Short Story Saturday! Write a story of a first love.
There were about fifteen of us in the dimly lit room. We were all sweaty, panting, and excited. I could see Tommy’s eyes shining with eagerness and his face glistening in sweat. Jenny was giggling with anticipation, but I never saw her sweat even after a game of dodgeball, which we had all just finished playing. The murmuring in the class had suddenly turned into a loud river of voices. Miss Allen sat down in her wooden chair and opened “the book”. She turned to Chapter 13.
For the past few weeks Miss Allen had been reading to us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory written by Roald Dahl. Today we all knew it was time for Charlie and Grandpa Joe to meet Willy Wonka the greatest chocolatier the world has ever known. I believe I was more excited than anyone else in the classroom. I knew that something great was going to happen to Charlie Bucket. I knew his life was about to change forever. I knew I was Charlie. I hoped that it was going to change for me too. It would unfortunately.
In second grade, I fell in love twice. Both were my first loves. First there was Miss Allen. She was the best teacher ever. She read stories to the class, but in my world she actually only read them to me. I felt her soothing voice touch my heart. She gave me the gift of my other first love too.
Reading. I love going into a book and disappearing from the troubles in my head and the anger of the world which surrounded me those days. I would become a hero, a teacher, a friend, a sleuth, or anyone who would make a change in their life or the life of others. I would become someone who was loved.
Miss Allen opened the world of reading to me, then she left me. Actually, she got married and left the school before I did. I moved shortly after her, but I felt her leaving as another abandonment by an adult. At least reading books would not leave me like humans would continually do my whole life.
I have had many loves since that time, but all of them have been books. Charlie and Chocolate Factory is my favourite book because it gave me hope as a child.
What are you favourite books?
Note to parents: Reading is fundamental to a child’s growth as a human. My family never read to me as a child, but I had Miss Allen in second grade.
an ocean roars 