This was only week four of the semester, but I am continually surprised by the lack of students not completing an assignment or unwilling to share with the class. Each week the teacher gives us a prompt, or a suggestion, but we can choose any subject we want to write about. It can be a poem or a piece of prose. Very few of the students come prepared to share their writing with the class. There are only 2 of us who write prose and three students write poems of various lengths. One student's poem normally has three lines, the other about 6, and the other one is of normal length. Two other students have share only one time and the other 13 students haven't shared anything. We are graded by the number of writings we share with the class.
I think about the waste of a valuable experience these students are missing out on. Their parents or if they have taken out a student loan are just throwing away valuable money that they paid for this class. I speak from experience. But I digress.
With the leftover time that she wasn't prepared for, the teacher wrote three things on the blackboard and asked us to write something that included each item, it could be a poem or prose. They were: identical twins, an old guitar, Niagara Falls.
I must say that this took me by surprise. I normally come up with a thought that develops into an idea but it then needs to be large enough to give me a desire to write about. Writing on the spur of the moment is difficult for me.
I took out my pen and paper and wrote down the first thing that came to my mind to see where it would go. I was surprise that the words just flowed onto the paper which ended up being the very good start of a short story.
On my way home from school I thought what a wonderful idea. On the cold winter days when I don't feel like venturing out into the cold, but looking for something to do, all I need to do is think of three random objects and try to create a story around them.
I ended up liking my story so much I decided to share it with you, but first it needed a little tweaking since we were writing so rapidly trying to complete it in just a few minutes. Here it is.
Senior Skip Day
It was to be the trip of a lifetime. Sarah and I had planned to skip school that beautiful, sunny May morning as with many of our classmates. It was Senior Skip Day, a tradition that went back to who knows when. We had been planning this since the first time we heard about it from our older brother, Joe, when he had gotten caught by Papa. Now it was our turn to make it to Niagara Falls and back without Papa finding out.
Sarah was the older, making me the baby of the family, if only by a few minutes. As the baby, I was Mama's and Papa's favorite, so I thought. The birth had been difficult, but I survived and as a result my parents treasured me. If need be, we would use that to our advantage as well as the fact that we were identical twins.
We both took the same classes but different times of the day. We often switched classes and no one ever knew the difference. Sometimes we sat in on each other's class to be together and confuse the teachers. We had been doing this since middle school, in fact so often that the school and teachers just allowed us to sit together in class as long as we did our homework and took the tests they didn't care.
Needless to say, we were brats, but in a good way. We never missed school since we loved it so much. Mostly because we were always playing tricks to confuse everyone so that no one could tell us apart. We would meet in the bathroom and exchange clothes several times during the day then pretend we were each other. One time we even confused ourselves and laughed so hard that later we actually thought about exchanging names permanently. Even when we were sick we demanded to go to school. This would be our advantage over our siblings. Papa would never expect us to skip school.
We had just received a black Honda used by older brother, Tom, while he was in college as a graduation gift to use when we attended the University about sixty miles away. Mama and Papa wanted us to come home now and again for the weekend as well as holidays. As part of our plan we had convinced them to let us start driving it to school which they had agreed.
That morning we arrived at school at the normal time having attendance in homeroom then proceeded to our first class. After Business Law I met Sarah and went to Sarah's English class then we went the next class, my American Lit. Once the class was over, we ducked out the door right next to the classroom, put on a ball cap and lightweight jacket then headed for our car carrying an old guitar that Sarah had borrowed from her boyfriend, Brad.
The car was parked a couple of blocks away, instead of the student parking area, so we could leave without being noticed. It was lunch time so there were cars and students coming and going so we blended in well. All was going as planned. We had arrived at school, been recognized as being there, attended classes, continued our normal 'confuse the teacher' routine and left in disguise. Everything appeared as normal.
We had tossed a coin to see who would drive and Sarah had won. Off we went with the biggest smiles which soon developed into the giggles of young girls. Through the city and into the country we went with chips, cookies, coke, a camera and the old guitar to sing songs and entertain us on this incredible journey.
Along the way we counted down the miles from highway signs pointing the direction to the Falls. Thirty miles, tens miles, we were almost there. We finally reached Buffalo, where we had often visited and onward we went towards the Falls. We could almost feel the spray from the Falls enter the opened windows even though we were still several miles away.
We only needed to get there, take a picture of each of us together by the Falls and get back to school before the final class. With eager anticipation we continued through Buffalo bragging that we would be the first of Mama and Papa's ten children to accomplish this feat. It would be even more spectacular since we were the only girls. It would take a woman to outsmart Papa; Mama would be so proud.
Up in the distance we could see the parking lot. We were so excited but yet we could hardly breathe with fear of being caught. Papa was at work that day, meeting with important clients. There is no way he can be in two places at the same time.
We pulled into the parking lot, parking the car as close to the Falls as possible. Success. So far we had gotten farther than most of our siblings, but we knew Papa was devious.
We ran towards the Falls as fast as we could, laughing so hard it made it difficult to run. We walked along the rail and found the perfect spot for our picture now we had to find someone to take it for us as evidence that we were there.
I could see this old lady sitting on one of the benches by the rail. She had a blue floral dress that reached her ankles, a big floppy hat with her long grey hair hanging down below it, and a cane by her side. I told Sarah that I would ask her to take the picture. I ran over to the old lady and said "Ma'am" so I could get her attention. She lifted her head from the book she had been reading and I just stood there in shock, it was Papa.
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