The Palisadian-Post is running a selection of winning pieces from the 2022 Pacific Palisades Library Association’s Summer Creative Writing Contest, which featured the theme “Bouncing Back.” The following piece was penned by William, who was awarded second place in the third and fourth grade Jotters category.

‘Rescue from Bent’

“Mitch, where are you going?” asked his mother as Mitch started to walk out of their house. “I’m finishing what dad didn’t.” Slam went the door. Mitch boarded his spaceship and went flying through the stars to a planet called Bent to find his dad.

Earlier that day, on his way to 3rd grade homeroom, Mitch thought about his dad and was very sad because he hadn’t seen or heard from him in 3 weeks. Mitch missed his father so much that he felt like crying. It felt like he would explode if he didn’t see him again.

Then Mitch met Crater, a 10 year old boy who lived a couple houses down the road from Mitch’s house. Crater was very nice and he went to the same school as Mitch. And Crater seemed to know lots of secret information.

Crater came up to him on a hoverboard and told Mitch incredible news. He told Mitch that his dad tried to stop bad guys from making a super weapon from “gibsite”, a valuable resource. He was unsuccessful and the bad guys grabbed him and locked him up in their warehouse on Bent. Crater told Mitch to bring a welder because his dad was locked behind steel bars.

Mitch felt awesome that he might see his dad again. He made a plan based on the information he got from Crater. Once the plan was finished, he went to his spaceship and blasted off to Bent.

Mitch landed far from the warehouse and went in quietly. He snuck through the back door. In the middle of the room Mitch saw a colossal cannon made entirely from gibsite. “It’s a superweapon!” thought Mitch. Nearby in a cell he saw a hunched over man. It took Mitch a few seconds to realize the hunched over man was his dad!

Mitch was very happy and he got to work. He used the welder to cut through the steel bars to get his dad out. “Son, is that you?” Mitch’s dad said. “No time to talk,” Mitch said.

They ran to Mitch’s spaceship, but just before they got there a squad of troopers spotted Mitch and his dad. One of the troopers almost shot Mitch. Mitch started shooting a few of them with his blaster while his dad went to the ship. Mitch finished off the rest of the squad and jumped on the ship. Then they went to the resistance to get help. The resistance charged the warehouse on Bent and destroyed the gibsite cannon.

Mitch said goodbye to the resistance and flew home. When he got home, everyone was very happy to see Mitch and his father. And Mitch was the happiest of all because he saved his dad.