John's Novel Blog

Page 8

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:33:11 +0000

Yes, Bob was born at the Terces Park Place on the slide. His parents were at the park that day with their nephew. The birth of bob happened so fast that he was born right on the bottom of the slide. The talk of the town about this lasted for such a long time.
Now bob is usually seen walking around town. You can see him in the candy store, restaurant, library and some parks sitting on the bench. When you walked by him, he always said hello. He was more than willing to listen to your problems and try to help out. He didn’t have a lot of money but he survived very well. His only job was a helper for the candy store. Would help putting the candy out and sometimes sell them to the children. He was always good with the kids around town. Bob never yelled or said a bad word about anyone. Today Bob is sitting on his favorite bench next to the candy store. Relaxing on the bench and reading a newspaper. He looked very interested in the paper but he always said hello to people passing by.

Page 7 / Chapter 2

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:32:47 +0000

Bob was a weird old guy that everyone knew. Even the children knew of him ever since they remembered. He wasn’t mean or overly happy. Was just a regular person who loved candies. Bob was born, injured and lived in town. He certainly wasn’t the oldest man around. He wasn’t even the most popular person in town. Usually people wouldn’t even think of him. But ever so often his name would come up and memories would appear in peoples head about him like he was their new lost friend. They remembered the stories they read in the local newspaper. He was not born in a hospital. The nearest hospital is a couple of miles away. His parents tried desperately to get to the hosiptal but everything happened so fast. The local newspapers always loved to write big headlines to entice the readers. This time they had a big story.

The headline the next day was: “Local Sliding Baby Born”

Page 6

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:31:47 +0000

When I woke up in the morning my fears had returned. I knew it because I had to call my mom to check the closet before I get dressed. This day started out very nomaly for me but it ended with a big change. We all went out for breakfast and ate pancakes.

Page 5

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:31:03 +0000

   That night was a calm night for me. My dad made sure there were no spiders in the house. I believed him faster than I ever did before. I felt so calm in that house. We didn’t have all the furniture including the tv. We all played some board games. The night it all started to change for me.
   Before I go to bed I usually have to do stuff to make me calm. First make sure I have all the lights on in my room before I enter. My dad helps with that. Second I have my dad check under the bed and in the closet for any spiders or monsters. Some strange reason spiders were scarier than monsters. Then I would have to check under my bed and in the closet for myself. Once that is over I would get dressed for bed. Have to turn on my night lights and then make sure every other electronic thing in my room is unplugged. I had this fear that a fire would start when I was asleep. But this particular night I had no reason to check under my bed. The closet seemed OK to me. The darkness looked like daytime and had no fear of fire. I didn’t notice the change in myself. My parents sure did. I remember they would constantly be checking on me every 5 minutes or so. I was feeling great.
   Had a fantastic sleep and dreamt of chocolate swimming pools. Now I had several dreams before that time but this one was a happy one. Most of them were scary or very weird.

Page 4

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:30:29 +0000

   ”Welcome to your new house”, my father said to both me and my mother.
   ”You’ll love this house, Charlie”, my mother said to me.
   I was thinking other thoughts at that time. Hoping there were no spiders in the house. All I saw in my mind was spiders filling my room while I slept. It wasn’t a very good picture of this new house. I also thought about the kids in the neighborhood were probably laughing at me because I was still in the car. My parents were already out looking at the flowers around the house. Then I started to picture the car moving by itself with me in it because the hand brake wasn’t on. Got out of the car but the car didn’t even move. Just my paranoid mind I guess.
   I started to walk up the driveway to the house. I noticed the grass was green and the flowers were red. I knew I had to start thinking of good things. I sometimes think too negatively at times. Tried to picture how much fun it will be to play hide and seek in a new house. Hiding in a closet under some clothes, nobody can find me but the spiders. Why are there spiders in this place? I can’t play hide and seek then. This is terrible living with spiders. How will I live in this new house?
   ”Mom, are there spiders in this house”, I asked fearfully.
   ”No, Charlie, we will bring out the spray and do a search first, right David”, Answered his mom.
   ”Yes, we will do a spider hunt right away, Charlie. Come with me and we will start right now”, my dad agreed.
   Deep inside me I knew all this was foolish. I have read about spiders and I shouldn’t be scared of them. I knew thinking about spiders all the time isn’t a normal thing for people. My parents always did everything they could to make me at ease. It usually works just like it worked this time. I was happy to go on a spider hunt with my dad.

Page 3

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:25:20 +0000

Downtown was situated on top of a hill where the government buildings were. The schools were in the middle of the city. Parks were scattered in many places but most were next to schools. The houses were up on the hill also. The only thing that wasn’t on the hill was a park. I didn’t get to see it that first day. We came from the north of the city off the interstate highway. The park was in the south were a lot of farms were.
“We’re here, Charlie”, my mom said from the front seat.
I was in my own world and only heard her voice the second time. I looked out the window and saw a blue house that I saw on the computer when my dad showed me the new house. My dad was always showing me cool stuff he does on his computer. I was interested but not as much as he was. He would be so happy when he would find an answer on the internet. For me it was obvious the answer would be there. I never understood the wonder of it all.

Page 2

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:24:27 +0000

The city looked normal. Nothing seemed out of place. Drove by the city hall which looked normal. Drove by many schools and they looked normal but boring. Saw some parks with slides and other normal park stuff. One thing I noticed was all the parks were empty. I saw kids walking by but not one kid or parent was in any of the parks I saw. As a kid I thought that was strange. As a shy kid I was worried I wouldn’t be able to play at a park. Didn’t want to be the only one playing and have people look at me weird. I always thought people were looking at me. I rarely go outside for fear that someone would laugh at me for some reason. This was obviously a stupid thing to think about but I thought about it all the time.

Page 1

John — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:17:28 +0000

The grass as green as it can be. Roses with the smell of chocolate. Dirt tasty as the cake in a store. Sand ready to become a castle. These are all the things in The Terces Park Place down the hill from downtown. All the kids knew of the place. The parents knew but never understood the feelings. You might not understand the feelings also but I will try to guide you with my eyes. The eyes of a boy at age 9, innocent and shy.
I remember that day when we arrived at downtown to live in our new house. My parents worked hard to get us out of the apartment and now our dreams are coming true. Little did my parents know that my eyes would be opened up to a whole new world.