. Her “house” is a mansion. A palace! It’s filled with moving walkways, elevators, escalator, servants here, and servants there, all of whom come running at the ring of a bell, and of course, poodles here and poodles there. In every room she has dog beds and toys, and each of her dogs get a personal servant (aren’t they spoiled???).

When most people hear of her they think she is a snob but she is one of the nicest people in her town! She loves children and will pass out treats of all kinds to them. The children love her, too, and her poodles of course, so everyday after school they all go flocking to her mansion, which they call Madame P.’s Poodle Palace.

It was summertime so Bettie’s family was on vacation. First they went to the library, and Bettie got to get her favorite book, Caddie Woodlawn, by Caroline Ryrie Brink. Then her grandparents met them at the pond with a picnic.

“We wanted to have a barbecue, but it didn’t’ turn out,” said Bettie’s grandpa wiping the perspiration from his forehead. “At least we have this watermelon and lemonade to cool off with. The sunshine is so hot!”

“How about we go swimming?” suggested Bettie’s brother Jack. “I’d also like to try sailing the boat that I finished building last week.”

“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed Bettie. She finished her food, and took off her shoes, and soon she was running barefoot towards the pond. She jumped in with a huge splash, which scared away a family of frogs and a cloud of mosquitoes.

“Oh no! I forgot to take off my sunglasses and when I dived in, I lost them!” cried Bettie. “I’ll dive in and find them for you,” said Jack whipping out a pair of goggles from his back pocket.

“Where did those come from?” asked Bettie in a tone of bewilderment. But Jack was already in the pond.

A few moments later, Jack came up gasping for breath with his arms full. He had Bettie’s sunglasses, a baseball, a gardening tool, and a hat that said “Camping at Camp Snookelwickles” on the front of it!

“It’s a regular field of treasures down there!” exclaimed Jack as he dumped his treasures at the edge of the pond and dived in again.

Bettie grabbed her sunglasses and put them on the table so she wouldn’t lose them again. When she got back to the pond, she saw a little girl her age swimming! They immediately became friends and Bettie told her all about the day --- losing her sunglasses and all! The other girl told Bettie all about her day --- they had gone sightseeing in Paris, caught a plane to Florida and there they were!

“It was barely even daylight when we got on the plane, but now the sun is going down!” said the other girl.

“You’re right! I hadn’t noticed. I’d better get going. I see my family packing up,” said Bettie, climbing out of the pond.

“Bye! Oh wait! I never found out your name! I’m Olivia Brown,” Olivia said.

“Olivia! What a pretty name! My name is Bettie. It was a pleasure meeting you!” called Bettie from over her shoulder. She turned around one last time and waved.

“Wow! There is so much humidity in the air and I can see a thunderstorm coming toward us! What a change from the nice weather we had earlier,” said Bettie’s dad. “Are we all ready to go? Wait, where is Jack?”

“Here I am Dad,” said Jack coming up from behind them with his arms full of things he found at the bottom of the pond.

“Well then, lets go!” said Bettie’s dad.

They all waved good bye to their grandparents and got into the van.

That night when Bettie went into Jack’s bedroom to say goodnight she said, “Thanks for getting my sunglasses Jack. Where did you get those sunglasses anyway?” wondered Bettie, but Jack was already asleep. She lay down on her bed and suddenly a thought popped into her mind: tomorrow was Independence Day! She fell asleep wondering what they would do then.

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“I’m going to get you!” yelled Tom as he chased his best friend Mark.

“Oh no you won’t!” Mark yelled back. He wasn’t looking where he was going because he was running to fast.

“Watch out for the mud!” exclaimed Tom’s sister Maryanne.  But it was too late. Mark ran right into the slippery, slimy mud and fell flat on his back! Mark’s twin sister Annie came running out of the house right then and she started howling with laughter. Then Maryanne and Tom joined in. Mark didn’t think it was very funny and responded but throwing a mud-ball and yelling “Its not funny!

Mark ran down to the mud puddle to make a mud-ball to throw at Tom but in his hurry he fell down too! Pretty soon the girls ran down too and they started a mud fight. Pretty soon they got tired of throwing mud-balls and they decided that they wanted to go inside. All four of them walked toward the house trying to decide who looked worse. Maryanne opened the house door and started to walk in but her mom stopped her.

“Wait a minute! You aren’t going to come in my house looking like that! Go try the neighbor’s house. How did you get so muddy?”

“Mark was running away from…”

“Tom was chasing me and…”
            “Mark threw a mud-ball at us and I went to get some…”

“I came out of the house and Mark had just…” All the kids started talking at once.

“One at a time, one at a time!. All I can understand is Mark this, and Mark that and Tom was chasing someone and there were mud-balls involved with it,” laughed Tom’s mother. “You go wash off with the hose and come back when you look a little cleaner,” and she shooed them off the porch.

The kids raced each other to the hose and had lots of fun spraying each other. Then they went and sat in the sun to dry off a little before they went inside.

This time when they went to the door they were allowed to come inside and Tom’s mother had some cookies fresh out of the oven for them to eat.