Blue Door Books Essay Contest Winner

Vroom! Vroom! ...

“Oh! That must be the bus,” said Mrs. Tomson as she went to open the front door for her daughter, Sally. There she was, walking up the sidewalk to her house. She was wearing a white shirt and flowered skirt, with a grumpy frown on her face.

“So, how are you? How was school today, sweetheart?,” said Mrs. Tomson.

“Awful. I had the worst day ever. Julia, the bully, told me my skirt was ugly. So I turned around and told her that was mean, then Mrs. Joans gave me detention for talking in class. It was terrible!”

“Why don’t we sit down and talk about it? I made your favorite snack, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. I’ll go get a glass of milk.”

“I knew I smelled something delicious.”

Mrs. Tomson filled up a glass of milk and brought it to the cherry wood kitchen table, where Sally was waiting patiently. “So, how was the rest of your day? How was recess?,” said Mrs. Tomson.

“Still bad, I was picked last in kickball, and then when I struck out all of the kids laughed at me. So I quit and spent the rest of recess alone on the swings. School is miserable and no fun at all.”

“Well I can see you don’t like school. I have an idea. Maybe this will show you how to make school a bit more exciting. Please go to the garage and get two big snow shovels. Oh, and I think we’ll need a ladder. But I can get that, it’s too heavy for you, darling.”

“Mommmmmmm … what plan do you have now?,” said Sally as she slumped outside to the garage where the shovels sat waiting for her. Sally carried them back outside to her mom and said, “Here.” “Great! Now go put them into the car. We’ll be going on a little field trip,” said Mrs. Tomson.

When the car was all packed up, ladder included, Sally and her mom left the house.

“When are we going to be there?” asked Sally

“Just a few more blocks, Sally.”

“Ok.” Sally sat there patiently, waiting to see what was coming.

“Hey! I recognize this street! We are going to school. Uggghhhhh! Mom, why would you bring me back here?” complained Sally.

“You will see.” “Fine,” said Sally as she crossed her arms.

Mrs. Tomson pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. There were not too many cars left in the lot. School had ended and hour ago and not too many teachers were left in the building.

“Unload the shovels, Sally. I’ll get the ladder,” said Mrs. Tomson, as she unlocked the car doors. Sally went to the back, opened the trunk, and pulled out the two big, red and black shovels. Mrs. Tomson came up behind her, grabbed the ladder, and closed the trunk.

“Follow me,” she said. Mrs. Tomson led Sally to the back of the schoolyard, where the playground is. She continued walking all the way until the far back of the yard to where the black fence ended. She put down the ladder, leaning it against an old tree.

“Ok, we are ready. Sally, hand me a shovel please.”

“Here,” said Sally as she gave her the shovel.

“Ok, I think this is where we left it,” said Mrs. Tomson and out of nowhere Sally’s mom just started digging. Foot after foot, she just kept going.

“Come on Sally, help me!” exclaimed Mrs. Tomson. So Sally picked up the shovel and started to dig. They dug and dug and dug.

Eventually Sally had to climb out and get the ladder because other wise they would have been trapped in the hole. After 20 minutes of hard labor Mrs. Tomson finally said, “I think we are almost there” and a minute later my shovel hit something hard, and big.

“Ok sweetheart now just dig around the box, try not to damage it, it’s pretty old,” said Mrs. Tomson. When the box was finally dug out Mrs. Tomson picked it up and carried it up they ladder. Sally followed. When they finally reached the top Mrs. Tomson dropped the box at her feet and sat down.

“Mom, what is it?’ asked Sally.

“Oh, you will see. I remember the recess we buried this, me and my best friend, Hannah. We were so tired when we finished burying that we could barely walk back to the playground.” Then Mrs. Tomson brushed of the dirt and opened the box.

“So Sally, this is what you call a time capsule. I buried this with my best friend Hannah when we were in the 4th grade, just like you. You can put in whatever items you want. Things that were special to you, or things that bring back stories and memories. Let’s see what we put in many years ago.” And out she pulled a pink slip of paper with her name written on it.

“Is that a detention slip?”asked Sally with amazement.

“Yeah, for talking in Mrs. Joans class. Just like you,” said Sally’s mom with a chuckle.

“That’s funny!”

“Yeah, let’s see what else is in here” and she continued to pull out more stuff. Then, next she pulled out were rolls of different colors of plastic string, which she said was called lanyard.

“Hannah and I used to make all sorts of bracelets out of these during recess, because we were no good at kickball either, so we would make these. Oh I remember, we used to have so much fun making the bracelets and key chains and everybody else liked them too! We were soon the most popular kids at recess!” she reached her hand in again.

“Here Sally, this is one style of a finished bracelet.” And she handed Sally a pink and blue colored string about eight inched long that looked like a zipper.

“What else is in there?” asked Sally with awe. Next, Sally’s mom pulled out a blue spiral journal labeled “Writing.”

“I loved to write when I was in grade school. This must have been my writing journal. Open it up Sally. You can read my stories I wrote. My favorite thing to write about was dragons and princesses. They seemed to be named after people in my own life. If I like them, they would be a princess, if not the dragon that breathed fire. But my teachers never new that, so I got the best grades in English! Funny, isn’t it?”

“Yeah! Hey Mom, this story is labeled ‘Julia, the dragon.’ I don’t think you liked Julia very much.”

“Yeah she certainly wasn’t my best friend.” And Sally and her mom both laughed.

“Got anything else?” asked Sally.

“Yeah one more embarrassing picture!” she reached inside and pulled out a school taken picture with a gray background. There was a young girl sitting on a stool wearing a jean jumper with a white shirt with colorful hearts underneath. She had quite a funny look on her face, certainly not a smile. It looked like she was about to sneeze, her lips were curled and her nose was scrunched.

“This picture was taken on picture day. I was just about to sneeze when they took the picture, and then they refused to take another. For the rest of the year I was called “sneeze face”. It was not fun at all. As a matter of fact it was awful. But as I look back at it today I smile. It was actually pretty funny, one of those moments you will never forget that make your life unique. Make you different from everyone else, and that’s ok.”

“I have to admit it does look pretty funny,” giggled Sally.

“Now that I look back on my school years, I see that’s what made them fun and worthwhile. I don’t think they could have been any better if I tried.”

“Yeah, it seems like it. Now that I see what happened to you, mom, I can learn to just shake it off and know that that’s what makes me unique. I should do my own thing. Do what I like, and that’s what will make school fun and exciting, even though the work is boring.”

“Exactly,” agreed Mrs. Tomson.

“But mom, I want to ask you one more favor.”

“Anything. Go right ahead”

“Ok. Can I please have some of that lanyard for me to learn to do with one of my friends during recess?”

“Sure. Take as many colors as you would like. Enjoy!”

“Thanks mom. You always know how to make me feel better. Any this time it was even more special. You’re the best!” And Sally reached around and gave her mom a huge meaningful bear hug, right there in the way back of the schoolyard.