A Collection of Stories by Annika Vigoda

On Tuesday morning after breakfast I was cleaning my room and a huge chipmunk ran across the room. It was a foot long from head to toe and seemed to be foaming at the mouth. I followed it and, scared, it ran into the bathroom and launched itself into the toilet bowl. I ran in and it was drowning in toilet water. As I was calmly deciding what to do it hurled itself at me so in self defence I raised my hand to protect my face and it sunk its 4 inch teeth into my finger. Heroically I grabbed it by the neck and at this point I noticed it had red bulging eyes and was choking on its own foam. Knowing the lives of my cabin mates rested in my reluctant hands I courageously risked my life and flung the rodent at the wall. Then I peacefully and bravely told it to go out the door which it did. On Wednesday we ran Dragon’s Tongue and it was my first time so I was very scared. But I ran it anyway and managed a perfect line down the first part. I celebrated, very proud of myself. Then I went sideways into the left pocket of Purgatory and 30 seconds later came out tragically separated from my boat, foot blocks, and both shoes that were taken right off my feet. The moral of the story is don’t celebrate until you are done.