Week 15 Story: The Home Invasion

There was once a family living in the suburbs of Norman, Oklahoma. They were a normal family; a mother and father with three children, aged 17, 13, and 8. Each day, the mother and father would go off to work, leaving the the children home alone. Now usually, the parents would leave at least one of the two eldest children with the youngest whenever they left in order to make sure he was looked after, but one day they ran into a problem. The oldest child was out of town visiting a friend at college and the middle child was spending the night at a friends house. The plan was for the father to take a sick day from work and watch their young child when the mother left. The problem arose when the father was unexpected called into work for an emergency meeting with his boss. Unable to miss the meeting, the father left his youngest home alone for the first time. The young boy was fine with this, he had even been asking to stay home alone for a while. The father was confident everything would be okay.
The boy happily watched tv in the living room by himself. With no one home, he decided he would even turn the volume all the way up and have some fun. As king of the house, he blared the tv and jumped up and down on the couch until... *crash*... he heard glass break. He turned off the tv, thinking he broke a vase and was going to be in so much trouble. Then all of the sudden he heard voices.

"Hello?" He asked. "Is someone there?"

Around the corner came two masked men.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The boy asked in a shaky little voice.

"We are here to rob your house." One of the men said bluntly. "Where do your parents keep the valuables?"

The boy replied, "I am only 8! I don't know where they keep anything but food and my toys! Why do you come here and scare me?"

The men looked confused.

The boy went on, "I am small, I can't do anything to you. So why do you come in my house and try to hurt me and take my things?"

The men looked at each other and slowly retreated out the door and to their car, and the boy went back to his cartoons.

When the father returned from his meeting he asked his son what happened to the window, the boy replied, "some guys tried to rob the house but I scared them off."

That was the last time the boy was left home alone for a while.

The End.

Burglar (Source)

Bibliography: The Forest Fire by Noor Inayat (Link)



Author's Note:
My inspiration for this story came from a Jataka Tale by Inayat. The story is called 'The Forest Fire" and has a very similar plot. In that story, there is a family of quails that loves in a forest. There are two parents and seven baby birds. The parents go and fetch food like insects and seeds for their babies every day. Six of the seven babies eat the insects and grow big and strong, but the seventh only eats the seeds and doesn't grow at all. One day a forest fire approaches their nest. All of the birds fly away except for the small baby who didn't eat enough and cannot fly. As the fire comes near, the small bird tells it that he is just a small, helpless bird and tells the fire to go away. Upon saying this the fire stops and retreats. I read this story for my week 15 reading and I really enjoyed it so I thought I would rewrite it for my story. I changed the story to human characters and made the seven baby birds into three different aged children. I wanted to make it into a more realistic version of the same tale.

Week 10 Story: The Jealous Weiner

There once was a bratwurst named Big Mac. He lived in the deli meat section of a refrigerator. With him lived a hot dog named Lil Mac as well as a few dozen hamburgers. 

The owner of the refrigerator was Brett. Brett was going to have a cookout with all of his friends that night. He told his son Jack to get the hamburgers out of the refrigerator and get them ready for the cookout. 

Lil Mac was so excited when Jack opened the refrigerator and opened the deli meat drawer, but lost that excitement when Jack only grabbed the burgers and shut the drawer. 

"Why did he only take the hamburgers, Big Mac?" asked Lil Mac, "I want to go on the adventure!"  

Big Mac explained: "My friend Lil Mac, do not envy those hamburgers. Yes, they get to go on an adventure outside of the deli meat drawer, but it is an adventure you do not want to go on. You will soon see why this is so."

Lil Mac watched throughout the afternoon trying to understand what Big Mac meant. All he saw was the burgers getting pampered, making him more and more jealous. They got seasoned with wonderful herbs and spices, cooked to perfection, and dressed up in crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes, pickles, onions, and sauces.

Lil Mac said “I don’t understand, Big Mac. Those burgers are so lucky to get all that special treatment! Why shouldn’t I be jealous?!”

Big Mac responded, “Just watch my friend.”

Not long after, Lil Mac watched as those burgers that he so envied were eaten one by one! He watched in horror as they were ripped apart, cut in half, and chomped down on until the last one disappeared.

Big Mac asked, “Do you now understand why it is foolish to envy those taken out of our drawer?”

“Now I understand.” Lil Mac said squeamishly, “I will no long envy anyone taken out of this refrigerator, I am lucky to live out my life in this deli meat drawer.”

Bibliography: The Jataka Tales of India By Ellen C. Babbitt (Link)

Cheeseburger (Source)

Author’s Note: For this story, my inspiration came from the Week 10 reading of The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Specifically, I used the story “The Ox Who Envied the Pig” as the model for this story. That story tells the tale of an ox who is jealous of a pig who is given better food, but he doesn’t know that the pig is only getting the better food because he is being fattened up for slaughter. I used hot dogs and hamburgers instead of farm animals. These characters came to me because I am dressing up as a hot dog for Halloween and the story just flowed from there.

Week 7 Story: A Game of Chance

(Link to Portfolio)

Four men sit around a table gambling on a dice game and drinking their fill. These men have been inseparable for years, best friends since high school. Three of the men are brothers by the names of Yudi, Bhima, and Sahad Pandava. These three brothers are very skilled mountain climbers and are planning a trip to climb Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. The fourth man, Draup, has never been as interested in mountaineering, to the disappointment of his three best friends. On this particular night, already drunk and gambling, Bhima proposes a wager to Draup: they both roll the dice, if Bhima rolls a higher score, Draup must accompany them on their Everest adventure. With his judgement clouded by the booze, Draup agrees to the bet.

[6 months later]

Draup straps on his pack at the Everest basecamp, all the while kicking himself for accepting that stupid bet 6 months ago. He exits his tent wondering if he can still back out, but remembers how many times the Pandava brothers reiterated that "a bet is a bet" over the last few months as they trained. The four men set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

After days of trekking up the mountain, they can almost see the peak. On the final day, the all four men awaken ready to summit Everest. Just a few hours from the top, they come across a horse standing in there path. Immediately they all know that this is no normal animal. Nothing can survive the conditions at the highest peak on Earth. Their shock intensifies when the horse begins to speak. He tells them that he is the gatekeeper to the peak of Everest and they must earn his permission to continue moving forward. Wondering what they could do to be allowed to pass, Draup reaches into his pocket and pulls out a set of dice. The same dice that got him to this point. He proposes they gamble for the horse's permission and he agrees.

Yudi goes first, he rolls a 9. Confident in his roll he smirks and hands the dice to the horse. The horse flips the dice and rolls a 12. Yudi hands the dice to Bhima and disappointedly begins his journey down. Bhima rolls an 11 and thinks to himself there is no way he loses. Another 12. Bhima begins his way down. Sahad nervously picks up the dice and rolls a 2, snake eyes. He begins his journey down before the horse even rolls. Finally, Draup picks up the dice and rolls; 3. The horse rolls for the last time; 2. The horse tells Draup that the dice decided he was the only one worthy of passing through to the peak. He presses on and reaches the summit.

Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

Mt. Everest (Source)

Authors Notes: For this story I combined elements from many parts of the Mahabharata that we have read over the past two weeks. I started with the setting in the Himalayas like in the Part C reading. i found this setting interesting when Draupadi and the four Pandava brothers journey into the mountains. On thing made a point to change were the names. The original names were too long and confused me so I shortened them to make it and easier read. I also included the horse from Part D. I really liked the story of the horse disappearing and wanted to incorporate it a little bit. The main part of the story came from the dice game we read about in Part B. I really liked that story and found it to be a good starting point for my plot.

Week 3 Story: The Jealous Brother

The city of Ayobhya lies on the river Sarayu in the kingdom of Koshala. The ruler of these lands is Dasharatha, who is king. Dasharatha has little family, no children of his own to take his place as king. He does have 4 incarnate sons born to his wives through special rice from the gods: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana and Shatrughna. As Dasharatha ages he must decide which of these incarnate sons will be his successor. 

On his death bed, Dasharatha names the order of his sons to become king. He names Rama to be the next king, followed by Lakshmana, Shatughna, and finally Bharata. Rama is honored to be chosen as Dasharatha's successor and is crowned the day Dasharatha dies. At the coronation, Lakshamana and Shatughna support the decision and support Rama as king, but Bharata is furious. "How could Dasharatha put me last in order? Does he not believe i am fit to rule?! I'll show him."

Bharata hatches a plan to get himself into the thrown and be ruler of the kingdom of Koshala. He starts with getting Lakshamana and Shatughna out of succession. He tells them of the ancient legend about a ten-headed monster who lives in the waters of the Ayodhya, and how it is their duty as successors to the kind to deafeat the monster. The two agree and the set off with Bharata to fight the monster. Upon reaching the river, the ten headed monster emerges from the river. Lakshamana and Shatughna race into action and begin fighting the monsters, but Bharata sneaks back into the jungle, out of harms way. Lakshamana and Shatughna are killed in the fight and Bharata goes back to the city to alert the citizens. 

As he walks into the city, Bharata comes up with a plan to get rid of Rama as well, and thus taking the thrown for himself. He begins telling everyone of the deaths of Lakshamana and Shatughna. Once everyone knows that the two successors are dead, Bharata begins to spread a rumor that Rama tricked the two into fighting the monster, kowning they would die. He said that Rama tried to trick him into going as well but Bharata was too smart. Bharata told everyone Rama wanted them dead so that he wouldn't have to share Dasharatha's wealth with them. 

The rumor spread and eventually everyone believed it to be true. Rama was sent into exile an the thrown was passed down to Bharata. Bharata had gotten what he wanted more than anything else in life, but was consumed with guilt for what he had done to get there. After a few years of ruling the kingdom, Bharata could no longer handle the guilt and took his own life, but with no children, there was no direct successor to the thrown. Before he dies, Bharata admitted to framing Rama and getting him exiled. After Bharata's death, Rama was able to return from exile and take his rightful place as king of Koshala.

The End. 

Rama being exiled (Wiki Commons)

Author's Note:

This week I read Narayan's Ramayana. I found it interesting that in the story Bharata was angry about being named king because you don't often seen characters being angry about getting more power. I decided to flip the story and make Bharata power hungry and villainous. 

Bibliography:  Narayan's Ramayana (Link)