Emiko Imai, Majed Abulola and Nancy Magallanes
ISALC: ESL 382: Computer Applications
Students were given the phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night at the ISALC. . ." Each team member wrote a portion of the story and forwarded the text to the next person on the team via Email.
Emiko Imai, Majed Abulola and Nancy Magallanes
It was a dark and stormy night at the ISALC. When I walked to my dorm,
I heard a strange noise that was coming from the office. I was surprised
because usually nobody works at that time. Then, I wanted to see who was
working there because I thought maybe they needed help. After that, I was
surprised again because they used flashlights, and I hadn't seen these
people, so I concluded the people who were inside were thieves. (Majed Abulola)
I was so frightened that I couldn't even move for a moment. I got
into a panic, so I tried to run away immediately without being noticed by
the thieves. However, I rashly made a sound when I stepped back. All of
thieves looked outside and, unfortunately, became aware of me. I ran away
in a fluster. As I expected, they ran after me. I tried running as
fast as I could, but I couldn't do that because a heavy rain disturbed my
motion. When I took a backward glance at them, they were approaching me closer.
At that time, I saw something that they were holding in their hands. I
strained my eyes to see. Oh, my god! That was a gun! They had
their gun at the ready. (Emiko Imai)
Suddenly, the thieves stopped, but I kept running. A loud noise
distracted them from following me. I ran into Odell's basement. I hid
myself there until I didn't hear the slightest noise. Then once everything
was silent I looked for the thieves but they were gone. I got out of my
hiding place and went upstairs to knock on everybody's door, but no one
opened. So, since no one was in the dorm, very carefully I went into my
room to call the police. Everything was so weird. Even one of the robbers
seemed so familiar, but I wasn't able to tell who he was because it was so
dark and everything happened so fast. As I went into my room I turned the
lights on and saw all of my friends there, who shouted at me, "Surprise"
and "Happy Birthday!" I couldn't believe that they did that to me, that
everything was carefully planned to play a dirty joke on me before my
birthday party. OH! well after all I had a wonderful time. I really
think that it is very dangerous to play jokes like that on anyone. Some
one might get hurt. (Nancy Magallanes)
Saud Madani, Khaled Al-Hajeri, and Masanori Ito
It was a dark and stormy night that day at the ISALC office, when a
teacher named Mary was working late that night. When she heard a knock at
the door, she was afraid to open it because she assumed that it was
a thief or some kind of monster, so she waited for the person to leave.
After a few minutes the knocking stopped. But suddenly it started again,
so Mary approached the door to open it and slowly she did. Surprisingly it
was Michael. Mary was mad at Michael because of his choice of time. After
that, ........(Khaled Al Hajeri)
Mary and Michael stayed in ISALC office. The sky was covered with
thick clouds. They talked about something. It started to rain. It was
thundering and blowing very hard. Mary and Michael could hear only sound
of rain, wind, and thunder. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door of ISALC
office but Mary and Michael knew that nobody would come to the office.
They felt afraid. Michael approached the door and he asked, "Who are you?" He
couldn't hear the answer. He opened the door and screamed. In the hard rain,
a woman who wore a blouse and skirt was standing still by the door. Her hair was very
wet and was dripping water. She said, "Michael!! Why
did you scream?"....... (Masanori Ito)
Michael stepped back; he couldn't say anything. It was a big
strange person in front of him. It was a person wearing a monster mask
which looked very scary. Michael was shaking and sweating, and suddenly
he stopped and he couldn't move . Mary asked him, "What's wrong with you?
Who is it?" But Michael did not answer. The strange person walked in,
and looked at Michael and Mary and she said, "Hey guys, don't you remember
me? I just came back from death." Then Mary stood up and ran to Michael
and they screamed, and then they ran to the door to go out, but before
they could go out, the strange person said, "Wait guys." So they looked at the
mask. Then the strange person took off the mask and said, "Happy Halloween!" It was
Debbie....... (Saud Madani)
Amane Nagamoto, Abdulla Al-Qubaisi, Maktoom Al-Mazrouei
It was a stormy night at the ISALC, and the students were scared. They
heard that a thief was in this area. The security guards were every
where in the school; they were searching for the thief. Some of the
students were in the library. They finished their homework and when they
were returning to their dorm they were laughing and singing songs. They
didn't know anything about this thief. The thief was hiding beyond a big
tree. Suddenly he ran away when they came near the big tree. The students
thought the guy who ran away was their friend. They thought he wanted to
scare them. However, they didn't stop or do anything. They completed their
way to their dorm. One of the security guards shouted to them, and he was
carrying a gun and stopped them, and asked them who they were. The students
were surprised, why the security guard asked them that question. They didn't
answer him, so the security guard asked them again the same question. After
that, they told him they were ISALC students. Then he asked them
about their school ID. The students showed him their school ID, and then he
told them why he stopped them. After that. . . (Maktoom Al-Mazrouei)
He let them to go to their dorm and then he started searching
again. When he was walking behind the library a piece of paper fell from
the tree in front of him. Then in quick movement he looked up and pulled
his gun and shouted, "Who is there? Come on down!" Then the person who was up
replied, "I'm one of the students who you checked. I'm waiting for
the thief that you were looking for." Then the security guard replied,
"This is my job here so go to your dorm and sleep so you can wake up early to go
your classes, ok?" Then the student went to his dorm and slept. When the
security guard was looking around the dorm he found someone who was trying to
open the emergency exit. Then he pulled his gun again and shouted, "Don't move
or I will shoot." The person said, "No, please don't shoot. It is me, one of
the ISALC students. I forgot my card in the dorm and my roommate is sleeping
now and I want to get in." Then the security guard said, "You have to answer to me
about this if it happens to you again. Then . . .(Adbulla Al-Qubaisi)
Then the security guard asked again, "Are you a student of Lewis and
Clark?" Then the student said, "You think I am a thief?" The security man said, "I am
not sure but..." The student smiled and was laughing and then he said, "I am the thief
who you were looking for." Then he ran away and the security
guard chased the thief. Ten minutes later they reached a small house and the security
man said, "Freeze!" He was ready to shoot. Suddenly, the small room was lit up and the
security guard heard the "Happy Birthday" song. It was his birthday and the whole story
had been made up by the students. The security guard had a good birthday party.
But...other security guards were angry and jealous so the students had to clean the campus up for a week. (Amane Nagamoto)
Khalaf Al-Dhaheri and Walter Osorio
It was a dark and stormy night at the ISALC. I came to my school to
check my mailbox. I saw a beautiful girl. She was standing under a tree.
After I checked my mailbox, I went to ask her if she needed any help. She
was shivering under the tree. She looked lost because she was looking
everywhere trying to find someone or something. She told me she had an
accident with her mother and her little sister. So her mother sent her to
find a payphone to call the police. Her mother could not leave the car because
she had a broken leg. I went with her to search for a phone. We found the
phone, but the problem was someone had ripped out the handset of the phone. I told her
to go to my friend's room to call the police. She replied "Why don't
we go to see my mother?" I went with her. While we were going to her mother
she kept looking behind her. (Khalaf Al-Dhaheri)
She kept looking behind her as I was trying to help her mother
out of the car. It was not easy because we found she had some broken ribs
also. But we finally did it. After this we took her to the hospital. Today, six months
later, she is well and enjoying life. (Walter Osorio)
Fahad Al-Joaib, Akiko Maeda, Chika Ohashi
It was a dark and stormy night at the ISALC. I went to get
something from the ISALC office. While I was going there the wind blew up
and a huge tree went down over the street. Suddenly, the light turned off.
After that, I continued walking to the ISALC office. Then I saw a pick up
was parked next to the ISALC office and its light was on. First I thought
it was a student's car, but while I was going inside the ISALC office I
heard a scream from there. It was a woman's voice. I ran to the ISALC office
to see what happened over there. When I arrived there, I tried to open the
door, but the door was locked. Then I pushed the door, but I was not
strong enough to break it because I was tired. While I was pushing the
door, someone opened it and pushed me. He was wearing a mask and holding a
baseball bat and he was bigger than I was. Then he ran away from me.
I tried to hold his leg but I couldn't. After that, he went to his car and
started to go out of Lewis and Clark College. I couldn't know who that guy
was because the light was turned off. (Fahad)
I went back to my room without knowing what happened. After that
happened, nothing else happened any more at the college. I told the ISALC staff
about that night the next day. ISALC investigated it but it didn't find out anything. We
also didn't find women who had been screaming. Nothing seemed to have been stolen.
Since then, everyone had forgotten about it and also had never imagined what would
happen later.
One day after a few months, female classmate of mine had a phone
call from strange women who worked for a publicity event company. The strange
women told the students some information about a fashion show. The show
would be held in a building downtown the next Sunday. I told her that she
shouldn't go there because it was a doubtful story. But she decided to go and to
participate in the show. After that day, another student, a male student in another class
also had a phone call from same woman it seemed. The women told him about
a party. It was going to be held in the same place with the fashion show. (Akiko)
During this same time, an LC security officer found that some important
documents had been examined and shuffled about by someone.
The next Sunday, the two LC students went to the fashion show and party individually
because they didn't know each other. It was the day just before summer vacation
started. I also left for the fashion show because I was worried about my
friends. On the way, I come across my friend's boyfriend. He was also going to the
party. He had time, so we chatted. While chatting he mentioned that his former
girlfriend had died downtown, exactly one year ago today. He
told me that downtown reminded him of her and he would never forget her.
After having said good-bye, I remembered what he told me. Actually, I had gone
to the ISALC office to get Mary's signature the day before because I would travel to
Canada on summer vacation. At that time I looked at some documents of students.
I saw some strange data on another students' documents. There was a red line under the
date when a student went back to her country. The date was exactly one year ago today.
Though I was now very scared, I immediately called Mary and made sure of the
fact. The document belonged to his former girlfriend. She had died in a traffic
accident. The moment I knew, I had a premonition and hurried to the
fashion show. When I arrived there, my friend and her boyfriend were together. She
gave him a letter, which a woman had asked her to deliver. The handwriting was that of
his former girlfriend. It said, "Thank you. I never screamed, and good-bye." (Chika)
Please see our Culture Capsules Page!
Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 10/5/98