Posted in Posted by Lemony Snicket
Hello again! Snicket here! I have come to post some more of my story! To see the begining of it, click here.
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Riley didn’t know what he was talking about, and wasn’t concerned, that could mean anything from baseball tickets to some blackberries at the store.
A day arrived when, surprisingly, they didn’t see that man at all. All three of them were confused, but rather relieved that they had a day off from those watching eyes.
They took an early break and walked over to the cafeteria and met up with Mom and Dad. They were enjoying themselves very much when the last person they wanted to see appeared; the mystery man. He walked up to the table they were sitting at. The three kids didn’t look at him, hoping they could hide their faces from him so they wouldn’t recognize them.
“Hello. The staff at the front told me I could find you here. My name is Mr. Johnson,” he said, and handed Dad a business card which he didn’t bother to look at. “If I’m not interrupting anything, do you think we might step out and talk?”
Anya was so hoping Dad would say, “No, we’re eating. Come back some other time,” but instead he said, “Of course! We were just finishing up!”
Mom asked all of them, “Do you want to come with us you three like to come with us?”
Riley saw a scowl come across Mr. Johnson’s face which seemed to say, “Um, I don’t think so,” so he replied, “No, I think we all want to get some chips.”
“All right,” Mom said, “We’ll be outside if you need us!”
After he was sure the adults couldn’t hear him, Riley whispered, “Listen, you know this guy is probably up to no good. I think we should eavesdrop, see if we can put this mystery to rest.”
Anya and Kayla agreed to this plan, walked out the back door, snuck around to the front, and hid behind a plant so the adults couldn’t see them.
What they heard was this; “Mr. Potter, I’m just going to get straight to my point,” Mr. Johnson stated, “I would like to buy your penguins and transport them to my zoo.”
Mom looked as if her face had frozen, and Dad replied, “I’m terribly sorry Mr. Johnson, but we have no interest in selling them. They have brought great popularity to this zoo.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said, looking over at the flock of people headed towards the penguins. “That’s exactly why I would like them.”
Dad was certain Mr. Johnson was not going to give this up, and Anya saw it in his eyes that he wanted the conversation to be over. He told Mr. Johnson, “I’m afraid we just do not want to sell them under any circumstances.”
Anya wanted to help her dad, so she quietly snuck from her hiding place and found Ben, the one of the people who helped with the tigers. She told him her dad wanted to talk with him and he headed that way.
Anya walked behind him, and saw that Mr. Johnson was not happy. Ben said, “You wanted to see me, sir?”
Dad saw Anya behind him and understood what was happening. “Oh yes, I did!” he said, “I’m sorry Mr. Johnson,” he sighed redirecting his attention to him, “I must go. Excuse me.”
Mom was quite happy the conversation was over, but anyone could tell Mr. Johnson wasn’t. It seemed like there was steam coming out of his ears and he was turning red. He controlled his anger very well though, because all he did was turn around and march off.
When Anya walked back over to Kayla and Riley, Kayla said, “I don’t like that man! He scares me!”
Later that day, Dad had taken Kayla home and Mom was busy with some zoo employees, so Riley and Anya were all alone for a few minutes. They were both silent for a very long time, both deep in their own thoughts.
Riley finally said, “Anya, you know Mr. Johnson is up to no good right?”
“Yes, of course I know. I’ve thought that even before he said he wanted to buy the penguins.”
“Well, I have a feeling he is going to do something bad. I mean really bad.”
“What can he do? The worst thing possible he could do is pelt us with souvenirs at the gift shop,” she joked.
“I don’t know. I just think he won’t stop at anything to get these penguins. He seemed pretty determined earlier today, and he assured that person on the phone that he would get them. I’m not guaranteeing you he will do anything, just keep your eyes opened. Oh, and I wouldn’t mention this to Kayla, you know she gets easily scared.”
Posted in Posted by Lemony Snicket
Hello everyone! Snicket here. Jack and Spy have been asking me to post some of my NaNoWriMo story, so that is what I'm here to do. And before you read this I must inform you; This story is not written with teens in mind, it's more of a young children's story. One more thing, I'm not done with it, so R.K. have mercy on me!
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Anya woke up knowing it was going to be a good day. Her parents were at work, as usual, and she had breakfast with Riley and Kayla as she always did, but she had a feeling this day would turn out to be special. As soon as she did her daily chores, she headed over with her brother and sister to the zoo.
The ticket taker let them though with a smile and said, “You three are here earlier than normal.”
They walked though the turn style and entered into the zoo. All of the employees either tipped their hat at them or greeted them with a friendly, “Hello.” They looked at the elephants, tigers, and giraffes before they spotted their parents near the monkeys. Kayla and Anya ran towards them, but Riley skated there.
“You all got here just in time!” Mom exclaimed, “We were just about feed the monkeys. You want to join us?”
“Yes!” they all replied.
Dad unlocked the cage door and they all went in. It was a big mess and Anya was glad she wasn’t the one who needed to clean it. They struggled through the “jungle” and arrived at the feeding platform. It was covered in orange and banana remains and hungry monkeys.
Almost everything having to do with the monkeys was messy. The feeding, the cleaning, it was all icky. Dad was typically the one who did all the cleaning and Mom did the feeding. Anya could never understand how Dad could tolerate cleaning when he could be doing even more fun jobs.
Riley, Anya, and Kayla were aloud to play with the animals while their parents were doing work. The monkeys were the most fun to play with because they were always curious about what things were and how they worked. One of them stole Riley’s skateboard right from under his feet.
Both of the girls wanted to be zoologist when they grew up, but Riley couldn’t decide between that or a professional skateboarder. He always said, “Tricky ramps and thick leaves, crazy skateboarders and wild animals, all the same to me!”
Once the monkeys were fed, Mom and Dad told them to sit down. They all found a rock to sit on and were all ears.
Dad started by saying, “I know you all have been telling us you want summer jobs to earn some money, right?”
They all nodded, and liked where this was going.
Dad began again. “And Mom and I know you all love the zoo. Well, we thought, because we don’t have anyone to work there yet, that you might want to work with the penguins.”
They all looked at each other, confused. Riley finally said, “But, there aren’t any penguins at this zoo.”
“No, not yet. We’re getting them next week.”
Anya and Riley were in shock, and Kayla was the first to respond. She jumped up, started dancing, and exclaimed, “Oh, wow, we’re getting penguins! I love penguins!”
After a few minutes, Anya finally spoke. “Ok, so, what do we need to do to earn our pay?”
“You need to do the feeding and cleaning, and in your spare time, you can find something fun to do with them.”
All three of them were so excited, and they really had nothing more to say.
That week was long and dull. Anya couldn’t enjoy anything until the penguins had arrived. She didn’t care about going to the movies, or eating out, she just wanted them to come immediately.
A week later, Anya, Kayla, and Riley were sitting on the bench at the zoo, just waiting for them. An hour had passed, then two, then three. They felt like they couldn’t enjoy anything until they could finally just see them.
Then, the moment they were waiting for happened. A truck with a trailer attached to it drove into the zoo grounds. The three of them were hopeful of what it was and followed it to the empty penguin exhibit.
They had a hard time keeping up with the truck, but when they arrived at their destination they were not disappointed. The man who was driving opened the back door on the trailer and out walked about 30 small penguins, wearing their suits very nicely. Kayla’s reaction was sheer joy, Anya’s was happiness of actually being able to see them, and Riley’s was wondering if they were smart enough to learn to skateboard.
Mom and Dad were there and Mom cried, “Oh, aren’t they just so sweet? I’m sure the zoo will gain much more popularity with them here. We really need it, this little zoo has been having some struggles, but these little guys will be a big help!”
Dad said nothing, he just smiled and smiled.
Kayla was going crazy, and not even a safe with ten locks could keep her from rushing towards them. Anya thought when Kayla ran to them, they would take off, but they were very calm and just looking at their surroundings.
Kayla exclaimed, “Mom, can we name them and play with them and teach them tricks? Can we?”
“Sure, but I don’t know how you will be able to name them. There are 15 boys and 15 girls, and they all look the same.”
“We can do it! We could put a label around their legs saying their name!”
Everyone was surprised that a seven year old girl could come up with such an idea, and that’s what they decided to do.
Riley named his ten Rusty, Allan, Dylan, Andy, Samuel, Carla, Erica, Missy, Jill, and Penny. Kayla named some Flipper, Swimmer, Jumper, Pecker, Flapper, Princess, Cutie, Queeny, Sweetie, and Hannah. Anya named hers William, John, Henry, George, Phillip, Victoria, Elizabeth, Marie, Katherine, and Isabella.
Kayla thought the penguins were very happy with the names she picked for them. Riley thought they wanted to hide their faces in shame.
All three of them were having one of their best summers ever. In their spare time, they tried to teach the penguins some tricks. Riley taught his group of ten to skateboard, Anya taught them how to “sing”, and Kayla taught them how to “dance”.
These tricks were a hit with the crowd. They would see the skateboard in there and think, “Why on earth would a penguin want to play with a skateboard?” Riley would throw out some fish and a penguin would jump on it and roll towards the fish. They would spontaneously dance around in a circle and whenever Anya some fish over their heads they would start “singing”.
When they weren’t with the penguins, they were out talking to the crowd, asking them how they liked the zoo and which animal was their favorite. Everyone they saw was so friendly.
There was one person in particular though, that was rather strange. A big man, in his mid thirties, with a shaved head and a tattoo here and there, would come everyday and watch the penguins. He did not seem amused by all the tricks they did, he was just always in a focused stare. He was the kind of man a kid would prefer to not look at and walk straight past, and that’s what most all of the kids did.
Anya was the first to notice this mysterious man. It was 5:00, closing time, and he was still there, in a locked gaze. Anya really didn’t want to say anything to him, but Riley, Mom and Dad, and all of the other employees were nowhere to be seen, so she had to deal with him.
“Excuse me sir,” she said in a timid voice, “I don’t mean to bother you, but the zoo is closing for today.”
All he did was grunt and walk off. Anya was glad he didn’t do anything worse.
For the next few days, he would go through the same pattern; Arrive at the exact time when it opened, stayed all day (accept for when he left to get lunch in the zoo cafeteria), and leave at closing.
One day, on Riley’s break, he was headed over to get something to eat, when he heard the odd man talking on his cell phone in a soft tone, as if he was trying to keep a secret, saying, “Yes, I know, I’ll get them, don’t you worry.”
Posted in Posted by Lemony Snicket
Here is my first story I am going to post. It is from a series of short stories I have started called Terribly Twisted Tales. Here it goes.....
Terribly Twisted Tales: Why George Washington Cut Down the Cherry Tree
I am sure you all know that George Washington cut down his father’s cherry tree, but has anyone told you why he did such a thing? They haven’t! Well, I suppose I shall need to be the one to tell you, now won’t I?
Some of you probably know that George had a brother named Lawrence. They were very close and rarely ever fought, but when they did, well, let’s just say it would be best if you were in the other room.
George had just had a fight like this (and it is for your own sake that I don’t tell you what the fight was about, for your life will be much better by not knowing) when he saw his father’s ax. At first he thought about chopping Lawrence’s head off with it, but he found that rather drastic.
He walked outside with the ax and spotted his father’s cherry tree, and when George was mad, he did not think very sensible thoughts. He thought to himself, “I will cut down the tree to make a slingshot. Then I can hit him with these acorns on the ground. He’ll only think it’s the squirrels.” (Squirrels then, just as they do now, had the occasional urge to hit people in the head with nuts)
So, not thinking of what his father’s reaction would be, chopped down the tree and used his cutting knife to turn a wedge of the wood into a slingshot and carved his name into it.
When Lawrence walked outside, George aimed carefully at him and WHAM! An acorn hit him right on his head. Lawrence had only thought it was a squirrel, just like George had wanted him to.
Later that day, Father came home and had a craving for a cherry pie (now this can’t be good). He went into the yard to pick some cherries, but all that was left of the tree was a stump.
He called George and Lawrence out and asked them, “Boys, what happened to my cherry tree?”
George said, “Father, I can not tell a lie. I cut down your cherry tree.” (That sounds very corny, now doesn’t it?) You might be saying right now, “That was so good of him not to tell a lie,” right? Wrong! He decided to tell him only that he had cut down the tree, and not why he did it.
Father was very proud of his boy and did not punish him. Then he saw the slingshot in George’s pocket. He took it out and saw that it was cherry wood. He yelled, “You cut down my tree to make a slingshot!”
He took George into the barn, gave him a spanking, and sent him to his room, and from that day on he never liked cherries. Now, aren’t you glad I told you?
