5

=EXPOSITION/INCITING INCIDENT=

Did you have trouble getting a dog? John Norman was able to get one, but it wasn’t that easy. It all started in the humid, hot, but decent summer of July 15th, 2004. John was eight years old and lived in an ok, white house, with a red bricked chimney. He lived in Florham Park N.J., which is between Morristown and East Hanover. It was a beautiful, serene, wet morning at John’s house from the rain yesterday that was as wet as the Boardwalk at dusk or dawn. John looked out the straight, white, wooden, slightly broken window dreaming to discover his neighbor’s black, cute dog desiring to have one, but instead, he saw a few birds soaring in the air. (John didn’t know why the window was slightly broken). After John was done looking, his dad told him to prepare the silverware and bowls for eating breakfast. He loved the taste of the crisp, raspberry, tasty Toaster Strudel. It was as delicious as a Pop Tart. John went to the bathroom to wet down his blonde hair that was sticking up and combed it. If he forgot, his mother would think that he wasn’t that responsible, and John knew that he would need to be if he ever wanted a dog. His dad’s name was Nick. Nick had black hair worked at a college where he wrote commentaries on the bible. He also traveled as part of his work and saw plenty dogs that he wished he could have. John’s dad traveled to other states in the U.S.A., Europe, Asia, and Africa as part of his work. On the other hand, his mom’s name was Sophie and was a musician and played for a Lutheran church, but like with most churches, there weren’t any dogs allowed. She seemed to dislike dogs somewhat, but it wasn’t that she didn’t like dogs; it was just the rules of the church that made her somehow used to disliking them. “Can you cook a toaster strudel for me?” he asked his mom, “I don’t know how to use a toaster oven.” “Fine, I’ll get up in a few moments,” she said sleepily. “You should learn how to do it yourself though,” Sophie added. She reluctantly got up and put the Toaster Strudel in the toaster oven and baked it. He was so famished, he thought he could devour an entire building. John got dressed in his new, black shirt that had white stripes. He got up to brush his teeth after that. It was 8:42 after John did all of that. Then John thought about his friends’ dogs. John thought about how nice it would be to have one. He wanted a dog that was nice, friendly, and obedient. John also wanted one that had floppy ears, had soft fur, and one that didn’t bark or yip a lot. He asked his mom about it. He wanted the dog not to act like a German shepherd guard dog. Then, when she heard it, she stated, “ No, unless you’re able to take care of him.” That is when he fell silent and told her to forget about it. He didn’t know whether he could take the responsibilities or not. He didn’t know if he could handle walking, watering, and feeding the dog every day.

=RISING ACTION=

John thought about how he could get one first without thinking about the responsibilities. So he thought for two hours. Finally, he discovered an idea. He thought that if his mom noticed that a lot of people wanted him to have a dog, she might let him have one. John thought the idea was very clever. So he grabbed a nice, blank, thin, white sheet of paper from a small, blue-striped bin and got ready for camp. So John went down two sets of stairs, and then turned right to get to the garage and then went outside and off the patio. When he got in the black, slightly showered on, Toyota car, he told his dad about his idea. “You know son, I never had a dog, but I did have plenty cats,” Nick explained. “How were you able to get one?” John asked. “Well, it wasn’t that uncomplicated, I had to tell my mom that I was willing to take care of the cats on my own, and at first I thought the responsibilities would be too difficult,” his dad responded. “Are you willing to take care of your dog if you get one?” Nick asked. “I don’t know,” he responded. So his dad just started the car. John wasn’t sure about that one part, making sure he was taking care of the dog. His mind raced on about what the responsibilities would be. Then the car started to run to summer camp. The camp was as hot as Florida in the summer. At summer camp, he met a lot of his friends, and then when John told them about what he was doing, every one of them signed the paper. (He had numerous friends). Then when his dad picked him up, he showed his dad the signatures. He said that it was good but that his mom would probably want signatures from more than one place. So John went to the pool, library and any people who he saw on his street. Finally, after getting the last signature, he had about two-hundred signatures. Nevertheless, John thought that he wouldn’t show his mom until he found a dog that was good for him. So, two days after John had gotten the signatures, he had asked his dad if he was going to go to the animal shelter to find a dog. So they went to the gray animal shelter. The shelter was as gray as an elephant. It seemed to smell a whole lot like dog. The air at the time was hot, but not too much. It was close to seventy-five∞F. We went inside; the person who was working there showed them the dogs. John saw a dog that was the night sky. Her name was Midnight. Anyway, that was what the shelter named her. She had black fur. So they went into the room. Midnight though was very energetic and was running around and quickly took a treat when either John or Nick gave her a treat. One time, she even jumped on the chair and it collapsed. John knew that his mom wouldn’t want to accept a dog like that. Then, they saw a white dog. So John and Nick also tried out that dog, but since it was a large dog, small children couldn’t own it. Finally, they abandoned the thought of finding a dog for that day. John didn’t talk to his mom that supper. He took a spatula and took the pizza out of the pan onto his plate. He prayed after he took the pizza since he was a Christian. Then, after eating the juicy, cheesy, pepperoni pizza for supper, John went to his clean, blue room. His room was as blue as the sky. Now he was thinking how badly it could really be. First, he thought of the responsibilities. He heard before from his neighbors, you had to feed, water, and walk the dog. Well he might as well forget about food and watering. That wasn’t going to be to hard, it was walking and picking up after him that really bothered John.

=CLIMAX=

For the past six days, John had concealed the thought inside about getting a dog. He felt hopeless now about getting one. He hadn’t really talked to his parents that much. He had also seemed upset since he didn’t get a dog. John didn’t talk at the table anymore. Finally though, on July 23rd, John realized that he couldn’t keep repeating what he was doing anymore. “It’s time to eat John,” his mom nervously said. “Ok mom,” John responded with more confidence than before. So now John confidently walked down the nice, straight, wooden stairs while holding the iron bars to go downstairs and eat supper. The supper was going to be as delicious as a dinner at the No Name restaurant. The No Name restaurant was a restaurant in Boston, which mainly was a fish restaurant. For supper, John’s family was having juicy, smoky salmon, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes. John was going into the kitchen, which had ceramic tiled floors, had granite counters, a black refrigerator, a black Maytag dishwasher, and wooden cabinets. He took the silverware from one of the cabinets, which consisted of iron forks, spoons, and knives. Then, he took some flower-covered plates from another one. He set the silverware on the four places at the wooden, flower-clothed table. The chairs were also wooden, but had muslin cushions. After everyone sat down, they prayed before they ate. Dad used his knife and fork to cut the salmon into four pieces. After that, we each took a piece of salmon with the spatula from the brown pan and we each took one potato and one Californian corn on the cob. His mom had seltzer water, his dad had red wine, and John had orange juice. John finally was going to tell his mom that he would be able to handle the responsibilities to get a dog. John didn’t really think about what he was going to say so he just said it right away. “Mom, I’ve made up my about getting a dog,” John began. “Well, will you promise not to just sit around like a log, because if you aren’t like one, I might let you have one,” she responded. “ I’m responsible enough, I even got a parchment with many signatures,” John somewhat excitingly said. John showed his mom the parchment. “Are you responsible enough?” his mom asked. “Yes I am,” John said confidently. “ Well, this is pretty good John, and as long as you don’t fall behind one school, I’ll let you have one,” John’s mom concluded. John was really happy and excited when his mom concluded that he was going to get a dog.

=FALLING ACTION=

After hearing this, John asked them if he could go to the animal shelter to search for a dog. His mom said that was no problem, but they’d do it tomorrow since it was nighttime and the shelter was probably closed. So after he finished the rest of his supper, he went upstairs to his bathroom to brush his teeth. The bathroom had black tiles that were squares, but they were turned more to the right. The white squares though were just straight. He had a painting of people sailing on an ocean for wallpaper. He brushed his teeth with the blue, Oral-B toothbrush. He brushed it with the crest toothpaste and proceeded to his bed. The bed had planet covers for sheets and also for the pillowcase. He looked at his blue wall for a while, and then went to sleep. The next morning, John woke up to see that it was a sunny day. So John got out of bed and went downstairs to have breakfast. Unfortunately, John had eaten the last Toaster Strudel last time, so he was going to have Lucky Charms this morning. John liked Lucky Charms though and didn’t really even mind what he was having for breakfast most of the time. John unfortunately banged the bowls this morning when he was trying to get it out. He was able to get it out fortunately. After he finished breakfast, he went upstairs to brush his teeth. Afterwards, he went to go get dressed in his black pants and red shirt. Before John spoke, he recalled that he had to go to the bathroom to comb his hair. Once he combed his hair, he asked his mom and dad, “Can we go to the shelter yet?” “Ok, we’re almost ready,” his dad said somewhat angrily because he felt that John was getting impatient with him, “Are you sure it isn’t going to be too hard to find a dog?” his dad then asked. “Life is hard dad,” John replied. Finally, his mom and dad were ready and without another word, they got into his dad’s car. When John got there, he felt excited about what was happening. It wasn’t too long before they got to the gray, dog-smelling, animal shelter. When they got there, they asked the person there if they could get a dog. Afterwards, the person who was working there informed them, “Yeah sure, come right in.” “Thank you,” replied John and his parents. After John and his parents spoke, the worker opened the gate. Even though John had been here before and had seen a few dogs already, John found a silent, brown dog that had a bump on his head. The people from the shelter had called him bumpy. When they went into the room for the last time, John and his mom saw that this was truly the dog they had wanted. This dog that John found had all the characteristics that he wanted a dog to have, unlike some that weren’t. He was cute; he had floppy ears and also soft fur. He also seemed patient, calm, nice, and didn’t bark a lot. Then they named him Hubert and after John’s mom and dad paid for the dog and the black, medium-sized cage, they went home.

=RESOLUTION= “Mom and dad, thank you for letting me get a dog,” John thanked them. “For a while John, I thought that you were just going to hide the thought forever about getting a dog,” they replied. John chose not to respond, he was glad that he finally had a dog, so he went into his living room to wrestle with Hubert. There were also more characteristics about the dog that he hadn’t paid attention to before. The dog had a black nose and black eyes as well as some black color under his nose. His living room had pink carpeting, black, soft couches, two, wide, wooden tables, and a white wall. John had wrestled with Hubert for one hour, and then his mom told him that he had to walk the dog. So they walked around their block. The block was curved around, and then went back to their house. It seemed to be as round as a circle. There were many trees on the block and not a huge amount of houses, but not few. Then, John knew that after he walked the dog, he would have to feed him every night and morning, and water him, anytime his bowl would be empty. He also thought about all he’d have to do in the future, while he was walking his new dog. He thought of all the fun things as well. He felt sometimes like he almost knew what Hubert was trying to tell him and they were kind of friends. He would accept the responsibilities still, even though there were many responsibilities. One thing he learned though was that you shouldn’t hold your thoughts inside; confront the situation.