What If?

Ichabod Crane, oh, Ichabod Crane the young, affable, sage, new schoolmaster of Terry Town they said. They all liked him; they all adored him, his singing, his teaching, everything, despite his abhorrent face. And as for me I was okay with him; he was not at all irascible and soon target for my practical jokes. I really had no problem with him until he tried to steal my Katrina`s heart away.

 He was her singing master, you see; and used that as an excuse to visit her at her father`s house. He visited her almost everyday and at the beginning I believed it, that he was only there to help her with her singing lessons. But as he started going more and more frequently, as other farmers started seeing them under the great elm, I realized his intentions. I wouldn`t let him take her, I told myself, I would just scare him off like I had done with all my other rivals. His courtships towards Katrina and her responses would not leave me despondent.

So, when she invited us to her father`s party on Halloween night I was sure to come. I planned to win Katrina over that night, you see. Ichabod it turned out was a fine dancer and had Katrina in his arms all night. So, as I was unable to show her my charms, I generated another plan, a much more ambitious plan. The residents of Terry Town, you see, were extremely superstitious and Ichabod was the most superstitious of them all. The residents all believe in witchcraft and magic and because of this the town is full of interminable legends and horror stories.

So, when Old Baltus Van Tassel, Katrina`s father, called upon all of his guests and asked them to tell their best horror stories I told about the most famous tale of Terry Town, The Headless Horseman. The story tells about a warrior that lost his head during the revolutionary war and now haunts the Sleepy Hollow cemetery in search of someone with a head to chop off. He carries a pumpkin full of fire carved as a head. I also told about my own encounter with the horseman how I had seen him by the graveyard while coming home in the middle of the night, how I had galloped through the bridge where he had halted and disappeared.

After the story telling, the party broke off and we all left for our homes Ichabod stayed behind and I hid in Sleepy Hollow`s haunted cemetery. A while later I finally heard Ichabod galloping slowly in his horse. The forest animals sounds reverberated through the trees and I could just feel Ichabod`s fear growing, feeling that something was amiss, and started to prepare myself for the ultimate prank. I sunk my head in to my suit leaving a small space for me to see grabbed a carved pumpkin I had stolen from Katrina`s house and mounted my horse. As he emerged through the trees I waited quietly until he was in front of me and started to chaise him. He desperately tried for his old horse to gallop faster and he tugged at its reins in a tremulous manner. I followed him as fast as I could, lit pumpkin in hand, impelling my horse forward. I persecuted him until the bridge where he fell of his old horse. I threw the pumpkin in his direction but made sure it did not hit him and galloped of rapidly hoping I had scared him enough to leave town.

The next day the town`s residents found his hat on the ground near the bridge pieces of pumpkin next to it. No one knows whatever happened to Ichabod Crane, some say he is living in another town, others say he was taken by the Headless Horseman, I do not know what happened to Ichabod, all I know is that he was alive when I left. And as for Katrina and I, we are married now and share a profound love for each other but I will always wonder what if Ichabod was still here.

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn: Book Reflection

Breathing Underwater is novel that talks about 16-year old Nick Andreas who has beaten his girlfriend Caitlin, and he has been sentenced by a court to six months of counseling classes on family violence and dealing with anger, and he also has to keep a journal of his reflections on his relationship.  The judge also grants a restraining order so that he can`t have any contact with Caitlin.  At first Nick doesn´t understand why his behavior was wrong or what caused it, but by his reflection and his relationships with the other guys in the class, he learns his lesson and finally understands the roots off his problem. He also turns around his relationship with his abusive and violent father. 

         The novel mixes together Nick’s narration of his current life, after going to court, with his “journal entries” reflecting on his relationship with Caitlin and the events that led up to him beating her. You can soon see how he was copying his father`s controlling attitude, how insecure and jealous he was, and how he was aggravated by Caitlin having or even showing independent thought. Throughout the novel you realize how Nick puts all off his anger and insecurities towards Caitlin because he can`t stand up to his father. In the end Nick understands what he did wrong and that his father’s abusive behavior is not his fault. He finally stands up to him and puts an end to the cycle.

When I first started reading this book I didn´t think I would like it because it is not the kind of book I usually read. I soon surprised myself when I couldn´t put the book down. This book reminded me of many movies I`ve seen and stories I`ve heard were someone in the relationship is controlling and aggressive because of their own insecurities. Its also reminds me of the short story “Nobody Stole Jason Grayson” because in the story the main character`s relationships at home affect her relationships with everyone else, also both of the main characters, in this book and in the short story, have been abandoned by their mothers. I liked the way the author tells the story from Nick’s point of view because stories about domestic violence are usually told in the point of view of the abused. This book really made me see what a vicious cycle abusive relationships really are because when someone abuses of someone else it causes them to have low self-steam and become controlling and abusive towards somebody else, Nick´s feather`s abusive behavior causes Nick to become abusive toward Caitlin.

In my opinion one of the most important quotes in this book is:

“Like your life`s a big act. Like you are trying to be a man when you´re just a scared kid, trying to keep control when you really want o scream, cry, maybe hit someone. Ever feel like your breathing under water, and you have to stop because you`re gulping in to much fluid?”  (20)

I think this quote is so important because it describes exactly what Nick was feeling. The quote also contains the title of the novel, Breathing Underwater; to me this phrase means that you means that you are drowning in your problems, that they are taking over you or that you can`t fight back.

Another quote I find interesting is,

“It´s about being a man, a real man. Not just about who is bigger or stronger. It´s about doing the right thing even though you don´t want to, about taking responsibility for your actions… About letting go when you really want to hold on so bad” (253)

I liked this quote because I think it really sums up what the book is about and what Nick realizes in the end. It is also one of the main things that the author is trying to tell us. Another of the main things the author is trying to say is that you have to stand up for yourself and face your fears because that’s one of the only ways to grow and become a better person.

         What happens in this book is very realistic because it talks about and issue that many people are affected by. The book really changed my mind about abusive relationships because before I just thought that the person being abused was dumb for going back to the abuser or for even putting up with it but in this book you can really see what low self-steam both the victims and the abuser have and that even though what they do is very wrong they probably have other issues that are the roots of their abusive behavior and low self-steam.

         This book has become one of my favorite books because it is different than all the other books and it really opens your eyes to the world of domestic violence.

A Part of Him

I remember his flaming red hair, how much he loved baseball, and of course his mitt. The one we got for him on his eighth birthday, when we walked in to the sport equipment shop, my older brother, Charlie, and I. My older brother and I had been saving up, had put both of our allowances together for three weeks to buy Charlie a birthday present. And when we had asked him what he wanted he answered without even thinking about it. “ A baseball mitt” he told us. So we walked in to almost every sport equipment store we knew looking for a lefties baseball glove. We searched all afternoon and were about to give up when we stumbled upon a small sports shop near Yankee Stadium.  We walked over to a shelf full of mitts. We looked for a few minutes until we finally found one for lefties at the back of the shelf, hidden by all the others.

Ever since that day he carried the mitt and a green pen around with him everywhere and wrote poems on it. He wrote on every finger, on the palm, and on both sides. “ So I can read when it gets boring out on the field” he said when I asked him why. Now, the mitt is old and it feels like Charlie has had it since forever.

The leather is worn down, soft and flimsy. No longer tan but khaki and even white in some areas. The green letters, thick from being traced over and over and over again whenever they began to fade away. The words, in his neat handwriting, lined up carefully across all of it. The poems separated by dots. Poems, with words and phrases so powerful they can make you want to cry. The string that holds the flaps together, the string that started off white, now almost black because of the dirt.

Its all there, changed by the years, but there; except for Charlie. He is missing. He passed of leukemia in 1946. I was about thirteen when it happened, when he died. I remember I slept in the garage that night. I remember I broke all of the windows with my hand, smashed them to pieces even though it hurt like hell. I smashed them, just because I felt like it.

I miss Charlie. I miss the way he laughed until he fell off his chair. I miss his red hair that I could see from a thousand yards away. I miss watching him play ball. I miss him; but his mitt will always be with me, and his mitt was a part of him.