The Palisadian-Post is running a selection of winning pieces from the 2020 Pacific Palisades Library Association’s Summer Creative Writing Contest, which featured the theme “Surprise Us!” The following piece was penned by Isabel Kromwyk, who was awarded first place in the Jotters category (grades three and four).
“Bye Monita.” It was 8:00 am in the morning and five year old Hanna was about to go to school. Hanna lives with her mom and dad in Kenterville, California. Hanna lives in a four story mansion with two pools and big bedrooms. Hanna was in her bedroom with her favorite stuffed animal called Monita. Monita is a spider monkey, and so she has long legs and long arms. “It’s time to go to school Hanna,” called her mom. And off they went.
Meanwhile Monita was back on Hanna’s bed. Wait no she wasn’t! She was going through the portal to Monkey Land.
At 3:30 pm in the afternoon Hanna was back from school. She came running to her room to find Monita, but there was no Monita! Hanna started to panic. She started to look under the bed and around the bed, but still no Monita. Then she looked under the covers. It was all dark so Hanna could not see anything. She was feeling around and then POOF, Hanna began to faaaaalll.
She landed on a bouncy trampoline. “Where am I?” said Hanna. Everything was BANANAS! There were banana shops and banana cars. It was banana everything. There were also monkeys everywhere and they were stuffed animals, like Monita! But they were moving around and they all looked confused and scared.
Then Hanna noticed Monita. She sprang off the trampoline and went running to her. Monita looked startled to see Hanna and said in a squeaky voice, “What are you doing here?” “I don’t really know,” answered Hanna. “What’s wrong here?” asked Hanna. “Well,” said Monita, “a mean bear got into Monkey Land and stole the key to the portals and closed up the portals so we can’t get out.” “Oh no, does that mean all of us can’t get out?” “Yes,” said Monita. Hanna looked at Monita and said, “Don’t worry, I will help you. Where does this evil bear live?” “In the mountains,” responded Monita. And so off went Hanna, Monita and the other monkey friends to the bear’s cave.
When they arrived at the cave it was all dark and scary with spider webs at the entrance. “I will go in first,” said Hanna. Inside the cave it was really dark and humid. Hanna was walking along with all the other monkeys behind her when they heard a “ZZZZZZZZZZZZ” sound. The big furry bear was sleeping on the ground. “Shhhhhhhh!” said Hanna in a quiet voice. “I’ll find the keys.” The keys were lying on the ground next to the bear’s head.
Hanna sneaks over and grabs the keys. All the monkeys breathe a sigh of relief, and they all start running back to the portal, but they were too loud. They heard a loud roar from the bear deep inside the cave, and heard his loud footsteps stomping towards them. Oh no!
All of a sudden the big bear comes out of the cave and starts chasing them. Hanna was so frightened she dropped the keys behind her. The evil bear laughs at them, and bends down to reach for the keys. But before he can grab them, Monita, using her long arms, swoops down from a tree and snatches them up. The bear says, “Noooo!”
While the bear was distracted, three of Monita’s monkey friends come from behind and capture the bear by throwing a rope around him. They tie his arms and legs so that he can’t chase them anymore. Meanwhile Monita throws the keys to Hanna and they run together to the portal, to unlock it. All of the monkeys in Monkey Land cheer for Hanna and Monita. “The portal is unlocked,” they say. “We can go home to our owners.” And so they did. And the bad evil bear was thrown into the Monkey jail, and banned from ever coming back to Monkey Land. The bear was sorry.
Hanna emerges with Monita from the portal in her bed. They were exhausted and fall fast asleep, Monita in Hanna’s arms. The next morning, Hanna looks down at Monita, wondering if all of that chaos in Monkey Land was a dream. Was Monita really alive? And then, Monita winks back at her.
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