Week 5 Story: Searching for Fear

What is...

On a warm May afternoon in the country side there was a storm brewing in the sky. The news was saying there was to be a storm like nothing they had seen before. Strong winds that howled, rain and hail, thunder and lightening that shook the ground. A young mother was finishing up her daily chores and called her little boy in from the field to start washing up for dinner. When he came in she felt the wind the news was talking about, and said to her son "Come back and shut the door sweetie there is a horrible storm coming tonight." 

The boy ask, "Momma, why must we shut the door tonight? We never shut it for no one lives around us for miles?"

"I have fear of this storm. Fear it is going to be like nothing we have seen before." replied the mother

While washing up in the kitchen sink he ask his mother, "What is fear?" for he has never been scared in his life and does not know the feeling of fear. For he was brave, last year he looked a mean bull dead in the eye while he was charging at him and did not flinch. When the bull was an arm length away, he held out his little hand and the bull laid down beside him like a dog would have. 

The boy worried about his mother for she had the fear. He decided to go and find this fear and give it a stern talking to because it made his loving mother on edge all night. His mother sent him to bed after dinner while she continued to watch the weather. He fell into a deep sleep, for he loved the sound of rain on the roof.

 As he was fast asleep he began to dream that he was on a journey and that he came across some thieves that were hiding in the neighboring mountains. He though that there had to be nearly 40 of the large men that was hiding here. So the boy asked the group of men "What is fear?" The men puzzled looking at each other. One picking his teeth with a knife, one cleaning a stack of guns, another gutting an animal he had just killed for dinner, and one man stood toe to toe with the little boy while clenching his gun and said in a loud voice that shook the men near him "Why, fear is here. With me and my men. Each of us with a different favorite way to kill trespassers." The little boy did not flinch when he talked, but looked around and said "Where? I do not see fear here at all." Confused by this he sent the boy into the near by cemetery with a bucket and a spoon to cook some soup for he surely though the boy would be scared there. 

A Skeleton prop leaning on a tree 

The little boy agreed and took the bucket and spoon to the cemetery to cook soup. While he was sitting and watching the soup cook as instructed by the thieves, a skeleton came out of the ground and snuck up behind the boy. The skeleton ask the boy for some soup, and the little boy replies "No. The soup is for the thieve over in the mountain. Why should I feed you?" Becoming angry the skeleton attacks the boy wrestling him to the ground. The skeleton almost strangles the boy when he is able to grab his wooden spoon and hit the skeleton upside a couple of times to escape. Thus, the skeleton seeing that the boy was not afraid of him, went back into the ground where he once slept. 

The boy returns to the thieves in the mountain whistling while he carried the bucket of soup. Surprised they ask him if he had found fear in the cemetery. The boy laughs and says, "No I did not find fear, but a skeleton that came out of the ground and nearly strangled me to death. But I was able to grab my spoon and hit him until he let me go." The grown men stood there in shook, for they all new the cemetery was haunted. Without able to find fear here the boy left to continue his search for fear that his mother had talked about.

Motor Life Boat in the Surf

Walking along he came to a large lake, and saw in the middle a small boat being tossed around by the waves. He hollered to the boat if they had found fear as he was searching for it. He only hears them cry for help. He swims with all his might out to the boat and see that they are sinking. The captain of the boat reminded him of his grandfather, white hair and beard with kind eyes. He also saw fear in the old man's eyes just as the boy had seen in his mothers. The boy tied a rope around his waist and jumped back into the lake, swam down to the bottom to see that a mermaid was shaking the boat and causing the waves about to capsize the boat. At first he tried to reason with the mermaid but she would not listen. She warned him to leave or she would drown him so, ignoring the warning he grabbed the make shift boat from her hands. He asked the mermaid "What is fear?" She was shocked that the boy did not fear her warning about his life, she swam quickly away for she herself had become fearful for her own life. The little boy sat the makeshift boat down and returned to the surface to see that the waves had stopped, thus the old man captain was safe. 

His mother had heard a noise from the back of the house where the little boy slept. She went and checked on him, to find he had left his window open and he was now soaked from the storm that was passing. She grabbed a towel to dry him off, being careful not to wake him. The little boys eyes began to open, seeing his mother smile at him he had seen that feat had disappeared from her eyes. He began to tell his mother of the dream he just had, and that he was on a journey to find fear. She laughed and said, "Sweetie, fear is not a person or thing but a feeling inside. You are very brave to go on such an adventure looking for fear. Maybe one day when you are a little older you may find fear. You can tell me all about it, but for now go back to sleep sweet child. Tomorrow you are going fishing with your Grandpa."

Bibliography

Story source from the untextbook unit: Turkish Fairy Tales, forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos 1913. The story of Fear

Image: a skeleton prop leaning on a tree

http://www.omarshauntedtrail.com/Props/props.htm#Skeletons, a motor life boat in the surf: http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2009/10/small-craft-advisories-and-boating-safety/

Author's Note: 

While reading this unit I my attention was drawn to the story of Fear. I made the main character a little boy living in the country who has a wild imagination. The mother is fearful of a storm because the news is making it out worse than what it was, as we see sometimes with storms here in Oklahoma. He only encounters a couple of 'fearful' things as in the original story. I decided to make him much younger than the original story, which had a marriage at the end where mine he gets to go fishing with his grandpa.