Fatima Martinez
11 February 2020
English 1-3
Ms. Lehmann
Story of a ghost, (mistakes)
It’s always the same in my memories, especially when my memories are the memories of my life before my afterlife. It’s always the same thing. I am born. I become a toddler. I make mistakes as a kid. The mistakes take a greater toll. I become a teen and the mistakes comes back and punches in the face. I always think if I hadn’t been causing all of these problems and making people around me miserable, I could still be alive. I am trapped in my memories, my guilt, my prison of pain for the rest of my afterlife. I hear other ghosts; guard ghosts say we are here for life. It makes me wonder how long is that if we are already dead. I have finally had it; I can’t be here anymore. The punishment of watching my former life is as unbearable as the sound of scratching a chalkboard in extreme heat, chained down with a straight jacket and a cup of cold water that is just out of reach. I should know that is how I died.
I then had the great idea of escape, but just as I was about to begin scheming my escape a guard appeared out of the mist of nothingness and told me, “Your mind is clear you may go.”
“I don’t understand,” I asked the guard, “what do you mean?”
The guard whom was emotionless to my words and seemed to be faceless with no life in their voice, “Your mind is clear you may go.”
I was still extremely nervous that a guard would let me a criminal go. I had heard rumors of guards letting prisoners go, but the second they stepped out of their cells, they would experience a flashback so intense that their minds would bleed out of their heads and slowly and painfully die silently and miserable all over again while disappearing in a burst of light.
I was hesitant to step out. Then the guard took hold of my transparent wrist that was covered with bruises from my previous life that still ached for some strange reason. I looked up to the guard, they were still faceless but by the way they were griping my wrist they were aggravated.
“This is a prison for the dead, so the warren had asked me to lead you out of the prison,” the guard said, “The only reason you have been here so long is because you needed to learn the error of your ways and correct them.”
“That actually makes sense.” I replied because in the land of the living I didn’t have much time to think of what I doing.
“To leave the prison you must face your past one last time and accept all that has happened.” the guard explained.
“All right then.” I finally responded. I gathered as much courage as I could and stepped out of the cell.
I have had flashbacks but nothing was as bad as this. When I was a kid my parents discovered I was extremely intelligent. They would do a lot for me. They would buy me the most expensive books and take me to collage classes even though I was only seven. They said if I got all of my schooling done, they could retire early and live easy with the money I’d make as a doctor. My parents really wanted to live easy now because we were now suffering in dept for all of the stuff they had gotten me. Now that I was old enough to go to college as a student it was time for me to go to college. Before I went, I told my parents the truth of what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a writer. At first, they thought it was a joke, but when they realized that I was telling them the truth they got really upset. My mom cried because we owed so much money that we were going to be homeless by next week. My father on the other hand was furious. He had me all beaten up in the next ten second. After two weeks I finally had enough. I couldn’t stand the look my parents gave me every time I came back to my house from work. So, I decided to run away. I lived on the streets for almost three months. I wore a large hood so no one thought it was me even though it was about 60 degrees outside. I was minding my own business when I saw that there was a shaved ice stand on the other side of the street. There was a construction site behind me so I couldn’t hear that well, and as I was running to the other side of the street a person near the stand turned around. I froze feeling a great amount grief that made me feel as heavy as a boulder. There he was. My father. I was feeling even more exhausted when my dad started yelling at me because I had frozen in the road. The everything went black and I awoke as a prisoner of the ghost prison.
I woke up after that terrible flash back but I wasn’t on the floor anymore I was on a hospital bed with a cast on my leg, arm, bandage on my head, and was also on life support. I also realized my body was solid once more. There sleeping near my bed was my mother. She opened her eyes and they were red from crying; I knew because her face was also stained. A minute later my dad came in and dropped the cups of coffee he was holding. He then ran out and then came back in with a doctor.
“Hello Caleb,” The doctor said, “How do you feel?”
“Numb all over.” I replied feeling a weight that made me nauseous.
“If it makes you feel better,” The doctor smiled, “My name is Dr. Lifen’truth.”
I tried to smile back but my jaw popped and I let out a small groan.
The doctor smiled in relief, “one more day and we would have had to remove life support.” She sighed.
“How long have I been unconscious?” I asked Dr. Lifen’truth.
“Nine months,” She replied grimly, “Good thing we got you out of there.”
“Nine months,” I exclaimed causing my ribs to hurt, “and what do you mean ‘good thing we got you out of there.’!”
I never got a response but it didn’t matter because my mom and dad came and apologized to me.
It's been a month since all of that chaos has happened. We sold all of those doctor books and it turned out that those dusty old things were worth a fortune to those doctors. We now live in a descent house and can actually pay rent. I am going to college and have become a writer that is selling the story of my adventure in the prison for ghosts. Most people think its fiction but for me it has changed my life forever.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
2. Is this paper narrative, expository, or argumentative? How do you know?
3. Tell me one thing you learned from writing this paper.
4. What are you particularly proud of in this paper?
5. What does this paper show readers about you?
11 February 2020
English 1-3
Ms. Lehmann
Story of a ghost, (mistakes)
It’s always the same in my memories, especially when my memories are the memories of my life before my afterlife. It’s always the same thing. I am born. I become a toddler. I make mistakes as a kid. The mistakes take a greater toll. I become a teen and the mistakes comes back and punches in the face. I always think if I hadn’t been causing all of these problems and making people around me miserable, I could still be alive. I am trapped in my memories, my guilt, my prison of pain for the rest of my afterlife. I hear other ghosts; guard ghosts say we are here for life. It makes me wonder how long is that if we are already dead. I have finally had it; I can’t be here anymore. The punishment of watching my former life is as unbearable as the sound of scratching a chalkboard in extreme heat, chained down with a straight jacket and a cup of cold water that is just out of reach. I should know that is how I died.
I then had the great idea of escape, but just as I was about to begin scheming my escape a guard appeared out of the mist of nothingness and told me, “Your mind is clear you may go.”
“I don’t understand,” I asked the guard, “what do you mean?”
The guard whom was emotionless to my words and seemed to be faceless with no life in their voice, “Your mind is clear you may go.”
I was still extremely nervous that a guard would let me a criminal go. I had heard rumors of guards letting prisoners go, but the second they stepped out of their cells, they would experience a flashback so intense that their minds would bleed out of their heads and slowly and painfully die silently and miserable all over again while disappearing in a burst of light.
I was hesitant to step out. Then the guard took hold of my transparent wrist that was covered with bruises from my previous life that still ached for some strange reason. I looked up to the guard, they were still faceless but by the way they were griping my wrist they were aggravated.
“This is a prison for the dead, so the warren had asked me to lead you out of the prison,” the guard said, “The only reason you have been here so long is because you needed to learn the error of your ways and correct them.”
“That actually makes sense.” I replied because in the land of the living I didn’t have much time to think of what I doing.
“To leave the prison you must face your past one last time and accept all that has happened.” the guard explained.
“All right then.” I finally responded. I gathered as much courage as I could and stepped out of the cell.
I have had flashbacks but nothing was as bad as this. When I was a kid my parents discovered I was extremely intelligent. They would do a lot for me. They would buy me the most expensive books and take me to collage classes even though I was only seven. They said if I got all of my schooling done, they could retire early and live easy with the money I’d make as a doctor. My parents really wanted to live easy now because we were now suffering in dept for all of the stuff they had gotten me. Now that I was old enough to go to college as a student it was time for me to go to college. Before I went, I told my parents the truth of what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a writer. At first, they thought it was a joke, but when they realized that I was telling them the truth they got really upset. My mom cried because we owed so much money that we were going to be homeless by next week. My father on the other hand was furious. He had me all beaten up in the next ten second. After two weeks I finally had enough. I couldn’t stand the look my parents gave me every time I came back to my house from work. So, I decided to run away. I lived on the streets for almost three months. I wore a large hood so no one thought it was me even though it was about 60 degrees outside. I was minding my own business when I saw that there was a shaved ice stand on the other side of the street. There was a construction site behind me so I couldn’t hear that well, and as I was running to the other side of the street a person near the stand turned around. I froze feeling a great amount grief that made me feel as heavy as a boulder. There he was. My father. I was feeling even more exhausted when my dad started yelling at me because I had frozen in the road. The everything went black and I awoke as a prisoner of the ghost prison.
I woke up after that terrible flash back but I wasn’t on the floor anymore I was on a hospital bed with a cast on my leg, arm, bandage on my head, and was also on life support. I also realized my body was solid once more. There sleeping near my bed was my mother. She opened her eyes and they were red from crying; I knew because her face was also stained. A minute later my dad came in and dropped the cups of coffee he was holding. He then ran out and then came back in with a doctor.
“Hello Caleb,” The doctor said, “How do you feel?”
“Numb all over.” I replied feeling a weight that made me nauseous.
“If it makes you feel better,” The doctor smiled, “My name is Dr. Lifen’truth.”
I tried to smile back but my jaw popped and I let out a small groan.
The doctor smiled in relief, “one more day and we would have had to remove life support.” She sighed.
“How long have I been unconscious?” I asked Dr. Lifen’truth.
“Nine months,” She replied grimly, “Good thing we got you out of there.”
“Nine months,” I exclaimed causing my ribs to hurt, “and what do you mean ‘good thing we got you out of there.’!”
I never got a response but it didn’t matter because my mom and dad came and apologized to me.
It's been a month since all of that chaos has happened. We sold all of those doctor books and it turned out that those dusty old things were worth a fortune to those doctors. We now live in a descent house and can actually pay rent. I am going to college and have become a writer that is selling the story of my adventure in the prison for ghosts. Most people think its fiction but for me it has changed my life forever.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
2. Is this paper narrative, expository, or argumentative? How do you know?
3. Tell me one thing you learned from writing this paper.
4. What are you particularly proud of in this paper?
5. What does this paper show readers about you?