The Door

As I approach the door, my mind goes blank. My fingers turn numb and blue while perspiration starts to seep through my skin making me damp and wet. The air around me begins to thin out at a rapid pace making it difficult to take a deep breath. My arms feel heavy and clumsy. They loose their strength as I struggle to open the door. I brace my shaking legs to give myself more leverage. I ignore the noise, the laughter, the cars and lights that swirl around me. They tell me to run. I want to obey. I want to run and never return.

My hand drops heavily to my side. I can leave but a powerful force has glued my unsteady feet on the ground. I raise my stiff and freezing hand to the door and once again, I feel the panic. My heart rate increases. My chest starts to heave. My vision is cloudy and blurry. Why am I here? I cannot remember. My name is gone, so please do not ask for it.

My focus is on the door.

Again my shaking fingers reach to grasp the cold metal handle. There is no escaping the cold. Still I pull at the door and I fail. The door is powerful and it will not open towards me. The battle continues. My strength returns as I struggle with the stubborn door. The cold perspiration is gone and now I feel heat racing up from the center of my body, up to my shoulders and through my arms into my fingers. Gone are the cold and the shaky fingers; now I welcome the heat that leaves a mark in my cheeks.

As the flames flicker all around, I battle the nasty door. The noise around us continues to grow until it reaches a crescendo. Silence reigns. I did not notice it as I made terrible battle cries and made fabulous judo movements to pull the door open. This was one battle that I was not giving up. I will get this door open!

A cool, steady hand touches my shoulder. In my crazed state, I almost push this savior away with a dangerous judo move. I stop a moment, and felt the painful strain of having pulled savagely at the door shoot through my arms, legs and back. Clarity arrived with this pain, as well as embarrassment, when my savior showed me that the door needed to be pushed.

Oops!

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Vocabulary:

leverage: the act of balancing, giving support

powerful: having a great and strong force.

crescendo: a slow increase in force or noise.

clarity: to see clearly

Judo: a method of fighting without using weapons; your body is the weapon

approach : to come near

fabulous: wonderful or more than great

embarrassment: act of feeling confude, shameful, chagrin.

Complete the sentences using the above vocabulary:

We were excited to learn a new _____________movement.

I need a moment of silence to think with ___________.

The dogs ___________the old man with suspicion.

The ___________we felt when our ice cream cake fell off the table was terrible.

We need something to act as _____________and help us open the collapsed door.

There was a _______________storm approaching, so we hurried inside to hide.

The wind reached its ____________, and all the trees were uprooted.

We saw this _______________purple prom dress.

Grammar Point:

The above passage describes a feeling. Notice the variety of sentence structures. Most are simple and compound sentences. Theses types of sentences were used to make the reader feel the panic through the construction of the sentences as well as the context of the story.

A simple sentence has one independent clause. It stands by itself and needs no help from other clauses. Ex: The battle continues.

Compound sentences have two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Ex: The door is heavy and she could not open it.

Re-read the story and find 2 simple sentences and 2 compound sentences. Think about a time when you had a very strong emotion: saddness, anxiety, happiness. Write about this feeling and try to use simple and compound sentence to add to the story's feelings. Be creative.

Smile!