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Emma Maginn ~ December 2010

Page history last edited by michianawriterscenter@... 13 years, 2 months ago

 

December 2010 Featured Author

Emma Maginn

 

 

Emma Maginn

in her own words:

 

Not Megan or Majinn, Mu-gin. You got that? Not one person has pronounced her last name right, never, not even once. Emma is an animal lover and lives with her family of 6 and her dog Rosie, in South Bend. She loves peanut butter and the outdoors. She would like to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She plays the violin and piano. Emma has always loved reading, ever since her mom read her Harry the Dirty Dog when she was little, and the book inspired her to write.

 


 

 

 

Eerie Story

by Emma Maginn

 

     The aroma of coffee and cinnamon rolls was irresistible. I hop out of bed, get changed into my jeans and long sleeved shirt, and walk down the stairs.

     “Good morning Delilah! Somebody’s up early today,” says my mom.

     “Well, the Everest Junior Dog sled competition is in a week, and I have to practice,” I say excitedly. I put on my huge jacket, snow pants, boots, another huge jacket, three layers of gloves, a hat, a face cover, and hand and feet warmers. I walk outside into the giant snow and blizzards that Alaska has to offer.

     Our house is stuck into the side of a mountain in the snow.

     Alaska is a boring, boring, place. Nothing ever happens and our closest neighbor is eleven miles away. Actually, the only good things about living here are my dogs. They’re all huskies and I’ve won five Junior Dog Sled competitions, and I’m aiming for my sixth win with them.

     I open our barn shed where my dogs stay. “Okay dogs. Let’s hitch up.” I tie my dogs to the sled and we go off onto the trail.

     Fortunately, we live right by the Iditarod course, so I practice there every day.

     “Mush!” I say to my dogs.

     They run off at top speed and I steer them along the way. To me, dog sledding is peaceful and comforting. Dog sledding is the best sport in the world!

     After a couple of hours I come back home. I put my dogs away, walk inside, and grab some hot coco.

     Here’s another reason why Alaska is so boring: When I was nine my parents got divorced and my dad took my little brother to Hawaii, and my mom took me to Alaska. Complete opposites. I wish my dad still lived with us. He got first in the Iditarod. The race was close. I guess that my dad really deserved second place, because the guy that was in first died of hypothermia along the way to the finish

line. My dad is my hero. I think dog sledding’s in my blood.

     “Hi, Delilah!” my mom says. “Turn on the news please!”

     I scurry around to find the remote hiding under the couch cushion. I press the power button and the news flips on. The newsman starts talking in his deep news voice. “A strange happening is going on in Alaska. On Cliff Shed Mountain in the Iditarod course, people have been seeing a strange ghostly figure on a dog sled.”

     “Hey mom! That’s where we live!” I exclaim.

     The newsman continues. “Eyewitness’s claim to hear this ghost man saying that he should have won and he must get after Alic Ramirez.”

     “Oh my gosh! That’s dad! Do you think the ghost could be the guy that died when dad was racing?” I ask.

     “Honey, that’s crazy. There’s no such thing as ghosts,” says my mom.

     “I know, but it still would be cool!” I say.

     “Oh Delilah, what an imagination you have.”

     After dinner and some T.V., I go upstairs to bed. My plan is to set up a camera on my window looking out onto the dog sled course. Then, if I’m lucky, I’ll see the ghost with his dogs! I scurry around and find my camera and tripod. I set it up so it’s looking out my huge window, and head into bed. I’m so anxious, I can barely sleep!

     The next morning, I jump out of bed so fast my feet hardly touch the ground. I run over to my camera at lightning speed. I press play and nothing; nothing!

     “Ugh!” I say to myself.

     The next night, I aim again at trying to catch this ghost. I press record, and fall asleep. But not for long. The sound of barking dogs wakes me up at night. I peer out my window and see an eerie, ghostly figure, sledding with his eight dogs. This must be the ghost man! Only a few hours later, my mom is in the kitchen making her morning coffee. I run down the stairs, holding my camera in my left hand.

     “Mom! I saw the ghost man! And I got it on film!”

     “That’s ridiculous,” my mom says. “Let me see.”

     As I’m about to hand her the camera, it plops into her hot coffee, and dies.

     “Delilah! That camera was expensive!

     “Sorry, Mom. But what I’m more upset about is that I had this ghost on film, and I lost it!”

     “Delilah, I think you’re overreacting. Let me tell you this one more time. There are no such things as ghosts.”

     “Mom, I’m telling you that I saw that ghost!” I storm out of the kitchen, and start furiously sledding with my dogs.

     “She never believes anything I say,” I mumble. “I guess I’ll have to do this one on my own.” When I get close to out house, I look around to see if the ghost left any traces. Nothing. I head into the dense, snow covered woods to see if anything’s there.

     “What am I thinking?” I say to myself. “Ghost’s don’t leave footprints!”

     Just as I am about to leave, I see a flash from behind me. It’s the ghost! I stay quiet so I won’t scare him off. I slowly exit the woods (to be honest with you, I’m horrified of ghosts!) when the ghost turns around and sees me! I try to keep cool and slowly keep walking out of the woods. Then, the ghost yells “Mush!” to his dogs, and they charge after me! Instead of walking, I sprint towards home, but it’s too late. The ghost grabs me by the shirt, and throws me onto his sled.

     “What do you want from me?” I scream.

     “I should have won that race!” he shouted.

     “What are you talking about? That was my dad you raced!”

     “But you’re a blood relative. And besides, Alic lives in Hawaii. I can’t go sledding in Hawaii!” he said in his eerie British accent.

     “How would killing me do any good?” I said.

     “You have disturbed the spirits, and made them very angry, so therefore, I must kill you!”

     As the sled plowed past a tree, I managed to snag onto a branch, and hop out.

     “Curses!” yelled the ghost. “Two can play at that game! I will come find you, and kill you!”

     I sprinted home and locked all of the doors when I arrived inside.

     “What are you doing D?” asked my mom.

     “Nothing,” I said. “Just keep the doors shut and locked.”

     I ran upstairs to see if I could find a solution to this problem. After a couple of hours of thinking, I finally found a plan. What if I race him! And if I win, he can get sent back to the spirits! But, the problem is, he almost won the Iditarod, I’m still in Junior Dog Sled Competitions! I think that I could do it, but it would be almost impossible.

     I run outside, being so stupid as to forget my coat, but I don’t care. I moved swiftly on my feet, and headed into the woods. I was hoping to find the ghost sledding in the forest, but he was long gone. I sprinted home, and went back out with my dogs to find this ghost man. After about two miles of searching, I finally found him, and skidded to a stop.

     “Hello, dog sled dude,” I say toughly.

     “Shut up, you ignorant fool!” he said.

     “Whatever,” I say. “I challenge you to a sled off. If I win, you get sent up to the spirits. If you win, you can do whatever you want with me. Deal?”

     “All right mate, that sounds fair to me.”

     “As long as we’re here, we might as well start,” I said. “I’ll race you to the bottom of the mountain. Ready. Set. Go!”

     We start off strong. This guy is good, I mean, good. But I have a plan. As soon as I reach my house, I see Brad, my mom’s boyfriend standing by his Jeep, which is covered in snow chains. Brad is so cool. He acts like a kid, even though he’s 37. He’s tall with long, golden hair. He’s gorgeous, as my mom would say. I hop into his Jeep, and we skid down the road, going well over 80 mph. Brad starts to

rev his engine, and goes even faster down the mountain. When I reach the bottom of the mountain, I get out of the car and hop onto my sled, acting like I went down the mountain on my own.

     When the ghost finally reaches the bottom, he is flabbergasted. Suddenly, the skies opened up, and a flash of light appeared. Then, the ghost was gone… vanished. I did it!

     I sit up in my bed. My mom is standing next to me. I touch my forehead and feel cold sweat dripping off my face.

     “Did you have a bad dream?” Says my mom.

     A dream? Was this whole thing a dream, or reality? I look out my window and see eight ghost dogs with their sled, standing in my backyard.

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