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Really Old Writing: Part Two

3. The Collecting Team

"The Collecting Team" is a short story about an interstellar zoological expedition gone horribly, horribly wrong. It starts off with three men-- two zoologists and their pilot, Gus. They are going on a space expedition to find and collect various alien specimens to study back on Earth.

The expedition, had, thus far, been rather fruitless--they'd only found some blue monkeys and several honking, stinky anteaters. They wanted to come back with a few more species, so that their expedition would be considered a success. Luckily enough, Gus spotted and uncharted planet, so the entire crew was elated.

Their ship touched down on the uncharted planet moments later, to find an enormous gathering of exotic fauna--scaly dogs with faceted eyes, six legged ducks and strange giraffe-looking creatures with tentacles. The zoologists were shouting for glee, but Gus was dubious. All the animals were in a small area of land, all of them were tame and easy to capture and none of them seemed to be fighting or trying to eat each other.
Quoth Gus: "Nature doesn't work that way."

The animals were highly compliant, and Gus became unusually nervous, urging his partners to leave at every opportunity. They did not listen to him, claiming that it is too good a scientific discovery to be ignored.

Well, as it turns out, it's a scientific discovery that's too good to be true. The ending of the story was utterly ruined for my class, but on the off-chance that someone else might read this, I won't ruin the ending (because that's what nice people do.)*

"The Collecting Team" is an average sci-fi, and seeing as it is only ten pages long, there's no excuse for you not to read it. It's utterly forgettable, but good nonetheless.

*I know. The b***h told us the ending before we'd even started the story.
I hope she gets run over by a hoard of 1337speakers and turned into mincemeat.


4. Penny in the Dust

Pause, for a moment and picture a scene. It's 1934, depression-era American South. Everyone was hit hard, but none more so then the African-American population, living on the wrong side of a segregated world. Then, picture that you're a seven-year old boy, sitting outside on a hot summer day. Your father, the man who has never once hugged you in all your seven years, gives you a penny--a shiny, golden penny in a dusty world.

"Penny in the Dust" follows a young boy, who on a special summer day gets a penny from his father. He goes down to the store to buy something with the penny, but finds that he can't bring himself to spend it. Instead, he proceeds to bury the penny in the dust by the side of the road, unburying it and pretending to find buried treasure.

After playing with it for a while, he looses the penny. He runs home, worried for no particular reason, and hides in his bed. Unbeknownst to him, his father is frantically searching for him, all over the town and countryside, tearing around with unbelievable determination. When his father finds him safe at home, he hugs him for the first time in his life. The boy explains the situation, and the two of them go to find the penny.

This is a great story, because it addresses issues that are still felt today. The boy doesn't feel comfortable around his father, who is chronically unaffectionate. You can tell that the father loves his son very much but feels he cannot show it--he believes that he needs to be strong for others to flourish.

"Penny in the Dust" is a great story for anyone who appreciates the value of a shiny penny, which is so much more than a cent.
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[Nanook]

Created by Nanook
Feb 23rd 2007, 2:01PM
The second piece of the old writing.
This is a continuation of the assignment that was being presented in the last part. I rather enjoyed these two stories better, though.