Dream Catcher Story Contest

2nd place

(Category 1: grades 3-5)

 

“Dreams”

by Penelope Vuong

Age 11, Grade 5

 

     Ava went out to her backyard to look at her dream catcher. It had been going all morning, sucking each bad dream that roamed around in the air. The dream catcher was a small box made with strong glass, including a sucking tube sticking up on the top for the dreams to come in. Good dreams look fuzzy and warm, with a mix of different pastel colors, like pink, violet, and blue. The colors were beautiful, and it looked like cotton candy the way it all mixed together. The good dreams were always warm, and made her content.

     But Ava wasn’t catching good dreams. She was catching bad dreams. They were lumpy, dark, gloomy colors (such as gray and black), and freezing cold.

     Ava peered through the glass. The jumbled, creepy dreams filled the space inside. She crouched closer to the glass, trying to get a better look. Ava went closer and closer until her face was touching the glass. The glass felt icy. Her nose pressed against the glass as she saw a picture of the dream, tangled in the clump.

     Ava gasped. She saw a dragon devouring a person. She quickly looked away.

     That was unpleasant, she shuddered.

     A few minutes later, the whole glass box was crammed with bad dreams. It was time for Ava to dump it out. She pressed a button on a remote; the tube stopped sucking and closed up. Ava detached it from the glass box and quickly rushed into her bedroom. On her desk was a container she had made that filtered out the bad dreams. She dumped the contents into the box, waited for it to stop rumbling, then looked in.

     Nothing.

     Ava gave a satisfied smile, then went outside to start the cycle all over again.

 


 

View a list of all the winners:  http://pasadena-library.net/kids/2020/dream-catcher-story-contest