9/11 Short Stories

Obtrusively,the thunder bellowed outside and the roaring sound filled the small room like rock music to a broken soul.Amongst the thunder, raindrops could be seen ebbing down the windowsill forming undecipherable miniscule shapes and later sinking down in the wall to gather at the edge.

My mom drove me to school, filling the car with an awkward and unbearable silence. The only noise was her thumb tapping the steering wheel and the annoying clicking of the signals. Since I am on punishment, I'm not allowed to have the luxury of Megan driving me. To make this car ride a little bit less awkward, I turned on the radio and blasted up the volume to the highest notch.

Thoughts of drowning run rampant in every man’s mind on that boat. At dawn, the men decided that their only chance is to row toward the distant shore again and swim when the boat finally capsizes.

They are so consumed with their struggle against the waves they do not even have the time to notice something as simple as the color of the sky. From the very beginning the reader is filled with the suspense that each individual character feels. Despite the crews struggle with Mother Nature, they are continually struck by the fierce waves. With each passing wave the reader is lead to believe that this one will surely be the one that capsizes the little dingy. “As the salty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean (256).” Crane creates suspense between the reader and the characters that allow both to feel the relentlessness of nature’s indifference of their struggled attempts to survive. It seems that no matter how hard the crew works to keep the dingy from capsizing “… the waves continued their old impetuous swooping at the dingy, and the little craft, no longer underway struggled woundily over them (259).” The narrator describes the waves as acting carefree and rather impulsive as if they had no obligation to the men for their survival. Nature does not care that this crew of men were working to survive, but nor does it mean to cause the men any harm. The waves are merely there, doing as nature intends the waves

The weather was decent, but evening was approaching and it was getting chillier. A lay on my stomach and steady the tube as Noah gets on. We grab on to the handles in front of us and the tube is propelled forward by the boat. We started picking up speed, but it was still easy to stay on the tube. We started reaching speeds of up to forty miles per hour. It was amazing, the water flashed by on either side. We were still going straight but we were ramping off waves. The water splashed in my face every time we went airborne and landed again, but I didn’t care. And then we started turning. We turned right, which was the side I was on. We just let the tube go where it wanted to go, but that was a mistake. The tube came closer to the gigantic wave made by the boat engine. We reamped of the wave, and I knew I was a goner. I began sliding off the tube, and I thought I was gone. Finally my body was flung into the water, but my hands had a firm grip on the handle bars. Uncle ralph slowed down enough so I could pull myself up on the tube. With most of my body soaking wet, and slippery. When we turned again we turned left. This time we tried to lean against the wave. The tactic worked pretty good, but me hit the wave again. Noah was gone in an instant. I look back and he is floating some ways back

This passage is an extract from Joseph O’ Connor’s Star of the sea which was penned in the year 2002. The passage makes use of a third person narrative view point as a result of which the readers are provided with a vivid image of passengers aboard a stormy sea ship. The passage talks about a ship afloat a stormy sea and how the passengers on the deck are caught unaware due to this storm. The author uses a descriptive style of writing with short crisp sentences that heighten the pace of the story. In the last two paragraphs however, the author uses longer sentences that signal a slower pace and show the readers that the storm has died down for the time being. The author has interspersed the action with 2 dialogues. It is interesting to

Meanwhile, Hulga lay in the loft of the barn, and due to the lack of vision correction, she struggled to discern the amount of fingers she was raising an arm's length away. Her optical deficiency was beginning to give her a throbbing pain just behind her eyes. The paralyzing ache gave rise to such agony that Hulga had no choice but to shut her eyes and get some rest.

Out of the darkness, rivers of brilliant light and color began to flow all around her, as if a dam holding back a rainbow had miraculously burst. Then she heard the music... a melody so beautiful it tugged at her very soul. It was as if the euphony clothed her in an impenetrable blanket. She felt warm. She felt safe. Uncontrollably, tears welled up, the hymn gripping her heart, and she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut and instinctively her body curled into a protective ball.

I walk downstairs in light blue high waisted shorts and a white tank top with cowgirl boots.

Nothing was heard, only the water droplets that drops from the crack ceiling. Making a small puddle on the ground, having mice roaming around the place.

I woke up to the Loud shots of gun fire not knowing where I was or how I got here. I quickly (scrambled) to my feet with hundreds of thoughts racing through my mind. When I stepped outside I quickly realized that I was in a nightmare that I could not get out of. I overheard the officers say we were in soldau, i grew up in the area with my mom, dad, grandpa and three older brothers. I walked around looking for someone I knew, anyone. The only way I could come out of this camp alive is to have and ally to ration food and water with. I quickly and (swiftly) scanned the faces of the (miserable) prisoners for someone i knew. One person looked particularly familiar but i could not put my finger on who it was, so i walked up to him and said ‘’hello’’ and before i could say anything more the man hugged me so tight i could barely breath. Still not knowing who this man was i hugged him back as if i had never felt

“Come here, look,” she would say, her voice trembling with every syllable, “we received an encrypted letter from Langley.”

Drip, drip, drop. The appearance of the rain drops hitting the water of the pool reminds me of stones being throw in the water, and how they created those perfect circles that would expand until they faded away. Though the stones made the water react, it was still the same water; it went back to being flat. Do you suppose that we take these simple visuals, and make them into something more meaningful than what it really is? It really is just simple nature, yet we put more beauty and symbolism into. At least, that was how I see the world now that my mind no longer sees tricks as magic.

There was a mysterious tapping at the window, and a sudden silence fell over the four people sitting by the fireplace. It was as if a cold chill had invaded the warmly lit room to remind them of the threatening storm and dark outside. The two brothers and their wives had been talking of Alan Drake, although they did not speak of him often, for they had little enough to say. He had simply walked away two years ago, leaving a cryptic note:

Loathed them, actually, with a passion. When their eyes widened and started to water, when their knees began to tremble, when the moon slowly began to appear behind their gaze — that was when his lips curved in a sneer and his words were dipped in poison.