Page 31 - The Muse 2021

to lock me in the diorama. I still did not know why he would do that because he didn't have the next clue. Then when he saw me go towards Central Park he must have followed. He must have heard what the man said and then waited for me to leave so he could go talk to him and claim he had won.
Cole responded, “I took a boat.”
“The boat you took was the boat I was on you snuck on. You've been following me this whole time. And at the museum you tried to lock me in the diorama. Then you followed me here and tried to play it off like you won.”
I was enraged. I couldn't believe he had done this.
“Mr. I'm the winner I have the last pamphlet Cole just followed me everywhere,” I said
“Well,” the man said, “What were the clues?”
I responded, “The first clue was at the peak of the Statue of Liberty, the second was in the Museum of Natural
History, in the Grizzly Bear diorama, and the third clue was in the park on the little mini-island of the big lake.”
“It seems that you have truthfully won,” the man said, “You are the winner.”
The man turned to Cole “And you are coming with me.”
I couldn't believe it, I had won. Karl was going to get his money and save the bookstore. The man came back with
a written check for 50,000 dollars.
“Who would you like this addressed to,” he said.
“Karl Livingston,” I replied.
“Ok.”
I had the check and I was so excited I went running to the subway station to get on a train towards the bookstore.
When I got there Karl was sitting down reading a book.
“What book are you reading?” I asked.
“It's actually your best seller, Midnight stroll,” He replied.
“Oh, ok? Are you liking it?” I replied.
“Yes, very much so.”
“I have some good news for you,” I said, “I won the competition here's your check.”
“Wow! You really won. This is great we won't have to close,” He responded.
“I'm so excited!” he responded, “Would you be interested in having your book being sold here? As a way to say
thank you?”
“Absolutely,” I replied.
The bookstore stayed open and I kept buying every single new book that came out there. I was still overjoyed about it staying open, because it's a place for not just reading but it's a place where I can go and relax and socialize with people like Karl.
Clinic of Horrors
by Solene Fernandez
8th Grade
Blue Ribbon
It was another boring day at the clinic just like many others. Bianca was treating another patient affected by a mutation. As she operated on him, she thought about how much humans scream. She was bored with it. Just another ordinary patient screaming as they got a mutation surgically removed. He was flailing around and slowly annoying Bianca by making her job harder. He was thrashing about trying to kick his arms and legs but was held down by restraints. He was screaming louder than an ambulance siren and would not stop. It was so loud Bianca had to get earplugs before her ears started bleeding. She was already bored of this day just like the ones before. She looked out of the clinic window and noticed that Saturn’s outermost ring was especially dark today, but she did not care; she simply noticed.
Once she was done with the patient, she wrote a report and had him pay. All Bianca wanted to do was go home and read, but she had to work. She just wished that the pattern did not repeat every day. Patients came in unhappy and unwell and left better but with less money in their pockets. In this future, some humans still lived on earth and some moved to space but with these changes came new diseases. Bianca knew all about them. She was a nurse at the only clinic on Saturn’s outermost ring and a student at a medical college. Bianca had been studying and learning that many years ago
31