Creative Writing

The following is a story that my daughter wrote and I am so proud of her. M is only in the 5th grade and all her teachers love her though she struggles with ADD. She reads with a voraciousness that I find mind-boggling and she is so creative. There are times when she is a bit much to handle because she is very abstract and "drifty". So, without further ado, here is her writing (p.s. I have typed this exactly as it was written, punctuation, spelling, and all, but she typed the majority of it):

Dou you believe in mythical beasts and beings? I do, because I turned into one not too long ago. I wsn't always like this, I was once like you.

My friend Kelly and I where walking in her uncle's apple orchard, and I was telling Kelly in great detail how grateful I was to see her. (Kelly had move to the country five years ealier.) Later that afternoon we sat down to take a rest. Soon I started to get hungry, so on the way back to the house I picked an apple and bit into it. Sometime later in the day when I was sitting in my room reading about harpies Kelly came in and stared at me, horrified. Kelly pointed at me and said "Your ears! They have feathers growing on them!" I told her she must be seeing things, but she just shook her head and pointed at the mirror. I rolled my eyes as I got up to look in the mirror. When I looked in the mirror the blood drained from my face. Now it was my turn to be horrified, my reflection looked normal except for my ears and my eyes. Kelly wasn't seeing things! My ears were growing feathers! That and my eyes had turned a shade of midnight blue. Suddenly Kelly found her voice again. 'M...m...Morgan.' She stammered. "Yes?" I asked. "I think your ears are the least of your worries. Lift up the back of your shirt." "What!?!?!" I shouted. "Are you kidding?" She stared with annoyance as well as concern. I glared back at her and said "Fine but it had better be for a good reason." So I did as I was told and lifted up the back of my shirt. I heard Kelly gasp. "What!? What is it!? What's wrong with me!?!?" I started to panic. "Calm down! Shh! You're going to alert my uncle." "But what's wrong with me?" Kelly drew out a long breath. "Morgan...you have...you have...wings." I forgot to breath. I was about ready to faint. "W...w...wings?" I asked. "Wings."She replied. At that moment I knew that I was turning into the creature I had been reading about. The only thing I didn't know was why it was happening. I rushed over to my book and flipped over to the section on how and why someone turns into a harpy. After I was done reading it I was pale as a sheet. "This is not good Kelly. This is not good at all. Listen to this." I sadi and began to read her the page. "The book say and I quote; a person turns into a harpy when he/she eats an enchanted apple. The effect is permanent." I closed the book and said "I say it again this is not good." "Where will you go?" Kelly asked. "The only place I can go...the Himalayas land of oeternal snows."

It was sunset. Kelly and I had decided that it would be best if I traveled at night instead of day. This was so if someone looked out their window they would not see me. I was sad that I would never be able to return home, but I was also happy that I could fly around the world now. It had taken many tries before I was airborne. But, once I was in the air I was proud as could be! As I took out my compass I shouted a quick good-by to Kelly and began my journey. When I got to the mountains I began to look for other harpies. I soon stumbled into a large clearing. I saw a flock of harpies at the end of the valled and started soaring towards them. Soon I was directly aove them. I remembered that harpies are solitary creatures, so I flew away into the mountains. It was hard trying to adapt to my new life. One of my daily chores was to find edible plants such as pignuts and lingon berries. But of course I have learned to live with eating berries and many other strange things.

On my seventh year of living in the mountains as a harpy I decided to read my harpy book. I was reading the part on how an dwhy someone turns into a harpy when I saw that I had miss-red the book! The effect of the enchanted apple wasn't permanent, but only lasted eight years! "Four days from now will mark my eaihth year! I can go home! Yes...wait, what happens if I'm not home beforeI change back? I'll fall out of the sky that's what. Let's see...if it took me three and a half days to get here,and two hours to get from my house to Kelly's at the speed of 60 miles an hour, if I fly at speed of 120 miles an hour I would be on the front porch 11 hours before I change back! I was so overjoyed that I did five sumersalts in the air. Swift as lightning I picked up my book and started flying twards home. It was a long journey but an easy one nonetheless. I arrived home later than I had expected, almost a quarter to midnight to be exact. I waited fifteen minutes so I would change back before I entered the house. That way I would not scare my mom half to death. Once I changed back I rang the door bell and waited. I did this so I would not alert the security system. When my mom answered the door she let out a squeal of joy when she saw it was me. When we where all together again and I had finished telling them what happened, we all went to bed. The next morning we all went to grandma's house to tell her that I was back.

The time when I was a harpy was scary, sad, lonely, and at times realy fun, but I am still glad that I changed back into a normal person.