Assignment Number 1

*The assignment instructions were to write about a significant event in your life and to try to evoke an emotional response from the reader. We were instructed to use all of our senses when writing e.g. smell, taste, hearing, seeing, feeling*




Through the shrieks and screams of the kids racing around the park, I could hear the distant clang of the town clock. Beads of sweat covered my forehead and I stopped to wipe it while I counted the rings. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, it was already seven o’clock.

I’ll have to leave in half an hour or I won’t make it home by 8:00. I hope Jackie and Anne will come home too. They promised they would on the way over here. I don’t want to walk all the way by myself. Where are they?

Searching through the crowd, I finally found Jackie and Anne sitting in the Gazebo, the home-free zone with a couple of boys I did not know. They reluctantly came down the stairs to where I was standing to find out what I wanted.

“I have to get going soon, are you going to leave with me?”

“You’re leaving already? What time is it?”

“It’s just past 7:00 but I have to leave around 7:30.”

“I don’t want to go yet, do you Jackie?”

“No. My mom said I could stay out until 9:00.”

“Shelly just stay and go home when we do. You won’t get in trouble.”

“Yes I will. I will be grounded if I show up late one more time and how can I call home, there isn’t a pay phone around here. Besides, I’m not supposed to be over here. Dad thought I was going to your house, Anne.”

“Oh alright then, I’ll go with you, come and get me when you’re leaving.”

Anne raced off to join in the game of war. I stood where I was, watching, not wanting to lose track of time.

In retaliation for my friends deserting me at the last minute, I visualized their faces on any small pebbles or stones that lay in my path, before my foot propelled them high into the air.

I could smell a hint of winter in the air and my shoes made loud echoing noises as I stomped down the sidewalk toward home. Now I was sure to be late because I spent too much time trying to convince them to leave with me.

I picked up the pace as I mulled over our friendship. My sense of betrayal and abandonment left me distracted and oblivious to everything else. I had no idea how far I had walked.

Surprisingly, I was almost halfway home when I finally took notice of the darkening sky. Small stars twinkled against the indigo night sky directly above, while ahead in distance the sky was still a beautiful turquoise shade with streaks of red from the sinking sun. Dark silhouettes swooped wildly around the steeped pitch roof of the Presbyterian Church on the next corner.

It would take more than bats to scare me into the roadway tonight though. My emotions were running rampant and I was not in the mood for feeling like a wimp. I was twelve, not a child. I held my breath and almost broke out into a run as I skipped quickly past the dark shadows of the Church. A sense of relief and accomplishment filled me when I was past the danger zone, unharmed.

I turned to glance at the neon clock in the window of Charlie’s Variety. My timing was perfect; it was only 7:45 p.m. Fifteen more minutes and I would be home.

I can’t wait to tell Mom and Dad how Anne and Jackie wouldn’t come home with me because they said I had a baby’s curfew. Maybe then, they will let me stay out until 9:00, like all the other kids. It is so stupid to have to be home by 8:00pm. I am the only kid in Senior Public that has to be home at that time.

Oh, oh, there’s the haunted Gowan home. I’d better cross the street or maybe I should walk out in the middle of the road. It’s so dark and creepy here. All these trees and this tall hedge, anyone could sneak up and wait for you, you wouldn’t even know it. I have a creepy feeling that someone is going to jump out at me when I get to the driveway. I bet someone I know has seen me walking and they’ll try to scare me because all the kids talk about this place being haunted. Anne never walks on the sidewalk. We always cross the street. It’s not haunted, it’s a vacant house. I shouldn’t listen to all those silly, stupid stories from kids. What do they know?

Okay, I’m staying on the sidewalk. I’ll just walk straight. I won’t turn and look when I pass the opening in the hedge. There isn’t anyone there. Look straight ahead. Don’t look. Keep walking. Walk faster. Here it comes. The driveway is just ahead. I still have time to cross the street and nobody would know. No. I should be able to walk past this house without being afraid. Nobody would ever know I was afraid. I should cross the street. I have time. The driveway is getting closer. Cross now. No, I’m not crossing the street. Here it is. Do not turn your head. Don’t look. Do not look.

“ARGGGHHHHHH! WARREN YOU SCARED ME! What are you doing? Waaaait, who are, what are you doing? Who ARE YOU?! ”

Oh my God! What does he want. Why is this happening? I don’t believe this, why is he grabbing my arm…NO, YOU’RE NOT PULLING ME BEHIND THOSE BUSHES…STOP…RUN SHELLY, PUSH HIM AND RUN!!

“HELP, SOMEONE PLEASE HELP, HEEEELLLLLLP…I’M BEING ATTACKED, HELPPPP, ARRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHH, HELLLLLLLLLLLP, HELLLLLLLLLLLLP ME”

Let go of me… oh my God. Where are all the people? Don’t they hear me screaming? Why isn’t anyone coming outside to see what is going on. I have to get away.

“HELP, SOMEONE PLEASE HELP, HEEEELLLLLLP… ARRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHH, HELLLLLLLLLLLP, HELLLLLLLLLLLLP ME”

Stay away from me… Let me go…who are you? Why are you doing this? Get your hands off my neck!! Oh my god! What is he doing? What does he want? LET GO OF ME!! …oooooompf, ohhhhhh…he pushed me…oh no, NO, NOOOOOO… FIGHT Shelly! Don’t let him do anything to you. Don’t let him TOUCH you…

“HELP, HELP, HEEEELLLLLLP… HELPPPP, HELLLLLLLLLLLP, HELLLLLLLLLLLLP”

He’s coming down on top of you Shelly…do something, do anything, MOVE IT. This could be it…You’re going to die! Get HIM OFF OF YOU! NOW!

TAKE THAT! Holy shit I think I got him in the balls! Get up! Run away before he attacks again! Hurry, get up…RUN Shelly, RUN …Where is he?! Whaaat? He’s running away! He’s running away! He’s running away from me! Oh my god! I have to get out of here! Get out in the road! Scream…Keep screaming until someone comes out of their house! Oh my God, I was just attacked, oh my god…

Here comes a car…Flag it down, wave your arms…scream louder! You have to stop this car to be safe…he might still be there!

“Shelly?!? Is that you? What the hell happened to you? Shelly?! Get in the car, calm down, slow down Shelly, I can’t understand what you are saying!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when the car stopped and Jim, my crush, rolled down his window. The look of concern in his eyes made me burst into tears and for what seemed like a very long time, I tried to get control of my vocal chords so that I could tell him what happened. Jim managed to decipher my broken speech through my sobs, by yelling out a barrage of questions, that I could answer by shaking my head no, or nodding yes. The minute that it became clear to Jim that I had been attacked, he jumped out of the car with instructions for me to stay put, quickly disappeared into the darkness in the same direction that my attacker had fled. I couldn’t stop shaking and crying. It seemed like hours before he returned.

“Did you find him?”

“No…he’s gone. There was nobody there. Are you sure he went that way?”

“Yes, but he was on a ten speed.”

“I’m going to take you home and then I’ll come back and drive around to see if I can find him.”

My father thanked Jim profusely for saving me. Jim denied doing anything and yelled for my father to call the Police as he jumped into his car to go back to the area of the attack in search of the creep.

The Police questioned me until late into the night about what he looked like, what he was wearing, what I was wearing, why I was walking alone, did I always dress like that when I was out, where had I been, who had I been with, on and on and on.

After the gruelling questioning, they insisted that I look at hundreds of mug shots to see if I recognized him. After awhile, all of the pictures began to look the same, they all blurred into one another with no one looking unique. His face that had been in my memory bank was gone. The only thing that I could see when I replayed the scene over in my mind was a faceless man. The faceless man, as I first saw him, standing behind the hedge, waiting. I could see the faceless man grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the dark yard behind the bushes. He was still faceless as he started to come down on top of me after he had thrown me to the ground. Even the shock on his face when I kicked him in the balls, was gone.

Thirty-three years later, I still have no idea what he looks like or who he was. I don’t know if I went to school with him, if he watched me throughout the years while I lived in that town, if I dated him, or worked with him, or ordered dinner from a restaurant from him.

I have had to come to terms with that, not knowing and I hate NOT knowing.