Dying to Babysit
It all began one day when I was over my friend Susan's house. Her
parents had just left for vacation to Texas, leaving her home by herself. I was
allowed to stay that weekend while her parents were away. Susan and I were
sitting down eating when she got a call from the house where a new family just
moved into. The Smith's had asked her to babysit for them. They said it was
all right if I came too. They wanted us to come over about six that evening.
When we got over there Mrs. Smith introduced her two year old daughter
named Julie to us. Mr. and Mrs. Smith didn't leave right away because they
wanted Julie to get to know us better. Mrs. Smith told Susan and I that Julie
could stay up until 8:00 P.M.. She also told us she had been having problems
with her telephone. There must have been something wrong with the connection
because when it rang there would be no one on the other end. Someone was coming
tomorrow to take a look at it.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith informed us that they would be a little late coming
home because it was their anniversary and they had a long night planned. We
told them to have a nice time and they both grabbed their coats and left.
Julie started crying just as they closed the door. We gave her a bottle
and put her down to watch some TV. Then the phone rang and Susan and I looked
at each other, seeing who was going to answer it.
I answered the phone but no one was there. I said hello again, but
still no answer. All I could hear was someone breathing heavily. It was loud,
gasping, and very frightening. I said hello again and heard a faint, masculine
voice. As I began to tremble, the voice whispered, "I'm coming."
All of a sudden the lights went out. Susan, Julie and I let out a loud
shriek. I ran over to Susan and Julie and hid my head. Susan started laughing
and told me it was probably because of the storm outside. We both looked out
the window when a bolt of lighting struck across the sky. Julie began to cry
and we comforted her and told her it would be all right.
Susan was going to go down into the basement to find the fuse box so she
could turn the lights back on. It was time for Julie to go to bed so I grabbed
declaring she has no room for them in her house. They were forced to find
to bed. She was fussing the whole time but I heard none of it; I just
In fact, there were women who started blaming others of witchery, and those were the “Afflicted girls,” and there were women the first people who were accused of witchcraft. The first accused women were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, and although all of them denied the fact of being witches at the beginning; it was Tituba who ended up confessing that she was a witch. As a matter of a point, Tituba confessed that there were more witches than just her, and it was her confession that started the hunting. Tituba was officially the first who declared to be a witch, and yet she was never hanged. Since Tituba’s confession, plenty of women were accused of practicing witchery, and plenty of them were hanged. Ironically, it was the accusation of a woman who stopped the Salem Witch Trials, but that woman was not a simple woman or a lower status woman; it was the Governor Phipps’s wife. The “afflicted girls” had been blaming lower class women, who technically nobody cared about, but when the girls accused Governor Phipps’s wife, the Salem Witch trials were somehow moved to a higher court, in which spectral evidence was no longer accepted as
The sun had just set and all the street lights had begun to turn on to help see through the dark alleys. Just before we began to close the store something surprisin...
he started to tell me, and I felt as if asking why he caused the storm
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.
Like most teenagers, Connie wants to gain more independence from her family. Connie’s neediness for independence is caustic because her father ‘was away at work most of the time’ and ‘didn’t bother talking much to them’ (Oates 3.12-14). However her mother ‘noticed everything and knew everything’ (Oates 1.2) and she ‘always scolded Connie’ (Oates 1.3) mostly for not being like her older sister, June. Connie is a very typical teenager. She is at that age when teenagers think they know better than their parents what is best for them. In the movie adaptation ‘Smooth Talk’ directed by Joyce Chopra, Connie is noticeably more disrespectful to her mother, nevertheless her mother’s blatant disgust for her daughter is also much more apparent. Connie is coming-of-age and looking for romance, therefore, she wants independence from her family and craves attention from boys.
Salem 1692, two girls ,Betty Parris, age nine, and her eleven year old cousin Abigail Williams, had a dream. They wanted to be the best actors in the village. They worked very hard to do that and they got twenty people killed. Betty and Abigail were Puritans and they are not supposed to lie or they would end up with the devil in the afterlife, but it seemed like they didn’t care. That’s why we ask, why were people blaming the innocent for being witches in Salem, 1692? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by two poor, young girls who acted possessed. There were also other people who took the risk of lying and accused other people. Most of the accusers were under the age of twenty and woman. The little girls caused the Salem Witch Trials hysteria by pretending to be possessed. Most of the accusers were poor and lived in the western part of the town.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were one of the bloodiest witch-hunts in America colonial history. The event started in the house of the new minister of Salem, Samuel Parris, when his daughter, Betty, suffered from mysterious symptoms, and later she accused her slave, Tibuta, for using witchcraft on her. Later, two other women, Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, were accused of using witchcraft on other girls; right after the accusations, they were arrested (Lecture 9/13/2016). As a result, the hunt of witches began which led to hundreds of arrests, and nineteen accused were hanged (Text 190). Although three hundred years have passed, the true cause of the episode remains a mystery. Many scholars have conducted numerous studies of the trails, however,
at home lying on the kitchen floor while my mother tried to cook for everyone. Meanwhile, my
Nicolas Copernicus died never knowing what a revolution he made in the scientific world. Mathematicians and scientist like Ptolemy, Newton, and Brahe supported his heliocentric theory. He was born in Poland on February 19th, 1473 the baby of four children. His father was Nicholas Copernicus Sr. died in 1483 when Copernicus was at the young age of ten. He and his sibling went to live with his Uncle Lucas Waltzenrode the bishop of Warmia in Germany. His family’s exceptional wealth allowed him to attend some of the finest schools in Europe. After attending Cracow for mathematics he went to Italy to study canon law. Under the influence of his uncle he become a canon, which is just below a bishop. In Italy he made his first astronomical observation one night with a friend who was a professor of astronomy. Copernicus explored many occupations: a canon, mathematician, and the one he is most known for astronomer.
they walked out the door a closed car drove up and had a shoot out with them
My mom had been going to school in Greeley and staying at my Aunt Margaret's house . She had been away for two weeks and wanted to come home for the Fourth of July weekend. My mom had suggested that I go back with her and visit colleges, shop, go to movies and just spend time together. I had been feeling pretty sorry for myself since she had been gone. I had been working alot as a maid and helping my dad run the house, I was getting very irritated with my siblings as I felt that I was the only family member doing my part to help my dad. I was really excited to have a week with my mom to myself. The whole ride over we were talking about what I wanted to do that week. Making plans and having "me time" seemed very important at the time.
It was a dark moonless night as I drove down highway 34. I was fatigued with the eight hour drive and the tiresome boredom of the never ending road. Then out of nowhere a deer jumped in front of my vehicle. I slammed on the breaks hoping to stop the inevitable. The front end of the car slammed into the side of the deer. With the sound of a loud “thunk” and metal twisting, smoke snaked out from under my hood. I cursed under my breath and stepped out of what was left of my car and examined the ordeal. From what I could decipher, the deer was completely decimated, my car was totaled, and I was lost.
A few minutes later, my mom woke me up and we went into a room. There