Showing posts with label Lynne Harvey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lynne Harvey. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Ben's Dream Middle

                 Foreword: This is the middle of the story Ben's Dream , by Chris Van Allsburg. The middle of the story just had pictures, and our assignment was to write the middle based on the pictures. You probably don't know what I'm talking about, but if you want to, buy Ben's Dream on Amazon!

                  Ben hears a rumble, and is knocked off his feet. He looks up and says," Where am I?" As he looks out the window, he realizes that he's not in the middle of the storm anymore. The door suddenly creaks open, and Ben sees...water. Water, far as the eye can see. But there's something else, way in the distance. Ben puts on his glasses and strains his eyes, and saw a giant statue, holding a torch! He faintly remembers something about it, but he just can't place it. But, there's a rumble, and Ben finds himself next to a giant clock tower.
                 Ben asks to nobody in particular," What am I doing in the ocean, next to a giant clock tower." He had no answers though, so he tried to remember something about it. " Hmm..., it's probably from a big city because it's so big, other than that, I've got nothing." Just then, there's a rumble, and Ben finds himself under a giant bridge.
                 The bridge is sinking but cars are still going through it."Is this London Bridge?" Ben asks himself. No, but Ben faintly remembers something about this bridge, but he just can't put his finger around it.Then, a car falls off the bridge and makes a beeline for Ben's house. Ben screams and braces for impact, but there's a rumble and Ben finds himself floating next to a giant leaning tower.
                 The tower looked like a giant, multi-level cake, and Ben felt his mouth water. He remembered that this was some sort of monument from Europe, but after that useless fact his mind was a blank.But, Ben sees people in it and is about to shout for help when there's a rumble and Ben sees crumbling, ancient pillars a hundred yards away from him.
                 The pillars he sees look old, old enough to be from Grecian or Roman times. They look to have some sculpted statues on top of them, but there so crumbly Ben can't make head or tail of them. Ben reaches into his mind for a glimpse of a memory, but there's a rumble and Ben sees a giant yellow head.
                 Ben says to himself " It looks light yellow and grainy, and has triangular ears, and has no nose( What was that about?), but other than that, this head has no identifying features. It looks like ancient architecture, but I've got nothing else in my mind about it" To Ben, it looked like nothing more than a tourism magnet. But, just then there's a rumble and Ben finds himself near a castle.
                 It had a bell tower like a cathedral, but the massive size of it made it look like a castle for royalty. It's architecture was rounded, and it had many buildings. Seeing it bobbing around was a funny sight, and Ben thought so too. He silently giggled to himself. Ben reached out from his balcony to touch it, but there's a rumble, and Ben sees a giant marble building.
            Ben quickly saw how big this building was. With three rounded main buildings, it looked like a guaranteed bucket list trip, like lots of the other monuments. Ben told himself," Wow! This thing is massive. Ben found himself taking out his camera to take a photo, but there's a rumble and Ben finds in front of him... a giant wall?!
            Ben had seen many strange things floating in the ocean today, but he was still taken by surprise at this titanic wall. Ben quietly asked himself, " What in the world is a giant wall doing bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean?" Ben remembered something about this, but before a memory could be triggered, there was a rumble and Ben found himself next to 4 giant faces!
            Ben was astonished to see 4 giant faces floating in the ocean and rubbed his eyes to see if he was hallucinating. He looked at them again and there they were still floating around plain and tall. Ben was about to scream or pinch himself when a voice said," Ben, wake up."

Friday, November 27, 2015

The Nerve-Wracking Auditions

  The room was about 30 square feet. There were a lot of plaques on the walls. It was just me and a lady. I should have felt comfortable but I couldn't because she was watching me like a hawk. The "Welcome" mat at the front of the room didn't feel welcoming at all under the circumstances.
   I had worked seven whole months. Those seven months were brutal, and I was lectured tons of times on the values of "practicing" and "memorizing" and whatever by my very strict piano teacher, Mrs. Deering. I did practice half an hour a day! Usually an hour! But, all that lecturing and practicing was going to come down to this final span of 12 minutes.
  Let me just say that every minute of those auditions felt like an eternity. Playing " The Pink Panther" was the easiest because the tune of the tune of the song was easy to memorize. The first song I played was "United We Stand" and every time she looked down on that report card and made note of something I thought I was going to be sick. The passing grade was easy, even if you got 16 more Cs(negatives) than As(positives) you would still pass but I still felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach. While I was playing "Hogwarts Hymn" I could barely remember the notes of the song. On the last part, I thought I played a note wrong and I thought that mistake would cost me a good grade. After "Hogwarts Hymn" I played "Snake Charmer" in which I thought I had the tempo all wrong. After that eighth song, those twelve minutes were over. I felt like doing a hop-skip-jump dance. I braced myself for a bad grade but I got 11 As and 5 Cs. I had passed! My nerves relaxed. A ton of weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I got into the car and happily relaxed. Finally, those piano auditions were over.