Lost by: Zachary Walters

O n one snowy night in a cabin in the woods, lived Tom and Nanuk. It was getting colder, and Nanuk was loving it because he was a Siberian husky. As Tom put more wood on the fire, it got darker outside.

The windows were starting to fog up, and it was getting later. Around 10:30 p.m., Nanuk wanted to go outside for his last time before bed. Tom got up from his recliner and put his cup of hot tea down. He let Nanuk outside and placed him on his lead chain.

Tom closed the door fast so that the cold didn’t take over the warmth. Tom sat back down and grabbed his tea. He began to read the newspaper. Tom sipped his tea and read the car section because his car was on its last leg.

Tom got down to the last line of the section, and he closed his eyes. The room got brighter when he opened his eyes again, and he was freezing. It was morning, and he went outside to get wood for the fire. As he walked outside it hit him, “Where was Nanuk?”

Tom frantically thought about what he had done, “I didn’t bring Nanuk in!” Tom’s heart was like a runner at the Olympics trying to get to first place. He ran outside, got his coat and left to go find Nanuk.

About twenty yards from the house, Tom found a broken chain lead and picked it up. Then he walked a bit and saw that Nanuk had broken off the chain by running it around a tree. Tom called out and yelled, “Nanuk”, but nothing moved.

He walked along a while before he got tired and sat down to rest on a fallen tree. Tom pulled out from his coat pocket a lighter, broke off the branches, put them in a bundle and lit them.

Tom sat there for a good while as the fire snapped, crackled and popped. He put out the fire, and then he left. Tom walked until he saw four paw prints in the snow. He knelt down and looked at the paw prints.

In the distance, he could see that an old house was there. Tom walked over to a tree about twenty feet away from the house and looked at the house.

Tom could see Nanuk and called out, “Nanuk boy!” Nanuk stood up and ran out of the old rundown house into the arms of Tom. Tom and Nanuk went back to their cabin and lived happily ever after.

Zachary Walters is a sophomore at the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center. Zachary is enrolled in the auto technology program. Zachary is from the New Castle Area School District.