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2017 Inklings Book Contest finalist: Natalie Wong

2017 Inklings Book Contest finalist: Natalie Wong

Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2017 finalist, Natalie Wong! Natalie finished 5th grade this past school year. The story she submitted is called “Winky and Trouble” We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did!
Leave a comment below on what you thought!

 


Winky and Trouble

by Natalie Wong
 
+++++My name is Winky. I am a grey-blue stuffed elephant with a long trunk and fuzzy ears. I can actually move around on my own, but I lie still when humans are around so they don’t see me move. I live in a bright room with white walls and a bed with polka-dot sheets. My favorite hobby is taking lots of naps every day in that bed.

+++++My owner, who takes care of me, comes home every day and does her homework. After that, she usually plays with me until she has to shower. Usually.
+++++On one particular Friday afternoon, just as she scribbled a last word on an assignment the doorbell rang. She looked out the window, and rushed downstairs immediately once she saw who it was.

+++++I was still lying in bed, considering whether to try to go after her, when I heard two pairs of feet and voices clomping up the stairs. I quickly vetoed my idea of going after her and flopped back down on the bed. The door to the room opened, and my owner, along with another girl, came happily into the room, each eating a large chocolate chip cookie.

+++++I immediately took a dislike to this new girl. She was intruding in MY room, and she was taking up MY owner’s playtime with me! I kept very limp, but strained to see the girl in my peripheral vision. She had blonde hair and was wearing a yellow shirt with jeans. Blondie headed over to the resident computer with my owner and started playing some strange game with specks of light and oddly shaped snakes. I was very confused. Who was this girl, and what was she doing with my owner? One thing was very clear to me though: this girl was preventing my owner from playing with me!

+++++I had to get rid of her, but how? As I racked my brains, Blondie and my owner left the room. Thinking about my problem, I wished I could literally go up to my owner’s parents and talk to them about it.
+++++Maybe I could do or make something that forced the parents to ban people from coming over…
+++++Then it hit me, and I could practically see the light bulb on my head. I could create trouble! If my owner got in trouble, people couldn’t come over as a punishment, and she would be sent to her room where I was. It was a happily ever after for me and for her! I took stock of my tools: a roll of string, the flashlight on the bedside table, and my brilliant brain.

Later that week…

+++++Scampering quickly around to the dishwasher, I opened the door and pulled out the rack. After I was done there, all the silverware was out of order. Then I clambered up to the top of the counter and turned on the tap for cold water. The handle clicked as it turned, but no one heard it. The water only made a slight rushing noise, barely audible through the sound of cars driving past the house.

+++++A few mysterious minutes later, the stoves were turned on, drawers were randomly pulled out, and a pile of dirty dishes was in the sink.
+++++As I tiptoed out, or the closest thing I could do to tiptoeing, I accidentally tripped over the raised carpet on the floor with a muffled THUMP. I froze. A door was being pushed open, and footsteps were heading down to where I was. I tried not to scream and ran around behind the stairs to hide. Unfortunately, the footsteps grew louder and louder. A shadow loomed over me, and the big blinking eyes of my owner’s dad peered curiously at mine. The stairwell I was hiding behind was far enough from the kitchen that I couldn’t hear the stoves or water running. I went limp and tried to look lifeless. “What do we have here?” he muttered to himself. Picking me up, he crept back upstairs with me hanging limp from his hand and proceeded to my owner’s room. The door cracked open and her bleary eyes looked at me, confused. “I found this guy downstairs. Any idea how he got there?” the father asked. My owner shook her head, even more puzzled. “No,” she answered. Her dad shrugged and placed me in her hands, then closed the door and went downstairs again.

+++++That was a close call! My owner was staring at me, but then whispered, “I must’ve left you downstairs after dinner,” and laid back down to sleep. If she probed her memory, I knew she would realize that she’d been sleeping with me the whole time and that would be a whole other sticky situation I would have to figure out. Presently, I dreaded when her dad found out what I’d done, but at least I was safely back in my room for the night.

+++++That satisfaction was short lived. In the morning, when it wasn’t even eight yet, a piercing yell cut through the quiet.

+++++“YOUNG LADY, GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!”

+++++My owner groaned, but quickly hurried downstairs. She came back up half an hour later looking miserable and defiant.

+++++“I didn’t do it! Why won’t they just listen to me for once?! I wasn’t even downstairs last night! Then they said I had to clean it up! Seriously though, no playdates for six months?! And no, I don’t know how Winky got down there! Aaargh!!!” she grumbled while heatedly storming around the room. I felt twinges of shame, but at least there would be no playdates for a long time!

+++++As the day passed by, I noticed my owner seeming to feel more and more sad and angry. She often was sulking in our bedroom and rarely talked in a friendly manner with her parents while the hours wasted away.

+++++I started to worry that I had gone too far with the trouble, because my owner wasn’t acting like her normal self. Then when it was around six in the evening, she stormed upstairs, slammed her bedroom door shut, and started sniffling. “I’m not ever going to clean the kitchen up! I don’t care!” she furiously growled.

+++++I felt like the worst stuffy in the world, watching as tears dripped down her red and blotchy face, knowing that I caused them. Stuffies are supposed to support and comfort their owners, not make them sad and angry. I hadn’t thought about how badly my owner would be affected when I was making trouble. I’d been horribly selfish! This was all for my benefit, and I hadn’t thought twice about other people’s needs. That was it. No more trouble making, and no more selfishness, even if the visitors came every afternoon for the rest of my life.

+++++Seeing those tears also made me realize that my owner had to deal with a lot more stress and work than me. That night, I crept downstairs without a sound and cleaned all the trouble I had made up. The next day, my owner and her parents woke up and went to the kitchen as normal to make breakfast. From my perch up against the bedroom wall, I could hear heated conversation and a then squeal of delight. When my owner came back upstairs, she related everything that had happened to her with her parents. Little did she know that I already knew what had happened.

+++++“So I went downstairs and by some magic, everything had been cleaned up! Mommy and Daddy did question me, but they were questions that I could answer without being the one who caused it. I actually didn’t do it, but right now I’ll take their forgiveness because I really don’t want them mad at me for no reason at all again,” she explained. “Plus, because they think I did it, they said I could have dessert!” I smiled big in my heart, knowing that my owner would be happy again with her family. I also knew that I would try hard to be a better stuffy to her. Plus, I didn’t care, and I still don’t, how many visitors she got. I just wanted her to be happy.