Written for the 48 Hour Short Story contest |
One scene in the story must include an argument. Three objects must appear in the story: a grasshopper a hammer a shoe Battle In The Clovers In the field near my house, lives many little creatures. Rabbits that hop from patches of clovers to the pods of moss. There are also little insects. There are lady bugs, aunts, butterflies, and the tar of this story: the grasshoppers. Yes, this was also the playground of my little four year old explorer Noah when his older sister and brother had other things to do without their baby brother. One day Noah came in all excited and said that George the grasshopper (Noah named everything he saw) was in the field taking a fit. When I asked why, I was surprised at the story he had told me. This is the story of George the grasshopper and the war in the clover bed. The fall was nearing and George had not collected any reserve for his family to feed on throughout the winter. So he was out gathering those large sucklent clovers. Roger the rabbit and his family lived near this patch of clovers and laid claim to them. Now Noah says that there is a feud between George the Grasshopper’s family and Roger the Rabbit’s family. It must have been a sight to watch the grasshoppers covering the rabbits’ bodies from fluffy tail to long ears spitting their am-beer into the fur. Rabbits stomping their large feet attempting to squash the insects. The battle was fierce, and lasted everyday until the forest animals began to hide from the night hunters. One day, Noah brought home a little bunny. The bunny was acting very unusual. When I took the animal from my child and placed it in a box, it was hopping in circles, holding its head to the side, and using its large hind feet to scratch at the side of its head. I was worried that the rabbit had some kind of illness. I put Noah and the rabbit into my minivan and started off to our vet. Mean while back in the forest, the rabbits and the grasshoppers was in a fright that had to put their feud on hold. George and Roger were searching the clover field and all surround areas. Both fathers had lost a youngster in the war. Flex the Flattener, a four inch bunny had gone off to the clover field and never came home. Flex always wanted to make his father Roger proud so he always tried to stomp all the grasshoppers that he could, but he was always home before his mother had finished the carrot and mushroom stew. This was not like their son to be out all night. Tina the Terrible, a grasshopper no more than a hatchling, secretly followed her father and older brothers into the battle field. Her mother had realized where her daughter had gone when she found Tina’s favorite grain of sugar (her make believe “ egg”) near the area that George and the others readied themselves for their battles. Now, Charity and Christian (Noah’s big sister and brother) was coming home from school to find their mother and brother gone. They read the note taped to the door about what had happened about the rabbit and where their mother had gone. The two decided to go into the field to check to see if there we signs in other rabbits of any illnesses. Of course the rabbits could hear and see the children coming toward the clover bed, but the grasshoppers had to flee as the giant shoes came down nearly taking out their lies. Back at the vet’s office, Noah and his mother stood in the exam room. The doctor gently picked up Flex, and places the hyper scared bunny on the table. “What could be making this bunny act like this?” Noah’s mother asks. The doctor seems to be in another world, as he stares into the young rabbit’s ears. Then with a smile, he places a long pair tweezers into the bunny’s long ear. With a smile, the doctor brings out the tweezers, and he says to Noah. “Do you like insects?”
“Yes”, Noah answers exactly. The doctor reaches over and puts something into a specimen container. Then he reaches it to Noah. “Well, here you go.” The doctor said. “The bunny is fine. He was just a little scared, and if I were a betting man I would say the little grasshopper wasn’t feeling the best. Would you like me to find the bunny a home or would you like to take him back with you?” “Mom, please let me have him!” Noah begged knowing that his mother could never say “no” to him. After explaining to the doctor about the field where Noah had found the bunny, she put him back in the box for the ride home to their families. When Noah and his mother got home, Charity and Christian came running from the field. Noah showed his brother and sister the bug, and Christian had an idea. He ran into the house, and came running out the door with a hammer and a shoe box. The three of them, the rabbit, and the grasshopper made their way back to the field of clovers. Christian was about to put the bunny down into the tall grass when his sister yell not to. “What?” He ask. “If we put it down here, the bunny could get the bugs in his ears again” she said calling the boys attention to all the grasshoppers hopping all around. Christian looks around, and about a thousand yards was a hollow log. “Look.” He said “there is another field of clovers over there closer to the creek. It has everything clovers to eat and water to drink. I will take the bunny over there.” Charity agreed. Then she takes the hammer (Christian had handed her). She asked Noah to find a stick, and she had decided what to do for the baby insect and her family. She laid the shoe box in the grass. She breaks the stick into four parts hammered them into four places and puts the shoe box over them. Then they took the lid from the specimen container and placed the young grasshopper its new home. “Kids,” they hear their mother calling them. “What?” Noah yells back. “It is time to come in,” she yells back. So the three children go home leaving the field to tend to its own affairs. That is when Roger found Flex in the hollow log. After the excitement of the reuniting of the two, Roger realized the great place that his son had found. He spent the next day moving his family into their new home. The night for Tina was terrible. Her family was so worried that her night had been spent arguing about what her punishment would be. The morning brought a warm glow, but it did not bring the war. The rabbits and the grasshoppers lived happily and sheltered forever after. Word count 1172 words |