OVER THE EDGE April 9th-September 10th, 2008 Second Place Heartbeat By Violet Gunderson, Grade Twelve, Kelly Road Seconary School Thump. Thump. A heartbeat. It shakes everything up in me. It isn’t my heart- beat. It is the door. Sunlight seeps through the cracks. I’ve been through that door many times before. It is beautiful inside. The heart of the door always beats, but once inside it is so quiet one never notices it. It is Only peaceful inside. The heart beats now with excitement. I take a deep breath and open the door. I slowly exhale. Every time I open the door I get a feeling of contentment mixed with the same sensation of excite- ment I get when I first hear the loud heartbeat of the door. Then, I start to run. I know exactly where I want to go. I feel so alive. First I must head down the wide trail with the friendly frogs. I see one hop along the trail and hear it happily croak. I bend down to rub a finger along its back. I watch it hop away and then continue running down the trail. I enter the field full of brightly colored flowers. A doe with her fawn are there grazing. They lift up their heads to see who just entered the field, but they are not spooked when they see me. The fawn leaves his mothers side and runs towards me. He runs around me in circles until I stop and pet him. I continue on my way and he runs back to his mother’s side, completely satisfied and full of life. The narrow path is ahead of me, filled with the beautiful and colorful butter- flies. I find this path to be the most magnificent of all the entire woods behind * the door. I slow down and start to walk. I hold out my hand and a butterfly with orange, blue, and brown wings lands in my palm. I look at it for a moment then — bend down and put my hand close to a flower. It crawls off onto the flower. It starts to flutter its wings and finally decides it can be still no longer. It takes off into the air and flies away. I start to run again since I still need to get to my final _ destination. I run down the grassy hill where two foxes are playing. They stop when they | see me approach and then decide I am not.a bother to. them. They continue to chase each other and I laugh at their games for a moment before I continue on. I’ve finally made it. There ahead of me is the clear and still waters of the beaver pond. I’m wearing my bathing suit, so I just take off my shoes and enter the water. I start to swim and wait for my companion to came. Soon a furry brown head pops up and the water games begin. We dive under the water and I end up trying _ to catch him. The beaver was made for water activities, so I am always slow in the water, at least compared to him. He teases me by swimming faster than I am able to, then finally he slows down so I can catch him. I grab his feet and | we head to the surface. He swims away as if telling me that the games are over and it’s back to work. I get out of the water and head back to put my shoes on. That’s when I notice the sudden change in the weather. It was so sunny, but sud- denly it changed to being dark with thick black clouds in the sky. Then I hear a loud rush of water. I turn around arid see the dam has broken. The beaver slaps his tail on the water until he finally gives out and sinks down below the water. Thump. Thump. The heartbeat. Something is wrong. Then thunder is heard. Big rain drops fall out of the sky and slap my face. I turn and run away. I pass by the foxes. The one is lying still on the ground with his companion standing over him whining and trying to nudge him to get up. I enter the narrow path with the beautiful butterflies, but it isn’t the same. The trees are cut down and it looks totally lifeless. I notice a flower still in the ground. The orange, blue and-brown butterfly was on it. The wings fluttered slowly and they continued to get slower till they finally stopped. Thump. Thump. I ran towards the field. The flowers were gone and only patches of tall dry grass was left. The fawn was running bewildered. The mother was not there. I called to the fawn, but he just ran down the narrow path. I turned and kept on running. The trail with the friendly frogs was not a trail anymore. It was completely bare and machinery tracks were everywhere. A frog was crushed into the dirt. Thump. Thump. The ~ heartbeat echoed. It intensified. I could feel it inside me, shaking me up. ‘T ran down the final path to where the door was. The door was slashed and spray-painted. It even rattled because the heart was beating too fast. I opened the door and ran inside. I closed the door behind me and ran down the hall to my room. I crouched low to the ground, covering my ears. Thump. Thump. The heartbeat was louder than ever before. Then finally it started slowing down. Thump...thump. Thump...thump...thump. Then it just suddenly stopped. I turned to look at the door. No sunlight was streaming through the cracks. The only light streaming through was red. Till finally the door to my bed- room closed. I reached to open it, but it wasn’t there anymore. Only a wall remained. . Third Place Callaboration of the Sumo and the Sea Otter By Adam Chuby, Grade Twelve, Kelly Road Secondary School A Frisbee comes crashing through the trees followed by arolling sumo. The tree branches smack the young sumo as he falls down the hill, unable to stop himself because of the mo- mentum. He comes to a horrible stop smack- ing right into a tree at the bottom of the hill. Hon the sumo looks around in confusion until his gaze comes to rest on his white Frisbee lying just a few meters in front of him. Hon slowly rises to his feet shaking off the terrible fall. He picks up the white Frisbee, which looks extremely tiny in the large sumo’s hands, and begins observing it. He now real- izes that playing Frisbee by yourself is a lot harder than playing it with someone else, but Hon had no one else to play with and he really did want to play. Hon decides to try one more round of Fris- bee. This time he whips the Frisbee into the wind. The Frisbee shoots upward like a rocket into the sky flying higher and higher before coming to a sudden crash into the sea below. Hon’s eyes begin to water and he is on the brink of crying; as next to wrestling, Frisbee was his second favourite sport, and that Frisbee was his last one. Hon stared help- lessly at the water, tears welling up in his eyes when suddenly the water begins to erupt into a twister of waves, splashing in all directions. Hon watches in sheer terror as the waves spin around and around until something flies out hitting Hon hard, directly in the forehead. Hon is at first dazed by the hit, but then begins to again focus on what hit him. He then spots it, the white Frisbee laying on the ground next to him. Hon thinks, “My Frisbee! I thought I lost it”; then he thinks, “who threw it?” Hon begins edging towards the water hold- ing the Frisbee in one hand. He looks down once again at the spot on the water where it was spinning, waiting to see if there is a crea- ture beneath. After a few minutes of intense observation of the area, he sees nothing. Hon ‘decides to risk his Frisbee so once again he throws the Frisbee but this time purposely into the sea. Hon backs up four steps and releases the Frisbee into the wind, unexpectedly from the water a small fur covered animal springs into the air catching the Frisbee in its hands and crashing back into the water. Hon was first startled by the creature, but now seeing it feels no fear so he approaches the shore. The creature appears in front of him swirling and playing about with his Frisbee, paying no attention to the huge sum watching him.. Hon wonders if this creature would play with him, so he positions his hands into a catching position and urges the creature to throw the “Hon stared helplessly at the water, Frisbee. After a few seconds of confusion the _creature throws the Frisbee straight at Hon. Hon reacts quickly and is able to catch it in his hand. He now sees the creature in full view and it dawns on him that the creature reminds him of a sea otter he once saw in a book. Hon grips the Frisbee in his hand and throws it back to the sea otter, once again it leaps into the air and catches the Frisbee. The sea otter immediately throws the Frisbee back to Hon and so these two developed a rather unique friendship. Hon throws the Frisbee higher and the sea otter still catches it returning with a speedy throw to the side of Hon, Hon then scrambles to catch it, and succeeds. This chal- lenging game of Frisbee continues for another hour or so, until suddenly after one throw by the sea otter the Frisbee fails to come back down to Hon. It appears that the Frisbee is stuck in a tree just above Hon’s head, and is out of reach of the poor sumo. Hon quickly thinks of a way to get the Frisbee out, he gets into sumo charging position and runs full speed into the trees base and begins shaking the tree. Branches and leaves fly all around Hon as he shakes the tree dry, but the Frisbee is jammed too good for the large sumo to free it. The sear otter jumps out of the water and begins to approach the tree, with an idea of its own. It calmly sinks its claws into the tree base and begins to climb, The sea otter is al- most in reach of the Frisbee, but slips off the tree landing hard on the ground below. Hon laughs uncontrollably at the poor sea otter, until the creature gives him a disapproving glare, Hon now thinks of a new tactic to re- trieve his white Frisbee. He stands directly under it in almost perfect alignment with the Frisbee and begins to jump reaching both hands straight into the air, this time the sea ot- ter is the snickering at him as he cannot reach the Frisbee he so desperately wants. This sad attempt to get the Frisbee gives the sea otter a great idea, he thinks that with the help of him, the sumo may be able to reach the Fris- bee and free it. He quickly scurries up onto the sumo’s head and stands straight up reach- ing its hands into the air, Hon is shocked at what he sees, but knows that collaboration is the only way to reach the Frisbee. Hon jumps once again, and this time the sea otter reaches the Frisbee and uses all its strength to free the Frisbee from the trees grasp. As the Frisbee is released, both Hon and the sea otter lose their balance and fall to the ground. Thanks to their collaboration, Hon and the sea otter resume and their game of Frisbee and remain great friends. tears welling up in his eyes when sud- denly the water begins to erupt into a twister of waves, splashing in all direc- tions.”