As the world of wonder grew and more and more factories were being built in the village, Marshall became a huge town with even a big saw mill. I thought this was just going to be temporary but after I went to the meeting I found out that this was going to be forever!

The people at the meeting thought it would be great to earn a few more dollars, but Charlotte and I thought it was wrong. Since we were always being mischief in Frank's class I thought it would be fun to do some mischief with Charlotte inside the saw mill. Late that night I called Charlotte. "Hi Char, what's up?" I asked. "Nothing, how about you?" she muttered over her yawn. "Oh nothing really. Urn, Urn, you wouldn't be up to some mischief right now would you?" Then I heard a gasp. "I wouldn't mind doing any kind of mischief!" From the sound of her voice I could tell she was hyped up. "Come down to my house then and I'll tell you what we're going to do. Oh yeah, and swipe Fred's four wheeler too, okay," I said, trying to keep calm.

Within minutes she was down at my house. "Hi Char, come in," I said smiling. She walked into my room and sat on the bed. "Want some popcorn? It might take a while to get our plan done," I said quietly. "What plan? You never told me about a plan," she asked. "I'll show you in a little bit," I said, as I went out the door. I walked back into my room with a big bag of microwaved popcorn. "Holy popcorn!" she yelled, almost waking my parents. "Quiet down okay, please," I scolded. Then I showed her my plan. "Okay, this is where Fred's four wheeler comes in," I said, smiling at Charlotte. "We aren't going to wreck it, are we?" she asked curiously. "No there should be no harm done if we do this right. And we have to do it right or else we'll get in big trouble," I said, whispering.

Our plan was to sneak inside the building and pull a main switch so that none of the machines would work. And we had to pull the right one so that no harm would be done to our environment. So we rode up to the factory at about 4:30 in the morning, when nobody was awake. We put nylons over our heads and leather gloves on to protect our identities. "I'm the well-known criminal from New York," Charlotte joked. "Let's just hurry up," I whispered, getting a little scared. "Well let's go then," Charlotte whispered.

We walked into the factory through an open gate that one of the security guards forgot to lock. Then we entered the biggest room which had all the machines in it and looked for the main switch box. "Charlotte, you still with me?" I asked. No one answered so I looked back and found she was gone. With a loud voice, I yelled "Charlotte!" But no answer. I thought she might be hiding behind the big saw. Then I heard her running towards me. "Come on Cheryl, we ye got to hide. Someone's coming," she said, panicking. We looked all over for the main switch we were going to pull, and finally we found it. "Look Char, it's right there," I exclaimed. "Run over and pull it!" As soon as she did, everything went black. She must have really wanted to get out of the building because she switched her flashlight on and was gone before I'd finished talking to her. Then suddenly she was back again. "Let's try and sneak out. Look for a window to crawl out of," I whispered. "I found one. Let's go!" she said hurriedly. We ran to the window and crawled through it.

"Where did you park Fred's four wheeler?" I asked, starting to panic. I followed her around the corner and jumped on. But Charlotte had a hard time starting it, and she yelled for me to try and start it. When it finally started we went a little ways and it stopped. She looked at me and yelled, "Holy cow!! There's people following us!" I looked and saw the janitor coming for us with a big crowbar in his hand. "I'm going to kill you guys! If I ever find out who you guys are I'm going to grind you into hamburger meat!" He sounded dangerous. Just in the nick of time, though, Charlotte started the four wheeler and we took off. "Boy that was a close call," I said, trying to keep calm. "I'm never going to do anything mischief with you again!" she told me. "Yeah, whatever," I laughed.

She brought me home and I couldn't sleep for a long time. I kept thinking about what we'd done. The next day I called her and told her not to tell anyone because we'd get into lots of trouble. The saw mill was shut down, I told her, and there was so much damage it probably wouldn't open again. After that, Charlotte and I were never mischief in Frank's class again

Cheryl Hunter

We do not inherit our time on this Earth from our parents. We borrow it from our children.