Following the literary masterpiece that was Three Best Friends, I went on writing hiatus for 21 months. Not a single word left the pen or pencil of Nightwraith.

BUT...enter March 1, 2006. I was a homeschooled 4th grader, three months and five days away from turning ten. It was a glorious spring day. My brother and I had spent the entire day outside acting out our fantasy world and the characters of our dolls and stuffed animals. What did I do when I came in? Started writing a story based on the day's game, on pieces of unlined white paper pulled from my dad's printer.

Lets dive into this thing and all its glory. Depending on how you look at it, it's the first or second thing I ever wrote, and the first thing unprompted. No one ever read it. Spelling and grammar is all hilariously original.
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An Exciting Desocvery

One very hot day in June, right ("wright" is crossed out) after Kirsten's 9th birthday, she and Lydia were sitting by the window in hopes of a cool breeze. Sophie was standing nearby, kneading dough for bread. (Like every good unmarried farm girl.) "This isn't working!" Lydia exclamied. She was 11, and very impatiente. "We're sitting here, waiting for a breeze, and all we get is hot, sticky air!"

What a way to begin not only a story, but your entire writing career.

By the way there are only like two paragraph breaks in this 32-page story, so for sanity, I am providing them.

Just than, Mama came in. "Girls, please get some water from the well." "Yes, ma'm," Kirsten said. She and Lydia got up. Lydia carried the bucket. One of their many dogs came along. Her name was Coconut. She trotted ahead of them. "I wish we had a creek," Kirsten said. "The water gets warm sitting in the well."

"Boy, you can say that again!" Lydia said. She wiped sweat off her forehead. "I'll bet it's 90 degrees out here!" Kirsten cried.

Big whoop. It was 90 degrees the other day. Also, you think near-stagnant creek water baking in the sun will be anything but warm?

But just then Coconut came running and barking loudly. "What is it, girl?" Kirsten asked. She petted Coconut. "Hey, her face is wet!" she yelled. Coconut barked and cocked her head. They could hear a faint sound, almost like running water. "This way!" Lydia shouted! The two girls ran after Coconut intill she dissapeerd around a bend.

The girls went around the corner and there, to there shocking surprise, was a creek. "Yahoo!" Lydia shouted. She quickly filled the bucket with water. Then she and Kirsten walked back to there house.

"Mama!" Lydia shouted. "We found a creek!" "What?" Mama came out of the house. They quickly showed everyone the creek. And from then on, they had fresh water to drink.

Ah, magical plot convenience animals. What would we children do without them?

Also, I have so many questions. The geography makes no sense. "Around a corner?" A corner of what? Corners do not exist where there are no buildings. And what kind of lame kids didn't even go out and play far enough from the house and Mama to find the creek?

Chapter 2 "Andy at the soda store"

Chapter 2 is boring, has a jarring POV switch, and literally nothing happens so let's skip it.

Chapter 3 "An early frost"

Soon it was fall. One morning, in early October, everyone got up. (Is it more typical for everyone to not get up?) Kirsten went out to get the eggs. She was surprised at how cold it was. She saw Andy and Rosie in the barn. Andy was feeding the animals and Rosie was milking the cow. Samantha ran to the creek. "Kirsten!" Kirsten heard Samantha shout. She ran twords the creek.

asdkflsls HOW DID THEY NEVER FIND THIS CREEK UNTIL NOW

To her surprise, it was frozen solid! "I'll just help you get it from the well," Kirsten said. She and Samantha got water from the well.

For the rest of the day everyone stayed inside. The older girls sewed. The youger girls played on the floor. Sophie and Mama ironed clothes. The boys carved with thiere pocket knives. They had a dinner of chicken and dumplings. Papa even played his guitar afterwards. Soon it was time for bed. When Kirsten woke up in the middle of the night, she heard the door open. Mama and Papa came in, bringing cold air with them. Kirsten snuggled closer to Samantha. Mama and Papa talked in low voices. Then Kirsten fell asleep.

The next time she woke up, sun was streaming thourgh the window. She got out of bed. Everyone was sitting down for breakfast. They ate oatmeal and bread with cheese. Papa came in from outside. "There was a bad frost last night," he said. "Killed all the vegetables." "Oh, no! What are we going to do?" Sophie asked. And Papa said, "I got a job at the hotel. We'll live there for a while."

"How long?" Andy asked. "Intill at least March," Papa answerd. "We'll move back here and start are crops over again." He said they would move in a week. "Can the dogs come?" Johnathan asked nervesley, eying the dogs sleeping peacefully. "Of course!" Mama shouted, quickly. And after they had eaten they started packing.

Chapter 4 "Moving day"

They pack. They move. Redacted due to boredom.

Chapter 5 "Car city hotel"

When Kirsten woke up, they were in Car City. All the other children were staring with huge eyes. And the streets were full of carriges, only they didn't have horses! "Do you like them?" Mama asked. "They're called cars." Kirsten just nodded. She had never seen such a thing!

Excuse me while I try to find a photo of what my face looks like right now.

Ah, perfect.

Papa stopped the wagon in front of the biggest building yet. "Well, here's the hotel!" Papa shouted. Kirsten's mouth dropped open. She couldn't belive how big it was. It was completely made of marble. a big sign at the top said "Embassy Suites."

Disclaimer: Embassy Suites is a nationwide hotel chain. My dad had yearly or more conferences at  an Embassy Suites in our state capital. Besides a one-night stint at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Embassy Suites was by far the "fanciest" place I stayed in my whole childhood. I needed to write luxury? BOOM I drew on Embassy Suites.

Second disclaimer: The reports of its luxury are greatly exaggerated.

Papa helped all the children out of the wagon. Andy ran ahead of them into the hotel. The rest of the family followed Papa, who pushed open the door. Kirsten stopped so suddenly that Johnathen bumped into her. She had never seen a building like this before. It had fountains, tall lights (?) a glass roof, and tables. There was a restarunt called "Andy's Cafe."

Interruption—my brother and I frequently "played" a restaurant called Andy's Cafe. I also had a rag doll named Andy who was turned into a character in most of my stories. I did not think this was confusing.

Mama walked over to the desk to check in. Papa brought over a cart on wheels. He loaded all the boxes on it. "Well, kids, what do you think of it?" he asked.

But the children could only stare. Finally Kirsten said in a quiet voice, "Woah!"

Mama and Sophie came back over with Andy. Papa lead them into a room with buttens on the wall. With all the kids and the room cart (my brain decided to call a luggage cart a room cart for some reason), there was hardly any moving space. "This is our room?" Johnathan asked. Papa laughed. "No. This is the elevator." He pressed the button with the number 4 on it. And then a surprising thing happend. The floor moved! "Papa!" Kirsten screamed. "Don't worry, it's okay!" Papa said. "This is how we get to our room."

Please re-insert the same photo from above.

Soon it stopped and the doors opened. Papa pushed the room cart down the hall. Everybody followed him. They stopped in front of room 419. Mama took a card and slid it in. Then the door opened. When they walked in, there was a kitchen, a sofa, 2 chairs, and a table with a big, black thing with buttons on it. There was a door to Kirsten's left and to her right. Kirsten soon found out what those doors led to. Bedrooms, each with a bathroom.

Mama and Papa started unpacking. The dogs sniffed around and the children unpacked there clothes. By 6:00, everything was unpacked and in it's right place. Mama made dinner of baked potatoes and chicken.

Because who doesn't want to cook that after moving with your as-yet-unspecified number of young children? You guys are in the city now. GET TAKEOUT!

Then it was time for bed. Each room had two beds. Lydia, Mary, Elizabeth, and Andy shared one room. Kirsten, Sophie, Mama, and Papa shared the second room. In the living area, Johnathan and Samantha slept on the sofa.

So the kids and parents are sharing a room. I guess this family is done procreating.

The next day was Sunday and Papa had to work. "We'll visit a church next week," he said at breakfast. He had a job at the front desk, so after breakfast he quickly went down to work.

"Well," Mama said. "Since Papa can't be with us, I'll wash our dirty clothes."

How do they already have a laundry pile? They've been here one day. Then again, I guess laundry does pile up with *counts* eight children.

Kirsten went with Mama. As they walked down the hall to the laundry room, Kirsten asked what today was. Mama said "It's November 6." So it was almost Thanksgiving.

Erm...not really?

Soon they reached the Laundry room. Mama opend the door. One the left wall were big white macienes. (I vividly remember my frustration over the spelling of "machines.") A sighn above them said "washers." On the right wall there were similar things. The sighn above them said "dryers." Mama walked over to a washing maciene. She opend the door and stuck the clothes in. Then she looked at the buttons. "I have no idea about oporating this thing," she said. Just then a lady walked in. She got her clothes out of a dryer. "Um, could you show me how to operate this thing?" Mama asked her. The lady turned around. "Don't you know how?" (JUDGMENT MUCH? All washing machines are different.) "Well, um, no," Mama said. The lady went over to them and turned a knob. The washer turned on. "There," the lady said. "Thank you," Mama said. Then the lady left.

*Snorts awake mid-snore* Is it over?

Mama and Kirsten walked back to the room. It was almost Lunch time. They ate sandwiches. Them Mama (literally what I wrote) took the bucket to get ice. She told Kirsten and Andy to walk the dogs. They had 4 dogs. Barney, a Saint bernard, Coconut and Ruebon, Westies, and Biscuit, a golden retriever.

These were four stuffed dogs demoted to pets instead of children. Some of my stuffed dogs were human children in the stories, but others were dogs. It made no sense. These four in particular were a tiny, raggedy golden retriever I had forever, the Saint Bernard my grandparents got me in Switzerland, and two Westies made by the American girl doll company.

The led the big dogs in the elevator. The door opened and the children, with rubun, coconut, and biscit, walked out. But Barney had other ideas. He wanted to go back to the room, and pulled hard on the leash. "Here," Andy said. He handed Rubon's leash to Kirsten and tryed to drag Barney out of the elevator. But Andy wasn't strong enough for saint bernard. He tugged and tugged. Kirsten looped all 3 of the leashes around her left hand and tried to help Andy with her right hand. While they were doing this, Biscit, Rubon, and Coconut saw a fat man eating a burger. (Ah, fat shaming, my old friend.) On second they were standing there patiently and the next they were pulling and tugging on their leashes.

Because they SMELLED a hamburger? ONE hamburger? You would think I never owned a dog and all I knew about them came from cartoons.

Thiere leashes slipped out of Kirsten's hand and they ran wildly, barking. Kirsten and Andy forgot about Barney and ran after them. A worker ran twords them. She wasn't smiling. Rubun and Coconut jumped up on the man, knocking him down. (KNOCKING HIM DOWN? They're Westies...) Biscit slipped and almost fell in the fountain. Kirsten held Rubon and Coconut by the collers. Andy grabbed Biscit by the kneck. "I'm really, really sorry!" Kirsten said.

Kirsten and Andy quickly walked the dogs around the hotel. The they ran back to the elevators. Barney was sitting there. "Forget it! He doesn't need a walk!" Andy said. They draged all the dogs on the elevator. When they got to the room, Mama looked up. "What took you so long?" she asked. "Nothing!" Andy said.

And this concludes part one of the kickoff to my career. We've actually gotten through 20 out of 32 pages, but the last 12 will be covered in the next installment.