IT PAYS TO BE OBEDIENT

AUTHOR’S PROFILE

NAME: HERTY NARTEY

AGE: 11
GRADE: 6
SCHOOL: YERIEL BRACHA SCHOOL

STORY TITLE: IT PAYS TO BE OBEDIENT

Once upon a time in the village of Domeabra, there lived a girl called Heidi. She
had three siblings. They were Ella, Michael and kelvin. Ella was the eldest but
none of them had much compassion for people like Heidi did. She even loved
flowers very much.
On one bright but cool day, when Heidi was stepping out of their house to the
market center of Domeabra,—which was not far from her house—she saw
something very terrible. She was so frightened that her green plastic basket fell
from her hand. She could not stand to watch it that she screamed the names of
her siblings to call them. The four of them all stood in shock!
There were designs of wild spiders, broken human heads and snakes made with
blood on a new building which wasn’t there the day before. Kelvin’s curiosity
overcame his fear that he wanted to find out what building it was and the things
inside. “Stop Kelvin, don’t enter!” Heidi shouted. Kelvin looked straight at Heidi
and threw his left hand in the air. “Leave me alone.”

He knocked on the door intermittently, but no one responded. The clouds had
started gathering and it looked like it was going to be a heavy rainfall. “ Let’s go
home all of you. It’s about to rain.” Heidi said this in a relieved voice hoping it
would be enough to stop Kelvin from entering. But Kelvin had made up his mind
already. He knocked on the door one more time, and this time, a large lady
opened the door. Every part of her body was too fat; her cheeks, her neck, her
waist, and even her eyes. She was too tall as well. Without saying a word, she
welcomed Kelvin in with a demonic laugh and closed the door immediately he
entered.

“Don’t Kelvin, Dooon’t!” Kelvin heard this echoing crying warning of Heidi inside
this unusual building. The room was so dark with red flashes of light at the
corners of the ceiling of the house. Kelvin turned to his side to ask the lady a
question. “Arghhhhh!” The woman was not there—she was nowhere to be
found—and the room was horrifying. In the meantime, Heidi being so empathetic
stood at the door weeping as she thought Kelvin was going to die. She started
knocking on the door heavily. To her surprise, a grasshopper hopped onto the
door and right on the spot that she knocked. “Don’t go in there, Heidi.”

Heidi took some steps back and almost ran but she didn’t. “ How do you know my
name, and who are you to tell me what to do?” The grasshopper kept warning her
but Heidi took it for a pinch of salt. “Leave me alone.” This was the same thing
Kelvin had said to her when she was warning him not to go inside. Heidi broke the
door down with all her strength and the moment she was inside the building, the
door was shut firmly and loudly. She had directed her other two siblings to go
home since it was about to rain and so, it was only the two of them—all alone—in
this haunted house.

This dark room seemed to not have an end. They couldn’t see the other end wall
of the room. “You see what you’ve caused? You should’ve listened to me. I
begged you not to enter but you…” Suddenly, she was interrupted by a godly
voice that said, “ Did you also listen to the grasshopper?” So terrified, they held
each other’s hands very tight and looking at the walls. Suddenly people started
appearing in the room. They looked dirty and stinky. The red lights in the ceiling
kept flashing some more. The dirty people started talking and as they kept talking,
the louder their voices became. Looking on the side walls, Heidi and kelvin saw

pictures of wild beasts and dead people carver in the walls. As they looked, they
saw something striking! “That is Gordon. It’s Gord..” Heidi quickly put her hands
across Kelvin’s mouth to keep him from talking even more.

Gordon was Kelvin’s best friend who suddenly went missing. He was also as
curious as Kevin, and stubborn too. It was also on one rainy day when he was
returning from school. The people of Domeabra searched and searched for him
but never found him. But now here they are, and Gordon’s picture clearly
showing on the wall with his heart in his hands! Kelvin’s tears now could even get
a bucket full. They were now lost in thought. Did Gordon’s stubbornness get him
here too just as Kelvin did—refusing to listen to Heidi? Were their hearts too
going to be removed like Gordon’s?

“It’s him Heidi, it’s him,” Kelvin kept crying, “ it’s my friend Gordon.” Heidi was
also deeply weeping. Then out of nowhere, the tubby lady who opened the door
for Kelvin to enter appeared. She had now grown long pointed claws like a cat and
a sharp teeth like a hyena. “Jesus, Jesus!” They screamed and tried to run. But the
red flashes which was helping them see through the room a little turned off. The
room was now pitch dark. They couldn’t see anything. But they could hear many
footsteps walking slowly towards them. The steps were as slow as a hungry lion
who was stalking it’s prey.

Heidi and Kelvin held each other so tight and covered each other’s ears to avoid
hearing the scary steps. “Oh nooooo! Help, helllpp!”

“Helllpp!”

“What is it Kelvin? Wake up,” Heidi shoved Kelvin to wake him up. “ It’s Gordon,
Gordon.”

“What Gordon? You’ve been sleeping. It’s a dream.” There were even tears in his
eyes. Heidi dried his tears for him and tried to comfort him although it was a
dream. She asked Kelvin to tell her what he saw in the dream. Heidi was very
attentive. It was clear in the story that their disobedience led them to the
horrifying house—Heidi refused to listen to the grasshopper’s warning because
she was just an insect, and Kelvin also overlooked Heidi’s advice not to go inside.
Yes, although it was just a dream, and Gordon wasn’t even missing or dead, they

learned their lessons to always pay attention to advise irrespective of who’s giving
it.