Story Prompts:
- Teenager
- Person in a wheelchair
- Birthday
- Stuck
Story 1 by Rich Colon
Dennis was stuck; the wheel was caught in a gully on the dirt path. Why would a person in a wheelchair be out in the woods trying to follow a path? Well, because it is his birthday and just like any headstrong teenager, he wanted to do something different, something exciting.
Dennis is sick and tired of his mother trying to pamper him and always worrying about him. He is not a child and he can get around on his own. But to be honest, he is now wondering if going off into the woods on his own was a good idea. Especially since no one knows that he is out here.
The wheelchair is really stuck but he is not completely helpless. Sure his legs don't work, but he has amazing upper body strength. Dennis was determined to get through this on his own. He easily lifted himself off the seat and then settled onto the ground. Now with his weight off of the wheel, he felt some movement. He pushed and pulled, rocked back and forth when finally the wheel was free. But Dennis lost his grip and the wheelchair rolled down into a ravine. Now what, he thought to himself. Yet there wasn't any other option; he needed that wheelchair so he had no choice but to go after it.
It was a long and painful journey, but he finally made it to the bottom and found his wheelchair was thankfully still in one piece. Just as he was about to climb into the chair, Dennis heard something. It was faint but sounded like moaning. He started to feel around and moved some fallen leaves when he was shocked to see a small hand. Dennis frantically pushed away the leaves and saw a young boy. He wasn't moving but he was alive, breathing and moaning. Dennis checked over the boy looking for any major injuries but could only find a bleeding head injury. Dennis knew this boy needed help and he knew that he could not leave him here. With all the strength that he could muster, Dennis pulled himself into the wheelchair and lifted the young boy up onto his lap.
Now the problem was how to get help. Dennis needed to follow the flatest path that headed in the direction of the sunset because he knew there was a new housing development in that direction. After an hour or so, Dennis heard yelling and screaming and realized it was a search party. As soon as he yelled back, a rush of volunteers approached.
The ordeal was finally over and Dennis was celebrated as a hero. It was his best birthday ever!
Story 2 by Dave Gregory
Well, here it was a nice sunny day and I’m stuck. It’s summer, no school, I’m 16, I should be at the beach and at the drive-in at night. This is the life of a teenager – don’t they understand?
No, my life is ruined, I’m in the family car on the way to some hick town to visit Uncle Al and Aunt Clara – fine that’s OK, but my parents are going to leave me there for the summer “to help out” – Uncle Al had been in an accident and was in a wheelchair – nobody knew for how long and Aunt Clara needed the help – I was the help.
As we drove west, it was a two day trip, I felt sorry for myself and didn’t want anything to do with the people in the front seat – Finally, I started to remember some of the times we had visited over the years – Uncle Al was mostly quiet and had a habit of watching people, listening to them – then suddenly he was talking to you, he knew your favorite baseball team, he taught me how to fish and made chores around the farm fun – Aunt Clara loved everybody and loved to cook for them, do for them – they both told great stories –
One time we were there, it was my birthday – I had forgotten – but that day – I was “King for the day” – Aunt Clara made a special birthday cake – I got to drive the tractor, ride the horse, milk the cow. We laughed and played games, checkers, canasta, that sort of thing – simple stuff, but I had forgotten how much fun I had and how special that day was –
I stopped grumbling, I wanted to help Uncle Al and couldn’t wait for Aunt Clara’s cooking – don’t know if they have TV. Yet – but I guess I could read a book –
Story 3 by Rosanne Hoagland
“Happy Birthday to Me” was the last thought Jason had ten years ago. He was a teenager, just in the middle of high school and getting ready to get his driver’s license. So young and ready to challenge the world. That was, again, ten years ago, when that world ended. Thanks to a drunk driver that ran a stop sign and slammed into his mother’s car. His mom was driving and his little sister in the back seat behind her, were not badly injured. He was a different story, he should have been dead, he lived, but is stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
That was then, and now he is celebrating his twenty-seventh birthday with his family and close friends. A “miracle” they said. The odds he had to overcome, and the success he has now. Jason laughed quietly to himself. These are the same people that pitied him and spoke down about him behind his back. They thought that he could not hear them, that being in a wheelchair made him less of a person. But this was the push he needed and used to get his life back. To put it down a totally different direction he had planned for himself or was planned for him.
The accident changed him physically and mentally. Suddenly he was smarter than he was before the accident. After exhausting every test, the doctors put him through, it was concluded that it was all due to the way the car was hit and how he was sitting and the way he was bounced around the car seat. The violent bouncing back and forth damaged his spine and activated the normally dark areas of the brain. This is a rare thing and needed to be studied further, but bless his parents; they said no. Their son was not some lab animal to be locked away to be studied. Jason was their son, who was nearly killed by a drunk driver. Who has yet to be caught, the coward ran away from the accident. He vowed that one day he would find him.
Jason may have been put into a wheelchair, but it never held him back. He was paralyzed from the waist down, so he pushed his upper body to handle the extra work. There were no limits to the things he could achieve. He was ready to start the next chapter in his life, and he had a lot of surprises for the nay-sayers in his life. He had a secret that he was hiding and holding back from everyone in his life. All will be ready to be revealed very soon.
NOTE:
Using the same 4 prompts, different stories were generated by these writers. Now, what would you write given these same prompts? Give it a try yourself!