The Search for the Hidden Cabin
Tom was
always one for adventure so it was no surprise to Jenny when he asked her to go
hiking through the woods to find a "hidden cabin" as he called it. Jenny
and Tom's tenth anniversary was coming up on the 14th of November and Tom had
been planning their getaway for weeks. One
of their favorite things to do together when they were dating was going hiking
but because of their busy schedules they hadn’t gone in over five years. Tom worked
at a law firm and had become one of the most sought lawyers for law suits
dealing with property and Jenny was always on the go managing her owe party
planning company called Let's Party. On the night before their anniversary Tom
asked Jenny to help him find the hidden cabin and Jenny was overjoyed at the
thought of taking a break from work and going hiking. Tom had thought
everything out. He took of work and asked one of Jenny's managers to watch her
shop, packed all of their clothes into hiking bags, prepared food, printed out
a Google map of the land, and reserved the cabin for a whole week. The one
thing Tom had not planned was the path they were going to take to get to the
cabin. The man who rented out the cabin seemed very nice. He told them the beautiful
view it had and the amazing wildlife but what he forgot to mention was that
having the map he made was very important to their travels.
This is the map Tom and Jenny should have gotten.
Holiday Home Map
Tom Gauld Map
When the car
stopped at the huge plot of land Jenny jumped out, put on her pack, and ran to
the woods excited for the week ahead. Tom ran after her and as soon as he had
caught up they found their first wild life sighting. It was a deer eating grass
next to a patch of mushrooms. The deer moved from the grass to the mushrooms
and as soon as t had taken a bite it fell down dead. The couple looked at it in
shock and quickly ran away. Jenny concluded that the mushrooms must have been
poisonous so they would have to be careful.
Tom gathered himself and pushed forward though the woods. Jenny screamed
as they came across a glowing green squirrel. They watched as the five legged squirrel
ran up a tree and then flew away. Jenny took off running away from the two
strangest things she had ever seen when she ran into a wall. The wall of a
haunted house. By this time Jenny had enough and didn’t want to go to the cabin
anymore she marched in the other direction and Tom hesitantly followed and they
never came back to holiday home in the woods ever again.
Cabin in the Woods
David Flickr
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Author's Note:
This story is based off of a picture of a map. Since it was a picture and not a story most of the content from this story was made by myself. The poison mushrooms (dead deer), nuclear site (green squirrel with five legs), and haunted house were all from the map and fairly close to each other.
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Bibliography:
This story is based off A Map of the Holiday Home provided by Tom Gauld
A postcard from his book Robots, Monsters etc., 2006
What a fun story, Sara — and you see how cool it can be to start with the "raw ingredients" for a story while getting to invent your own characters and plot to bring it to life. I like the way you set up their expectations for some romantic get-away... but of course nothing was like what they expected! My favorite moment was when Jenny screamed at the glowing green squirrel: ha! Especially after the dead deer, you know that would have been completely freaky. I also really liked how the ending sounded sort of like a happily-ever-after, but it was a never-after instead: "they never came back to holiday home in the woods ever again." Excellent: a romantic weekend gone supernaturally wrong!
ReplyDeleteWow!!! What a neat idea to base your story off of a map. I thought it was so imaginative and well thought out - even down to the detail of the company "let's party". I thought it was a cool idea to use a picture because it meant that you could really go in any direction that you wanted to with the story and it really shows the imagination that you have!
ReplyDeleteSara, I really enjoyed reading this. Your story had me hooked from the beginning. Your creativity really shined through when you talked about the glowing green squirrel with five legs. My favorite part was the beginning when you described, in detail, the background of the two main characters and why they were going to the woods. I was impressed by how imaginative you were when implementing the prompts on the map.
ReplyDeleteSara, first off thank you for commenting on my story. I think it is so funny that we both chose the same topic to write about for the week 1 storytelling! The map from Tom Gauld really gives you the freedom to take the story wherever you want to go. I also think your descriptive detail of the story was marvelous and you painted a vivid image of the characters and events in my head. Also I think your pictures fit well with your storyline and help bring more emphasis to the message of your story. Have you ever thought of making these adventures of love stories as one of your storybook topics? I think it would be a great way for you to explore the different ways to tell an adventurous love story. In addition, I am a fan of reading these types of stories! I look forward to reading more of your stories!
ReplyDelete-Tyler
First of all, I was excited to read this story because I had not seen anyone else choose this picture as the reference. Second of all, you did a fantastic job. I feel like you could easily take your story and make it into a movie! I like how you chose the main characters and gave them a unique back story that led to the cabin on the map. A picture is worth a thousand words and you did a great job by coming up with what you did.
ReplyDelete