1. Narrative Examples
English III

2. Damon’s Narrative
As I woke to the sound of the screaming alarm, I strained and
fought gravity to sit up. I could already tell today would be a
memorable day, but I didn’t know the half of it.
On a normal day, I would wake up, stumble to the
kitchen, and fill myself with the steaming breakfast my
mother had fixed earlier that morning. But today, to my
surprise, there was no one there. I walked the house many
times like the family detective trying to find clues of where
my parents might be. But with no luck I abruptly ended the
search, for I had other plans for the day. Taking advantage of
my time alone, I ran to my room, snatched some clothes
from my closet, and sprinted for the shower. I quickly
cleaned up and got dressed. I ran outside to see what I could
get into, and like clockwork my good friend Jon was jogging
down the road.

3. Even though I had just met Jon, I felt like I knew
him my whole life. Inseparable friends, everyday
we would hang out and see what trouble we
could cause, and today was no different. When
he finally came to a halt in front of me, we
shook hands and started contemplating our next
move. We had decided to make our way to the
mall; there was always something there to do.
We set off with the wind at our backs and the
sun shining on our faces. It was about three
miles to the mall from my house on Upper
Street.

4. We tried to walk fast, but we were soon
stopped by a cacophony of destructive screams
from the siren of an ambulance. We waited as it
passed, so maybe we could predict where it was
going. It was a bad neighborhood, so it wasn’t
rare to see an ambulance or a cop car fly by.
As we watched I started to notice that it was
approaching my house rather quickly. As it
turned out of sigh,t I got this horrible gut
feeling; I just couldn’t ignore it. It was like I
already knew there was a wreck. Almost like a
premonition.

5. Jon and I were both halfway athletic kids, so it
didn’t take long for us to chase down the
ambulance, but when we arrived on scene,
nothing could have prepared me for what I was
about to see next. Police and paramedics lined
the street perpendicular to mine. Trying to fight
my way through the crowd, pushing and shoving
men in uniforms, I finally caught a slight glimpse
of my mothers Camaro. As I approached the
vehicle, I could hear my mother’s voice echoing
off the building walls.
“HE STOLE IT! I COULDN’T STOP HIM!”

6. But when I finally reached the car, a police officer
stopped me and informed me that I was in the middle
of a crime scene, and I must move back. I tried to
reason with the man and explain it was my father
unconscious behind the wheel of the destroyed tin can.
He wouldn’t listen though, so I went back and knelt
down beside the entrance to some shop. All the
emotions in the world rushed into me all at once; it
was overwhelming. All I could do was fear what would
come next. Eventually an older wise-looking police
officer sat beside me. He explained that my father had
stolen my mom’s car, and when they tried to subdue
him, he fled and wrecked at a hundred and twenty
miles an hour. The cop said my dad was lucky to be
alive, and I was lucky because I would get to see him
again. But he was wrong.

7. That was the last time I saw my father,
unconscious behind the wheel of my mother’s
car. Soon after the wreck we called my uncle,
and he came and got us. I left Kentucky and
haven’t seen my best friend Jon or my father
since that day. My father was incarcerated in
the Clark County jail that day, and all forms of
communication between us halted. My mother
said he was no good, and any ties left would
only hurt me and make it harder to cope with.

8. Jesse’s Narrative
This is going to be a bad idea, I thought as I
gazed across the river. I did not realize the river
was this rocky and wide there. It looked as if
there was a giant alligator under the surface
with only its scales jabbing out of the water
everywhere, and I could barely see the other
bank, and it wasn’t that foggy.

9. My friend Lee and I had decided to kayak the
river and duck hunt on a bone chilling, dreary
afternoon in December. As we stood on the
bank in our camouflage and face paint studying
the terrain of the unfamiliar part of the river, I
was already starting to regret it. It was like it
was alive, the water swiftly pushing everything
in its path into the unforgiving rocks that filled
the river bed. Being the most experienced on
river kayaking of the two of us, I didn’t let Lee
notice my shaking hands. I wanted him to stay
calm.

10. We put our kayaks in the river a lot slower than
usual. I told him to tie his gun and his paddle to the
D rings on his waders in-case… I didn’t want to jinx
us by saying the word. We both hopped in our
vessels and started situating our gear to get
comfortable. I glanced over at Lee; he was already
shaking in his kayak. He glanced at me, but I
pretended like I didn’t see it. Squinting my eyes I
peered across the river. It looked even worse from
water level. We nodded at each other, thinking that
we were ready. I put a pinch of snuff in, made sure
my gun was secure but accessible on the top,
pushed off from the bank, and said, “Follow me.”

11. The water was much stronger than any I’d ever been
in; four strokes and I was already going way too fast. I
headed out into the middle of the river so maybe I
could spot a good hole in the “alligator’s scales” ahead.
As expected, nothing was obvious. I looked back at Lee
who was looking at me like, “Where to now fearless
leader?” I laughed at my own thoughts. As the first few
rocks passed, the rapids ahead were growling at us like
a predator at its prey. I spotted a hole between two
massive rocks on our left that looked promising, so I
turned my boat and pointed it out to Lee. We went
through it like professionals. Feeling pretty good about
how that went, I looked downriver to see what else the
river had for us. I couldn’t believe it. Rocks as far as I
could see, even bigger ones; it seemed there were
more rocks than water in the river.

12. I looked back at Lee who was shaking his head. I could
already see a sure hole through the next set straight
ahead, so I started to pick up some speed. We went
through it like we’d done it before, but then I saw it.
Waiting for us on the other side was a true gauntlet. In
every possible hole was a rock. It was starting to get
really shallow, which was a good thing and a bad thing.
We approached the gauntlet very slowly, trying but
failing to spot a sure way out. Winding between the rocks
like a barrel racer on a horse, I weaved around the rocks,
looking over my shoulder to make sure Lee was following
my lead. I thought, if it was summer tim,e this would be
kind of fun, but the water was icy cold on my hands and
splashing on my face. Finally I could see the end of this
set of rocks. I turned my boat sideways to watch Lee
come through.

13. Then my kayak caught a rock dead center; it turned
up and the water was about to come in, but I
quickly countered my weight and put myself back in
the water, as I pushed off the rock. My heart was
pounding. I looked up at Lee who was looking at me
with disbelief. I pointed and started to yell, but I
was too late; he hit the rock head on. His boat
tilted, and he fell out. Luckily it was shallow and he
landed on his feet and grabbed his gun all in one
motion. His gun case came floating my way along
with his kayak, so I snatched his case up and put it
across me, and caught his boat with mine, and
fought to push it back upstream to him.

14. It seemed like it took forever to make it back up
to him balancing his kayak with the bow of
mine, but I finally made it. We stayed there for a
minute to rest and thank God because it
could’ve been a lot worse. We decided to put
his gun case on the back of my boat because
there really was no room for it on his tiny little
sit-on-top kayak, then we headed back down
the river. Curious to see how far we had already
gone, I turned and looked back up river; I could
still see my truck, and it seemed like we’d been
in the water for hours.

15. Looking back downriver it seemed like the rocks were
starting to thin out. With plenty of openings, I chose
one and I went through it with ease. Lee had picked his
own opening this time and actually passed me, grinning
as he went by. My eyes followed him as he went on
down out front. Then he turned and yelled something,
but I couldn’t hear what he said, so I looked at the river
in front of him. It was a solid wall of rocks all the way
across the river. The water seemed ten times faster
than it had been. There was only one hole that our
boats could fit through across the whole river, and Lee
was headed right for it. It was a big rock, then a small
hole, then a log coming out of the river then more
rocks. And on the other side of the hole was a long flat
rock, so even if he made it through the gap, he would
have to cut extra sharp to make it out.

16. Lee started through the hole, but the back end
of his boat turned, hitting the log. His boat
turned up letting the water come over the right
side, and pushed his boat down so quick there
was nothing he could do, and his boat flipped
over. I lunged forward pushing my kayak with
everything I had as Lee disappeared under the
tinted water. I could hear geese honking in the
distance, but nothing else mattered right now; I
had to get Lee out of there. I was approaching
the log very fast when Lee came busting out.

17. His eyes were wide, and he yelled as he smacked
the water in front of him with anger. I was
speechless. He almost just drowned right in front of
me. Lee pulled himself up on a rock to catch his
breath. He thought he’d lost his gun, but I looked
down and saw it dragging on the bottom, so he
pulled it up by the cord he tied earlier. We decided
to pull over to the bank so he could take off his
waders, and try to get some of the water out, and
see if we could get his gun to cycle again. We
worked on it until there was nothing else we could
do, and it still wouldn’t work right. If we got the
chance to shoot, it would all be up to me now, but
we had to get down the river to make the landing
before dark.

18. We eased on down the river side-by-side now
because all the rocks were finally gone; we were
talking and laughing at the fact that neither one of
us had even thought about a duck the whole trip.
Naturally, when we thought it couldn’t get any
worse, it started to rain, and the fog came creeping
back in filling the river bed.
Then, we started around a bend to the left, and I
could see a bunch of waterfowl trolling along the
bank, and I thought It’s about time something good
happens. All of a sudden I noticed I was hearing an
engine getting closer from behind, so I looked and
sure enough, a train. Great, just what we need, a
train to come blowing by and scare all the geese
away, I thought.

19. For a second, I thought they might come flying back
upstream right over our heads, and then I watched
them get up. They flew straight downstream out of
sight. Freaking train, I thought. Getting really
frustrated I started to pick up speed, and Lee
followed. I could hear the geese as they came back
down to land just down river. I told Lee to stay
behind me and hold close to the bank as we neared
the murmuring flock of suspicious geese. They were
only about a hundred yards away, but the fog was
so thick now, we couldn’t see anything. But neither
could they.

20. Finally, I could see a long black neck appear
through the fog screen, then another, then
another, then another. There were seven or
eight of them, and they were just out of range.
Without paddling, or moving at all, I crept up on
them. I put my right hand on my shotgun, and
all eyes where on me. They all started clucking,
and I knew they were about to flush. Up they
went, followed by my shotgun bead, Boom!
Boom! Boom! Two geese hit the water shooting
spray ten foot high.

21. I turned and gave Lee a thumbs up. He came
paddling over and grabbed one of the geese and
put it in his boat, and I got the other one. “Well
at least we got something,” I told Lee as we
floated on down. He said “Yeah, no kidding!”
We could now see the bridge where his truck
was parked, so I went down to the landing
where Lee was waiting for me. Not a complete
waste I thought.