Week 9 Story: A Hunting Accident

Portfolio: A Hunting Accident 

It is late October in far eastern Oklahoma. The leaves begin to change their hue to a bright orange that matches the burning sun in the evenings. The temperature drops steadily as the leaves fall. There is a crisp bite to the air as the wind switches to blowing from the north. Deer hunting season is just beginning, and this is the favorite time of the year for locals such as Leroy Hughes. Leroy is old, his vision is fading, and he rarely ventures out of the comfort of his home in the middle of the dense forest near the ghost town of Peoria, Oklahoma. His one exception is to hunt.

            On the morning of October 27, Leroy sets his alarm for four thirty in the morning. This will give him ample time to put on his camo, strap up his boots, and clean his gun before heading out to his favorite deer stand near the small creek running through the woods near his house. When he walks outside, his visibility is extremely low due to the dense fog that will not burn off until the sun rises in the later morning hours. With poor vision and a dense fog, he hopes that he will be able to hit his target if he is so lucky as to cross paths with a deer.

            Leroy makes his way to the stand and sets up for a long morning. He enjoys relaxing and listening to the beautiful cacophony of birds chirping, squirrels cracking acorns, and the howls of a distant coyote. Shortly after sunrise, Leroy hears a crunching of the leaves. The sound is approaching his stand from the dried-up creek bed. Leroy slowly grips his rifle. Heart beating, palms sweating despite the cool northern wind, Leroy anticipates the sight of the deer approaching him from beyond the trees. The fog is still so dense that Leroy can only make out the dark figure of the animal as it creeps out from the trees. With great excitement, Leroy steadies his rifle and fires. The dark figure drops in its tracks.

            Elated, Leroy slowly begins to climb down from his tree and make the three quarters of a mile trek to claim his trophy. As he walks, he daydreams about the size of his kill. He will have enough venison to last well throughout the winter. Although the fog was too dense to make out details, perhaps his prize even has an enormous rack of antlers. The anticipation is almost too much to bear.

            Leroy inches closer and closer. Suddenly, his heart sinks and his stomach ties in a knot. Leroy is overwhelmed with grief. A cold sweat builds on his forehead and his heart races. Laying on the ground in a pool of its own blood is no prized whitetail buck. It is the dead body of a fellow hunter wearing a dark brown camouflage.

A hunter wearing proper orange coloring

Bibliography: Kincaid Mahabharata 

Author's Note: I crafted this story from an excerpt of Kincaid's Mahabharata.This section is where Krishna is meditating in the forest. While he is meditating, a hunter in the forest believes that he is a deer and shoots him. This stood out to me because I am from rural Oklahoma and deer hunting is a favorite hobby of many people in the fall. During the hunter safety course, it is discussed how relatively easy it is to mistake people in the forest for animals and accidentally shoot them. This is why wearing hunter's orange is such a big requirement while hunting to provide an indicator to other hunters in the forest. My story is the story of an old man with poor vision hunting in a dense fog. He mistakenly shoots another hunter in the forest. This is similar to what happened in the Mahabharata reading for this week. 

Week 7 Story: The Pie Thieves

      Link to portfolio story

  It was the summer of 2002. School was out, and three brothers had little else to do but explore their neighborhood. They would play baseball in the yard like they were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing the home run record. They would ride bikes, look for frogs, play hide and seek, and invent new games every day. They made it a point to thoroughly explore their neighborhood before school started in August.

            One day, the two younger brothers decided to explore further down the road. The older brother, tired from yesterday’s adventures, decided to stay back at the house and rest before meeting up with his siblings later. When the two younger brothers reached the end of the road, they could smell the delicious aroma of baked crust and warm cherries coming from the direction of old Mrs. Jones’ house. The scent filled the light summer air and was too much for the boys to resist. They followed the path in which their noses led them.

            When the boys reached the back yard of Mrs. Jones, they peaked over and spotted their treasure. A delicious cherry pie was perched on the open window frame of Mrs. Jones house. For the boys, this opportunity was too much to pass up. They quietly snuck through a hole in the fence and approached the window. One of the boys knelt on his hands and knees, and the other stood on his back. He carefully took the pie from the window. The boys each grabbed a slice, put the remnants of the pie back in the window, and sprinted to the alley where they would enjoy the sweetness of the cherries and the crunchy crust.

            When the two young boys had not returned after a while, the oldest boy decided to go search for them. When he reached the end of the road, he, too, smelled the sweet aroma of the cherry pie. He knew that he must have a slice. He walked up to Mrs. Jones door and rang the doorbell.

“Hi, Mrs. Jones. Your pie sure does smell delicious. Would it be possible for me to have a slice? I have a dollar that I could pay you with,” said the boy.

“Absolutely,” said Mrs. Jones. “Let’s go get you a slice.”

When they reached the window, Mrs. Jones was horrified. Half of the pie was gone.

“Do you know who could have done this?” Mrs. Jones asked.

         The boy knew that it had to be his two younger brothers. He returned home quickly with Mrs. Jones to find his brothers sitting in the yard with cherry glaze all over their faces. Mrs. Jones told the boys’ father what happened. As a result of their actions, the two young boys were not allowed to play outside for the rest of the summer. This was crushing to them. However, because the oldest sibling acted responsibly, he was rewarded with the opportunity to help Mrs. Jones bake her next pie and eat as much of it as he desired.

Author's Note: 

       I took my story from a segment of reading in Part C of Narayan's Mahabharata. There is a part when they are traveling through a forest and chasing after a deer. Suddenly, they come across a lake. They are tired and thirsty. The water is desperately needed. A voice tells Nakula that they must answer some questions before drinking from the lake. He ignores the voice, drinks the water, and dies as a result. This happens three more times. Later, Yudhishthira finds that his brothers are all dead. He answers the questions of the voice. It turns out that answering the questions was actually a test, and the brothers come back to life. They receive the gift of not being recognized.

      I wrote a story with similar plot elements. I changed it to two young boys deciding to eat a pie that did not belong tot hem. An older boys acted responsibly by asking for a slice rather than stealing.  The boys that stole the pie receive a harsh punishment, and the boy who acted responsibly receives a gift. While I chose not to explicitly state this, it is possible that this was a test of the boys' character such as the test of answering the questions before drinking the water in the Mahabharata. 

Bibliography: Narayan's Mahabharata Part C 

Pie 

Week 5 Story: Rushing Into Homecoming

          The autumn season in small towns across northeastern Oklahoma is unique to most other areas. There is a faint chill in the October air, as the skies become orange at dusk, matching the color of the falling leaves that canvas the ground. At sunset on Friday nights, the sky becomes illuminated with stadium lights and the whistles from referees almost drown out the occasional moos of the nearby grazing cattle. Football is a lifestyle in these towns across Oklahoma, and that lifestyle reaches its apex during the homecoming game.

            Homecoming is the week that is filled with school pride, class reunions, the football game, and, of course, the homecoming dance after the game. For Bobby Brown, a highly-touted running back for the Quapaw, Oklahoma high school football team, homecoming was the week to showcase his talents to the many college scouts in attendance. Bobby had already been on pace for a historic season, leading the state in rushing yards and leading his team to an unbeaten record. He was the talk of the town amongst the old men in the local coffee shop, as Bobby was nearly unstoppable. But this week, this game was different. There was somebody other than the college scouts that he needed to impress.

            Alyssa Jones was a senior captain of the cheer team. She had long, blonde hair and a captivating smile to match her engaging personality. For Bobby, the ultimate goal was to attend the homecoming dance with Alyssa. But Alyssa was not going to attend with just anybody.

“What can I do to convince you to go to homecoming with me?” Bobby asked.

“Well, Bobby, I really wasn’t planning on going. Buying a dress and getting ready after the late game is such a hassle. But, I’ll tell you what. If you rush for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns this week, then I will go with you to the dance,” said Alyssa.

“Consider it done,” Bobby replied confidently.

            In reality, this seemed almost impossible to Bobby. They were facing the toughest defense in the state this week. Besides, he had only topped 200 yards rushing once in his playing career. But Bobby knew what he had to do to impress Alyssa.

            That Friday night, night fell and the kickoff whistle blew. Bobby started off hot, rushing for 60 yards and a touchdown on the opening drive of the game. But the opposing defense started adjusting as the game progressed. Bobby knew this would be no easy task. By the end of third quarter, he only had 90 yards and the one touchdown. Alyssa knew that she would not be attending the dance, and Bobby knew that he had to make up ground quickly. Although he was getting fatigued and beaten up by the stout defense, Bobby knew that his team needed him. He knew that the scouts needed him. He knew that Alyssa needed him.

            With 6 minutes left in the game, Bobby finally broke free for a 60 yard touchdown rush. The game was now tied and bobby has his two touchdowns, but still lacked 50 yards to reach 200. The defense held, and Bobby and the offense got the ball with two minutes remaining and sixty yards to score a touchdown for the win. On first down, the ball was snapped and handed to Bobby. He ran right for no gain, as he was wrapped up instantly. Second down was not much better, as he gained only two yards. Third down was his last chance. He took the handoff from the quarter back, ran left, broke a tackle, made a man miss, and sprinted through an arm tackle. He had done it. There was nothing but green grass ahead.

“TOUCHDOWN! WILDCATS WIN!” proclaimed the announcer.

Against all odds, Bobby finished the game with 3 touchdowns and 210 yards rushing, his best performance to date. He had completed the challenge. The game was won, and Alyssa was going to the homecoming dance with Bobby, the most highly recruited running back in the small school’s history.

Small high school football stadium 

Author's Notes: My story idea came from Part A of Gould's Divine Archer. There is a story in this section in which Rama must string Vishnu's bow in order to gain Sita's love. I wanted to use a similar story of performing an arduous task to win a love, so I changed the characters and story to a high school football player trying to win over a potential homecoming date. In my story, Bobby is the Rama character and Alyssa is the Sita. Bobby must have the best game of his playing career in order to attend the dance with Alyssa. It was no easy task, as he faced a tough opponent, but, in the end, Bobby pulled through and completed the challenge, just as Rama did, and attended to dance with his version of Sita. 

Bibliography: F.J. Gould The Divine Archer