Sistories is a brand new podcast about travel hosted by two sisters–Maryam and Nour! https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sistories-Ep2-1.m4a Hi everyone, welcome to our new podcast, Sistories. My sister and I love to travel and we want to inspire you to travel too. That’s why we are hosting this cool new podcast. Last month we did our first episode about why you should travel. Today, we are going to be talking about how to pack for an amazing trip no matter where you go. I am Maryam, and I will be going first. So, how to pack… Well, first here is what to pack for those those extra bags that you take on the plane or in the car with you. First, you should always bring a device in case you get bored or your parents are sleeping. Second, I recommend you bring a notebook to write stuff in, and don’t forget a great book to entertain you. Traveling can take a lot of hours and you don’t want to just have to sit and do nothing because that’s boring. You might want to bring extra clothes in your bag. We didn’t once, and that didn’t go well. That story is coming up next. So, you’re probably wondering what happened. It started like any normal trip. It felt very exciting because we were going to Italy. We checked our bags, which had a lot of clothes in them because we were going to be gone for two weeks. When we were about to go in the sky, one of the airline attendants made an announcement and said, “We will be taking some luggage off the plane so please see if that was you.” My parents didn’t check because they never thought it would be us; its never us! Sadly, when we landed in Italy, and we got off the plane thinking everything was okay, we sat a long long time at the baggage claim but our luggage did not appear. So, we asked an attendant, but they couldn’t help. They said if they find it they would drop it off at our hotel. We had to buy a lot of clothes in Italy. In the final four days we finally got our luggage, but it was too late. This is why half of our clothes have Italian words on them like “Ciao.” The moral of the story is that you might want to pack some clothes in your carry-on bags. Thanks Maryam. Hi my name is Nour, and I’m going to tell you some other tips for packing. First, you will need to ask your parents some questions like how long you’re going for and what type of trip it will be. My mom used to give us a piece of paper with a list of everything we need to pack, and then we would go to our room and pack it. And then she would check. To be honest, I usually just stuff my clothes in the suitcase, but my sister packs her clothes pretty neatly so yes, there are different styles for packing. Now that my sister and I are older, we usually don’t get a list to check off. All we do now is ask how long we are going and then pack the right number of outfits based on the weather. Obviously, if you are going to the beach where it’s hot, you will pack different clothes than if you were heading to someplace cold and snowing. I also pack some pretty clothes in case we’re going out to dinner or to do something fancy. That’s important because you want to be prepared. For your carry-on bag you might want to bring extra underwear… You heard our Italy story! And I guess that you should bring your own headphones too so that you don’t have to wait on the airplane to get them. You also might want to pack a mask in case you need it since Covid is always around. Last but not least, you should always bring gum or something to chew on for take off and landing. If you have braces and chew gum, you barely have any left at the end because it’s all in your teeth. Most of these tips go for any kind of transportation but here is one thing to know just about cars: First, you can bring a book, but do not read it while you’re in the car. When I do that I get really sick after only 4 or 5 minutes. Thank you for listening to our podcast, Sistories. Come back again to listen to our next topic: Cool Places to Visit. Have a great trip!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Weekly Creativity #284: Choose Three Words and Use One of the Three to Start Every Sentence in Your Story
Write down the first three words that come to mind. Then, start every sentence in your story with one of those words.
Flash Contest #62, December 2023: Write a Story About a Family Heirloom–our winners and their work
Our December 2023 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #278 (provided by Stone Soup intern Sage Millen), which asked that participants craft a story around a family heirloom. Our submitters wrote about a variety of items passed down between generations including rings, a bracelet, a deer figurine, necklaces, a wooden fox, and a piano that unleashed a demon. Some of these heirlooms were desirable–giving their original owners’ descendants special powers–while others were cursed. As always, thank you to all who participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Honorable Mentions, listed below, and our Winners, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “The Box” by Nandan Chazhiyat, 12 “A Music Memory” by Chrysanthi Constantinou, 13 “The Holgate Gauntlet” by Yuna Jung, 10 “The Path to Atlantis” by Ethan Lee, 9 “Twain’s Pencil” by Gargi Mondal, 11 Honorable Mentions “The Chandler’s Revenge” by Matilda Carliner, 10 “The Locket” by Angelina Chen, 13 “The Wooden Fox” by Wilson Chen, 11 “Santanic Symphonies” by Andrew Khawam, 13 “Cursed Earrings” by Taeeon Alya Kim, 12 The Box NANDAN CHAZHIYAT, 12 Fear was clouding my mind. My parents had just told me that they wanted to talk to me, and every bad thing I had ever done was in the forefront of my mind. As I walked into the office room, an unusually weighty silence filled the room. I looked inside and…I was in the wrong room. I slowly walked over and opened the door. “Hey, we have something for you.” I was confused. I thought they were punishing me, but they are giving me something? “What is it?” I spluttered. “As you know, we have a…rather large family.” my mother begins. “And we have many things passed down, but this one is rather special,” she finished. My father takes out a small black box, curved and twisted with engravings and chips in the material. As I reach out my hand to take it, I feel a coldness surrounding it. I grab it in my hand and instantly, a dark energy seeps around my hand and through my arm there’s a sinking feeling. I shiver. I feel…different. “Normally it isn’t that violent!” my mom says. I shriek in surprise as I feel a coldness curving through my body. “GOODNESS GRACIOUS GOLLY GEE WILLIKERS!” my mom screams. “What just happened?” I quiver. “That was a spirit, not evil. It helps you. It’s lucky in a way.” “HOW IS THAT THING LUCKY?!?!?!?!?” I scream. “IT ALMOST KILLED ME!” “It will teach you, just listen to it.” And so I listened. And I learned. And I got better. What did it teach me, you ask? It taught me to fight. “Good job!” my mother exclaimed when she saw my practice. “You are getting better! You are finally ready to start the REAL training.” “Real training?” I asked in a meek voice. Suddenly, I am pulled into a swirling tunnel of lights. I am thrown roughly onto the ground. A feeling of bile creeps into me and I throw up. Black surrounds everything except a small island I am on. I look up and a pair of white eyes stare back. “AHHH!” I shriek, crawling back on the hard stone surface. “Do not be afraid,” it says. “IT’S A LITTLE HARD TO NOT BE AFRAID WHEN YOU GET VIOLENTLY YANKED INTO THE VOID ALRIGHT?!?!?!” I scream. “You need to test your skill,” I hear. The voice seems to come from everywhere at once, and every voice is a symphony in this one. And so I am not afraid. And I train. And train. And train harder. I have been hunting someone. He steals from the poor and gives to himself. He kills ruthlessly, and leaves no potential money-grabbing opportunity alone. And I know where he is. As I walk into the small, broken door of the museum, night encroaches on me. He seems to have disabled the lights and security. Clever. I hear the shuffle of feet. Shh shh shh shh. I walk toward the jewel room. And I burst into it. There he is. The man I have been trailing for so, so long. You see, after my training, I fought people who did evil. And this person is one of my greatest adversaries. “You can’t escape now,” I crow. “OOOOOOH yes I can!” He crows back. And he runs. The power of my box-spirit pulls me forward, grabbing the back of his shirt. He turns and punches me in the gut. I block his fist and ram his elbow into his face, hurting his arm and face. He tries to go for a left hook, but I grab him and flip him over; however, he manages to kick me in the face. I step back, reeling from the blow and send a flurry of punches his way. I hit a few, but he dodges the rest. I kick his leg and pull it out from under him, forcing him to the ground. I kneel on him, ending the fight. Or so I thought. He rips reality, and suddenly, I am falling. The air whips past me, striking my cheeks and pulling at my skin. He grabs me and punches me so hard I seem to fly. The concrete street is still hundreds of feet below me, but I know in my mind it won’t be far away for long. I feel a cold shiver in my arm, and I turn just as he knees me in the face, causing a burning, stinging pain in my nose. I try to punch back, but I’m too slow. In what seems like an hour but is only a few seconds, I fall. And fall. And fall. I try to turn, to flail, to do something, but I cannot. My shirt tears from another brutal punch, and a flash of light as he teleports away. The punch shoves me back, so I have a few more seconds. In that second, I know I will die. SPLAT
