Natya Chandrasekar, 12Palo Alto, CA Birthday Natya Chandrasekar, 12 My brother had his birthday in March after the lockdown, It was very sad because we were planning a small gathering of friends for him to enjoy his special day. But that didn’t stop our family from celebrating we did a surprise zoom call with all his friends and even our grandparents from India and my brother was so shocked and loved seeing all of them. It really made it special and we cut the cake and sang the birthday song for him. This cartoon is for all the people who celebrate their birthday during lockdown. Natya is selling prints of all of her cartoons to raise funds for a nonprofit organization in her local area called REF (Ravenswood Education Foundation), which has established an emergency fund to provide financial relief related to the school closures due to COVID-19. Ninety percent of students in the school area qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and the majority of their parents work hourly service jobs. REF is working closely with the school district to plan and address specific needs, including in technology and distance learning, food and food distribution, emergency childcare, and financial support. We at Stone Soup are very happy to support Natya in spreading the word, and congratulate her on her work and her fundraising efforts for her community–well done, Natya! You can look at the complete collection of cartoons and choose your favourites either in this Dropbox Folder or Google Drive folder, and write to Natya if you would like to obtain a copy of your own. You may pay for the prints either by making a direct donation to REF here, or discussing directly with Natya and her family.
COVID-19
The Chase, a story by Amelia Weilu Ding, 11
Amelia Weilu Ding, 11Shanghai, China The Chase Amelia Weilu Ding, 11 Another day, another close escape. For the past five months I’ve been tracked, followed, and nearly killed on more than a couple instances. Who is after me and why, you ask? This guy is the most relentless killer I have ever encountered: first name Alco last name Hol. And the thing about him is… he’s everywhere! He has what seems like more than a million brothers and sisters who are always after me. This is why I am all sweaty when I get back home. What I see every day when I go out are beds, people with all white clothes on or people with scrubs, masks, and gloves!!! They sure look scary; will they harm me? Yes, definitely. “Knock knock” Somebody’s at the door. AHHHHHHHHH! It’s Alco!!!! He reeks of a harsh astringent smell, a smell that all the viruses in my family fear. If he touches or scrubs me, it’s game over. Another day, another chase. I am really tired; I have been running at least 20 hours every day for the past five months! Who am I after? She’s a murderer, my sister told me her name is Cora Na Virus. Such a weird name, right? It’s too hard to just chase her by myself, she really is a fast one. She travels past at least 1,000 people every day. I am those people’s hero, so I must do my job. One Hol isn’t enough, then ten! I call on five sisters and four brothers to come with me for the chase. I am now outside Cora’s door, time for action! They had both come as far as they could go. Each too exhausted to chase or flee the other. They both mutually agreed it was time. And so, the standoff began. “It’s been a long time coming Alco!”, Cora shouted. You’ve already killed 386,091 members of my family! How much more do you want?! Can’t we just talk it out?” Alco felt bad for doing this, but he remembered again, “She is a murderer…I need to do my job.” He suddenly reached for Cora. Alco managed to grab her by the arm and swung her around. Cora couldn’t help but yelp at his touch. She felt like her entire body was being lit on fire, but she knew she couldn’t give up. She swiftly kicked Alco’s hands and face. Shocked at how strong Cora was, Alco immediately backed away. He had underestimated her. She wasn’t anything like the other viruses he remembered encountering. She was stronger and faster. Had she evolved? He was furious when the realization crashed down on him like a meteor. “You can go this time Cora Na Virus, but watch out! Next time, my cousins Sanitizer and Vaccine will come and back me up! You are not going to have a good ending!” As he stomped out of Cora’s house with his siblings. Cora breathed in, and sighed, “It’s not ending yet, it’s just a new start…”
Future, some hopeful thoughts from Jaz, 14
Future Jaz, 14 I hope the next time I see this it’s me in highschool, but I just wanted to say that 8th grade was probably the best year of my life. This year meant so much to me, because I actually felt happy that I have amazing friends that I get to spend my time with, and get out of my comfort zone. But mostly this year I’ve gotten to learn more about myself, and who I want to be and what I want to do in my future. But unfortunately we didn’t get to finish the year off. I hope that when I’m reading this it’s all over, and we get to live our normal lives again. I hope that I’m able to drive a car, go to my first prom, and be able to graduate highschool. By then I’ll be going to medical school, and living a successful life with my family supporting by my side, and able to tell my kids about this crazy pandemic that happened in 2020.
