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HEY! Sorry this is late, but I could not figure out how to end the Indian scene. Any suggestions for that part? OR any part? Do you guys know what question I am trying to focus on? (Because I am sort of unsure myself!) HERE IT IS! -Emily H

(Wo)Man’s Struggle With Nature…

Emily Hinkler!

Have I been stung by a bee?

Nope. Never ever. Noooo way.

And I don’t plan on it.

But that’s not my struggle.

*****

4, 5…6…7, 8! I count my battle wounds of mosquito bites the same way I count my Halloween candy. The more, the better. (Well, unless you eat too much and then your tummy hurts… that is always a problem.)

Did you know that I am the luckiest girl alive?

Whenever I pick a clover, it just happens to be a 4 leaf clover.

Every time.

It may just be because I rock your socks, or maybe because I can say the alphabet backwards (which means I am super cool) OR maybe just because I am super sneaky and know that if you pick a 3 leaf clover, and you rip one of the wider sides of the clover in half-you get a magical lucky ducky 4 leaf clover.

I am screaming in my back yard.

“Mommm, there is a huge-normous spider on the wall… COME KILL IT!”

My mom knew the drill. She came running outside with her gas mask and fire extinguisher strapped to her. In a flurry of smog, the Tarantula explodes with flailing legs and blood everywhere. You hear my shrill shriek of horror and disgust echo throughout Illinois.

(Umm, okay what really happened is this: My mom calmly strolled over to the wall, took her Kleenex, and gently squashed the spider.

Soooo my mom just squished the spider normally,

nothing fancy.)

Okay, here is something legit.

I like to connect to my Native American Cherokee Indian heritage. So being the nature lover that I am, I decided to dig a hole in my “secret garden” (you will find out later why I call it the “secret garden”) to find arrow heads.

I dug a huge hole.

“Where in the world are the arrow heads?” I said to myself.

(And yes, I do talk to myself.)

Wanting to connect to my history, I decided to put my own “Indian-like” objects in the hole. So I found a ball that looks like the Earth, a pink pencil, and fake purple feathers that I put inside the hole.

“Oh my! Look what I found!” I dragged my family outside to the “secret garden” and showed them my Indian treasures.

37…38, 39, 40.

40 mosquito bites.

Oh wait, no. 41.