Instructions: Read the story and start writing a story, describing where, with whom and how you will spend your ideal 48 hours. The Big Win You are lying in your bed. It is not comfortable. It feels hard and lumpy. You cannot sleep. You are too cold. Throw off the blankets. No, pull them back up. You hear the noise of the traffic outside your window. You turn over again and again. The room is very dark. You wish you had someone to talk to. You have a hundred problems running through your head. Suddenly in the middle of this terrible night, the telephone rings. You reach out in the darkness tying to find the telephone. Ooops! You dropped it on the floor. Where is it? Oh, here it is. "Hello?" A man's voice says, "Congratulations!! This is the Big Win Show on T.V. You have just won all-expenses paid holiday anywhere in the world! Starting tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the morning you will be with any person you choose in any country or city you choose. You can stay for two days and do anything you like!" Strange Experience in France S.O. Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School, Kyoto, Japan

At the time we arrived at the airport, the bright morning sunshine was coming into the building like the spotlight on the stage "Phantom of the Opera." My sister and I felt great with the beautiful welcome of the sunshine, and nervously walked out of the door to the exit. When we found a taxi, I tried to remember the sentence my French teacher had taught me long time ago. With a great success in pronouncing French words, we could reach at the hotel. Taking a short break, my sister and I started to leave the hotel to go to the shopping mall. In the shopping mall, there were many interesting things that can't be found in Japan, like the dish plates made from special glasses. The bulletproof window guarded the glass and the light was making the plate shining. I bought one set of wine glasses and a decanter. Of course, I wasn't going to use it as the way it was made for. I would use them to drink my favorite juice with gorgeous feeling!!! As everyone knows, France is famous for its gourmet. My sister and I decided to have dinner in composed, homely restaurant to feel to be just invited to the French family. The restaurant was coordinated by dark, stone made wall with gentle light of candle. The waiter in tuxedo was a gentleman. After the staple food, we ate "pudding a la mode." This was a very tasty desert. I loved this fresh cream on the pudding because it perfectly matched with the source. With our nicely filled stomach, we decided to have a little walk outside the street of France. We asked where the park were to the people walking on the street and headed to the small park where people strolling their dogs refreshingly. Walking along the elegant street of river stones, my sister suddenly felt like eating ice cream. We can see the ice cream shop over the river. "I want to go to the other side of the river and get an ice cream." My sister said and ran to the other side of the river. This moment I stand here alone watching everything around me. Breathing the fresh air, I took a seat on the bench and sang a song. "La la la la" "Excuse me? Are you from Japan?" Someone spoke to me in a deep French accent. He was a tall black hair boy with glasses on his face. I had no idea who he was but some kind of de ja vu was running in my head. I must have seen him somewhere in my life. Looking at him in expressionless face, I waited for him to say something else. "Can you speak English?" He asked me with a little smile. I wasn't expecting him to talk to me, so I was in a little confusion. But I realized that I had to reply him, so I said, "Yes, a little, but why?" Then he told me that he was walking his dog in the park and the dog ran away. So he was looking for it. "I'm sorry." I said with a little smile. "Your dog must be very important for you." "Yes, it is." Then I saw tears running down his cheeks. I astonish with a shock. He was looking at me crying. Then I realized he had gotten beautiful green eyes. It seemed that he was not the people on earth. "Thank you." He said, and ran away. In the next morning, my sister said she would watch the stage of ballet dancer. My sister looked beautiful with the black gown she had bought in the royal admitted gown shop. She looked happy because to watch the ballet in the famous theater was her long time dream. After my sister headed to the theater, I took a late breakfast at the restaurant near the hotel and decided to have a little walk to the same park as yesterday. The park looked very different from last evening. The noon mist was so deep that I can hardly see every meter from my place. I started to feel little scared but I had nothing else to do but staggered. Slowly I saw the bench I was sitting the day before. I was tired from walking so I sat down on the bench to have a rest. Then I saw the boy, who had talked to me about his dog, running toward me and just walked through my body. I just stood there in amazement. I had no idea what had happened. The boy walked through my body looked pale and expressionless. I couldn't imagine the painful face of the boy from the boy I saw last evening. A weird, strange smell was left on my face after the strange experience. I was shocked that this kind of shocking thing really happened in the world. I felt my head went blank. The things I saw and experienced in my life seemed nothing and absurdly. After I went back to the hotel I told everything to my sister. In our first trip to France, we had an interesting experience. That boy must have been looking for his dog even after he died. - THE END - Child Research Net would like to thank the Doshisha International Junior/Senior High School and Sara Oya, student and author, for permitting reproduction of this article on the CRN web site.

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