THE TURNING GEARS

ANTHOLOGY OF

WRITINGBY

Chris Edens

THE TURNING GEARS

ANTHOLOGY OF

WRITINGBY

Chris Edens

PUBLICATION: FIREBALL PUBLISHING CO.Publication: Huntsville, AR

Date published: May 10, 2013

i

Acknowledgements

I give thanks to my family, friends, pets, and teachers that have

helped inspire these works. Great works begin with great inspiration. Thank you all for helping me and being there for me.

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TABLE of CONTENTSTitle Page iAcknowledgements iiTable of Contents iii

PART ONE: Time & Change 1Growing Up 2Spring 3Thanksgiving 4Tarawa 5An Individual Voice 6

PART TWO: Life & The Mind 7Thoughts 8Logical Ideas 9Mother Nature 10Characters’ Feelings 11Cats At Home 12

Part Three: Entertainment 13Solutions 14Going Away 15Smart Equations 17Peaceful Forest 18Known Facts For Life 19

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PART 1

This section of writing displays change in time. It also shows change of thoughts and actions. Part one shows seasons changing and ideas and emotions transforming. The concepts of an ever-changing world show in these five works of literature. Part one also shows time lapse of people and ways of thought.

1

Growing Up

A young boy was sitting on the floor listening to his parents talk about financing. I wouldn’t want to be them right now. They have so much work to do, thought the boy. But I guess it would be fun to have a lot of friends and get to drive a car. Then I would be able to live and do things freely and on my own. That would be nice. How he wanted to grow up and have a life of his own. He has accepted the thought of being an adult someday, which means that he should listen to his parents conversations more often. But little did he know that he could change his mind later on. Just then, his parents started arguing about huge bills that they had to pay. You know what? I think I’ll stick to being a kid.

2

Spring Break

Spring Break gives us a time to relax and get away from schoolwork, tests, and getting up early in the morning. It also lets us get rid of pressure at school and stress of working. This is a “free time” for us. You get to sleep in and rest. Plants start to grow and animals come out in the spring. Everything turns green all around.

BUT… in the spring, you also have to deal with flies, mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, wasps, and other pesky bugs and insects. Overall, Spring break is a time for us to relax.

3

Thanksgiving Holiday

As we start our Thanksgiving holiday, think about what you are most thankful to have in your life. Write about those things and what you will be giving thanks for this holiday.

At Thanksgiving there are different things to give thanks for. I am thankful for my family, my pets, my friends, and other things. Not everyone has a family, so I am really grateful that I do.

Give thanks. You never know when you will lose what you have.

4

Tarawa

In the summer of 1979, a father, mother, and their two teenage sons were cruising across the Pacific Ocean towards the United States West Coast from eastern Australia, where the family was vacationing. They were

heading northwest when they started to run out of food. John Watkins, the father, decided they needed to stop at an island for provisions. The nearest destination was back the way they came, but tides were getting higher. So they chose to go ahead to find food. A storm suddenly rolled in, darkening the sky. The family was soon bailing water out of the sailboat. The last thing the family saw was the huge twisting wave that was about to engulf the boat.

Later when the family woke up, they were on a tropical island. They built huts, crates, and other things with the natural resources. They lived on that island for 2 years before a passing ship came by and saw their campfire. Watkins and his family told reporters what had happened on their journey. They soon got back home and were given money to support them. This was a sea voyage that could have been destructive to other families, but this one stayed strong and they will never forget their adventure.

5

An Individual Voice

There is a meeting about the outcome of making a new law. Some people think that the new law shouldn’t be made. In the meeting, somebody is speaking for the new law and someone else speaks against the new law. Since most people are for the law, he will have to persuade the others to be against it, so the outcome is in his hands.

An individual voice can affect a situation, if they speak in the right ways to persuade others.

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Part 2

This section covers ideas of the mind and everyday life with the problems or good things that happen. It digs further into the ideas of Part 1. It talks about thoughts and nature. Part 2 also talks about free thought, (pages 8 & 9).

7

ThoughtsSome inventive people use their

imagination to help them come up with solutions for problems. In the world, there are many ideas that have not been discovered. To come up with original ideas,

one had to have a strong mind.

8

Logical Ideas

How can logical ideas and emotional thought work together? Do you believe you can rely on only one to develop a solution to a problem?

Emotional thought helps you decide what you think is best, while logical ideas make the emotional thoughts reasonable. I do not believe that you can rely on only one to develop a solution to a problem. I believe that

you have to use your emotions and logic together to come up with a solution to any problem you may encounter. I believe you have to use both together. In any situation, you can use both logic and emotion to

help you.

9

Mother Nature

Electricity flickered in the Houses:“They’ll all pay for what they’ve done!”

The thunder boomed like a gun.“They are so careless. I’ll show them how I feel.”

A tornado hit the ground, spinning as a wheel.Rain kept falling and the wind blew strong,

Windows shattered as cars got swept along.Before long the city was in ruins,

This was all Mother Nature’s doing’s.If only the citizens of that city didn’t litter,

Then Mother Nature wouldn’t have been bitter.“It serves them right. They did it to themselves,

Now they have nothing left on their shelves.”“I guess, for them, I could have had pity,But I have to go take care of another city.

After that, Mother Nature sped away,Soon to come back another day.

10

My Favorite BookMy favorite book is actually part of a series. It is the Warriors Series by Erin

Hunter. There are multiple characters throughout the books to show different points of view. The main character, however, is confident, understanding, wise, and loyal. The story starts with a normal housecat (main character), named Rusty, who learns about the wild cats in the forest. He grows up in their ways and goes through adventures and troubles living in the wild, making many friends and enemies as he goes along. These books truly show characters’ feelings and attitudes toward one another.

I enjoy these books because they are about cats, adventure, and the true meaning of living in the Wild. Once you get started on these, there’ll be no turning back, unless of course, you just hate cats. If I had to pick one book from all 24 novels, 12 extra novels, 12 graphic novels, and 4 clan information novels, I would have to pick book one, (Into the wild), and two, (Fire and Ice), as a tie. Out of all 52 books, (yes, I said 52),these two are my favorite.

This book series is appealing because it has adventure, cats, and truly shows character’s feelings.

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Cats At HomeAt home, my family has five cats and three kittens. In the past we

have had many cats (not all at the same time). It all started when a male black and white cat came in the backyard. My dad tried to keep coaxing it to let us pet it. Eventually it stayed, and it went on from there. We got cats from several places, including mother cats having kittens, people giving them away, and cats wandering in from other places. One time, we had a very old she-cat that went away. This cat was so old that she could probably be your grandma, (in cat years of course). Anyway, we never saw her for several months. Then, sometime like four months later, she came back! Just recently, this May, she is still here to this day.

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PART 3

Part 3 is just for entertainment. Most of these stories don’t make any sense. These stories came from my mind and almost nothing else. If you don’t like crazy, out-of-whack stories, then I wouldn’t suggest reading this section. This section, I think, is the most creative of the three sections. This writing hopefully will blow your minds!

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SOLUTIONS

The shiny, silver coin flips into the air. “Sorry. You lost. It was heads. You chose tails,” one man says to another. There are many different ways of deciding the outcome of a situation. Solutions to problems can be found by using games of chance such as Paper, Rock, Scissors, drawing straws, flipping a coin, and rolling dice. “1…2….3! Paper covers rock!” “Best two out of three wins?” “ Sure, why not?” “Paper, Rock, Scissors!” “Not again! We both got scissors!”

14

Going Away

“I didn’t know exactly where the train was going. After paying my fare, I simply stood on the platform waiting for it to whisk me away to somewhere, anywhere but here. And that’s when it happened…

…the hoard of evil devil cats started flying toward me. The train raced up and screeched to a halt at the station just as the little demons flew and smacked against the windows. I couldn’t hear the announcement of the destination because of the evil cat yells. I ran and quickly got aboard the train and found a seat across from a 10 year-old kid in the fourth car.

“What brings you here?” the blonde boy asked.“Oh. Just wanted to get away from the usual possessed demon kitties,”

I answered.“Well, you’re never going back alive!” The boy’s response must have

triggered a crazy seizure, because as soon as he said that, he turned purple, then green, then yellow, and he kept changing colors until his body started vibrating and his head hit the back of the seat and his body shook off into the floor.

I went looking for a doctor, or at least anyone, for there was no passengers to be seen except for the occasional gray-colored figures curled up on the seats. I raced through the train cars one by one; car 3… …car 2… …and finally car 1. Okay, I thought. Hopefully the conductor knows what to do. I lifted the latch and opened the door to the front of the train where the engine is and found no one but a small, gray mouse. Actually, it wasn’t a mouse. It glowed blue and morphed into a bat, then a worm, and then a dog that jumped out the window.

“Well, that was strange.” “Hello? Is anyone driving this thing?” No one answered. I glanced down at the floor and what I saw could have given me a heart attack right then if I was older. It was a trip route book for the conductor. On it was a map with a destination circled in red. “Oh, please no. Don’t tell me we’re going to China.”

“Okay. I won’t.” a voice said behind me.I whipped around to see a cloaked figure. “Who are you?” I asked.The figure answered. “I am none of your business, but you are mine.”Then it answered in a relaxed voice. “If you MUST know, I am called

Shadow.” “Yes. You are going to China. Your fate is there.” I soon realized that he wasn’t cloaked. He is merely just a misty

shadow. Not only that but he is MY shadow! “Why are there no passengers here?” I questioned him.“There are passengers. You won’t find all of them until the next

stop. Now go to the back. I’ll see you later,” He said.“But…” I started.

15

“No buts just go. You’ll know when you get there.”Instead of arguing, I just opened the door and walked away.When I reached the fifth car, about to go into the sixth, I spotted a

scruffy looking piece of paper on the floor of the car. When I leaned

over to pick it up, I froze. I knew something was wrong. At the exact pose I was standing in, the sunlight gleamed on a very tiny, hair sized string of thread. I followed the string under the seat and up the wall to the roof and then over the doorway and into the next train car.

Train Car No.6 was a quiet little car with dusty tables and ripped cloth seats. It had a green All-Star jacket hung over one of the seats and a silver watch on a table, which by now had stopped ticking, to show that previous visitors had been here a long time ago. I got back on track of following the thread. I soon found it and the string led me to the back of the car.

I was surprised to find it attached to a lead weight. Who knows what could’ve happened if I pulled that piece of paper. I didn’t see anything else strange, just a round edged, cone shaped lead wad on a string, hanging from the roof on a hook.

Just then, the string began to move. The weight slowly slid downward and a groaning noise came from the next car. I grabbed the weight to slow it down, but it got hotter and hotter in my hand.

“Ow!” I yelled. I immediately dropped the burning weight. The groaning noise kept getting louder and then it stopped. I walked to the end of the car and opened the door to find a bunch of snakes slithering around. I quickly closed the door and latched it shut.

“Who could have done this?” I said. “Someone could have died if they had gone in there, not that there is anyone here to do that.”

“Actually, I am here right now. And yes, I could have died.” I turned around and saw a small fox standing on his back two legs.

He was a furry little guy with a puffy tail and long whiskers.“Who are you?” I asked.The fox began, “I, my friend, am Mr. Fox, I was sent to help you”.

Soon after that, Mr. Fox, Shadow, and I began our adventures throughout the world. We searched for the Lost Emerald, fought Darth Vader, used sports cars to chase hijackers, and trained to battle ninjas. Together, we will have many adventures to come in the future.

16

Smart Equations

In the response to the equation: 2x + b - y = 472, one might answer chicken. But if you’re smart, you would answer Pop-Tart. Because you see, if x = frog and b = cow, then y must equal Mexican. Therefore, it is 472. Another question might be f + c = 3,000. F is equal to pig and c is equal to gym sock. Let’s say we have five notebooks and we give one to our good friend, Bob.How many giraffes do we have now that we have added all of the pythons? 6 because aliens don’t wear pink on Saturdays.Now let’s see what you’ve learned so far:

If p= bone and q= dog, what is the answer to this equation:

6(5+8) - #@ = 548t- George (9+y) +$$$^5

If you answered porcupine, then you are wrong.The correct answer is diamond.

17

Peaceful Forest

Night:

The moonlight sparkles on the dewy leaves as the sound of crickets being eaten by frogs, echoes into the night. The calm and quiet forest is dead silent except for the sound chainsaws and a forest fire. In the trees, birds sing their songs as hawks swoop down and snatch them. The cows that escaped the field are eating up the grass. How the squirrels found out how to drive dirt bikes, I’ll don’t know. This is a peaceful forest, especially at night. Only the deaths, fires, saws, squeaking, cows grazing, and dirt bikes ruin the scene.

Day:

In the daytime, animals come out as nocturnal creatures go back to sleep. It is bright and sunny and the rabbits hop along being chased by carnivorous werewolves. The flowers pop open and bloom just to be mowed over by a herd of deer tramping through the woods. A small chipmunk sits quietly on the ground nibbling at an acorn under a cage that just fell over the thing, trapping him and his acorn. The squirrels that tried to cross the road were very unsuccessful for the crows had all gathered to a 20 squirrel feast on the black tar skillet, which cooked the poor squirrels to a crispy sizzling mess. As I said before, this is a peaceful forest, the perfect campsite in the summer.

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Known Facts For LifeJets fly through the sky uncountable times during the year. Almost every row of wheat looks

ready to harvest, and grapes don’t grow on trees. Especially when ducks fly south. But the one true thing is that cows don’t jump over the moon, and dogs don’t eat hairballs. All of this will help you in life if you are a farmer, a pilot, a harvester, a hunter, or a dog owner. But if you aren’t, forget everything you just read. Except the hairball part.

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The EndOkay, that’s it. You can go read another paper. Bye now. This

is the END.

Picture of an evil demon cat from page 15: