Monday, December 5, 2016

Trouble with Bears

Seth Burdick
October 13, 2016
Writing class
Alaska Story


It was every accountant’s average day at work, sorting through all of these lazy people’s taxes.  Michael liked his job, no doubt about it.  It paid well, and his boss was nice.  Michael didn’t have a big house, with kids or a wife, he rented out an apartment room on the eleventh floor at the local Marriott.  He lived in Michigan near Lake Superior.  He went bass fishing almost everyday after work.  Fishing was his passion.  He loved bass fishing, the way the ate they bait, the way they fight once you got them hooked, and especially the way they jump out of the water and shake their mouth desperately trying to get the hook out.  A couple years back his best friend took him salmon fishing up in Seattle, Washington.  Michael was hooked.  He caught many salmon, some big, some small, but mostly medium sized.  He didn’t want to leave, he didn’t want to get off the boat, because that meant no more fishing.  Ever since that trip he thinks about the experiences he had, how much fun it was.  How much more fun it was than bass fishing.  But fishing is an expensive sport, all Michael had money for was bass fishing.  His job as an accountant only gave him around sixty six thousand a year.  Half of that went to paying for his apartment, and the rest was spent on food, clothes, and bass fishing.  There was no way he could pay for salmon fishing gear, and a plane ticket.  But he wanted to catch big salmon.  Like the ones you have to go out into Alaska and drive through the wilderness to never fished before rivers or lakes.  Michael began to search through the taxes he had to sort out, when his boss came over and dropped a big orange envelope on his desk.  
“What is this?” Michael asked.
“Open it,” smirked Michael’s boss.  Michael opened the orange envelope and peaked into it with his right eye.
“It’s…” Michael exclaimed.

“4000 dollars, cash,” quietly whispered his boss.

Nothing but the truth




Nothing But the Truth

“Please all rise and stand for the saying of our national anthem…”  Oh say can you see… “Is that someone humming?”  What so proudly we hailed…  “I don’t know no who that is, but you heard Dr. Doane’s request.”  Through the perilous flight…  “Is that you Phillip?”  And the rockets red glare…  “Just humming” Just humming, this seemingly unimportant dialogue sparks a country wide conflict.  But what actually happened becomes less and less clear.   In Nothing But The Truth by Avi, there is no absolute truth told by any character.  Instead, each character alters the truth to their advantage.