Three Minutes with a Mysterious Box

Normanday #2: Take the Dare

Last week I challenged you to write for three minutes about a self-proclaimed extraterrestrial who was actually a talking frog. Some of you sent me what you wrote. We’ll get to those entries in a minute. Actually, in three minutes because first I want you to write for three minutes about the time you…

…and your friend went to the movies. Instead of the popcorn you paid for, the woman at the concession stand gave you a box. “Whatever you do,” she said, “don’t open it.” But you did, because how could you not? Telling you not to was pretty much a dare. When you opened the box…

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of this Saturday (put “Norman is Unbelievably Handsome” in the subject line). I’ll post three of my favorite entries next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old). If you’re a published writer, include a biography to be posted with your entry.

Here are the entries from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes about the time you…

…met a talking frog in the woods. He seemed to be in a hurry. He stopped only long enough to tell you he was from another planet and to ask for directions to the nearest library. You knew he was lying. He wasn’t an alien, he was really…

Kelly Bingham

www.kellybinghamonline.com

When I heard Kelly Bingham had written a young adult novel called SHARK GIRL I couldn’t wait to read it. Turns out it’s not about a girl/shark hybrid, but I liked it anyway. Check out the title of her picture book that’s coming out in March 2012: Z IS FOR MOOSE. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I’m guessing it’s the greatest prank ever played on a whole generation of early readers.

Morzant interviewed Kelly last year, so she knows all about talking frogs (see his August 24, 2010 post). Who knows, maybe what she wrote for this will show up in her next book. No thanks necessary, Kelly. Just send cash.

He wasn’t an alien, he was really…

…a talking frog! So…where would a talking frog come from? Not from outer space. From a circus. A traveling magic show? Or…the lab of a mad scientist! Maybe the kind of mad scientist that makes animals or people wear hats with curly wires coming out of them, and then he flips a giant switch and there’s all this zapping, and then PRESTO! The creatures have switched minds. So—if there is a talking frog walking around looking for a library, that very possibly means that somewhere, there is a normal sized person, possibly wearing glasses and carrying a library card, hopping around and ribbiting. Ew—maybe even eating bugs! Well. Your day just got complicated, didn’t it? Because now you have to direct the frog to the library (and he does walk SO slowly) and then you have to make a mad dash all around town, looking for a person squatting and hopping and bulging his or her throat out. You wouldn’t want any harm to come to them, after all. It’s not their fault they were tampered with by a mad scientist. And if you can be the first to snap a photo and sell it to a tabloid, why not? It’s only fair.

But despite a thorough search of town, and even HOURS in the ice cream shop eating ice cream and watching people walk by, (in case our human-frog hops by, of course) there is simply no sign of a person who’s been changed to a frog. Instead, just as you are finishing up your raspberry sundae, here comes that talking frog again, carrying a stack of books! You slip out the store, follow the frog, and discover that he’s heading straight for………

Oh shoot, Norman. My three minutes are up. Well—that was a fantastic free-write. And I’m certainly looking forward to your next one! I hope you have good luck on your novel. And now, I need to get back to mine!

I’m dying to know where Kelly’s talking frog was heading. I’m guessing back to his lab to study the tensile properties of Rice Krispies Treats.

Violet the Telekinetic Puppy

He wasn’t an alien, he was really…

…a talking frog who wanted me to show him how to get to the library and when we got there we saw lots of other frogs and all the frogs were having a party. There was another talking frog who was telling a joke to a laughing frog. There were other frogs at the party too and one was a hiccuping frog and one was a singing frog and one was a frog who played the drums. I told the frogs they’d better be quiet or the librarian would make them leave the library and that’s just what happened and because I was with the noisy frogs I had to leave too. And that’s when the first talking frog told me again that he was an alien and I thought he was lying before because his nose grew when he said it but then I knew he wasn’t lying because he took me and all the other frogs to his ship and took us for a ride to the library on the moon. Then we went for ice cream.

Morzant the Alien

He wasn’t an alien, he was really…

…was an esteemed intergalactic scientist sent to Earth to collect various lifeforms to study. He pretended to be a talking frog so Earthlings wouldn’t be aware of his mission. He thought it only sporting, however, to reveal his true identity to his prospective specimens. His ship was scheduled to depart forthwith and he had yet to collect a reptile. He knew turtles were especially dim-witted and easy to catch—especially the ones invisible from the waist down—so he approached you. As per his personal specimen-collecting code of conduct he revealed his true identity to you and asked how to get to the nearest library. He pretended not to understand the directions you supplied him with so you’d agreed to walk him to the library. You did, predictably unaware that you were leading him to his spaceship which was hidden in the library’s basement. Fortunately for you, along the way, the esteemed intergalactic scientist spotted a black mamba—a snake venomous both in the poisonous sense and in temperament—whose company for his long voyage home he deemed more desirable than yours. You watched in amazement as the ship took off. Then you were eaten by a gorilla.

Thanks to Kelly, Violet, and Morzant for sharing their creative (and sometimes disturbing and hostile) writing.

I can’t wait to read what you all think is in that mysterious box. Be careful. You never know where a black mamba might show up.