John and Pocket

This is the beginnings of a collaborative story. Almost all of the work was done by the kids age 7.5, 6, and 4. Adult help was only given to type and if they were stuck. Some days only one kid was writing, some days all 3 had input. So far Dude is the only one who has typed any. They have not finished, but it is getting so long I decided to try and break it up into installments to share. I made a few editor corrections, but I tried to let the kids tell the story, and not bog them down in to many details.

The story of John and Pocket: Part 1

“Woof, Woof”

“Come on Pocket, we don’t want to be late for our trip to North Carolina!”

A large black dog with a huge tail, wearing glasses, ran to John, who was standing by an open car door. John Smate was a tall boy about 12 years of age, with blue hair and black eyes. He and his family were going on a vacation to North Carolina, from their home in London. Mr. Smate wanted them to hurry so they would not arrive late to Milk Jug Dock and miss their cruise ship. Pocket hopped into the car, and they finally set off.

Pocket said “Woof.” as they got out of their car.

“Be patient Pocket,’ replied John, “As soon as we load our luggage into the wagons, we can explore the ship.”

John placed his and Pocket’s things in the first wagon. Then he politely assisted his sister carrying her bags as well. Dad loaded up the wagons with the bulk of the family suitcases and boxes, while Mom went to the pre-registered ticket line to handle the remaining details of their accommodations. Dad always liked how she was so well organized and saved time for them all.

“Thanks for your help so far guys”, said Dad, “Now you go check out the ship while I do the rest”. “Thank You! I’ll be back in time for lunch.”
John and Pocket went to check the ship out. They found some rowboats and lots of boxes.

Pocket said “woof!”
John said “Hide and go seek, you’re right; this would be a great place to play Hide and go seek! Give me 10 seconds to find a good spot then see if you can come find me.”

Pocket turned around and started to softly count “woof, woof, woof…”
While John ran under the rowboats and found a trap door. He opened the trap door and lowered himself down to the bottom of the ship. He saw some piped and a tent. He unzipped the tent and snuck in. The tent contained a few boxes overflowing with books, bags, and bottles of strangely colored liquids. On the floor in the center of the tent was a large soft mat, perfect for sleeping on. John sat down on the middle of the mat.

‘Who are you and why are you sitting on me?’ The sleepy voice seemed to come from the mat. ‘That is much better. Can you get me the wand from that box beside you, please?’

John jumped up at the sound of the mat’s words. He looked around and found the wand and held it out. The wand is quickly pulled from John’s hand and begins to whirl in circles. The tip of the wand turns light blue and moves up further away from the mat. With a loud POOOOOOOF, a man suddenly appears holding the wand.

John said “woah!” Pocket peeked his head in the tent and said “woof?”
The man said “Thank You, I am a wizard. My wand was trapped in that box, I put it in to sleep, but I couldn’t get it out again.”
“why couldn’t you open the box?”
“I forgot that I put invisibility proof spells on the box, and since I was invisible…”
“Woof” muttered pocket.
“Well, I was tired, I remembered as soon as I closed the lid, but by then it was too late. Anyway since you helped me, how would you like a wish?”
“I would love a wish! But I’m not to sure this is real.” John answered.

“I can too grant wishes! Come on what do you want, money, fame, power, you name it I can do it” Claimed the wizard.
“I would like to go to someplace nobody has ever been to!”
“Well if noone has ever been there, you would be awfully lonely there.”
“Well maybe just someplace nobody from Earth has been.”
“OK, off you go, have fun!” called the wizard as he waved his wand again.

With another POOF, John and Pocket found themselves in a gigantic desert! They saw nothing but sand in every direction.

Tune in next time to see what happens in the desert! Will John and pocket find anything interesting? Will they be stuck there forever? Or is it all an illusion of the cruise ship? You never know with a bunch of kids doing the writing!