Help with English

 

I ReMembered this 8th grade incident a few years ago, after I painted a Unicorn on my T-shirt, and named him Magic. I hung my T-shirt on my bookcase that night to look at my Beautiful Unicorn as I drifted off to sleep. In the light of the moon the picture shimmered. Suddenly, there was a whole Unicorn standing beside my bed, tossing his head and *Laughing*!

"Care to go for a ride?"

"Sure!" I bounded out of bed and onto his back.

In one leap we were through my bedroom wall and flying toward the moon. Over the next 6 months Magic took me for several rides, to different worlds and through Time here on Earth.

 

Anyway, here was my first encounter with Magic, as Midnight, my Invisable Horse Friend:

 

When I was a kid, I was just crazy about horses. I could even whinnie like a horse and they would answer me. My friends & I would "play horses". Sometimes we would pretend to be wild horses and sometimes we would pretend to ride horses, like cowgirls. My friends and I still pretended to be horses long after most girls gave up "Pretend" for boys. In 7th grade my friends "grew up". But, me.... I still had my Pretend Horse Friend clear into 8th grade.

In 8th grade I had to take regular English instead of an elective. This was the final test and I was failing, miserably! I had failed all my assignments and tests for the last half of the quarter. I was totally lost and floundering in the sea of sentence structure! I knew what a noun, verb, and preposition was and that's all. I started getting confused with the pronouns and adverbs. From there on it was all jibberish! I was able to answer about 5 questions out of 4 pages. Half my grade for the semester and passage out of the 8th grade was hanging on this test. Talk about stress!!!

I was in tears and praying for Divine Intervention when the latched class room door popped open about 2 inches. I looked up to see who was going to disturb our test. No one was there. I listened for foot-falls in the hall way. Nothing. I looked toward the windows. They were all closed. I looked around the class room. No one seemed to have noticed that the door opened, including the teacher, who always kept the door tightly closed to keep down distractions. Then the door opened slowly to about 8 inches, creaking loudly. I glanced back at the teacher, expecting her get up and close the door. She didn't look up. She hadn't even noticed!

*Hello, Sharri.* I *heard* in my mind. The door creaked loudly once more, opening to about a foot, and in pranced Midnight, my Imaginary Horse Friend. Midnight tossed his head in greeting, his long, silvery mane shimmered as it danced and fell. I grinned, imagining the light reflecting off his nearly black dappled gray, shinny coat, as his powerful muscles rippled under his skin.

*Hi, Midnight. I can't play right now. I have to take this English test.*

He pranced down the isle, turned and rested his head over my right shoulder. *Could you use some help?*

*Yes, oh, yes!* I thought to him.

*OK, you read the questions and I'll tell you the answers to write down.*

*Thank you!!!*

 

The next day when the teacher handed back our tests, a great big "A" and a smiley face were at the top of my paper!!!! One of the few "A's" that I ever got outside of Art Class.

In my Mind I ran through the meadow, waving my paper at Midnight. He ran to meet me and I threw my arms around his neck. *Thank you, thank you, Midnight. I couldn't have done it without you!* I swung up on his back and we dashed across the meadow together, disappearing into the Mist.

(c) Sharri Lorraine 1998, 2001