21st Century Fairytale =]

09.08.10

Loralei Hurlock

Lit and Media Studies

21^st Century Fairy tale

Steiling

You can never be too careful, but should not come to accusations that everyone is out to get you. It is common courtesy to be nice to strangers, as you hope others would treat you the same. But in some cases, like this one, you cannot be too cautious.

In the town of Bradford, where there is little to no crime and most people knew each other, unless you were the new family or couple that moved to town. There is one man in this town, Bruce, who has so many rumors stirring around about him, that he doesn't even know what to make of them anymore. Bruce is a middle aged man, in his 40's, with dark brown hair and green eyes. Taller than most, but a bit round in the belly. He looks like your regular friendly neighbor, but apparently has to be watched very closely. See, there was a young boy in the backseat of his mothers car and she figured she only needed one item, so she would quickly run in. Unfortunately, by the time she was back, her back window had been crammed open and her son was gone. Some say they saw a tall dark man, who resembled Bruce, but how do you prove something when no one else sees it? He has been accused by towns people for over more than half of the kidnappings in Bradford and the town lives in fear for their children at times, rightfully so.

Let me introduce Michael and Emily, they are brother and sister, who moderately get along. She is 10 and he is 8, so they follow the usual pattern of brothers and sisters. They were very close when they were little and gradually began to pick on each other and put that on repeat. Emily would tease him more so than Michael teasing her, because Emilys friends like to pick on him too for no particular reason. But that's just what kids do. One day, their parents asked if they could go to the grocery store and pick up a few items from a list for them. After some moaning and groaning, they finally came to an agreement that they would do this nice thing for their parents, but only as long as Michael doesn't get “annoying” requested Emily. They received money and took the list and were almost on their merry way. “Michael and Emily, if you two separate, we will be more than cross and you two will not be allowed to play video games or use the internet, if we found out you've lied. After promising they would obey their parents rules, they took off for the grocery store, which is about 15 minutes walking distance from their house. “I wish they would just trust us to walk a small distance, I'm a big girl and you're a boy, you can just punch somebody and they're done!” said Emily out of frustration. “I see your point and I agree... but don't you think there's some truth to what they're saying?” Michael questioned. Emily was tad thrown off that she had to defend her point, but she continued, “Mike, if I get into freshman year of high school and they don't trust me, what am I going to do!? Michael sighed and concluded, “ You're being dramatic about this, that's 4 years away. But hey, do you feel like we're being watched?” He had seen the same man walking parallel to them on the other side of the road for the past 5 minutes and thought it was a tad strange. Emily quickly looked over and said, “ Just keep on walking, we have 5-10 minutes left, we'll be fine. Besides, he looks harmless.”

After Michael and Emily retrieved their parents groceries, they exited the grocery store to wait for the cross walk light to turn on. Instead, they found Madison sitting in her car waiting right outside. “Madison?” the kids asked in unison. She was their 30-year-old babysitter from back when they needed one. They adored her, as she adored them. “Hop in the backseat and put your seat belts on, quickly! I'll explain in a moment.” They never doubted Madison, so they fastened their seat belts and waited for an explanation. Madison safely, but assertively drove away, as though something had been going on, yet the children had no clue as to what it was. Madison calmed the children down and began to tell them how their parents asked her for a favor, which was to follow the kids to the store in her vehicle. Only because they were concerned about the man who had gotten a title as child kidnapper/molester. Madison continues to tell them that the man had stalked them for about 10 minutes and was waiting for them to walk back home, until she intervened and drove them home. They both could not believe what they had just heard and how close they came to being kidnapped, when they just thought it was a regular walk to the store. “I'm so angry they didn't trust us.” Emily said, still a bit confused. “Emily, I'm younger than you and I know what they did was good. We could have been in big trouble without Maddy!” argued Mike. Madison agreed and managed to get Emily to see the brighter side of this situation.

They arrived home and Madison explained what had happened to their parents. Emily and Michael ran up to their parents to give them large, grateful hugs for looking out for them. They explained that they weren't trying to bother them, nor get in their business. Furthermore, when they hear something about somebody abducting children randomly, they feel the need to protect their children and to take the extra precautions. Sometimes that's all it takes, is being a little more safe.