I left my hometown around sunupand arrived on the outskirts of Boston
around dusk. Before I found my friends’ new house, my car stalled on a road
that led from the highway. I thought I was out of gas, but there was still plenty
of fuel in the tank. I wasn’t sure what to do. I finally decided to walk back
toward the highway. I thought I had seen a gas station there, but when I
arrived there, I only found a café and a saloon. I thought I had better call my
friends. I found a telephone booth and dialed the new number they had given
me, but no one answered and no answering machine picked up.
Just as I began to walk back to my car, it began to storm. I was soaked to
the skin by the time I reached my car. I tried starting my car again, but the
battery was apparently dead. When it finally stopped raining, I got out of the
car to open the hood and check the engine. As I stepped in front of the car, a
truck zoomed by and splashed me from head to toe. My clothes were drenched
again, and my face was covered in thick mud. I sputtered and cursed the truck,
just as a car plowed through a puddle and splashed me again.
By now I was shivering from being so wet and from the quickly falling tem-
perature. Late fall can be extremely cold in Massachusetts. I began to walk
along the road in the direction of some bright lights. But I stepped in a puddle
of mud and lost my right shoe and sock. I searched for the shoe in the cold,
black water, but it was buried in mud. So I limped on, wearing just one wet
shoe. Then the heel fell off of it, and now I was limping both right and left.
Finally I had some good luck. A taxi came by, and I whistled in time to
stop it. Once I got inside the taxi, I began to warm up. I told the driver to take
me to my friends’ address on Main Street. I didn’t realize how far it still was
to their house. When I arrived at their house, it was nearly midnight. When I
reached into my pocket, I discovered I had lost my wallet out on the road
somewhere. I had no money! I was soaking wet! And I was tired!
I ran to my friends’ door and rang the bell, but there was no answer and
there were no lights on. Then I found a note for me taped to the door. It read,
“We were called away on an emergency. Check into a hotel. We’ll see you when
we get back.”
I sat on the wet porch and cried. It was the worst day of my life.
Exercise 4.7Sample answers are provided.
The Desert
Jimmy was only eight when his parents decided to leave the city to live in
the country. They moved to a large ranch near a desert surrounded by a
mountain range. It was a wonderful place to live, but a bit lonely at times.
Answer Key 223