Happy Monday, everyone!
Usually Mondays are not my favorite day because when it’s Monday, it’s five whole days until Saturday, which is usually my favorite day (because it is two whole days away from Monday).
But today is not so bad. In fact, I’m pretty excited today to share my story with you. I hope that, like me, you spent at least some part of the weekend learning about volcanoes. Robbi put up a great post on Saturday morning with all sorts of facts about volcanoes and pictures of volcanoes. I’m including one of them here because I like it so much.
The volcano above is not the volcano in my story. Because the volcano in my story is dormant. At least, at first. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is my story. I hope you like it.
A Volcano Named Eddie
By Matthew Swanson
A volcano named Eddie was sad. His friends were all busily erupting and spewing red-hot magma into the atmosphere while scientists crawled all over them doing exciting experiments.
But Eddie was dormant, which meant no magma and no scientists. Instead, Eddie was covered with trees and grass and tourists, who ate picnics on his head and paused constantly to take pictures of themselves posing next to his crater. It was so embarrassing.
The other, active volcanoes made fun of Eddie for being so dormant.
Eddie’s parents said all the right things, but it was clear that they were just a little disappointed in him.
Eddie tried all sorts of things to make himself active. He held his breath for as long as he could (around 20 seconds), watched action movies in which lots of things exploded (trains, helicopters, toaster ovens, etc), and he thought the most incendiary thoughts he could imagine (birthday candles, fireworks, late night cable news programming, etc.).
But nothing worked. Day after day, Eddie was dormant and useless as a lame duck politician.
But one day, Eddie noticed something. The tectonic plate he was sitting on moved just a little bit. Ten thousand years later, it moved a little more. And so on. Eventually, his undersides started getting a little bit toasty. And then a little more so.
Millions of years passed. Eddie could tell that things were heating up. One day he felt a rumble in his belly and a grumble in his throat. Moments later, a red-hot flume of magma burst through his shell, delighting (and terrifying) the thousands of futuristic cyborg tourists who were picnicking nearby.
Eddie was active at last! But by this time, his parents had turned into modest hillsides with no strong opinions, and all of his friends were dormant and now believed that dormant was the much cooler way to be.
“Literally speaking, it is,” said his friend Hall.
But Eddie didn’t care. Being an active volcano was the greatest thrill of his life.
Well, that’s my story about volcanoes. I’d love to hear what you think of it. But what I’d really love is for you to write your own stories about volcanoes and post them in the comments below.
I’m sure that Eddie isn’t the only volcano out there with a story to be told!
Check back in tomorrow to see Robbi’s drawing of Eddie. It’s pretty great, if you ask me. (I realize that you didn’t ask me.)
Did he really have to wait millions of years to get what he wanted?
“Volcano Volnayno in my Cano”
A volcano called Rashkie had trees on it and it was about to explode. All the other volcanoes were not erupting. The trees on Rashkie connected to trees on other volcanoes. When Rashkie exploded, he burned all the other volcanoes (even his mom and dad) around him because they were attached. The trees were quite big, so when they burned down, the oceans got quite hot, too, and the stuff in the ocean died. Rashkie had one friend named Crash n’ Bump who was not connected, so Crash n’ Bump did not explode and lived happily ever after?!
The End
Tyler,
Let me just say that we missed you during your vacation. Welcome back! And thanks for sharing this wonderful story. I’m not sure where to start. Is my favorite part a) that your volcano is named “Rashkie” or b) that in exploding he destroyed everything around him, including all the sea life, or c) that his friend is named Crash n’Bump. The verdict? Yes, yes, and yes!
I’m assuming that your story is an elaborate metaphor for the tragic plight of child stars who get too big too fast, reaching heights that their young minds are simply unable to process or deal with, thus “burning” all else around them in the process? Well done. I’ll send copies to Macaulay and Dakota and see if they can identify.
“Ice Volcano”
There once was an ice volcano called Rex. He was the tallest volcano in the world – 10,000 zigllion feet tall and 1,000 zigllion feet wide – so tall that no one could climb up, except for one person named Rexny. His name was called Rexny, named after the volcano. He was very famous. The fifth time he climbed up, the ice volcano exploded and his heart got frozen and he died.
Rexny had a baby. When the baby grew up, he saw a picture of his dad climbing up the ice volcano. He said to himself, “I want to climb up the ice volcano.” So, he started at the base. But at the base, he took a needle and stuck it in the mountain very, very deep until it touched the center of the volcano. When he tested the volcano he could tell that the ice volcano was going to explode in one minute. So he ran as fast as he could to his race car which was as fast as lightening. The car was so fast that it could launch off of a ramp in the USA and land in China. So he zoomed out of danger.
A couple of days later after the ice volcano had erupted, he went back and he checked it one more time at the base and it said it was going to explode in one year. He knew it would only take him one month to get to the top, so he started up the mountain. It was so so so so so so so so so so high that he needed an oxygen mask. He kept on climbing for days and days and finally got to the top of the mountain!!!!! Then he went back to the bottom and got in the newspaper and was famous for the rest of his life.
The End
Spencer – I love this story! I hope you make some illustrations for it, because I already see a lot of really great ones in my head. That needle must have been SO HUGE in order to reach to the middle of the volcano! And that car must have been SO FAST in order to zoom out of there in time! This sure is a tale of extremes.
I’m so glad that Rexny’s son made it back down to the bottom of the mountain and got in the newspaper. I was worried how it was going to end because of how quickly you got rid of Rexny himself (who I had thought was going to be the hero of the story, silly me!). I think of him now, sitting in his rocking chair, telling the tale of conquering mount Rex.
Once there was a volcano. It was a big one, and it was getting huge, larger and larger, until the Lord gave him three presents. The presents are a big army plane, a diesel choo-choo train, and a T-Rex dinosaur for outdoors. The volcano played with all his presents. He ate dinner with all his volcano friends. And after he ate dinner, he played with his dinosaur outside. His magma was black because he ate food that smells like eggs. That’s all.
Harry – I see some parallels here to the story of the baby Jesus and the three wise men bearing gifts. I see that volcanos get WAY better gifts from the Lord than humans do. I wonder what I’m supposed to take away from that. Something to think about, I suppose.
Your story also makes me wonder what “inside” and “outside” mean to a volcano. Where would a volcano have to be to be inside?
Also: you make an incredibly smart point about eating food that smells like eggs turning your magma black. I think there’s probably a human parallel there, too, I’m just not sure what it is.
Your story is full of what we call “conundrums.” Lots of things to figure out. I will be thinking about your story for a long time, which means it’s memorable. And a memorable story is a great story. Nicely done.
Here are the Haske stories – late, fashionably late –
Steve’s story (36) –
Once there was a mountain named Carl. Carl was a content mountain, basking in the sun. Then came along a mountain climber named Sue. Sue antagonized Carl with insults like, “This mountain is dumb as a rock!” and “Overgrown speed bump!” Carl started to get mad. “You’re just a lame side effect of plate tectonics, you big pile of rocks!” Carl started fuming – he was so mad! Sue reached the top of Carl, “Now who’s taller than who, you silly hill.” Carl couldn’t take it anymore. He blew his top! No more Sue and now Carl was a volcano.
Milo’s Story (a bit more to the point!) (5) –
James was climbing a mountain, but it was actually a volcano. And it exploded and James got burned so he went off of it.
Huck’s story (7) –
Once there was a volcano. The time it erupted something weird happened. All the lava that was coming down became Lava Men! The Lava Men went all the way down the volcano and spread out everywhere.
Marigold’s Story (58) –
I don’t have to make up silly stories about volcanoes. I used to live under one. Period.
I am pleased as punch that there was a family-wide submission! Even miserable old Marigold (operative word “old”) decided to chime in! Exciting!
Steve – oh man. I hope this isn’t some kind of metaphor for your relationship with your wife “Sue”. You better watch out, “Sue,” and stop calling “Carl” a pile of rocks.
Milo – I’m glad that James had the wherewithal to just go off the volcano after getting burnt. Some of us get confused in those situations and do exactly the WRONG thing. Good work, James.
Huck – oh man! I hope that you make a drawing of the Lava men spreading everywhere! If you do, I want to see it!! What a cool idea!