Who's blog is Writer with a Cause.
Julie Carobini's comments on her decision:
After much debate, I chose the following entry, and not because I'm a sucker for coastal stories. I chose it because it painted a vivid picture and the moment I read it, I began writing the next few sentences in my head. Actually, I "wrote" them a couple of different ways. I figured this would be a fun one to start off the next Ad-libbing post. Congratulations to Daniel & Denise Harmer! (And extra kudos for the rarely-used word 'unordinary').
Thank you to all who participated and had fun in the process. I was so impressed by all the different entries and the vast talent that was shared.
Here it is:
Nothing was unordinary about Savannah Reed sneaking out at midnight to go clamming on low tide, but this night was no ordinary low tide. The sea grass lay flat as carpet and boats rested their bellies on the seabed. She scanned the sleeping cottages hugging the coast and knew in a few minutes they'd be demolished by a tidal wave. (Now it's our turn, go ahead add on.)
Channel six news had been tracking the storm for the last three days prompting Savannah to see her beautiful beach one last time. She scrunched her toes in the sand, gazed at the rolling waves and wondered...
ReplyDeleteShe often wondered the same things while here. She wondered about what it would be like to swim along with the fast currents, what it would be like to circle around and through the brightly colored coral, but she mostly wondered if it would all be an escape from the dull life she had now.
ReplyDeleteShe knew her life in the fast lane had started when...
she decided to go for a walk on the beach knowing that a tidal wave was about to hit...
ReplyDeleteTaking risks was what she lived for. She loved living life to the fullest and if it meant taking a step towards danger she'd only go so far. After all life was too short and...
ReplyDeleteit's not worth living unless you can take a walk on a beach right before a tidal wave.
ReplyDeleteGazing out at the distant horizon, Savannah saw the enormous tsunami coming toward her. Heart racing, she gripped her surfboard tightly and sprinted toward the oncoming wave.
ReplyDeleteShe formed sound effects with her lips and teeth to make her running more dramatic, her eyes open wide and her cheeks puffed out with anticipation. "FSHHHHHHHHH!!" she said, running HARD, completely forgetting about all the soon to be destroyed houses and perhaps lives.
ReplyDeleteShe then began humming the theme song to 'chariots of fire'
ReplyDelete, then she really got into it and started singing: “ba bum bum bum baaaa ba.... bum ba ba ba baaaaaaaaaa!!”...all the while affecting a slo-mo jog. After a rousing finale, she started in with the theme song from 'Rocky'. Half way through, she became short of breath. She hadn't realized how far out the tide had ebbed. To stoke her motivation, she started singing 'Eye of the Tiger', since it seemed the logical progression from the ‘Rocky’ theme song. Shortly, however, she was wheezing the final verse... sort of. ‘…… If I iron the spider and Magilla may bite, raisin bran to the jail and shoot a wino.. wheeze… I’ll go lasso the wino and Magilla’s so right… wheeeeeeeeze... And the curse is to carry the 'y' of the tiger… wheeze’
ReplyDeleteAt this point, she stopped to catch her breath. Again she looked toward the horizon and at first thought she couldn’t see anything, but then realized that the monstrous wave was practically on top of her! It was much, MUCH larger than she had anticipated. She had been singing so boisterously that she didn’t hear the thunderous roar of the tsunami as it crushed toward her. She stood frozen for a moment, staring up at what had to have been a five-story wave bearing down on her. She nearly dropped her surfboard. Her jaw fell open and the substantial wad of gum she’d been chewing fell out of her mouth and into the sand at her feet. Not thinking, she quickly snatched up the sand-covered gob of grape-flavored Hubba Bubba bubble gum and popped it back into her mouth with only a fraction of a second to tighten her grip on her surf board and dive into the colossal wave.
As the wave approached closer and closer, with only a few seconds left to live, she chewed her gum at hyper speed, buttocks clenched and board in hand. But the gum, despite the sand, tasted pretty good. Good feelings filled her, as she felt the happiness of grape Hubba Bubba. The speed at which she chewed it increased exponentially.
ReplyDeletejust as the wave was about to hit, she dove into it, gripping her surfboard as though her life depended upon it... because it did.
ReplyDeleteSavannah felt herself tossed violently in the gargantuan wave. She couldn't tell which way was up. Spinning and flipping tumultuously, tossed and pulled, twisting, turning in the wild, black water for what began to feel like hours. Her lungs began to ache for air. It began to look as though she’d caught her last wave. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Her mind began to drift. Scenes from her childhood flashed before her, but still she clung desperately to her board. She began fading, she felt as though she could no longer hold onto the board; when suddenly she bobbed to the surface of the wave. She exhaled explosively and then ravenously took in the cool night air, the wind whipping her face as she raced with the tsunami toward the little village in the distance.
She stabilized herself on her board, carefully balancing as she rose to her feet and gained control of her mount. She must have been doing a good 85 mph minimum! though she'd read that a tsunami could travel up to 600 mph, which made this ride a little disappointing... but only a very little.
‘Wooo Hoooooooooooooo!!’ she cried, pumping her fist in the air as she and her mighty wave bore down upon the oblivious little houses in the distance. She nearly lost her tasty yet crunchy wad of gum in her excitement.
She finally regained her focus and recalled that the gum she chewed was of the bubble variety. Joyfully, she pressed the gum to the front of her teeth, opened her mouth just a little and began to blow. The bubble grew bigger and bigger, whipped by the mighty winds generated by the speed at which she and her tsunami raced toward the unsuspecting houses. She gazed out at the warm, soft glow emanating from the windows of these little homes and she wondered if they were all watching 'Dancing With the Stars'. She then puffed one more time into her gritty, purple bubble and BOOOOOOUUUF!! The violent wind flattened her bubble across her face and suddenly her vision was obscured by a purple, sand-speckled haze of bubble gum.
ReplyDeleteWhen she peeled it off her face, she looked into the distance and saw her mother's house. How could she have decided to go surfing instead of running back to warn her mother? Thinking of her mother caused her to remember the homemade peanut butter balls in her pocket. With tears in her eyes, she reached in and pulled out the soggy, salty, yet still tasty peanut butter balls and savored them as she rode the wave that would crush her mother's house.
ReplyDeleteDisgusted with herself, she grimaced so hard, her face hurt. She continued to savor the peanut butter balls, as the waved crushed her mother's house down.
ReplyDelete"You're retarded!" her heart told her. Her heart was right.
In the chaos that ensued, debris from the demolished houses churned in the torrent. Again, the guilt welled up inside her as she surveyed the damage. She almost felt responsible for this catastrophe, as though she had driven the wave, like a car, into the unsuspecting houses, now nothing more than churning debris in the aftermath. Then she thought she heard voices.. yes! it was certainly voices! There were survivors! she could just make out under the moonlight, the forms of people, clinging desperately to floating planks and bobbing furniture in the violent deluge.
ReplyDelete'IDIOT!!' one voice cried out. 'You went SURFING when you could have warned us!?!?' Then another cried out from the darkness.
“What are you, brain-dead?!” Cried a homely, balding man clinging desperately to an ugly plaid sofa.
Savannah recognized Mr. Bejeebers… he’d always been kind of a jerk and she was about to yell back something back about his personal esthetic shortcomings and his ugly sofa, but decided against it... for the moment anyway.
“Bone-head!! You were just going to let us all die in a tsunami while you caught the ultimate monster wave?” Cried a woman in what appeared to be a floral muumuu as she bobbed along, gripping a shabby, green ottoman which looked old enough to have come from the Ottoman Empire.
Then Savannah condemned herself harshly. These people have just come through a catastrophe and here I am critiquing their clothing and lambasting their ugly furniture. She tried to pretend not to notice the stupid pajamas they wore and hideous furnishings they so desperately clung to, and began whistling the theme song from Gilligan’s Island, pretending not to see them… In retrospect, she realized the impropriety of her selection though, understandable under the circumstances, it was the first tune to come to mind.
“What are you, stupid? Or just completely devoid of conscience?” yet another voice cried out from an unseen survivor in the distance. She continued whistling, more loudly now to drown out the insults the bobbing survivors hurled at her.
"Imbecile!! what the hell is wrong with you??!?!!?"
She recognized the voice. "Mom?"
She thought about this for a moment and then, realizing the surfing was probably still good, she ran full speed back to the beach.
ReplyDelete"Fsssssshhhhhhhhhh!" she said while running, cheeks puffed out and eyes wide.