Narrative Examples

English III

Damon’s NarrativeAs I woke to the sound of the screaming alarm, I strained and fought gravity to sit up. I could already tell today would be a memorable day, but I didn’t know the half of it.

On a normal day, I would wake up, stumble to the kitchen, and fill myself with the steaming breakfast my mother had fixed earlier that morning. But today, to my surprise, there was no one there. I walked the house many times like the family detective trying to find clues of where my parents might be. But with no luck I abruptly ended the search, for I had other plans for the day. Taking advantage of my time alone, I ran to my room, snatched some clothes from my closet, and sprinted for the shower. I quickly cleaned up and got dressed. I ran outside to see what I could get into, and like clockwork my good friend Jon was jogging down the road.

Even though I had just met Jon, I felt like I knew him my whole life. Inseparable friends, everyday we would hang out and see what trouble we could cause, and today was no different. When he finally came to a halt in front of me, we shook hands and started contemplating our next move. We had decided to make our way to the mall; there was always something there to do. We set off with the wind at our backs and the sun shining on our faces. It was about three miles to the mall from my house on Upper Street.

We tried to walk fast, but we were soon stopped by a cacophony of destructive screams from the siren of an ambulance. We waited as it passed, so maybe we could predict where it was going. It was a bad neighborhood, so it wasn’t rare to see an ambulance or a cop car fly by. As we watched I started to notice that it was approaching my house rather quickly. As it turned out of sigh,t I got this horrible gut feeling; I just couldn’t ignore it. It was like I already knew there was a wreck. Almost like a premonition.

Jon and I were both halfway athletic kids, so it didn’t take long for us to chase down the ambulance, but when we arrived on scene, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see next. Police and paramedics lined the street perpendicular to mine. Trying to fight my way through the crowd, pushing and shoving men in uniforms, I finally caught a slight glimpse of my mothers Camaro. As I approached the vehicle, I could hear my mother’s voice echoing off the building walls. “HE STOLE IT! I COULDN’T STOP HIM!”

But when I finally reached the car, a police officer stopped me and informed me that I was in the middle of a crime scene, and I must move back. I tried to reason with the man and explain it was my father unconscious behind the wheel of the destroyed tin can. He wouldn’t listen though, so I went back and knelt down beside the entrance to some shop. All the emotions in the world rushed into me all at once; it was overwhelming. All I could do was fear what would come next. Eventually an older wise-looking police officer sat beside me. He explained that my father had stolen my mom’s car, and when they tried to subdue him, he fled and wrecked at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. The cop said my dad was lucky to be alive, and I was lucky because I would get to see him again. But he was wrong.

That was the last time I saw my father, unconscious behind the wheel of my mother’s car. Soon after the wreck we called my uncle, and he came and got us. I left Kentucky and haven’t seen my best friend Jon or my father since that day. My father was incarcerated in the Clark County jail that day, and all forms of communication between us halted. My mother said he was no good, and any ties left would only hurt me and make it harder to cope with.

Jesse’s Narrative

This is going to be a bad idea, I thought as I gazed across the river. I did not realize the river was this rocky and wide there. It looked as if there was a giant alligator under the surface with only its scales jabbing out of the water everywhere, and I could barely see the other bank, and it wasn’t that foggy.

My friend Lee and I had decided to kayak the river and duck hunt on a bone chilling, dreary afternoon in December. As we stood on the bank in our camouflage and face paint studying the terrain of the unfamiliar part of the river, I was already starting to regret it. It was like it was alive, the water swiftly pushing everything in its path into the unforgiving rocks that filled the river bed. Being the most experienced on river kayaking of the two of us, I didn’t let Lee notice my shaking hands. I wanted him to stay calm.

We put our kayaks in the river a lot slower than usual. I told him to tie his gun and his paddle to the D rings on his waders in-case… I didn’t want to jinx us by saying the word. We both hopped in our vessels and started situating our gear to get comfortable. I glanced over at Lee; he was already shaking in his kayak. He glanced at me, but I pretended like I didn’t see it. Squinting my eyes I peered across the river. It looked even worse from water level. We nodded at each other, thinking that we were ready. I put a pinch of snuff in, made sure my gun was secure but accessible on the top, pushed off from the bank, and said, “Follow me.”

The water was much stronger than any I’d ever been in; four strokes and I was already going way too fast. I headed out into the middle of the river so maybe I could spot a good hole in the “alligator’s scales” ahead. As expected, nothing was obvious. I looked back at Lee who was looking at me like, “Where to now fearless leader?” I laughed at my own thoughts. As the first few rocks passed, the rapids ahead were growling at us like a predator at its prey. I spotted a hole between two massive rocks on our left that looked promising, so I turned my boat and pointed it out to Lee. We went through it like professionals. Feeling pretty good about how that went, I looked downriver to see what else the river had for us. I couldn’t believe it. Rocks as far as I could see, even bigger ones; it seemed there were more rocks than water in the river.

I looked back at Lee who was shaking his head. I could already see a sure hole through the next set straight ahead, so I started to pick up some speed. We went through it like we’d done it before, but then I saw it. Waiting for us on the other side was a true gauntlet. In every possible hole was a rock. It was starting to get really shallow, which was a good thing and a bad thing. We approached the gauntlet very slowly, trying but failing to spot a sure way out. Winding between the rocks like a barrel racer on a horse, I weaved around the rocks, looking over my shoulder to make sure Lee was following my lead. I thought, if it was summer tim,e this would be kind of fun, but the water was icy cold on my hands and splashing on my face. Finally I could see the end of this set of rocks. I turned my boat sideways to watch Lee come through.

Then my kayak caught a rock dead center; it turned up and the water was about to come in, but I quickly countered my weight and put myself back in the water, as I pushed off the rock. My heart was pounding. I looked up at Lee who was looking at me with disbelief. I pointed and started to yell, but I was too late; he hit the rock head on. His boat tilted, and he fell out. Luckily it was shallow and he landed on his feet and grabbed his gun all in one motion. His gun case came floating my way along with his kayak, so I snatched his case up and put it across me, and caught his boat with mine, and fought to push it back upstream to him.

It seemed like it took forever to make it back up to him balancing his kayak with the bow of mine, but I finally made it. We stayed there for a minute to rest and thank God because it could’ve been a lot worse. We decided to put his gun case on the back of my boat because there really was no room for it on his tiny little sit-on-top kayak, then we headed back down the river. Curious to see how far we had already gone, I turned and looked back up river; I could still see my truck, and it seemed like we’d been in the water for hours.

Looking back downriver it seemed like the rocks were starting to thin out. With plenty of openings, I chose one and I went through it with ease. Lee had picked his own opening this time and actually passed me, grinning as he went by. My eyes followed him as he went on down out front. Then he turned and yelled something, but I couldn’t hear what he said, so I looked at the river in front of him. It was a solid wall of rocks all the way across the river. The water seemed ten times faster than it had been. There was only one hole that our boats could fit through across the whole river, and Lee was headed right for it. It was a big rock, then a small hole, then a log coming out of the river then more rocks. And on the other side of the hole was a long flat rock, so even if he made it through the gap, he would have to cut extra sharp to make it out.

Lee started through the hole, but the back end of his boat turned, hitting the log. His boat turned up letting the water come over the right side, and pushed his boat down so quick there was nothing he could do, and his boat flipped over. I lunged forward pushing my kayak with everything I had as Lee disappeared under the tinted water. I could hear geese honking in the distance, but nothing else mattered right now; I had to get Lee out of there. I was approaching the log very fast when Lee came busting out.

His eyes were wide, and he yelled as he smacked the water in front of him with anger. I was speechless. He almost just drowned right in front of me. Lee pulled himself up on a rock to catch his breath. He thought he’d lost his gun, but I looked down and saw it dragging on the bottom, so he pulled it up by the cord he tied earlier. We decided to pull over to the bank so he could take off his waders, and try to get some of the water out, and see if we could get his gun to cycle again. We worked on it until there was nothing else we could do, and it still wouldn’t work right. If we got the chance to shoot, it would all be up to me now, but we had to get down the river to make the landing before dark.

We eased on down the river side-by-side now because all the rocks were finally gone; we were talking and laughing at the fact that neither one of us had even thought about a duck the whole trip. Naturally, when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it started to rain, and the fog came creeping back in filling the river bed.

Then, we started around a bend to the left, and I could see a bunch of waterfowl trolling along the bank, and I thought It’s about time something good happens. All of a sudden I noticed I was hearing an engine getting closer from behind, so I looked and sure enough, a train. Great, just what we need, a train to come blowing by and scare all the geese away, I thought.

For a second, I thought they might come flying back upstream right over our heads, and then I watched them get up. They flew straight downstream out of sight. Freaking train, I thought. Getting really frustrated I started to pick up speed, and Lee followed. I could hear the geese as they came back down to land just down river. I told Lee to stay behind me and hold close to the bank as we neared the murmuring flock of suspicious geese. They were only about a hundred yards away, but the fog was so thick now, we couldn’t see anything. But neither could they.

Finally, I could see a long black neck appear through the fog screen, then another, then another, then another. There were seven or eight of them, and they were just out of range. Without paddling, or moving at all, I crept up on them. I put my right hand on my shotgun, and all eyes where on me. They all started clucking, and I knew they were about to flush. Up they went, followed by my shotgun bead, Boom! Boom! Boom! Two geese hit the water shooting spray ten foot high.

I turned and gave Lee a thumbs up. He came paddling over and grabbed one of the geese and put it in his boat, and I got the other one. “Well at least we got something,” I told Lee as we floated on down. He said “Yeah, no kidding!” We could now see the bridge where his truck was parked, so I went down to the landing where Lee was waiting for me. Not a complete waste I thought.