"The Mystery of the Trunk" Children's Writing Workshop

On Saturday, November 5, 2011, the Women at Work Museum hosted a writing workshop for young people titled "The Mystery of the Trunk" as one of the final 2011 Big Read events.  The Big Read selection was “Tom Sawyer” authored by Mark Twain.  The workshop utilized a trunk with Twain memorabilia as inspiration.  Writers tapped their inner "Twain" to creatively write their own travel stories and then joined forces to write a story about a “Twain” coin.  (Coin story follows)  Individual stories are posted in the Museum and will be available for viewing when the Museum reopens in March, 2012.

The workshop was lead by Deb Titus who has developed a series of workshops for young people and women to help participants find their creativity, develop confidence, and believe in themselves and their writing abilities through mind-mapping, games, drawings and writings.  Watch for more workshops from Deb.

The following story was written by all the girls at the workshop.  Each paragraph was written by a different girl.

The Coin
by Victoria, Kathleen, Marrisa, Bridget, Amanda and Micaela

It was a sunny day.  The trees rustled lightly in the wind.  Tom walked along the green grass slowly making his way toward the pond.  The sun was reflecting off of almost everything, but there in the corner of his eye he saw something glimmer.  It was a coin!  He fingered his way through the grass.  It looked pure gold.  Tom rubbed the coin through his dirty hands.  It felt so real.  Okay Tom thought to himself, one last test.  He brought the coin up to his mouth and bit it.  Instead of a coin falling out his tooth came out - blood and all.  Tom flinched.  So it was real gold.  What should he do with it?  He could buy anything at all.  Then he heard Aunt Paula.  It was dinner time.  But Tom didn’t want to go.

So instead he went down the hill with his tooth and coin.  He couldn’t believe that his tooth fell out while biting this coin.  As he was thinking about this he dropped the coin and a dog ran by and chomped on the coin.  Tom knew the coin was valuable but more importantly the coin meant the world to him.

So he ran after the dog “come back here” he hollered.  The dog jumped into a pile of mud, he dug up a hole and ran away.  “NO”! shrieked Tom.  He ran into the dirty pile of mud.  That was the most valuable thing to me.  Life is never going to be the same.  All of a sudden he saw something flicker in the mud.  He yanked it out “I found it” he said.  He jumped up and down with joy.  All of a sudden he heard barking -not this time - he held up the coin way up in the air so the dog couldn’t get it.  Then he heard foot steps.  It was Aunt Paula.  She was mad, she stomped over “What are you doing it’s time for dinner” she said with anger.

“Sorry.”  He stammered, dragging his feet in the mud.  “Well, I found this coin…”  Aunt Paula stared down at him, making him feel small.  “Tell me later.”  She said, dragging him out of the mud.  “I made the best dinner with all of your favorite vegetables.  Vegetables!  Gross.  Tom made a sour face.  As he walked inside, Tom started telling Aunt Paula about the coin.  “It’s very valuable” he said.  “It’s pure gold, that’s for sure.”  Aunt Paula smiled.  “Can I please see this …. um …. coin you found?”  Tom smiled.  “It’s right here,” he replied.  He checked his back pocket.  Oh no, the coin was gone!  “I don’t see how it could have fallen out.” Tom mumbled to himself.  After Tom started groping in his pocket, he suddenly felt a small hole, big enough for a coin to fall out.  He gulped.  What would he tell Aunt Paula?  Oh, I lost a very valuable gold coin and now it’s stuck in a pile of mud somewhere.  No way!  “Well …. Where is this coin?  I would love to add it to my collection.”  Tom felt a lump in his throat get bigger.  What was he going to say?

“Um… Ahh…” he sputtered.  “It’s” he started to shake.  “Are you okay Tom” Aunt Paula asked.  “Yes very” he said.  “Well I’ll look at it after dinner” Aunt Paula said.  “Oh No” Tom thought.  He had to face two problems:  1.  He had to find the coin;  2.  He had to eat veggies.  “Come, Tom” said Aunt Paula.

Now Tom goes inside and before he sits down to eat the horrible veggies he finds the coin on his plate!  He starts dancing and singing but then Aunt Paula took the plate, coin and all, and dashed out the door.  “Hey” Tom shouted, shoving the chair out from beneath him and sprinted out the door after her.  He ran through the garden, he ran down the hill, and he ran after his Aunt.  But within a few minutes she was already over the hills and meadows by the time that Tom realized that he was never going to catch up with his wicked old Aunt Paula.  Tom was sweating and tired as he sat down next to the river stream.  He was breathing heavy when he saw something shimmer out of the corner of his eyes.  Something circular and shiny.  Something priceless and gold.  Could it be another gold coin?