Hemingway

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"

Books and movies. They are pretty much opposites. Sometimes though, if you making a movie out of a book, it can turn out very similar. However, with the book and movie called "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," they really weren't that similar at all. Some of the most important parts of the book, in my opinion, were sadly left out of the movie.

In the very beginning of the movie, it starts off with an old man sitting in a booth with no windows around him. It probably sounds like no big deal that there was no windows around him, but in the book, it symbolizes something huge. There was a tree outside the window the man was sitting next to and the tree left shadows of the leaves on the old man. That symbolized darkness and almost like how he was trying to escape from it and he wasn't totally covered in darkness. It was probably the most important part of the book.

Now, not so much on the importance level, but on just what I was picturing level, the cafe. I pictured it being very small and kind of rustic looking. I pictured the tables to be little circular ones and the walls to be covered in old paintings. Instead, the tables were big and they pretty much looked like desks. The cafe was very modern and even had a TV on the wall. Not what I pictured at all.

So yes, books and movies can be very similar, or they can barely be recognized as the same thing. I think that they should have done a much better job portraying light and dark and they should have made it much more old looking a not so modern. It would have made the movie, much better.  

Hemingway

Light and Dark

Light and dark. It is one of the key components of the story A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway. There are light people and there are dark people. Light people are happy and good spirited. They see the glass half full and they always think of the most positive things in a situation. On the other hand, there's dark people who see the glass half empty and don't always hope for the best. Dark people think of all the bad things that could happen while light people just hope all goes well and if t doesn't, well that's too bad! An example is someone deciding if they want to go on a roller coaster; light people will just think that it will be fun and they will have a blast! Dark people might think of all the things that could go wrong, they could get stuck, they might drop something, they might fall out, the list goes on. Reality is though, people don't commonly just fall out of roller coasters!

Chapter Four

Author's  Note: This is the third chapter of Escape and if you want to start from the beginning  just scroll down to chapter one! Also this is not the final chapter of Escape so don't worry, this is not how it ends and there will be more chapters!

p.s. This is a very short chapter and the rest of them are much longer.

Escape

I refuse to die now though. Even though I haven't been fighting for that long, I refuse to die. If I give up now I might as well have never left in the first place. 

As the Falacat came closer I started to hear noises coming from the house; the noises were someone trying to leave. Then I realized that until I come up with an amazing idea, I only had two options. My options were either to run and get killed my the ferocious beast that they refer to as a cat, or to stand still and get caught by the Falaguard who will probably end up with me getting executed. There is a good part of all of this though; I get to choose how I die!

Retelling

Red is for Remembrance

               Death. It's a thing Stacey Brown knows a lot about.  In the third book of the "Blue is for Nightmares" series, her boyfriend died.  However, she just has this gut feeling that he's still alive and will never stop searching until someone finds his dead body. Then she meets a girl who she thinks is the answer to all of her problems. Will she find the one she loves, or will she end up in the dust? 

Chapter Three

Author's Note: This is the third chapter of this story. For the first two chapters, scroll down. This is not the ending of the book and there will be more chapters. This is not the book's ending!

Escape

The sun was blazing down and as the first drops of sweat started to drip down my face and neck, it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on escaping. My mind was roaming and finding thoughts such as; I'm hot, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want to go home, and the one that came up most often; why exactly are you doing this? I was trying so hard to concentrate, but it was almost impossible with my mind running wild like that. 

Besides my mind racing with random thoughts, it was also trying to come up with ideas on how to get away from the Falaguard. One of the ideas was to casually walk around the house and when I would get caught, I would just act like I was lost. I knew that idea wasn't a keeper though because if I pretended I was lost, I would get in trouble for leaving my house and then my parents would get in trouble too. Another bad thing with that idea is I would never get to be free and would have to live in my trapped, barely big enough for a family, house. I couldn't let that happen.

So my plan ended up to be that I would just start running. I wouldn't look back. I would just start run as fast as I could and would hope to get away. Like I said though; hope.

My plan was about to become a reality, when I saw something. Way out in the distance, emerging from the forest. At first it looked like some sort of small animal, like a bunny of some sort. But as it became clearer, I knew it wasn't just some  bunny. It was a Falacat.

A Falacat isn't what you think it is. It's not just a rare breed of cat. In fact, it's not really a cat at all.

Since weapons aren't easy to come by, considering they are banned for anyone to use, the Falafails knew they had to get some kind of protection for the Falaguards. So they came up with the Falacats. The Falacats are pretty much robotic animals that the Falafails let loose into the wild. Each Falacat has a microchip in it and each Falaguard has a band around their wrist with a button on it. All the bracelets each control one Falacat and to get the Falacat to come all the guard has to do is press the button on their bracelet. The thing is, Falacats only come out of the forest when a guard presses his button. Which means that this Falacat is going to get someone. And anyone who goes up against it; doesn't stand a chance. 

The way I was going to run so I could go to town, was towards the forest, but if the Falacat is coming towards me, he's out to attack. That means any sudden movements will set him off into attack mode. And then I will die.

Chapter Two

Author's Note: This is the second chapter of the book. If you want the first chapter, scroll down my blog. There isn't an ending because there will be more chapters!

Escape

When I got outside the world was still dark around me. The wind was slightly blowing and thankfully  there was no Falaguards in sight. I was still standing on the front porch because the alarm on the  front mat would go off when I stepped on it. The reason being, everyone is still supposed to be sleeping  in our beds and technically were not allowed out of our house unless you are at work like my parents.

My parents.

I immediately shut that thought out of my head knowing that if I think about them I might start to cry again. So, I blocked the thought out, and continued on my mission. Since the mat's alarm was still turned on, I had to hop over the porch railing and landed in a big pile of soil. That was a very good thing, because that means that the gardeners shift was over and they wouldn't be out again until 11:00. One less group of people to see me.

Now I just had to make my way to town.

I crept behind the trees of my neighbors who I've never even met. I crept over hills. I crept under bushes. I crept everywhere knowing that if I get caught, I would probably be dead by tomorrow. Once I finally got to the end of my street, I turned the corner and standing with his back facing towards me, about ten yards away, stood the tallest and strongest Falaguard I've ever seen. With that I quickly bolted back around the house and leaped over the porch, making sure not to set the alarm off, before I sprinted back around the house and ducked under the back porch.

I could hear the Falaguard's footsteps as he walked around the house and came closer. His feet were now in my view so I sucked in my stomach and held my breath so I wouldn't make any noise at all. Stomping noises flowed through my ears and filled my whole body as the Falaguard walked around the deck. I know he heard me running and since now he was suspicious I thought that I will never get to get to live the life that I am supposed to live.

If he doesn't leave or if he sends the person on the next shift to this spot, I'm not going to be able to sneak out. No matter what my parents will have the Falaguards look for me since I'm missing, and if I was still under the deck I'm easily going to be found. I couldn't think about it though. I have to tell myself I will get out because if I don't tell myself; there's no way I could succeed. Eventually the stomping went away, but the Falaguards feet were still visible, but were more like 30 yards away now. And that was the perfect distance for me to escape.

I slid across the sharp rocks and twigs and scraped my back against the worn out wood trying to get to the place where I entered the deck. After about a minute of scraping and grinding, I finally reached the opening.

From being under the deck so long, I hadn't realized that the sun is finally starting to come up. The colors of the morning skies screamed against my eyes, that since I've woken up, have only seen darkness. Even though the colors were so beautiful and made me happy, it also meant I was getting closer to being caught. So, I squiggled out from under the deck and finally felt alive again and gained back my chance for freedom.

I started around the house and with one look back to make sure that the Falaguard wasn't watching, I realized the Falaguard wasn't there. I never saw him leave though, so he must've left in the time I was trying to get out from under the prison I put myself in. That means he couldn't have gone far, but he was nowhere in sight.

There were only three possible places he could be; in the house, around the house, or under the deck. And I think we all know he isn't under there. 

Chapter One

Author's note: This is the first chapter of the book, so that's why it doesn't really have an ending. There will be more chapters!

Escape

The wind wafted across the warm summer air and brought the delightful smell  of cherry blossoms and  lavender to my nose. I took in everything. The smell, the view, the grass, the sky, everything. I couldn't  believe after all the years I've lived in a world where you never knew if there was going to be a  tomorrow, I'd finally found the one and only place where  could feel happy. It was almost as if I was a  princess.

That was until I looked down and saw my brown and white, tattered clothes that I'd been wearing for at  least a month without being washed. I never wanted to go back to my homeland, my province called  Falafia. Falafia was a terrible place where our rulers, which we call Falafails, controlled everything we  did. No one had ever broken the rules, knowing there are serious consequences like torture and death,  until I came along. I just couldn't take it anymore. Living everyday wishing  I could just be free. Now I am  though and I don't regret it at all, and I'm going to tell you exactly how I got here.

I sprinted down the cold, hard, rocky gravel road with nothing but skin on my feet. Though how my day  was going, I didn't know if there was going to be skin by the end of the day. Actually I didn't know if  there even is going to be a me. The Falagaurds have been chasing me for at least three miles now and I  didn't know if they were ever going to stop. It was almost as if they were robots. Keeping a consistent  pace the whole time and never running out of breath, doesn't seem right to me.

I turned around and saw them gaining on me knowing that I couldn't keep it up much longer and I kept  going back to how I got into this situation in the first place. It all started a couple days ago when I woke up at  crack of dawn and grabbed everything I needed to run away; food, water, a first-aid kit, some coins that  my great grandmother gave to me when I was six, and last, but definitely not least, the locket my  parents gave to me on my first birthday. I packed everything into the backpack I found in my parent's  closet and went to the kitchen write a note to my parents. I grabbed the dark black pen off the counter  and found a white napkin to write on in the kitchen.

I brushed my dirty blonde hair out of my face and started writing:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for leaving you after everything you've given and done for me. It's just…. I can't  take it anymore. I can't take living life with no control over anything. I can't take living with no  control over anything. I can't live the life that I know I'm not supposed to be living. I just can't. This  is the first decision I've ever made in my life, but I know it's the right one. I'm going to miss you  more than anything else in the world, but I know I have to go. So, goodbye Mom. I'm going to miss  your smile and the way you could always make me laugh no matter what happened. Goodbye Dad.  I'm going to miss you piggybacking me around the house when I get a bruise on my leg and when  you play board games with me when I'm sick. I am saying goodbye to the best parents in the world,  so don't let yourself think it was something you did. Nothing you ever did to me has to do with any  of this. I love you.

Love,

    Layla

I crisply folded the napkin into a perfect little square and set it in the exact center of my kitchen table.  Then I realized that my hiking boot was untied, so I leaned over and tied it. Right at that moment I really  figured out what I was doing. I wasn't just running away, I was leaving everything I'd ever known. I was  leaving my family, the only people I'd ever loved and pretty much the only people I'd ever known  besides the Falafails and the people who lived right next door to us. That's when I started to cry, so I  rolled up onto a tiny little ball on the floor. I cried and cried in the exact same spot on the floor for about  an hour or so. That's when I realized that there was no way I could continue crying.

I had to leave, and I had to leave now. Sitting on the floor crying was the biggest mistake I'd ever made.  By now the Falagaurds were all up and starting the first part of their shift and my parents would be home in about an hour. I had to be really sneaky and swift with what I do now. I got up off the cold floor and pulled myself together. I looked around my house one more time, knowing I would   never see it again. After I finished memorizing every nook and cranny of my house, and walked out my front door, slowly shutting it behind me making sure not to cause a ruckus.