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Writing By Randolph Rhodd

Directory Page 1: Directory Page 2: Reflective Page 3: Hope Page 4: Drift Away Page 5: Satisfaction Page 6: Heirloom Page 7: Branches of Life Page 8: Good Medicine Page 9: Good Medicine Page 10: Good Medicine Page 11: Good Soldiers Page 12: Good Soldiers

Hope Making a notebook about hope for children to know all the good in the world. That would be hard because in order for there to hope there has to be despair and the biggest form of hope that I can think of is survivor stories or bad people changing to better and kinder ideologies. The only way to express how people overcame and changed you got to tell what they overcame and what they were before, and kids might see that so much bad exist in the world they might ignore the hope at the end, essentially defeating the purpose you were trying to show. But survivor stories about people overcoming and moving forward after going through terrible situations to me shows hope of people never giving up. Bad people turning good also shows me hope because it says that nothing in this world is absolute, and humanity can push forward to better days. Holocaust survivors, reformed gang members, and acts of charity would be some of the stories in the book.

Drift Away A place that has felt holy to me once in my life is a small forest behind my grandpa’s house. Since I was young, I would always go back there to play with my cousins. There was one time in fall I went into the forest alone and sat on a rock by a creek. I have been in that forest and by that creek too many times to count but that one moment hearing the water flow down the creak with the wind blowing colorful leaves off the trees, I felt at peace. All my worries went away. It was just me in the middle of forest not caring about anything going on in the outside world. That to me was a beautiful and unforgettable moment in my life. There are not many times in life where you're able to drift away from all your problems.

Heirloom A family heirloom in my family is a squash blossom necklace. A squash blossom necklace is a native necklace that many Native American's wore in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The necklace symbolizes wealth and status among tribe members. Currently my mother is the owner of my family squash blossom. This came about when my great grandmother was passing on jewelry to her four granddaughters. My great grandmother had three diamond rings and she gave those to my aunts and my mom got the squash blossom because my great grandmother knew that my mom was more into her culture than the others. I don’t exactly know how old the necklace is, but I do know it was passed down to my great grandma from her mother, so it is safe to assume it is over a hundred years old. As for the future owners of the necklace it will be passed down to me and then my children and so on.

Branches of Life Humans are like trees Full of many branches and leaves The more branches the more connections All pointing out in different directions The bigger the branch the more importance it holds The smaller ones are like acquaintances or former friends Sometimes they don’t grow or uphold Sometimes the branches fall, no longer extends Like all forms of life, the tree, you, die All the branches start to wither away But that decay, for the Earth is a supply That supply will help nurture more trees someday Look at a tree and think how big yours would be How many branches would you have How far would they reach? Are you happy with your tree, are you content?

Good Medicine “Hello, Dr. Anderson.” “Hello, Ms. Smith.” “How’s your research going for the trials?” “I am making progress, slow progress but nevertheless I am getting there.” “Congratulations doctor your research will save so many lives.” “That is the goal. Now I must get going, a good night sleep awaits.” “Good night.” Doctor James Anderson, a medical researcher searching for the cure for liver cancer in Kansas City’s Medical Reasearch Institute. “Haa!” James looks up at the starry night sky. “The day will come when I save millions,” thought James. James walks through the parking lot towards his black Ford F-150. He sits in his truck and turns on the ignition and a sinister smile starts to creep on his face. “Time to get to work.” Driving downtown in Kansas City at night showed the city's darker side. With hundreds of homeless people living in tents on the sidewalks and alleyways. A black pickup truck with tinted windows slowly drives through the streets. “I need an older one that’s male,” says James, as he drives through the streets while looking at the homeless on the sidewalks. “Gotcha.” An old man with a bald head and grey beard walks from the city of tents with an empty shopping cart. “He’s got to at least be in his sixties.’ James rolls down his window. “Hey, you need a lift to the store.” The old man turns to look at James with a surprised expression. “How you know I was going to the store.” “Haha. Considering your walking in the direction of Dillion’s with an empty shopping cart, I figured that’s where you will be heading. I am also heading there right now. So do you want a lift” “That would be much appreciated” says, the old man presenting a wide smile revealing his yellow teeth. “Here let me help you with that cart.” James gets out of the truck to help the old man put the cart in the back trunk. “Names James.” “Cooper.” The two men greeted each other as they lifted the shopping cart in the back of the trunk. “That was heavier than I thought” says James, clasping his hands together “Ya the older carts are a lot heavier than the newer ones, must be the material the companies use to make them, but on the good side they last a lot longer.” James and Cooper get in the truck. “Thank you for the ride, not many people would do such a thing, you a good person” says, Cooper.

“Of course, I’m a good person, I’m going to be a hero,” says James in a very sinister tone. “What do you mean uhhgg,” Cooper’s eyes are wide opened as a stared at James's hand holding a needle that’s stabbed in his throat. “It's okay, it's okay, just sleep,” says James Cooper eyes started darting back and forth from James's hands to his eyes. Cooper saw that James' face was emotionless, but his eyes were full of insanity. He wanted to stop him, but everything started to become foggy. Then everything turned black. “Please be the one,” said James with a solemn face. The ride to James's house took 35 minutes. When James pulled up to the grey 2 story house with a garage on the left-hand side of the house, he clicked the garage button to open it and drove in. He got out of the car went to the passenger side and started dragging the unconscious homeless man. Has he got into the house through the garage where there were two paths, one to the right that leads to the rest of the house and one that leads left to the downstairs basement. As James started dragging cooper down to the basement heard Cooper start to groan every time his legs hit the next step because he was being dragged by his arms. “Uh, he is already starting to wake up, he should’ve been asleep for another 15 minutes. I must’ve gotten the dosage wrong.” James reached the bottom of the staircase he was met with a door with a coded lock and key lock on it. He pulled out a key from his pocket and twisted the lock with it till it unlocked then he typed a code on a keypad and opened the door. The basement was set up like a surgical room. With a medical bed in the middle of the room. Monitor machines surrounding it and on the sides of the room were microscopes, clear cabinets with many types of drugs in them, and a table with many types of surgical tools laid out. He started dragging the slowly waking Cooper to the bed in the middle of the room and lowered the bed to the ground and laid Cooper, making sure the straps were tied tightly on all four limbs and on his forehead. “Uhhh where am I,” said Cooper weakly. “I’m sorry but none of this will be in vain.” Replied James as he put a needle in Cooper’s left forearms vain. “Noo,” pleaded Cooper, but it was pointless the drug kicked in and Cooper was back asleep. James walked to a cabinet, opened it, took his clothes off and then grabbed the surgical outfit and put it on. After getting all his lab equipment ready, he went to work on Coopper. First by removing blood, then injecting drugs into his arms, cutting off flesh, then extraction bone marrow, and organs. For hours he was doing all sorts of medical tests in his basement. “It, its eating the cancer cells, ITS KILLLING THE LIVER CANCER CELLS HAHAHA!!” James laughed as he looked through the microscope that showed human cells killing the cancer cells. “After all these years it finally paid off,” said James while walking to a drawer. When he opened the drawer there were dozens of folders with names of races, ages, and blood types on them. “None of your deaths were in vain, not only will this cure liver cancer will lead a path in killing the other type of cancers. It’s me, I’m the one that did it, I will go down in history as a medical hero.” said James with tears coming down his face.

“I must go to the research institute right away,” said James as he started running upstairs. “Dammit I need to clean up” he said has he looked down on his blooding lab coat. James immediately went upstairs in his house to take a shower and put on a new pair of clothes. On the ride to the research institute James kept repeating “I a hero” with a smile all across his face. When he arrived there, it was already 9:10 in the morning. “What are you so cheering about,” a doctor passing James in the hallway said. “I think I found a way to make a breakthrough in my research,” said James with a smile on his face. “You didn’t hear.” “Hear what.” “Around an hour ago a medical researcher in Norway found a cure for kidney cancer. And the producer with a little bit of changes can help lead to curing 90% percent of cancers including liver cancer.” “What.” replied James with wide eyes. “Ya, you can look it up on your phone.” James immediately took his phone out. After a minute on the phone, it dropped from his hands because he saw it, he saw it all. News networks showing a researcher from Norway has found the cure for kidney cancer and a path to cure many others. “NO! NOO! IT WAS SUPPPOSED TO BE ME!!! AFTER EVERYTHING I’M SUPPOSED TO BE THE HERO!!” yelled James with a crazed face. “Dr. Anderson what are you doing, calm down.” said the other doctor as he approached James “GET AWAY!” yelled James as he pushed the doctor “STOP!” yelled a security guard rushing down the hallways. “It’s I supposed to be the hero, it was all supposed to be worth something, IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ME!!” 3 years later. “haha, I’m a hero, haha, I saved millions,” said a man in a white room with cloths all over the walls. “That wack job is back at it again,” said a security guard “Yup, time for his medicine to calm his down,” said another guard “Let's wait.” “Why? “The guy experimented and killed 52 people, let him wallow in his derange state for a little while longer.” “Whatever.” Back in the pure white room was James Anderson curled up in a corner. “I’m a hero haha, I’m a good person.”