Contemporary story
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High and Lifted Up

It was a windy day.

The mailman barely made it to the front door. When the door opened, Mrs. Pennington said, "hello", but, before she had a real chance to say "thank you", the mail blew out of the mailman's hands, into the house and the front door slammed in his face. Mrs. Pennington ran to pick up the mail.

"Oh my," she said.

Tommy was watching the shutters open and then shut, open and then shut.

"Mom," he said, "may I go outside?"

"Be careful," she said. "It's so windy today."

Tommy crawled down from the window-seat and ran to the door. He opened it with a bang. The wind blew fiercely and snatched the newly recovered mail from Mrs. Pennington's hands and blew it even further into the house.

"Oh my," she said again. Tommy ran outside and the door slammed shut.

Outside, yellow, gold, and red leaves were leaping from swaying trees, landing on the roof, jumping off the roof, and then chasing one another down the street in tiny whirlwinds of merriment.

Tommy watched in fascination.

"If I was a leaf, I would fly clear across the world," Tommy thought and then ran out into the yard among the swirl of colors.

Mrs. Pennington came to the front porch.

"Tommy, I have your jacket. Please put it on."

However, there was no Tommy in the front yard.

"Tommy?"

Tommy was a leaf. He was blowing down the street with the rest of his play-mates.

A maple leaf came close-by, touched him and moved ahead. Tommy met him shortly, brushed against him, and moved further ahead. They swirled around and around, hit cars and poles, flew up into the air and then down again.

"This is fun," Tommy thought.

The maple leaf blew in front of him. It was bright red with well-defined veins. The sun-light shone through it giving it a brilliance never before seen by a little boy's eyes.

"Where do you think we are going?" Tommy asked the leaf.

"Does it matter?" the leaf replied. "Have fun. Life is short."

"I beg to differ," an older leaf said suddenly coming beside them. "The journey may be short, but the end is the beginning."

Tommy pondered this the best a leaf could ponder.

"Where do we end up?"

←2

"If the wind blows you in that direction," the old leaf said, "you will end up in the city dump."

"I don't want that," Tommy said.

"If you are blown in that direction, you will fly high into the air and see things that no leaf has seen before."

"Follow me to the city dump," the maple leaf said. "Most of my friends are there."

The wind blew Tommy and the maple leaf along. Tommy thought of his choices. He wanted to continue to play.

"Okay," Tommy said, "I will go with you to the dump."

The winds shifted and Tommy and the leaf were blown in the direction of the city dump.

The old leaf didn't follow. He was blown further down the block and suddenly lifted up high into the air.

"Hey," he called out, "the sights up here. They are spectacular. Come and see."

Tommy and the maple leaf ignored him.

"I see something. I see the dump." The old leaf cried out. "I see smoke. Come up here. I see fire."

"I see nothing," the maple leaf said.

Tommy saw the fence that surrounded the city dump. He was happy to be with his friend. They would have fun in the dump.

Suddenly, a car pulled up. It was Tommy's mom. Mrs. Pennington wasn't about to let her little boy run into the city dump.

"Not so fast," she said getting out of the car. "You are not allowed to play in there. Don't you see the smoke?"

Tommy watched the maple leaf blow against the wall and struggle to get over. He ran over to get it but was unable to reach it.

Mrs. Pennington walked over and took the leaf. She put it in her pocket.

"There," she said, "it will be safe until we get home."

Tommy smiled, ran to the car and got in. He rolled down the back window and looked up into the sky. He wondered where the old leaf had gone. Perhaps one day he would see what the old leaf had seen - perhaps.

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Average: 5 (3 votes)

Comments

Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 10:31

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This story is a great example of how a child is able to "believe" he is anything. It captures true imagination so vividly. So many times as adults we dont use it to its true ability while children tend to escape freely every chance they can. Sadly as adults we dont because of so many things that force us to grow up and be "adults". Well done.

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 20:19

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Review

High and Lifted Up tells the story
of a moral and adventurous tale for
children. Representing the story, the
title exemplifies key elements; leaves,
which the entire story revolves around,
fly high and become lifted up because of
the whirling and strong wind.
Creatively, Mike Krath wrote this
enchanting and fun filled tale. After
writing this piece, Mike published it on
www.eastoftheweb.com. Mike published the
two page story on March 9th of 2003.
Although it’s a children’s story, only
one picture was contained within the
compelling children’s tale, High and
Lifted Up, the cover page’s picture,
which displayed a photo of brightly
colored autumn leaves on the ground.
Forming the children’s tale, the
story consist of a few characters such
as Tommy, who chases adventure, that
illustrate the story’s moral in a fun
and exiting adventure. As everybody,
Tommy has a mother and she’s known as
Mrs. Pennington; Mrs. Pennington
presents a secondary roll.
Interestingly, the story takes place in
a pleasantly small town. They reside
near the city. The story takes place in
modern times. High and Lifted Up
provides a fun and delightful mood to
the child-friendly story.
To unfold the plot, Tommy, who
watched the gushing wind, begged his
mom, Mrs. Pennington, to let him play
outside. Wind twirled everywhere.
Although the wind blew and flew
ferociously, Mrs. Pennington allowed
Tommy to play outside. Unexpectedly,
Tommy became a leaf. Meeting two other
leaves, Tommy became faced with two
unusual choices; fly with an old leaf
who warned him not to come near the city
dumps or blow towards the city dumps
with a newly met friend. Tommy went with
his new friend in the gushing wind
although this choice wasn’t very wise.

As Tommy approached the city
dump with the aid of wind, Mrs.
Pennington found and stopped him. What
is the moral? Kids want to enjoy and
play with their friends. If a kid does
not choose his friends carefully, his
friends could lead him to an awful way
of life, which the city dump symbolized,
that does not end well. Listening to
those who exceed in age, kids become
able to live longer and experience
beautiful things. Thankfully, parents
can wait by the dump, like Mrs.
Pennington, to pick them up when they
start following the wrong winds.
Over all, the compelling story
held a delightful rhythm, plot, and
message. Composing High and Lifted Up, a
strong message with amazing symbolism
shown through although young children
may not catch the deep meaning.
Enjoyably, beautiful descriptions
depicted this cleverly thought out
story. Although, every story has down
sides. It was hard to follow. The
compelling story, which read in an
exciting and entertaining way, became
confusing at times

By Paul, age 15. April 20, 2010

Submitted by admin on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 11:18

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this book thing was ok ut it could have been alot better they could have put in more expersion and emiton in it like when the mother came ok out the the car they could but some letters in blod to make it loook like she scearming for her son:by Roberta

Submitted by admin on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 11:24

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I think this story is good for a younger person like 6 and younger. I am a older person and it wasnt a story for me because i like more challenging storys but it would be very good for a younger person for a bed time story.

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 09:20

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nice

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