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Cleo and the Rusty Old Shack
By Chiara
Once there was a very cheerful colt
named Cleo who lived with her father whom she called Pappy, her mother whom
she called Rosa, her older brother named Noah, and her little sister named
Daisy. They lived together in a little pasture full of green grass. Cleo
was very good at climbing and was willing to listen to anyone.
One day, while Noah was playing with his friends and Rosa and Daisy were
in the barn, Pappy called Cleo over. “Cleo, we are running out of
food. I can’t get food because I’m getting old, Noah spends
too much time with his friends and won’t listen, and your mother has
to stay with Daisy who is too young to go. Cleo, it depends on you to go
to the Sunshine orchard and pick the apples.”
Cleo was excited. She had never gone to the Sunshine Orchard and she had
never picked apples. She knew how to pick them. She had to take out a ladder,
climb the ladder, drop the apples on the ground, climb down, and put them
in a bag. Cleo smiled and nodded her head. She galloped off and got her
saddle. She left without saying good-bye to anyone. That was unusual for
Cleo to do, but Cleo was so busy thinking about how important it was that
she was to be able to go apple picking on her own that she didn’t
notice. She was proud of herself.
Suddenly Pappy called out, “Cleo, whatever you do don’t go to
the old rusty abandoned old shack.”
Cleo stopped for a moment and thought, “I wonder why Pappy doesn’t
want me to go to the old, rusty abandoned shack. Hmmm… Maybe there
are monsters.” Cleo shuddered at the thought of monsters. Cleo trotted
off and tried to think of what Daisy was doing. “Maybe Daisy is petting
the sheep.”
Just as she was getting close to the orchard Cleo noticed something hidden
in the trees. She hadn’t been exploring for awhile and she wanted
to explore. She stepped toward it. Cleo carefully stepped over the animals
and brushed aside all the branches in her way. She thought about what was
ahead of her. Cleo slowly came out of the bushes. Cleo found herself in
a little clearing in the woods. There were mushrooms scattered in all different
directions/ There was moss on the trees, early morning dew on the grass,
and right in the middle there was a rusty shack. The shack looked like it
hadn’t been used for at least 100 years.
Suddenly Cleo jumped back. She heard a lovely voice calling, “Come
dear and have a nice cup of tea.” Cleo was willing to listen to anyone
and she headed toward the shack (where the voice was coming from). Cleo
stepped on the mat in front of the door, wiped her hooves, took a deep breath
and pushed the door open. Cleo looked around. All that was there was a door
at one end of the room and an ugly old man sitting at a table at the other
end.
“Dearie, all I wanted was for you to have this,” croaked an
old voice. Cleo realized that it was the old man. The man held out a tiny
blue bottle. Cleo was scared but something told her to grab the bottle.
She carefully stepped forward, reached for it, grabbed it and ran. Away
from the shack, away from the clearing and away from the woods. Cleo ran
all the way to Sunshine orchard. Once Cleo had arrived she paused a moment
to read the instructions. They read ” THE FOLLOWING CONTAINER CONTAINS:
POTION TO MAKE APPLES FALL. POUR HALF ONTO TRUNK OF TREE AND WAIT.”
She knew this would be useful.
Cleo poured ½ of the potion onto the tree. Cleo waited and after
a moment she heard a rumbling noise and the ground began to tremble. Cleo
knew this sign. There was going to be an earthquake! Cleo had to think fast.
She thought of her family and friends. She thought of the games she played
with her friends. They all loved climbing trees. Then she remembered that
she could climb. Without thinking Cleo quickly climbed the tree. It felt
like hours before the earthquake was over. When it finally was over Cleo
carefully climbed down the tree. Cleo ran home as fast as she could. She
didn’t care about anything as long as she never saw the shack again.
Cleo cried and cried.
When Cleo got home her mane was a mess. Pappy looked at her and saw the
bottle, no apples and that Cleo was home early. Cleo told him the whole
story and Pappy just sighed, shook his head, and said, “When will
my children ever listen to me?”
“Poor Pappy!” Cleo thought. From that day on Cleo always listened
to Pappy.
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