Alexa's Room (written 2-9-96)

I hear my name being called frantically, "Zach! Zach!" I rush into Alexa's room. "I dropped my pencil," she wails. "Will you pick it up for me?" I give her the pencil along with one of my I'm -gonna-kill-you-someday looks. She grins and says, "Just kidding. I really wanted you to see my glow-in-the-dark stickers I made." She turns out the lights. Her ceiling light is decorated with stars and comets and so are her walls. "Coo--ool!", I say. She flicks the light back on, and, since I need a break anyway, I flop down on her bed to visit for a minute and start to really look around. Her matching comforter and window curtains are mottled shades of pale maroon, blue, gray, green, and tan. They blend perfectly with the flroal wallpaper and silver-toned carpet. (I'm glad she doesn't go for a lot of pink and prissy stuff or I'd never set foot in here.) Looking around, I realize she has two calendars hanging up. At first this seems strange, but then I understand: they are whale calendars. She also has a poster of Freewilly on the wall beside her closet. Her desk has been straightened up. The book, Hard Drive by Bill Gates and three computer disks are on her desk along with an autograph book with a picture of a cat on it, three pictures of her best friends, and another picture of the same friends at Busch Gardens. If you could look in her closet, you would see a bucket decorated with cat pictures and a cat calendar. On top of her chest-of-drawers and on her bookshelf are her stuffed cats, Sassy, Prissy, Sassyfras, Little Hershey Kiss, Crystal the wolf, a dolphin, Flipper, and Nala, the lioness. A stack of tapes, including Michael W. Smith, Lion King, and Free Willy, sit on her night table with a WalkMan she listens to while she falls asleep at night. Most people like to look at her display of Girl Scout memorabilia she has arranged on her bulletin board. Pinned in the middle is her green Girl Scout vest with all the patches she's earned. All around that are pictures from her Girl Scout troop's trip to Busch Gardens and photos from Girl Scout camps and other trips. Suddenly, I realize I've made a mistake, I've stayed in her room too long. "Zach, get out of my room! What jerk called you in here anyway?"

Walking, walking differently....

The following piece was written in January 1998 for a Writing Club assignment. Zach would have been in the 6th grade and he was being home-educated.

Every day, well almost every day, we work out on the treadmill in our home gym. There are a lot of things to do on the gym equipment, but the treadmill isn't the most fun thing to do. While I was running on the treadmill once, I was trying to think what would make it more interesting. Something, uh, different. Then it hit me, not an idea, the light fixture above my head! Oh, well, I got my mile in; maybe, I'll think of something to make running on the treadmill fun tomorrow.

The next day: I think I got it; I decided to take my time doing my mile walking, walking backwards! I know what you may be thinking, "What kind of stupid, retarded, idiot without-any-brains-person would do that?" That is exactly what my sister thought. I soon found out that walking backwards was more difficult than I thought; the backs of my legs were soon aching. My sister said that I could never do it and that it was the most outrageous thing I had ever tried. Well, not the most because there was the time my friend and I rolled a 500-lb haybale down a steep hill, through a fence, and onto a road and got in serious trouble with the farmer who'd baled the hay, but that was a few years back and has nothing to do with this writing assignment. When I got off the treadmill, I thought about where and when I could walk backwards next.

The real challenge is walking backwards in a room where you can trip over things or run into people, etc. When walking backwards on the treadmill, you don't have to worry about running into things and it's safer than walking outside too where the ground can be uneven. I experimented in these situations. Outside, I found it is better to take long strides, keeping your feet just above the ground. If the ground is bumpy this will help. One thing long strides don't help with though is preventing you from falling into the huge holes left on our property, which was originally a nursery, where shrubs were dug out and sold to someone. You could actually break a leg falling into one of them. You can just imagine that, right? For indoors backwards walking, you need to lean the upper part of your body forward so that the balls of your feet steady you even if your heels touch something unforeseen on the floor.

At first I thought that walking a mile backwards was difficult; but now, I can walk backwards at about 3.4 miles per hour while also chewing gum, laughing at jokes, telling my sister to be quiet, studying the "Snakes of Pennsylvania" wall chart, and wondering when my Dad will get home. I'm thinking about starting a "Backwards Walkers of America" club. No one in my family has taken me seriously yet and if they don't come around soon, I may try walking sideways or maybe while spinning in circles. Blah.

Note: You may have wondered why that "blah" is stuck at the end of my paper. I was one word short of 470 words so I added "blah," but now I have 517 words so there was absolutely no point in putting that "blah" there afterall.