6 6-word Stories

Six Six-word stories

Three choices and no good outcome.

How much more can one take?

His birthday comes, but "happy" doesn't.

No one thought of the consequences.

One wrong answer, one hour berated.

Welts are healed, words are not.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

             John Proctor was an interesting man. On the surface, he seemed like a normal farmer, with three healthy boys, a loving wife, and a maid to help with the house. However, he held a deep secret within him in the Crucible.  His former maid, named Abigail, was the Salem’s preacher’s niece. She got along with them all at first, but she soon took an interest in John. What followed was a lusty affair, culminating in the sacking of Abigail by Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, after she found out about the affair. Now, seven months later, at the start of the Salem witch trials, Proctor comes to Salem to find out about the place. Abigail approaches him and tells him of the truth about the dancing in the woods, and shortly afterwards turn to their affair. Abigail wants him back badly, but John will not have any of that. After he turns her away, he goes back to his farm. In the following weeks and days, Elizabeth is taken from him and he makes his new maid, Mary Warren, write a confession about the whole thing being made up. However, when he goes to court, Abigail denies all charges. He then spoils both his and her reputation by proclaiming their affair, and she again denies all charges. They call in his wife, who has never lied, and she lies for the first time to protect Proctor’s good name. Because Abigail was already in an elevated position, she was not charged, and Proctor was put into jail for sending his soul out upon Mary Warren to make her confess. As the day of his hanging dawned, Proctor signed a contract stating that he had been compacting with the devil and that he had broken his pact with him with Reverend Hale. However, after he signs it, he rips the paper in half, and he is hung. This action marks him as a hero, showing his resolute acceptance and rigorous understanding of Puritan values – because he took the hanging as a Saint, like Rebecca Nurse, he upheld the values he had been brought up with, and regained his good name and good nature by continuing to uphold them. He will forever be a greater person than the lying, backstabbing girl Abigail and her friend Mary Warren, who live in infamy as being the people who sent 20 people to their deaths via the gallows.

There Goes the Neighborhood

There Goes the Neighborhood

The Europeans are moving in. All around me, I see destruction. Corpses of deer, rabbits, and other game lay around the ground, with single holes in them that seem to leave no arrow inside. These people have interesting weapons – they move so quickly the projectiles cannot be seen, and are always accompanied with a loud “BANG!”. The group closest to us call themselves The Puritans. They seem like a very dedicated folk – dedicated to destroying the area around them and going to something they call “Church”. This “Church” has them all standing before one man, like their Chief, speaking English to them. They seem to worship one person, named God, and He seems to like to tell them to do things. They are all forced to go to “Church” on the seventh day, and pray all day. None of them seem to think this is a big deal – in fact, I think they enjoy it. Most of my friends have moved their homes away from the settlement of these Puritans, and they all are pressuring our Chief to move the entire settlement. He believes that we can strike a relationship with these Puritans and help them, but I know that I personally and many of our tribe believe that they will not accept our help unless we join them in worshipping God. I prefer to worship our many Gods and Goddesses, because it lets me pray more for rain or a certain harvest to be bountiful rather than praying to one God and hoping that He will interpret my prayers and offerings correctly and bring the rain or make the harvest bountiful. They seem to think that they can gauge this one God’s happiness or discontent with them with only their preachers’ words and actions and their own fortunes. This is simply not true, as these preachers often times aren’t the best influences, especially upon the children of the village. Many a time I have heard screams of the children as the preachers speak of things such as devils and witches. Alas, unless our Chief tells us to move away, we must remain here and attempt to interact with them.

Me

Me.

My name is Adam Flam. I am 15 years old, and I am a sophomore at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. I am currently enrolled in classes such as Chemistry, Algebra II with Trigonometry, Concert Choir, and A.P. World History. I have a very broad range of interests, from World War II to the performance of various computer components. I am currently in Eco Club at school, which meets after school in room 318 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I work in the greenhouse in Eco Club, which means I work on the aquaponics system. Aquaponics is a clever combination of hydroponics (growing plants in water) and aquaculture (farming fish and other aquatic animals). Aquaponics is based on symbiosis between various leafy green plants, fish, and bacteria. The principle is that the waste excreted by the fish is pumped up to a filter where it gets taken out, and the ammonia in the fish waste is turned first into nitrite, and then into nitrate by various types of bacteria residing within the filter. This nitrate-enriched water is then pumped to the plant beds, where it is absorbed by the plants for food and thus purifies the water so the fish don’t die from too much nitrate in the water. Besides Eco Club, I do karate, which I have been doing more or less since I was four years old.  I am currently a black belt in karate and I will hopefully be testing again in the Spring to receive my full black belt. I enjoy reading, my favorite books being The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, though I do enjoy reading Ray Bradbury and other authors. I also build computers, and I will be starting on my second and third builds over the coming months on the weekends. In my spare time, I play video games (mostly), swim (occasionally), and sleep. I don’t play many sports, especially not competitively, but I sometimes play Basketball with some friends, or soccer or football. I have been to various places around the world, such as London, Paris, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and even Tokyo and Kyoto, but I have to say no place on Earth is quite like Chicago. Chicago has one of the world's tallest buildings, and it also features some of the best architecture I've ever seen. Chicago is truly my favorite city.