The Moment, By Paul Dickens

The Moment

The forest was dead silent and the sun was due to rise over the horizon to free the life from its frosted morning tomb. It was cold and clouds of steam poured out of my mouth like a smokestack as my young body worked to keep this ten year old awake on a frosted November morning. The branches hung high in the trees, lacking their beautiful colored leaves of fall and now more resembling twisted fingers of a witch. A slight bitter breeze blew across the ground but nothing moved, everything was asleep, everything was frozen in time.
It was my first real time out hunting with my father. I was dressed in thick camouflaged pants and a jacket to match, each of which were a little too big for my still growing body, I stumbled through a recently cut cornfield behind my father. I had a bright orange hat over my already orange hair, which occasionally folded down over my eyes making the trek even more difficult. The air was thick with the smell of fall, mixing leaves, and corn together with a slight sting of cool air.

I was fifteen, it was summer, mid-July, and a hot beautiful day. I had just finished my freshman year of high school and nothing had my blood pumping more than marching band and the thought that I was about to get my drivers permit. I wasn’t thinking of school, of the advanced placement class that I was about to take sophomore year, or the summer homework that it assigned. I wasn’t thinking about anything but that exact moment, I was being a teenager, rebelling against parents who were only there to hold me back from what I really wanted to do.
Through my immaturity I felt slightly bad while I sat at my cheap wooden computer desk. I could feel the cheap corkboard underneath the one ply surface that was peeling up. Sitting in a fake leather chair, I sat staring into a cold computer screen, looking and dreaming that I owned a laptop. I typed away on my instant messaging screens, talking to friends about the beautiful day wasted away with watching television and “wats up? Brb, and g2g’s.”

I followed my father just as a pup would follow its parents. Just as innocent as the pup, I tried my hardest to make little noise, stepping over twigs and piles of leaves. Every movement I made seemed to make a glass shattering noise in the silent forest. I did not understand how fast my father could move, it was as if he knew exactly where to step, becoming part of the ground. Even though he was as tall as the trees above me, and as strong as a bull, he silently moved over the ground like the very deer we were hunting. He was dressed in the same type of outfit, but his actually fit.
The darkness was retreating and my eyes were finally able to adjust and see more of the surrounding. We had been walking on the outer rim of the forest, just out of view of a large fifty acre corn field. A bird in the distance began to sing, and a squirrel near by ran across the ground, making more noise than a tractor. My father crawled slowly and silently into a small trench on the corner of the field, backed by the forest and a large brush piles. His body nearly disappeared into the surroundings right before my eyes, motioning an arm up to have me climb into the spot.

I felt bad because I had given up a potentially good time with my father for that boring day. The original plan for July was to go visit my father in Jonesville Michigan, go to the fair, watch fireworks, grill, go to movies, golf, and watch NASCAR, for a week or two. I was so excited I canceled all of my plans with my friends, ready to go have a good time, just me and my father. He came and picked me up in his ’87 red corvette, allowing me to drive it for the first time.
“So what are we going to do this week?” I asked.
“I thought we could go spend some time at Tammy’s place,” he responded. “If that is all right with you.”
I didn’t mind. Tammy was who my father had been dating for the last couple of months. She had three kids, all younger than me so they all looked up to me like an up and coming big brother. I actually enjoyed hanging out with them, they had already felt like family even though my father had only just proposed. I sat reflecting on those last few days that turned from a fun holiday week with my father, into anger and jealousy. I wanted nothing more than to spend it with him just like we used to, instead he worked, spent time with Tammy, and left me to watch over the little kids and clean. So I went back to my mothers, angry.

I sat as still as a statue, trying my hardest not to fidget and turn as I would when I was younger. I knew I had to grow up; I had to learn how to hunt. I wanted to make my father proud of me, show how great of a student I was. Through silence I proved I could become one with the surrounding. The sun slowly rose over the horizon, presenting a slight haze and fog across the cornfield as all of the frost evaporated. My eyes moved back and forth, looking across the field in anticipation, waiting for a brown figure to appear on the tree line.
Something began to appear through the fog. It was tall, a dark brown color, with large antlers piercing out of its head. My father slowly moved his long black shotgun from his side. It felt as though seconds became minutes as he moved the butt of the gun against his right shoulder. My heart was pounding! I was about to see my father get a deer for the first time! I took deep breaths as my eyes moved back and forth from my father’s finger that rested lightly on the trigger and back at the deer still coming closer.
“Cover your ears,” my father whispered with an exhale


That was the last time we spent time together. It was understandable why he was gone during that week, he had to work. It was also understandable why I left; I wanted to have an exciting week. So now I sat at my computer desk, feeling the warm rays of the sun coming through one of the windows. Time was nearly standing still with boredom as I sipped a glass of water and continued to type away on the computer.
Suddenly the silence was broken by the vibrating and obnoxious ring tone of my phone. In one motion I flung my feet down, spun the chair and grabbed my cell phone. Still spinning like a marry-go-round in my chair, I read the caller I.D. My mother watched from another desk right next to mine. We had separate computers because I was constantly on one and my step father wanted one of his own for work. She had dark brown hair and tan skin, nearly black from the summer sun.
“It’s my dad,” I said without looking up at my mother. “Hey daddy!”
There was a slight pause on the other side of the line before an unfamiliar voice responded.
“…Uhm, I’m sorry is Bonnie there?” the voice said.
“Who is this?” I responded.

The deer fell right where it was standing as the echo from the blast rung through my ears. My father lowered his gun but suddenly the animal stood right back up and darted back across the field.

My mother stood from her chair and looked at me as I planted my feet on the ground.
“No, who is this?” I repeated into the phone.
“This is the sheriff in Jonesville, Michigan. I need to speak with Bonnie,” the man said.
I handed the phone to my mother and she gave me a look of “who is it?”

Happiness and excitement was flowing through my veins. I wanted to find the deer, I wasn’t going to loose the trail of blood that was going to lead us right to the wounded deer. My father laughed and complained about how he shouldn’t have put his gun down so fast. Hours past and miles later, we caught up.

I walked outside, looking at my mother who was leaning into my stepfather as if she needed help standing. She slammed the phone shut and turned towards me.

“There it is!” I screamed, pointing at the edge of the corn field where the deer lay. The chase began once again as it stumbled to its feet, trying to flee.

“I need to tell you and your sister something,” my mother said. She rushed me inside and nearly screamed to my sister. “It’s about your father.”

As we ran my father lifted his gun again and shot the deer. It continued to run, but soon fell to the ground.


“He was on his way home from a meeting,” my mother said staggering her words while holding back tears.

We both ran as fast as we could towards the fallen deer. My father lifted the gun to its chest and pulled the trigger once more.

“He was in an accident,” she said, bursting into tears. I could hear my world shattering apart, and felt as though someone hit me with a two by four.

BOOM! It was over. I would never forget that moment.



“He didn’t make it.”

Write and Read!

Right now I am sitting in my office preparing to start to write a new piece of fiction. My mind has been going non-stop with ideas and it is about time to start planning them out and writing! I hope to put it up on the blog for everyone to read, so I hope you all like it! I will do my best to get it up as soon as possible.
Also, a very good book that I just read yesterday. "The Hunger Games," by Suzanne Collins. One of my friends suggested that I read it, so I picked it up and read it through in one sitting. It keeps the suspense of what is happening VERY high all the way through to the end. She created an interesting world, almost like our own but sent way out of control with technology and war. Now I have to go out and get the second and third books to find out what happens next.
I hope all is well with everyone and I will see you Wednesday!

Not in the mood for a free write

Wednesdays are my busiest days of the week. They make me look forward to Thursday though, which then tells me it is almost Friday. I start my day with a Philosophy lab, which I would like to bring into this blog during our free write blog days. Then there is my evil math class which make the day go by so much slower. Finally I end off with my English class which makes an hour and fifty minutes fly right by.
Today we discussed the two pieces that we read over the week. The first one “Lucky,” freaked me the heck out. I did not like the subject matter, but looking at it from a literature standpoint it did not miss a beat. It brought the reader right in to experience the fear and pain of the author. The second was much more relaxing, giving an over exaggerated life of a male college student who seems to be having some sort of medical problem. Though it was a much easier read than the first, it left me wanting to know more about what happened to the character.
Through out the rest of the class period we discussed ways of writing and what we can try to do to stay focused. I personally write best in the mornings with a cup of tea or coffee, while listening to music, preferably Avenged Seven Fold. I find that I do not write the best in large open areas, I may think better, but I like to write at my desk or at a table confined in a not overly large room. It doesn’t matter who is around me because I am usually plugged into an MP3 or I get so into what I am writing that everything else just disappears.
Originally I was just going to do a “free write” for this blog, but I decided not to. I wasn’t in the mood, so I hope you all enjoy this piece and I hope to write something a little more interesting next time. Have a great weekend everyone!

Large Campus+Dead Phone+Lost Friends=...

This weekend was lots of fun, but I did not get the chance to sit a whole lot. I went up to Michigan State University to hang out with a couple of my old high school friends. We walked all around the campus, visiting any one I went to school with and meeting many other cool people. First we stopped at one of the dining halls to get dinner and get a plan together for what we were going to do for the night. After that we just walked around, hung out at a couple peoples dorms, and went to an amazing improv. show called “Mission Improvable.” I had not laughed that hard in a very long time.
That night we didn’t stop walking around until about three to four a.m. I crashed at my friends dorm and slept like a rock. It was short lived though because we woke up early. We had to get ready for the Michigan State vs. Notre Dame game. My seat was on the very top row, of the farthest end zone from the student section which was where all of my friends were. Somehow I was able to move from my original seat, over to the student section but as soon as I made it, my phone died. I was not able to meet up with my friends at that point, and I had no idea where to meet them after the game. I ended up meeting a couple of cool people in the student section and watching the entire game. In my opinion State did not play a great game (3rd and 24 yards to go, trying to run the ball, when they can’t even run 10 to start with) but they won. The only great part about the game was the last 45 seconds when they won with the most gutsy move by faking a kick and instead throwing the ball for a touchdown.
All in all I had a great time seeing all of my friends and just having fun. The size of the campus made me realize how much I love the size of Westerns campus. This was my exciting weekend.

A little break

Right now I am working on all of my English HW. I actually really enjoy this project because it makes you think of different ways your work can be created/ all of the different genres that you can use. I am currently taking the two page paper that we originally had to write and making it into a letter to my mother. I changed a little bit of the story from the original two page paper by taking a small child that is getting onto a school bus for his first day of kindergarten, and bringing him thirteen years later reflecting on that moment with a letter home to his mother from his first day of college.
Over all I really enjoy this project and this class. I really like how it is around thirteen students and how we all sit in a circle instead of boring rows. Also this amount of students gives us a chance to all talk. It is just much more relaxing in a way then being in a lecture hall of two to three hundred. I think we will be able to learn a lot more, with a higher work load, and enjoy it more than some of our other classes that aren’t as much one on one work.
Well this was really my break between writing the analysis papers, but I really hope it is going well for everyone else. I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend and I will see you all around!

First of many!

My name is Paul Dickens, and I am in English 1050. This is the first time I have created a blog, but I really think I will enjoy using it. So to tell everyone a little about myself, I am 18 years old, I have red hair, am Italian, and my two passions are writing fiction and playing the drums. I am a freshman at WMU and I hope to double major in English (Creating Writing) and Philosophy.
I have lived in Kalamazoo my whole life and I went to High School at Kalamazoo Central. I hope to learn a lot more while taking this English Class and make some new friends along the way. I hope you all like my blog and all future posts!
-PJ