mr. tran shows and tells
time sure goes by fast when you do nothing all day so halloween came rather quickly for me...anyway to celebrate, i'm posting a comic strip i made awhile ago...i've already shown it before but since it's one of my favorites, i'm putting it up again...
along with that, here's a story i wrote when i had my writing class two years ago...it's not exactly halloween related but it involves pumpkins and is kinda creepy...the assignment was to reimagine a fairy tale or myth...we only had one night and one page so we were told just to write the beginning of a story...but since i'm a finisher and wanted to write a whole story, i chose a shorter nursery rhyme to redo instead...given the time put in and space constraints, i think it turned out pretty well...so without further ado, i present:
Little Sacrifices
Peter was a pumpkin breeder. He loved them. He love how each had its own unique shape and personality. He loved how their beautiful spiral tendrils emerge from the vines blindly grasping at anything. He loved how the more care he put into them, the larger they became. He loved how no one really ate pumpkins except during the holidays. They were overlooked as a culinary item, but he loved them even more for that. They were his darlings.
During any free time, Peter could be found on his hands and knees in his garden. He pollinated the flowers by hand. He watered each vine after carefully measuring the amounts of water. He picked off bugs with tweezers and brushed dirt and dust off leaves and fruit. Everything was as natural as can be.
Peter cherished growing pumpkins to eat. However, what brought him the greatest joy was growing the largest pumpkin possible. They were truly a sight to behold. Three hundred, four hundred, five hundred pounds. There was no limit except how much care and love Peter put in. The secret was to snip off and sacrifice smaller pumpkins so that only one remained on the vine. Then it would grow and grow hand in hand with Peter’s pride.
The pumpkins, though, brought no happiness to his wife. She found herself having to compete with gourds for her husband’s attention. No matter what she did or said, Peter didn’t change. She smashed pumpkins in the middle of the night, but he didn’t care. Peter lamented the lost but felt happy to raise a new batch to replace the old. She threatened to leave him but she realized she wouldn’t be missed.
One day, she came out to the garden with a tank of gasoline in hand. She doused the plants and set them aflame. Peter came running around the corner of the house when he saw the smoke. He was in shock. His babies were dying. They were crying out for him. He found his wife laughing. Peter wrapped his hands around her neck and didn’t let go. She tried to scream but couldn’t. She clawed at his hands but it was useless. Peter was wearing his work gloves. He didn’t feel a thing. Ashes stung his eyes but he was smiling. To grow the largest pumpkin, you have to sacrifice the small ones or else they’d just get in the way.
When the police came to ask about the whereabouts of his wife, Peter said he didn’t know. He admitted that he and his wife argued a lot. He told them that one day he came home and she was just gone. Maybe she finally gave up on him. The policemen thanked Peter for his time. On the way out, he showed them the latest pumpkin he had harvested. Seven hundred pounds, his largest one yet. He told them he was going to coat it in polyurethane to preserve it forever. The policemen were impressed.
Inside the pumpkin rested Peter’s wife. And there he kept her very well.
happy halloween!
along with that, here's a story i wrote when i had my writing class two years ago...it's not exactly halloween related but it involves pumpkins and is kinda creepy...the assignment was to reimagine a fairy tale or myth...we only had one night and one page so we were told just to write the beginning of a story...but since i'm a finisher and wanted to write a whole story, i chose a shorter nursery rhyme to redo instead...given the time put in and space constraints, i think it turned out pretty well...so without further ado, i present:
Little Sacrifices
Peter was a pumpkin breeder. He loved them. He love how each had its own unique shape and personality. He loved how their beautiful spiral tendrils emerge from the vines blindly grasping at anything. He loved how the more care he put into them, the larger they became. He loved how no one really ate pumpkins except during the holidays. They were overlooked as a culinary item, but he loved them even more for that. They were his darlings.
During any free time, Peter could be found on his hands and knees in his garden. He pollinated the flowers by hand. He watered each vine after carefully measuring the amounts of water. He picked off bugs with tweezers and brushed dirt and dust off leaves and fruit. Everything was as natural as can be.
Peter cherished growing pumpkins to eat. However, what brought him the greatest joy was growing the largest pumpkin possible. They were truly a sight to behold. Three hundred, four hundred, five hundred pounds. There was no limit except how much care and love Peter put in. The secret was to snip off and sacrifice smaller pumpkins so that only one remained on the vine. Then it would grow and grow hand in hand with Peter’s pride.
The pumpkins, though, brought no happiness to his wife. She found herself having to compete with gourds for her husband’s attention. No matter what she did or said, Peter didn’t change. She smashed pumpkins in the middle of the night, but he didn’t care. Peter lamented the lost but felt happy to raise a new batch to replace the old. She threatened to leave him but she realized she wouldn’t be missed.
One day, she came out to the garden with a tank of gasoline in hand. She doused the plants and set them aflame. Peter came running around the corner of the house when he saw the smoke. He was in shock. His babies were dying. They were crying out for him. He found his wife laughing. Peter wrapped his hands around her neck and didn’t let go. She tried to scream but couldn’t. She clawed at his hands but it was useless. Peter was wearing his work gloves. He didn’t feel a thing. Ashes stung his eyes but he was smiling. To grow the largest pumpkin, you have to sacrifice the small ones or else they’d just get in the way.
When the police came to ask about the whereabouts of his wife, Peter said he didn’t know. He admitted that he and his wife argued a lot. He told them that one day he came home and she was just gone. Maybe she finally gave up on him. The policemen thanked Peter for his time. On the way out, he showed them the latest pumpkin he had harvested. Seven hundred pounds, his largest one yet. He told them he was going to coat it in polyurethane to preserve it forever. The policemen were impressed.
Inside the pumpkin rested Peter’s wife. And there he kept her very well.
happy halloween!