The Folkstories of Children

Six Years

Szx Years Carl 1. 1/9/74 One night I slept on the floor with my dog Ruff, Ruff. And I was sleeping with my dog on the rug. But the rug started to open and then I went down into a Wonder World. I fell into a bowl of lava. And when I fell into it, I could swim in it and it hurt just a little [he pinches me a little on the arm] and my dog fell in and got burned. And then I jumped in to save him. 'Cept when I got there, it was too late. But then one day I got -out of the road and I went into this house across the lake and bats were going around it and the doors were opening and closing and the windows were going like this [he claps his hands together twice]. And I went into this house and I saw a mirror all around me. And then hands started coming out of the mirror and started grabbing my feet and then my hands and they were pulling me. Then I got out of it. Then I went upstairs, but 144 SIX YEARS these stairs were creaking and creaking and creaking. And a voice said, "Who goes there?" And I said, "Who is that?" And the voice said, "I'm the goblin of Christmas." And then the monster started coming at me with a green hand, and he touched me, and said, "You're it!" [A boy who is listening to his story says, "I think he was just a friend playing tag." ] 2. 1/22/74.' Hong Kong Story Once in Hong Kong there was a man whose name was Ching Kong. He went for a walk, but he had a brother who wanted to kill him. He hid some men where Ching Kong was walking. They had ropes and Ching Kong pulled the ropes out of their hands and there was a fight. There were twenty bad men and Ching Kong. But there was three helpers who offered to help but he didn't want any help. He said, "It's family business. I'll do it myself." So he went out and he saw some of his brother's men. He choked one guy, he jumped on the other guy, he kicked another guy, and he gave another guy a kung fu chop in the back of the neck and killed him. Then Ching Kong went for another walk, and they caught him. But he had long pointed nails, but the bad guys cut off his hands so he couldn't use them. He shot those little nails at those bad guys. He got them in the stomach and he was hurt a little bit. The bad brother got a man that was fat and strong-stronger than Ching Kong. He charged at Ching Kong with his fists and he jumped over a whipping guy that had a whip. Ching Kong won the fight, and all the bad guys were scared of him and they all ran away. The end. 3. 2/4/74: True Story One day there was a man called Cropsy and he lived five years ago. His wife went crazy so then he decided he would go crazy. But he was worried about his son, so he put his son in a camp. And one day his son tripped over a rock and broke his head open and he went crazy too. And Cropsy went up to that camp and the boys were going swimming and he was hiding behind a tree. And when the boys came to dry themselves off he killed them ... because he thought the camp had killed his son. But the camp counselor slept in a high hill on the top of the mountain in a tent. And Cropsy went up after him. Cropsy had a knife, a gun, a pistol, and a butcher knife, and a kitchen knife. And he chopped off his toes first. Then he cut his heart open, chopped his tongue off and took his eyes out and used one of the eyes for his eye that had come out. The end. 145 PLOT STORIES 4. 2/15/74 One day, in my camp last summer, the counselor told a scary story about a wolfman that was alive five years ago and he lived right in the cabin that the kids were all in. Now the kids and even I and...