The First Encounter

My first story in my series was written in 2003, when I was 12 years old. Reminiscing about what my interests were at the time revolve around the Pirates of the Carribean movie, gathering with my cousins for adventures, and dealing with the effects of middle school. My character naming scheme is quite interesting, considering the main character’s last name references a religion that I knew nothing about. But interestingly, that same religion gets reintroduced into my life when I started to become a fan of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series.

The way I attempted to show the dynamics of my cousins and my aunt Lisa was interesting. Looking back, she definitely had a handful of kids to deal with; she had four kids, ranging in ages close together. With a husband that worked in IT, so time management must have been difficult, trying to corral all the kids for daily tasks and extracurricular activities. Our childhood minds can not fully comprehend the stress of adult life at that young age, so it is illuminating to read how I described what I figured my aunt would say in these situations. 

My fascination with ghosts was also interest of mine at the time. The way that ghosts were portrayed in media and stories opened up so many questions and curiosities in my young mind; where did ghosts come from? Why couldn’t we interact with them? Why do they cause terror? This story allowed me to explore the possibly reasons, in my own mind, for why people haunt the Earth as ghosts. Though, never having watched Ghostbusters, I thought of the idea of “sucking up ghosts” with a vacuum kind of funny. Glad I added that bit of humor to the storyline.

While my sense of time regarding when piracy was prevalent in the world might be askew, the story has a decent timeline of events. Not sure how my cousins Michelle and Jenny will feel about this story nearly 20+ years later, but I hope they enjoy being immortalized in a fun childhood epic involving pirates and ghosts, set in their own backyard. Enjoy reading!

In the year 1790, when pirates walked the earth and sailed the seas, a captain, named Jack Mormon, got stuck on top of a tree. Here is his amazing story:

Jack Mormon was a greedy ol’ pirate who never let a single soul on to his ship. This rejection of shipmates made his job as being captain much tougher to handle. When he was near the edge of the sea, near America, he thought he could find the treasure all by his self. He thought wrong.

When he was almost to the beach, a long-legged octopus sprang up and attacked the boat. He quickly searched for his sword, and started to chop the octopus’s arms off. After chopping off most of the legs, all he could see, really, was white water and a dismantled octopus. A few minutes later, he reached land, and he started to walk into the dark forest. He never knew what was going to happen next.

While he was walking, a small tribe was stalking him, waiting for him to reach the ‘tree of dreams’. It took a couple of days to reach the tree, but for the tribe, it was worth the wait. He reached it and was amazed by the height and feel of the tree. Right as he was about climb it, the tribe jumped out, and grabbed his arms. Without even thinking, they stabbed him and threw him on a long board. After that torture, they ate him, but before they could eat a full meat meal, Jack Mormon’s spirit was cast over them.

He now controls them all, even when they died. Today, whenever you are near the ‘tree of dreams’, you might hear the painful voices of Jack before his death. You might even see the tribal Indians waiting to kill anyone brave enough to go near the ‘tree of dreams’.

One night, when the moon was full and the wind grew strong, Lisa yelled to her kids to come inside the house because of the bad weather.  Since this was their mother talking, they did exactly as she said (Because if Michelle or Jenny didn’t obey their mother, they would be grounded).

“Can we go in the tree house after dinner?” asked Michelle.  Michelle was just a common fifth grader with a preteen exterior and a ‘want for shopping’ interior.

“No!” yelled Lisa, “This bad weather is going to drag on for a long time,” Lisa was a mother of four children and a ‘need for cleaning’ interior.

“But Mom,” said Jennifer, “Why can’t we?” Jennifer was a small third grader with a ‘want to play Barbie’s’ outlook on life.

“Because I said so!” yelled Lisa.

So, after a few minutes of mother: daughter battles, they were in their own rooms watching the rain drop down.  But besides that, no one knew that the tree house is haunted, filled with ghosts.

Michelle, while she was lying in her room, was thinking of going into the clubhouse, even if Lisa said no.  Michelle snuck into Jennifer’s room.

“Jennifer,” said Michelle as she woke her, “let’s go outside into the clubhouse”

“But, Michelle,” said Jennifer, “mom said we’re not allowed to go into the tree house while the weather is bad”

“Well, yeah,” answered Michelle, “but I want to get even with her for grounding you and me for just wanting to go in the clubhouse again after dinner”

“What if we get caught?” asked Jennifer.

“We won’t”

They snuck out of the house with a lot of caution.  Once they got out, they noticed that the rain had stopped.  There was confusion and worry going through their brains because, well, rain that heavy should probably go on for days.

“So, we turn right after we are off the patio, and then we climb the ladder” said Jennifer.

“Correct!” said Michelle.

When they got to the backyard, they thought they heard screaming and not just any screaming but a painful scream.

“What was that?” questioned Jennifer.

“I think that was screaming!  I think we should be careful, because it might be a victim of a dangerous killer!” answered Michelle.

“Let’s go back, now!” Jennifer screamed.

“No,” said Michelle, “we can’t because we have to finish the ‘Game of Life’,”

So, even with screaming, they still went on toward the tree house.  Once they got to the ladder they thought they saw Indians or something.

“Michelle,” said Jennifer, “I see dead people and they look like pirates and Indians!”

“Hurry up the ladder,” said Michelle, “they might attack us!”

Both of them climbed as fast as they could, looking back to see if the ghosts were following them.  They made it up safely, and managed to look back again.  Michelle opened the door, and both of them entered the clubhouse.

A look of worry was on both of their faces.

“Who dares enter ‘my’ tree of ‘my’ death?” said Jack, the pirate from the letter.

“Jennifer,” whispered Michelle, “do you know about the legend Jack the Loner?”

“Yes,” whispered Jennifer, “that’s why I’m extremely scared right now”

“Well, if you two are just standing there, then I’m just going to kill you, personally!” said Jack.

“Why?” asked Michelle.

“Well, have you ever been taken advantage of without any fight backs?” said Jack.

“No,” answered Michelle.

“Me neither,” said Jennifer.

“Well, see you on the other side!”

As Jack said this, Jennifer leaped up and grabbed the sword just as it was about to strike Michelle.  Jack and Jennifer had a tug of war, but Jack had the advantage because Jennifer’s side had the pointy end.

Just as Jack was about to kill Jennifer, Michelle picked up a fork in the floor and sliced the sword in half.

“I guess your sword is easy to break apart, Jack,” said Michelle.

“You haven’t seen the last of me and my crew,” said Jack, “I’ll be back!”

When he left the clubhouse, Michelle got to examine Jennifer for bruises and cuts Jack might have sliced on her.

“Jennifer,” said Michelle, “you have a cut on your arm!  We need to go back to our house, quick!”

“But, Michelle,” said Jennifer, “I can see blood on my arm.  I need a bandage or something!”

“You can get one as soon as we get into the house,” Michelle said.

They ran down the ladder and onto the patio.  Michelle carried Jennifer all the way into the house, where she laid her down on her bed.  Michelle put bandages on her cuts and bruises so she won’t lose consciousness.

“Are you okay, do you feel better?” said Michelle.

“Yeah,” said Jennifer, “thanks for helping me,”

Michelle, while she was putting the bandages back, noticed the vacuum and decided she could suck up the ghosts using this.

“Jennifer,” said Michelle.

“Yeah,” answered Jennifer.

“We have to go back and defeat Jack and his crew,”

So, after Jennifer was feeling a little bit better, they both went outside with the vacuums.  Both vacuums were charged by batteries, but can only stay on for one hour.  When they got near the tree, they saw the pirates and Indians.

“Come on, Jennifer,” said Michelle, “Let’s suck up the crew of Jack!”

“Ha,” said Jack, “you cannot suck me up.  No one can, and do you know why?”

“No,” said Jennifer.

“Because I was killed when I died,” he said, “that means I can’t get out of this tree house,”

“Well,” said Michelle, “If you can’t get out of the clubhouse than we need to have rules”

“Why?” questioned Jennifer.

“So,” said Michelle, “he won’t be able to do whatever he wants.  Okay, the rules are as followed: No messing up this clubhouse by all means; no stealing money, toys, game boards, etc.; and no killing us or anybody else every time someone goes into the clubhouse.  Are we clear with the rules?”

“Yes,” said Jack.

So, every time Michelle or Jenny goes up in the tree, they’ll remember the story and legend of Jack Mormon the Loner.  This story has survived for hundreds of year since Jack died and the story still continues.