By Alexandra Nugent
Once upon a time there was a kid named Nancy who was 11 years old and on a yearly hike with her mom, dad, and her sister Lilly up a mountain called Mt. Smith. All Nancy could see were the beautiful trees all around her with growing grass and poison ivy at her feet, dancing in the cool, warm breeze as she walked by. As Nancy walked in the back of the group, listening to her music, all she could hear were the soft melodies and her dad talking in the front about hiking. Nancy could not hear much so she caught up with her dad to hear what he was talking about.
“Don’t you all love hiking! It’s so fun in the nice warm sun with the cool breeze outdoors and the trees swaying in the wind,” he said.
“Yes honey,” Nancy heard her mom respond as she glanced to her right at a close path surrounded by trees. This path was just down a hill with dandelions and other flowers on it. Nancy had gone on this hill before, but this time she noticed that there were fewer and fewer trees on the path. No matter, she thought to herself. I can still go on the path because I have gone on it before. I won’t get lost.
“Can I go on that path?” Nancy asked her mom
“Umm, yeah sure” her mom responded, not really paying any attention. Nancy counted that as a yes and started walking as her mom caught up with Joe (her dad). After about 30 minutes Nancy realized that she had somehow ended up in a different part of the forest that she had never been in in her life! It wasn’t until she took off her headphones that she realized that she was also being followed! She walked slower until the stalker caught up to her. Not daring to turn around she kept walking until she recognized the voice of her sister, Lilly
“Where are you going?” Lilly said.
“I am going up the mountain to meet mom, dad and what was supposed to be you if you hadn’t followed me, ” Nancy responded sarcastically.
“Ok… Well mom and dad are looking for you. You were supposed to be there like an hour ago!”
“Don’t be silly, it’s only been like 30 minutes.”
“That is where you are wrong,” Lilly said back mockingly.
“So if you wanna get even more lost in this huge forest by yourself that is your fault not mine,” she added.
“Ok… but” Nancy started to say as Lilly cut her off.
“JUST-just show me the way out of this humongous forest,” she said after calming down a little bit.
“I thought you knew the way out. After all, you followed me!” Nancy said after Lilly had finished talking.
“NO! I don’t. Why does this have to be happening to us right now! I’m going to miss my friend’s birthday party,” Lilly said in a whiny voice. “I never even wanted to come here,” Lilly added on as tears started to swell up in her eyes. “Come on, let’s just keep walking,” Nancy said.
“Ok,” Lilly responded sadly. Slowly they started walking, dragging their feet trying to get home to their parents with no luck or help. They were lost… Over time they ran out of energy with no food or water so they decided to rest when suddenly out of the corner of Nancy’s eye she saw something brown and big. Could it be a human? Or civilization? Nancy quickly looked at the thing and saw that it was a-a bear that was sprinting towards them! Nancy glanced at her sister and saw that she had seen it also, so she was running away as fast as she could! Nancy tried to sprint but instead her body wouldn’t move. Was this the end? she thought. Would she ever see her sister or the rest of her family again?
“No!” Nancy said to herself, “I am not going to die today! Pulling herself together she started to jog, quickly turning into a sprint. Trying to save her breath as she ran through the undergrowth with her sister ahead of her. “C-Come on!” Nancy yelled to her sister, terrified from the massive bear chasing them. “We have to keep running,” she added on losing breath and energy to run. We have to get out of here and find our family! she thought to herself.- When will I ever get out of this bear’s reach and crashing jaws?
Just then Nancy heard her sister saying “Hurry up! You have got to see this – the bear is gone! And look at the view here!” So after 30 seconds Nancy came to a clearing out of the woods and on to the edge of a giant cliff with so many things to see from the top.
“Just look at the view here! It’s gorgeous,” Lilly said.
“This must be at least one hundred feet up in the air!” Nancy said back, starting to shake off all the fear. “There is so much to see here like, just look at the grass at the bottom of this cliff. The grass here is so tall and wavy!”
“Yeah this is AMAZING! Just look at the buildings over there. Are we in Boston?”” Lilly asked.
“Yeah I think so,” Nancy said, still shocked from how beautiful all the things were. One millisecond later Nancy spun around still uneasy because she thought sheard a twig snapping. Not seeing anything she turned back around and said, “we have to keep going. I think that the bear is still there, hiding.” But all she could see on her sister’s face was pure horror so she spun around as fast as possible to see enormous wet jaws and giant brown paws of a humongous, hideous, growling and definitely hungry brown bear.
