Week 12 Storytelling: Supernatural

(Sam and Dean Winchestar)

On one Sunday night, Sam and Dean Winchester were driving down I-35 in search of their next hunt. They had just finished putting a vengeful spirit to rest by burning the remains of the deceased so they would not be able to harm anyone again. Hunting supernatural things is what they do, and they are pretty darn good at it.

"Sam, what do we have next?" said Dean, concentrating on driving down the dimly lit road. Sam was about to answer when all of a sudden he got a phone call from their Uncle Bobby, who is also a hunter of supernatural beings.

"What's up, Bobby?" said Sam, wondering why he was calling after they just left his house not long ago.

"Sam, do you remember that awful man Mr. Fox who had the vengeful spirit after him?" said Bobby in a hurry.

"Yes, what about it?" said Sam confused.

"Well, it looks like you boys did not burn the right body because Mr. Fox was found dead just a few hours ago," said Bobby.

Sam then looked at Dean and told him "Dean turn the car around now!" Sam said suddenly, forgetting he was on the phone with Bobby. "Alright, we are heading back. Thanks, Bobby," Sam said.

"Alright, you boys be safe," said Bobby, ending the call. He also knew that Sam and Dean could handle this on their own.

"So what happened?" said Dean.

"Mr. Fox was killed, so Bobby thinks we should go back and check things out," Sam said, contemplating how they could have burned the wrong body. Sam recounted the story behind why they had to burn the vengeful spirit.

The vengeful spirit that was after Mr. Fox was a woman by the name of Lady Mary. She was very rich when she met Mr. Fox. She thought that she and Mr. Fox were in love when he asked her to marry him. However, one thing she had noticed was that she had never been to his home. 

One day, when Mr. Fox was out of town, Lady Mary decided she would go to Mr. Fox's home just to look around. As Lady Mary walked to the door, she saw a sign that said "Beware of walking through this door." She did not know what to make of this, but still walked inside. Lady Mary walked around for a while and did not see anything out of the ordinary. Lady Mary saw Mr. Fox had nothing to hide until she came upon another door that told her to "KEEP OUT!" Lady Mary opened the door, and she was horrified by what she saw next. The room was filled with dead women that Mr. Fox had married and then killed. Lady Mary knew this because each woman had on a wedding dress. 

Lady Mary shut the door and started to take a run for it out of the house. She was going to go tell her brothers what Mr. Fox had done, but she heard a strange sound. Lady Mary went to hide and saw Mr. Fox had come through the door dragging another woman toward the dreadful room. However, greedy Mr. Fox saw that the woman had on a beautiful diamond ring, but he struggled to get it off. Mr. Fox had such a difficult time that finally he decided to just cut her hand off. When he did, the hand flew in Lady Mary's lap. Mr. Fox then continued to drag the poor woman into the room. He planned to find the hand later. 

Lady Mary used this as her chance to run out of the house. The next day, Lady Mary was surprised that Mr. Fox had decided to host a lunch at his home before they were to get married the next day. So she and her brothers went to his home where they had planned to confront and kill Mr. Fox. While they were at the table eating, Lady Mary told Mr. Fox about a dream she had where she recounted everything that happened at his house. Mr. Fox denied everything. Lady Mary then took a sip of her wine, and then held up the hand of the woman whom Mr. Fox killed. However, Lady Mary suddenly dropped the hand and became very dizzy. Lady Mary's brothers went to her side for help, but they were also dizzy until they all dropped dead. Mr. Fox had poisoned them all and took all of their money. 

As Dean and Sam were arriving back in town, Sam realized something. All this time, they had thought that maybe Lady Mary had acted alone in trying to kill Mr. Fox. Lady Mary's brothers could have also tried to help her since Mr. Fox had killed them as well.

"Dean, I think I know who killed Mr. Fox!" said Sam suddenly.

"Who?" said Dean.

"We never stopped to think that her brothers would help her kill him," said Sam.

"Oh, I thought about it, but honestly that man was sick and he deserved everything he got. If we were not wanted in several states, I would have turned him in to the police for killing all those women," said Dean. Sam nodded in agreement.

The boys then found the grave of Lady Mary's brothers and burned their bodies next to where they had burned Lady Mary. Sam then called Bobby to let him know what happened. "I can't believe you idgits didn't think to burn the boys' bodies," Bobby said feigning that he was upset. "Yeah, yeah, Bobby. Mr. Fox had it coming. What case do you have next for us, Bobby?"

Sam and Dean then went cruising once again for their next case.

Bibliography:
 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Author's note: I had a lot of fun with writing this storytelling. The original story that I retold is based off a story in the English Fairy tales, titled Mr. Fox. I was also inspired by the show Supernatural and its characters Sam, Dean, and Bobby. When I was reading the story about Mr. Fox, I felt like it could have a supernatural feel to it, so I ran with it. In the original story, Lady Mary is a rich woman who falls for Mr. Fox. Lady Mary and Mr. Fox are going to get married. Lady Mary realizes she has never been to Mr. Fox's castle, so she sneaks inside and finds out that he has been killing women and storing them in a room so he can take their riches. Lady Mary is mortified by her discovery and tries to run out of the house. She realizes, though, that Mr. Fox in in his castle. He is dragging a woman, and he cuts off the woman's hand so that he can get the diamond ring off  of it. The hand lands in Lady Mary's lap, but Mr. Fox does not look hard enough to find  the hand. So Lady Mary leaves the castle to confront Mr. Fox the next day. Mr. Fox denies everything, until Lady Mary pulls out the hand, and then her brothers kill him. For my story, the general theme is still the same except Mr. Fox does not die at first. He poisons Lady Mary and her brothers. They then become vengeful spirits who try to kill him. Sam and Dean had originally thought that only Lady Mary was after Mr. Fox, but her brothers were as well. I changed the ending for my own retelling of the story because I thought it was a bit boring that Mr. Fox just died and that was the end. I also wanted to make the story more fun and add a supernatural feel to the story.

Week 5 Storytelling: Encounters of Life

In the land of India, there lived a young Prince by the name of Siddhartha. Prince Siddhartha was destined for greatness from the day he was born, much to the dismay of his parents'. His parents, the Queen and King, loved Siddhartha so much and did not want anything to taint their young son. In so doing this, they kept Prince Siddhartha away from the all the bad in the world. The Prince stayed inside his palace and received everything with its confines. Prince Siddhartha lived this way until he grew to be a young adult.

One day, though, the flowers that bloomed so beautifully as spring approached tempted the Prince to finally leave the palace and explore the world. Prince Siddhartha went to the King to let him know that he wanted to leave the palace the next afternoon. 

"Father, I would love to explore outside of the palace tomorrow. Is that alright?" said Prince Siddhartha. 

The King, having protected his son from the outside world for so long, felt a little antsy about letting his son leave the palace. The King also felt that he could still shelter young Prince Siddhartha away from world, or so he planned. 

"Yes, son, I agree. You should be able to explore outside of the palace. Just let me know when you want to leave, and I will have a chariot waiting for you," the King exclaimed. 

"Thank you, Father, I will leave tomorrow afternoon," said Siddhartha gleefully. 

The King, pondered what he could do to keep Prince Siddhartha away from the ordinary encounters of life. The King then thought that he could order all those to clear away from where Prince Siddhartha would be riding on his chariot. And so it was done the next morning. Little did the King know, the Gods had other plans for Prince Siddhartha. The Gods made sure that Prince Siddhartha would have three real world encounters for him to learn all that his parents had sheltered him from. 

Later that afternoon when Prince Siddhartha left for his exploration outside the palace, he was fascinated by how beautiful the land of India was. On Prince Siddhartha's way up a long stretch of road he saw a man walking alongside the road. The man was very old with a hunchback and gray hair, and a cane to help him walk. Always being in the palace, the Prince was not aware of old age. Also, seeing the older gentlemen made Siddhartha wonder if he would grow to be that old someday. He pondered it, until he came upon another older man who was noticeably ill.  Once again, the Prince was taken aback by the sickly look of the man. The Prince began to wonder again and asked the charioteer if being sick was normal for all people and the charioteer replied to him honestly. Prince Siddhartha then began to think about all the terrible things people face and ordered his charioteer to take him home. Although, on the way back to the palace, Prince Siddhartha saw four men carrying a corpse to a funeral and asked the charioteer to stop at once. He asked the charioteer what happened to the corpse, and he explained to the Prince the lesson that everyone will face death, and that is what happened to the man whom he saw. Prince Siddhartha, very shocked by this revelation ordered his chariot to be returned to the palace.

Once back at the palace, Prince Siddhartha returned to his room, and he felt greatly depressed about all that he had learned.  The King learned about what had happened during Prince Siddhartha's ride outside the palace, and he felt bad for hiding so many things from his son. He attempted to bring great entertainment for his son consisting of having his maidens entice Prince Siddhartha by dancing and flirting with him, but he still felt sad. When Prince Siddhartha woke up one morning, he devised a plan to end all suffering in the world. In order to accomplish this, though, he had to leave the palace for a while.  When Siddhartha was leaving the palace, the King tried to stop him. Prince Siddhartha told the King, "Father, if you cannot keep me from being old, getting sick, or dying, then please do not stop me from leaving." The King could not promise any of those things to his son, so he did nothing but let his son go off on his own and learn for himself. 

(Prince Siddhartha encounters a sick person)

Author's note: The original story this was based on was from "The Life of Buddha" unit in the UN-textbook. Specifically, I based my story on the three encounters of Prince Siddhartha. During his encounter he learns about old age, illness, and death. Prince Siddhartha had not previously known about these types of suffering in the world because he was sheltered from the outside world by his mother and father.Prince Siddhartha's father even tries to shelter his son when he does leave by taking away all the crippled and elderly, but the Gods make it so Prince Siddhartha still encounters everyday ordinary people. When Prince Siddhartha returns to the palace for the last time, he is depressed. The King tries to cheer him up with entertainment, but it does not work. In the end, Prince Siddhartha feels that he needs to find a way to end the world's suffering, so he leaves home. His father tries to stop him, but he still leaves. I kept the general theme of the story, but changed the way Prince Siddhartha learned about the world's suffering a little. I made it to where he learned all encounters in the same day. What I set out for this story is to show how someone can live a sheltered life and be ignorant to everything around them. I recently had an experience with this when a friend of mine was not familiar with a common phrase that is used very commonly because they lived a sheltered life growing up. 

Bibliography:

 The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Week 3 Storytelling: Love Triangle

In the beautiful land of Israel, there was a king by the name of David. He seemed to think he could get whatever he wanted, including women. One day, King David was walking the land when he saw a woman bathing and could not keep his eyes off of her. The woman was the most beautiful he had ever met since his last four wives. He then walked a little closer to see that the beautiful woman was none other than Uriah's wife Bathsheba. King David thought to himself "I will have her!" Although he did know it was wrong to go after a married woman, King David sent for Bathsheba to come to his living quarters, and that night they made love together, and Bathsheba was to soon carry King David's child. 

Several months later, Bathsheba's husband Uriah returned to Israel after fighting in a war. She was so nervous to tell him that she was with child. Bathsheba cooked her husband Uriah a very big meal that night in preparation of telling him about King David's child she was carrying. 

"Uriah, are you ready to eat?" said an antsy Bathsheba. Uriah appeared in the doorway, and noticed that his wife seemed like she was flustered. 

"Is there something wrong, Bathsheba? Because you look like you have something on your mind," said Uriah as he sat down at the table to eat and also worried about his wife. "Actually, Uriah, I do have something to tell you." But Bathsheba was interrupted by a knock on the door. Bathsheba got up and went to open the door and saw two of King David's guards. 

"King David will speak to Uriah right away!" said the one of the guards. Bathsheba wondered what King David would want with Uriah, but she went and got him from the dinner table. "Uriah, King David would like to speak with you, this instantly!" Uriah then made the trek to see King David right away. When Uriah finally made it to the castle, King David greeted him.  

"Hello there Uriah." said King David.  

"Good evening, King. What can I do for you?" said an eager Uriah. 

King David sighed, contemplating whether or not he should tell Uriah about the baby or let Bathsheba tell him. After thinking for a short time, the selfish King David decided to tell Uriah anyway.  

"Bathsheba, you wife is carrying my child." said a forthright King David. 

Uriah stood in place, utterly shocked with no words. He felt a mix of emotions. He felt angry and hurt that his wife would stray while he was off fighting in a war, but he also understood that she was lonely. Uriah loved Bathsheba with all his heart, and he wondered why King David decided to tell him. So he voiced his concern. 

"Why have you told me this, your Highness?" said Uriah. 

"Because I want you to leave Bathsheba, so I can make her my fifth wife!" King David said boldly. 

Uriah was furious. How dare King David take his wife from him? So Uriah defiantly responded "I will not leave my wife, because I love her, and she will remain with me." And so Uriah left to go home to Bathsheba. He did not speak to Bathsheba about his conversation with King David or her infidelities because he had to go back to fight again. He planned to talk to her when he returned, but little did he know he would not be living much longer. 

Uriah died during the war, at the hands of King David putting him in the front line to be killed. Bathsheba mourned her husband's death, and in this moment of weakness King David married Bathsheba. The Lord heard Bathsheba's cries and learned what King David had done all in greed. To pay for what King David had done, Bathsheba lost their child, and they were both sad. Later they had a wise son by the name of Solomon. 

(Bathsheba, King David, and their son Solomon)

Author's note: This story was inspired by the King James Bible (1611): 2 Samuel 11. I chose to retell this story because I thought the original story was very interesting and different from other Bible women stories. My goals for this story were to keep the general theme, but put a little twist on things. In the original story King David sees Bathsheba bathing naked and lays with her. She is then carrying his child, and when her husband returns, King David tries to get Bathsheba's husband to quit fighting in the war to be at home, but Uriah does not enjoy the comfort of being at home while the army is still fighting. Uriah feels it is wrong to stay at home, and does not comply with King David's wishes. King David then has Uriah killed by giving him a letter to give to his general that says for Uriah to be killed. When Uriah dies, King David marries Bathsheba. The Lord learns of what King David has done and punishes him, with Bathsheba losing the baby. They soon have another son by the name of Solomon. I chose to change the story by making King David a selfish man who is not concerned with other's feelings and who is only out to get what he wants. I also wanted to make Uriah more a part of the story by showing the he loved and understood Bathsheba, even though she made a mistake, and it ultimately cost him his life.  

Week 1 Storytelling: Sleepy John

"DEEDLE, deedle, dumpling, my son John

Went to bed with his trousers on;

One shoe off, the other shoe on,

Deedle, deedle, dumpling, my son John."

(Source)

There was once a boy named John. John is tall and handsome, seventeen-year-old senior in college with strong hopes of becoming a doctor. John knows that he must keep his grade point average high and do well on his MCAT, so he spends his days and nights working so hard to prepare for medical school that he rarely makes it to his bed without his trousers on. Although John's mother tells John time and time again that he needs more sleep, he still stays up to stress about all the assignments he must complete. John's friends often complain that he is an overachiever, and that he is missing out on some of the most important moments of senior year like football games, special campus events, and having fun on the weekends. Although, John doesn't listen and does not believe them.  When John returns home from a busy day, he never has a little fun or takes breaks for just a short time while studying. When he does rest, he cannot seem to sleep without at least one shoe on.  His mother often finds poor John sleeping with his day clothes on with at least one shoe off and thinks to herself "My dear son John has worked himself into overly dressed slumber." John wakes up again, seeing that his mother has tucked him in even though he never undressed from yesterday's clothes. John feels bad, because he is all his mother has and she constantly worries about him and his study habits. John then decides to make a change.

That very day, John decides to listen to his friends and rest and have fun for just a day. John asks his mother if he can have a couple of friends over before going to a football game. John's mother happily agrees and John's friends are pleasantly surprised that John has invited them to his house, and that he is joining them at the football game to have a little fun for once. When John goes to the football game, he realizes that this is the best time he's had in a while. John starts to realize all that he has missed and balances his time between his studies, family, and friends. John no longer passes out with his trousers still on. John's mother can now even tuck him in without his shoes on.

 John even finds a girlfriend whose name is Jane. Jane is a lot like John. Jane is also a senior at their college with hopes of becoming a doctor. Jane also loves to study and rarely sleeps. Although Jane has already gotten into medical school, she helps John get ready for his tests. They study together and are as happy as can be. Jane loves John and sleeps just like he. When they are together, John goes back to his old habits of sleeping rarely. John’s mom finds John sleeping again with yesterday's clothes still on, with one sneaker on and one off, along with a sleeping Jane who mirrors her boyfriend John. John’s poor mother can do nothing but tuck the well-dressed teenagers in bed and be happy that John has a friend to share his poor habit. 

Author's note: In this short nursery rhyme it talks about a boy named John who falls asleep with his trousers and one shoe on. I adapted my story to be about a teenager named John who worries and studies all the time. He does not get a lot of sleep, but when he does he often sleeps without undressing himself from his day clothes because he is so tired from studying continuously. John's friends make fun of him for his studying and believe he should have some more fun. When John finally does start to have fun again, he meets a girl (Jane) that is just like John and brings him back to his old habits. I got inspiration for this story from a friend who is always stressing about everything related to school. They often study and over study when they should just have a little fun every now and then.What I want people to take away from this story is it is okay to be studious, but many people think that you are not doing college right if you are getting a good night's sleep. I do not believe this, and I think that it is very possible to study a good amount of time and get a healthy amount of sleep.  The nursery rhyme for this story came from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang (1987).