Frank the Cartoonist

Inside his little flat Frank was sleeping quietly. Nothing could wake him up. Nothing could ruin this special moment. Then, suddenly, the phone rang and Frank woke up, hoping that it was only a nightmare. His tired hand reached the phone, and slowly he answered.

“안녕하세요[Hi] Frank!” said a weird voice, he was speaking in Korean.

“Who are you? What do you want?” asked Frank, he was shaking.

“You know who I am, and you know what we want too! We have your sister.”

Frank suddenly stopped talking. That man was the boss of the triad that had killed his parents, and that now had his sister, Yiruma, the most important person in his life.

“We’ll meet at the Bus Station, today, at 10 am!” continued the voice. “Bring the potion and your sister will be safe.”

“What potion?”

The man had already hung up.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know anything about the “potion”. He started thinking about what their parents would have done if they were alive, and he suddenly remembered the reason why they died: the invisibility potion.
But how? How could I make a potion? I’m not as smart as my father. I don’t even know how to start! he thought.
Frank spent hours and hours thinking about where his father left his researches, without finding anything. He was late, it was almost ten in the morning. He had to find something. He decided to bluff the Korean mob by giving them a fake potion, and hopefully they might discover the hoax when he and his sister had already left.
He took his bicycle and rode to the bus station carrying the fake potion. Scared Frank parked his bike in the bushes and waited for them.
“Hello Frank!” said the gangster, “We have never thought that you would really come!”.
“Where’s Yiruma?” yelled Frank, his all body was petrified, he was finally able to know the man that killed his parents, the man that ruined his life.

“She is inside that black car,” said the mob’s boss pointing at a car in the parking lot, “but if you want to see her beautiful face another time, you'd better do whatever I ask you. Deal?”

“Deal!” Frank knew that it was over, soon the triad would discover the bluff and he and his sister were going to die.

“Well, where is my potion?”

“It’s in my pocket, do you want it?”

“Not now, you are coming with us!”
“What?” screamed Frank. Two men came from the bushes and lifted the poor cartoonist, he couldn’t move, they were too strong for him.

“I did want you wanted me to do! Leave us alone.” begged Frank. But the two men didn’t listen to him, they took him to the car, they covered his eyes with a black rag, and they started driving.

When the cartoonist woke up, he was dizzy, they had drugged him. Black Scar was asking him where the real potion was, but Frank wasn’t able to understand. He was still under the influence of the drug.
“Well, I’m going to be courteous Frank: I’m giving you another day to give me the potion. You'd better do that, if you don’t want to die with your sister.” said the gangster.
Without waiting for response, he marched to the door, opened it, walked out, and gave some instruction to the guard.
The small jail cell was dark, cold, and bad-smelling. Old drawings and posters were standing on the walls. There were no beds, no closets, nothing useful but a terrible chemistry laboratory desk that Frank was supposed to use.

Frank decided to chuck up the sponge, he was going to die, even if he knew how to make the potion. He sat down in the corner of the cell and started thinking about his parents. He remembered the day that his dad had given him his glasses, and he had told him: “When you can’t see the answer, wear those glasses.”

Maybe this glasses are the answer, he thought, maybe the secret of the potion are inside the glasses. He started looking for bottom in the glasses, he looked everywhere, but he couldn’t find anything.

“Stupid Glasses!” screamed the cartoonist, and he threw the glasses in the floor, breaking them in a lot of small pieces. He was about to sit down again when he saw a small piece of glass different from the others, he picked it up and he read a chemical formula on it.. it was the formula of the Potion.

He ran to the laboratory desk and started following the formula in the piece of glass. As soon as he finished the potion he started preparing another one. He then drank the first potion and became invisible.

He knocked the cell door, asking for help to the guard. The guard opened the door not finding Frank, the cartoonist had already left and had closed the guard inside the little jail. He found his sister, she didn’t know what was going on, but Frank reassured her by saying that they were about to escape. He then left the second potion in the main floor of the building and they finally ran away.

“What is that?” asked Yiruma.

“It’s an explosive!”

Then there was a big explosion. It meant only two things: “Freedom and Justice!”

FOOD

Today I’d like to talk about food; ever since I arrived in here I have noticed how different it is all over the world.
How is it possible?
People in here really love peanut butter, and I do too, but I hadn’t known it until I got here because in Italy we don’t eat peanut butter, we eat Nutella! And when I tell to someone that we don’t eat it in my birthplace they are all amazed and they always say, “I was born eating peanut butter.” Well I was born eating Nutella! They would probably love nutella, they just don’t know it.
Our world is supposed to be globalized, everybody has the same television, the same laptop, the same car, and the same phone, but we have different taste because of our habits. We could be able to eat REAL Italian food, REAL American “junk” food (haha), and REAL Mexican food, but we don’t do that, because our brain wants to eat things that he knows.
Another weird thing is how food developed in different ways all over the world.
I went to a lot of Italian Restaurant, I ate there, and I really appreciated their food, but it didn’t taste like the one I was used to call “Italian”. They probably all started by using the same recipe, but then they had to use different toppings or ingredients that they weren’t using at home because people wanted to eat things they were used to eat so now they have pizza with bacon, pizza with ham, even if in Italy it doesn’t exist.
My host-brother’s from Colombia, and he told me that in Colombia they have lasagna with pineapple and watermelon, and now I’m not surprised, they are just eating pizza it a “Colombian way”, they are just using Colombian ingredients in “my food” because that’s what they like.
SAME WORLD, SAME ORIGINS, BUT STILL DIFFERENTS.

Free Writing

“Son, your father, sir Aglovale, died in a battle. He wanted me to give you his sword to avenge his death.. I`m sorry for your loss.” said the knight to the little child.

Ban was only six when that dark knight came, he didn’t know his father that well, Sir Aglovale was one of King Eric`s guards, he didn`t have time to spend with his son, and probably he didn`t want to either.

Ban became the new Lord of Birmingham, the best teacher in the all kingdom came to teach him about Philosophy, History, Latin and the dark Arts. He was taught how to kill dragons with the simple use of words, how to be a leader, how to find poison in his food, how to fight in the dark.. there were big projects for him, BIG BIG project.

“Atrum de voicem metallum cum pietriosus”... “Atru`m de voiicem metallurum ut pietriosus”.. “Atrum dei voicem”..”Attrum”
“It doesn’t work! Why? I will never be able to alter the metal of my sword into diamond.” said Bam, he was annoyed and bored, his Dark Arts teacher, Mr. Bors was able to become the most fussy teacher in the world, he loved him, but he was annoying.
“Retry! The dark Arts are really hard to learn! You retry, my Lord, and you’ll become the most powerful King in all the history, but you have to work hard and spell every single letter in the right way because even the smallest leave is important in a tree.” said Mr. Bors, while he was floating in the air.
“I just can’t! I don’t want to become a wizard or a king, I just want to be me!” said Ban, and he ran away from his mentor.

In fact Ban could do that, that was an easy spell that he learned three years ago, but he wasn’t allowed to show his power, no one was able to know that he was one of the most powerful wizard in all England or the King would kill him.

No one could find him, all the villagers were scared, the “Little Lord” disappeared, how was it possible? After that argument Ban and his midget lion became invisible, he learned that trick from his dad`s old diary. Mr. Bors didn’t know that, and probably he wasn’t enough smart to learn advanced magic.

There are Crocodile in the sea

“Run away Abdul, run away!” This are the last five words that I heard before that big explosion: my prison, where me, my brothers, and my father were imprisoned, exploded, and unfortunately I was the only one that survived.

My name is Abdul Imam, I’m ten years old, and my family was captured by the Talibans when I was only six. Dad told me that they didn’t like us because we were Christians, but I could not understand what it meant.

Ever since the day I escaped from the prison I had been trying to find my mother. My journey was too long for my little legs, but I wouldn’t stop until I found the only thing I still had in my life.

For 2 years I worked for a factory that made shoes. They called it Nike. I didn’t earn a lot of money, but I needed it because today a secret agency will ship me and some guys I met during the journey to Italy, where my mom lives.

See.. Allah has harbored a little a bitter grudge against my mates and me since we didn’t pray to him every day, so the little boat that was taking us to Italy sunk. Right now I am all by myself, probably in the African coast, home of the Egyptian, without anything to eat a no clothes. I’m daisy, I have seasickness, yet the only thing that I can see is a beautiful human being.

“Hi. My name is AmonThun, and I`m  the Egyptian princess! You really look like you need some help. Come with me, and I will show you to the royal palace! I`m sure my mother and my father will give you a warm welcome,” said that beautiful thing.

I’m nervous because I’ve never met a pharaoh. How do people act in front of a pharaoh? Yet here I was, a poor ten-year-old kid next to a princess climbing the stairs in a palace.

“My maid is going to show you your new room!” said the princess.

“A room? I don’t need a room! I want to go to Italy,” I said.

“Well.. I guess you can spend the night in your new room then we are going to take you to Italy, but we’d like to know your story,” she said.

And here I was, sitting in a comfortable chair, in a beautiful palace, describing the fantastic chain of events leading up my arrival in here. Hundreds of people were looking at me, listening to my long journey. I am recounting my prison, my family, my trip where some friends and I were trying to use a safe boat to reach Greece from Tunisia when we had an argument about crocodiles.

“Are there crocodiles in the sea?” someone asked.

“My temptation to rescue my friends when they were captured in Greece, and my fight against the Mediterranean Sea.”

I’m not sure, but I think that the queen is crying.. that woman is weird, why is she crying?

“Your story moved me. Tomorrow we’re going to take you to your mom. You deserve it,” said the king.

Suddenly I heard a sailor say, “Here we are, little kid!”

“How is it possible?” I asked.

“Well, you have been sleeping all journey long. Now you are home, and your mom is waiting for you.”

He’s saying the truth. I don’t remember what happened during the journey, but I can see my mom. There she is, as beautiful as the sun, ready to hug me.

My Fable

ARKANSUS, KROTON AND HADE

 

Greek heroes, two young men named Arkansus and Kroton, were fighting against Godfather Hades’ terrible creatures, but also looking for fame and big bucks. They decided to go to the Underworld’s Halloween costume party and capture the Chimera.

The Underworld was dark and scary, and they knew they were going to die if they didn’t fight together, so both of them had to protect the other.

Harvey Hades, who ruled the Underworld, was waiting for them, and as soon as they got into his reign, he stood in front of them.

Arkansus, the smartest of the men, knew that he could do nothing against that mighty gangster, so he approached Hades and promised to give him Kroton if he would swear not to harm him. Hades agreed, so Arkansus led his friend to a deep pit and arranged that he should fall into it.

Hades, seeing that the scared man was now without his bodyguard, immediately attacked Kroton.

Venice, the romantic city

Venice [Venezia] is well-known as a romantic city, the Place where newlyweds have to go, the honeymoon`s destination. Sunset gondola riding, having dinner in Saint Marc place, walking the Bridge of Sighs.. That`s ROMANTIC!
However there are some tourist`s trap! For example: if you want to ride the gondola, you`re going to pay 200 $ for 10 minutes riding only because you are not Italian, so you don`t know how much it costs, and they pump up the price( I usually pay 1 euro, that means 1,30$).
Well.. Venice is beautiful, it has his history, it has a lot of old palace, churches, but you will really love it only if you are a tourist, because after all, Venice is considered one of the saddest city where to live. No one could stay in Venice more than a month.
That`s why they invented the Carnival of Venice, because people in Venice weren't happy at all, they decided to use it to make people happier, only for one week. They are using happy masks only because they want to hide their sad faces.
I usually go to the Old Venice twice a month, and I really love it, I do.. but people that are living there don`t, usually they just move into a different neighborhood. There`s nothing to do, there are thousands and thousands of tourists everyday and everything is ten times more expansive than the usual. You can pay 30 $ for a pizza, 8 $ for an ice cream... WHAAAAAT?

A Pirate’s Log

Great waves of water sweep across the poop deck as the maties load the cannons.  Having just come out of his quarters the captain steps on the deck dressed long clothed ready for battle.

“Sail ho! We have a spanish galleon of the horizon, set to reef sails you swine, the ocean is a brewin’ a storm,” exclaiming the captain!
As sailors run around, the ship starts to close in on the spaniard vessel.
“Load the guns and prepare to board you scallywags!” yelling the captain again.
As the ships makes the final closing meters and the cannons are loaded as the captain continues giving orders.

“Fire in the hole!” the captain yells.

The with boisterous voices the sailors repeat the captains order down the line so that the other sailors can hear over the six pounders.
“Prepare to board,” the captain said while pulling out his razor sharp cutlass.
As sailors grab their blunderbusts and cutlasses, cannon balls flew through the Spanish ship sending many to Davy Jones Locker. Swinging across from ship to ship the battle rages on. Wood splinters and blood flew through the air until as if all at once the sounds stop with the pirates victory.
“It shouldn’t be quiet you scallywags, start yelling to tell the seven seas of our victory,” yelled the captain! With a violent roar every pirate on both ships yelled with all their lungs. Then out of the yelling some of the pirate crew came from the hold of the Spanish ship running out of the captain.

“Cap'n we've found some prisoners in the deck,” said a pirate.

“Ahoy! I know that picaroon!” said the captain. “Arr! What happened to ye buccaneer? Last time I saw ye you were marooned!”

The prisoner, loaded to the gunwalls, said, “I have been drinking rum all day long! That`s the only thing I know.”

“Show a leg! We're fighting for GOLD!” said Blackbeard.

“Let’s cross swords me friend. We’re going to be as rich as the queen of England!”

And as if two dancers the two pirates were now hoping around with the joy of victory.

“Dead men tell no tales,” said the Captain, “Let’s find the booty and then scuttle this ship!”.

And finally here it was, the TREASURE! Blackbeard`s eyes were as gold as the sun. He started wearing the King’s crown and counting all the doublons.  Then leaving the Spanish ship burning the pirate king set sail on the open sea.