The Underwater Cave

As I’m sure you well know by now, I am currently a resident of Chaos, population 2. Or rather 5, if one includes the pooches, and I always do. For the most part, having my house in such disarray has driven me a wee bit crazy. Or a lot crazy. Really, who’s counting? (Me! I am! Get me out of this dust infused, manual labor-requiring nightmare!)

Ahem…

There have been some very bright spots, however. One of which was the rediscovery of my Young Authors books, written when I was in elementary school. Pulled from obscurity during the great box-up of all our crap- er, stuff, I dropped what I was doing and plopped down on the couch to take a closer look. Bound with cardboard and contact paper and carefully illustrated with colored pencils, these simple, homemade storybooks represent the beginning of my career as a writer.

I read through them and couldn’t help but laugh. Simplistic, imaginative, and fun, the story they really offer is a glimpse into the child I once was. For you, dear Cake Readers. I thought I would share the original Erin Kelly masterpiece: The Underwater Cave.

As any budding authoress knows, the first page is reserved for a shout out to those who made the book possible. The dedication succinctly sums up all the important people in my life at that point: My Mom, Dad, brother, sister, dog, bird, and cat. *sniff* Poetry, isn’t it? I’m sure my bird was greatly honored by the mention :)

Because I am feeling like a nostalgic old fool, I decided to publish some of this great novel. Without further ado, the literary stylings of ten-year-old me:

Chapter 1: Catalina Waters

We were looking for shelter. We had very little food. Me, Erin, and Ernie were all miserable. We had not any parents, and it was up to me to take care of everyone. And that’s how the adventure started, One day we were swimming in the ocean, cooling off. All of the sudden I heard a horrid scream! I jerked my head around to see my younger brother trying to get away from a shark!! I swam out to get him and all the sudden, something lifted us up! It was a dolphin!

The dolphin swam to my youngest brother Eric, and picked him up and carried us out ot deep sea, maybe 75-100 feet. I was terrified! And then, to add to my death defying experience, he dived into the water. Her went so fast, it took him 15 seconds to get to his destination at the bottom of the sea. He went a little slower until he got to a cave. He went inside and let us down in front of a very old man. And all of the sudden, we could breathe again! I and my brother were gasping for air.

Chapter 2: The Old Man

The old man looked at me and said, “You have been chosen.” Then he led us into a strange room filled with underwater beings. He went on. Finally we ended up in a very, very, beautiful room. There were there other children who looked exactly like us, like twins to us. He waved his hand towards three empty chairs. We sat down. Then he identified himself. He said, “My name is Sire Petroid, King of the Lost City.” I was speechless! Then he said, “These are your shadows. They are noting but black in the sun, but are real in The Lost City,” (Me, still speechless).

Then he turned to me and my brothers. He looked at our hands and blinked his eyes. And in a flash we had crystals on our hands. Then he looked at our foreheads and nodded. We had beautiful crowns on. I even had makeup and outrageous jewels on. We were fascinated by this trick. I turned to him and said, “I am grateful for what you have done, but why?” He responded to me, “You have been chosen by the people of my town.

Chapter 3: The Young Princess

“You see, when you were born you were born down in The Lost City, your mother was one of us. And when I saw you, I knew that you were the one, the princess of our kingdom. But when your mother found that out, she made an agreement with me, and the agreement was that you were to live above sea until the age of 15, then you were to come down to your home town to rule our land for us and give us what we need. I looked at him and said, “But I am only ten years old, why now?” He looked at me like he was about to tell a long story, not just long, but LONG.

Okay, I will spare you from the rest of the book (and that LONG story) :-) Needless to say, it all works out in the end. It really is fun to see the beginning spark of the author within—though I am sure you will be relieved to know I am now much more judicious with my use of exclamation marks, lol. It makes me wonder if anyone else saw traces of who they would become in their young selves. Early on, when we could focus on naught but what makes us happy? My husband had his tinker toys, my dad surely played with toy planes. Did your interests in childhood blossom into what you do today? If you have children, do you watch them with their interests and wonder if you are seeing the very beginnings of their future careers?

Only a few more weeks, and I’ll be back to posting recipes. I can’t WAIT to pull out my bowls and pans and get to work creating something yummy! Kirk has already requested cookies, so I’ll have to think long and hard about the perfect recipe to christen my new kitchen.