A Strange Thing in July
Only Just…
By: Amir, 4th grade
Charles was outside on a steaming July 4th, one of the hottest in about a thousand years. He lived in a house outside Lake Ontario. To pass the time until the fireworks came shooting across the sky, Charles was skipping stones into the lake. His father called it “a crime,” but Charles couldn’t be arrested so he didn’t mind.
His sister, Jessica came marching, her knees slapping her chest, across the front lawn.
“Charles! she called, “Dads about to make some pea soup and this is the first time he puts nutmeg into it. Don’t you want to savor that moment?
“What’s to savor about it?” Jessica was walking back across the grass.
He threw a stone out into the horizon. It swooped past the sun, but instead of falling into the lake it circled back and landed into one of a trees branches.
Jessica started walking back to the lake.
Charles threw a second stone into lake. It did the same thing as the first one, got close to the horizon, then circled back and landed in a tree.
“What is that stone doing?” Jessica mumbled. She now, perplexed, knelt down next to Charles.
He threw with all his might, but the third stone came skipping back. Instead of landing in a tree it landed in Jessica’s hands. A thin, glimmering mist came over Charles.
No one told him, but somehow he knew Jessica had been enchanted.
And Burdick knows the rest.