By Katie Waldroup
For the Kannapolis Citizen
Her heart pounded, despite her efforts to calm herself. She rubbed her hands together and felt the hot, gritty perspiration. She pulled her thin sweater tighter around her and hoped the cougar didn’t hear. She had earlier found herself separated from her parents deep in the Appalachians as dusk threatened to snatch the already dimming light and a breeze pilfered the warmth in the air. The girl mustered up the courage to take another peek around the boulder at the puma. It stood stock-still, except for its twitching nose lifted into the increasing wind. One more sniff suddenly terminated all of the cat’s remaining movement. A single short turn of its head locked the cougar’s face and eyes on the girl. Its unmoving eyes glowed in the diminishing light. She held her breath and tried to stay still for fear of detection, but without warning, she sneezed.
The rippling flames cracked and popped in their rhythmic dance, casting bursts of light across the dim room. The fire gradually burned lower and lower. Fifteen-year-old Mark lay asleep on the floor after a week-long trip to gather fur from his traps. Beside him, almost as long as the six-foot tall Mark, lay his lead sled dog and best friend, Shayman. He had blue eyes and brownish-gray fur, with a black-tipped tail. Shayman watched the sleeping boy, then the fire, and when satisfied that all was well drifted off into a well-deserved sleep.
Reading is a wonderful thing. It can take you anywhere you want to go, and let you do anything you want to do. Reading paints awe-inspiring scenes in your head. If you’re feeling courageous enough, or if you just get some inspiration from something you experience, you can paint your own picture in someone else’s head.
Katie Waldroup is an eighth grader at Kannapolis Middle School and member of the Greater Cabarrus Reading Council.