Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Utterly Bored That Became the Not so Boring Part 1

Once Upon a Time.....
There lived a bored girl. And that girl was me. And me was not having such a great time, as bored-ness usually becomes.
     So I was sitting there playing a game on a very technological device when suddenly I heard *BANG BANG BANG*! I started out of fear, for it was very, very close, and realized with a dread foreboding that they were the shots of a gun. Why would someone be shooting a gun in our neighborhood? My face drained of color (I knew that because I glanced in a mirror). I carefully stepped down the stairs, quiet as a mouse. My heart beat loud as a drum, my breathing escalating, to where I feared the whole world could hear me.
     As I neared the door, I heard a weird noise. Not one I'd ever heard before except maybe at.... Well I didn't remember where. I carefully opened the door, so slowly that I knew no one would notice, and peeked out, my phone in hand ready to call 911. But I didn't see anything having to do with guns. In fact, I saw nothing of my neighborhood. My phone fell out of my lifeless hands. Everywhere that my eye could reach, was vegetation. Trees, plants, and animals. A brown dirt path opened up before me, straight as an arrow.
     I gasped in astonishment, as I suddenly realized where I had heard that weird noise. It was the noise of monkeys' swinging and swishing through trees at the zoo! Except this was no zoo, and there were not only monkey's everywhere, I could see frogs, huge insects, and the noises of other, bigger animals Out There. This, was the jungle.
      I wildly looked from the inside of the house to the jungle, wondering how in the world this could have happened. I began to think, should I step off into the wild unknown? Was this a trick, a dream? Surely this wouldn't hurt me. If this was a dream, then I would still wake up alive, right?
     I pinched myself, but I didn't wake up. Then I slapped myself. I still didn't wake up. Well, I thought. If there is adventure waiting for me, I'd better take it. And off I went.
      I went inside first, making sure the jungle was still there after closing the door. It was, but I left it open anyways. I quickly ran, grabbed a backpack, and began to fill it with food, water, and extra clothes. Then I walked towards the door.
     I slowly stepped across the door step, and onto the dirt path.


      My backpack slung across my back, I set off. I looked wonderingly at my surroundings. Everything I touched so far was real. It didn't disappear, vaporize, or become a teacup. The more I walked, the more the sounds of the jungle quieted. Soon there was an unearthly silence, so great, I heard my own soft footfalls on the dirt. I looked around and saw a frog on a tree staring at me as a I walked past, silent as the grave. I got a prickly feeling on the back of my neck. Looking up, I saw a snake not moving either, just staring. Have they never seen a human before? I wondered. I looked back and saw my house disappearing in the jungle. "I can't go back now," I muttered grimly, and straightened as I walked onward into silent surroundings.



     I realized that I had never found what made the loud gunshots. Is someone actually here? I asked myself. My brain and eyes trying to drink everything in, I looked around. I saw snakes, frogs, birds, even monkeys. But they made no sound and no move. I dared to come close to a bird sitting on a low branch on a tree, but the silent staring unnerved me and I resorted to throwing a stick. It did nothing.
     I trudged onward, becoming used to the silent, annoying, staring animals. But then I heard something that startled me. A noise. Not just any noise, but an animal noise. This, was the growl of a tiger. And like a time bomb going off, suddenly the animals all around me started screeching, braying, cawing, cooing, growling, roaring, trumpeting, singing, barking, mewing, stomping, walking, slithering, crawling, hopping, flying, swinging, stalking, trotting, running, galloping, and pecking all at once. The noise was so sudden and so loud that I screamed in surprise and closed my ears. It seems the tiger has started the animals to breathing again, I thought sarcastically. I decided if the tiger was the one who set if off, then I should go see this "Boss." Don't ask me how I came to that decision.
     I walked towards the growl of the tiger. But as I went into the woods I heard crashing ahead of me. I quickly ran behind a tree, afraid to show myself in case it was the tiger, or some other animal that might be hostile. But as I peeked around the tree, three men abruptly ran past. I gasped in astonishment that there were other people in the jungle. So the animals have seen humans before, I thought. It was the second look, though, that really surprised me. They held guns.