THE SUMMIT

by Dr. O'Keefe Greetings! Today I will teach you about a subject that a surprising amount of people sadly know little to nothing about, and that tropical topic is: dinosaurs.    Known to scientists as dino, dinere, dinosaurs were first invented in the late 1800’s, when someone found them. Ever since then, we’ve been trying to find out more and more about these magnificent creatures that lived over a hundred years ago. These seemingly fearsome beasts are, in all actuality, rather tame. Many people always try to make dinosaurs out to be animals, but there have been very few accounts of dinosaurs actually harming humans, let alone consume them. MISCONCEPTIONS    There is a plethora of misconceptions about these scaly mammals, and I’ll start out with the source of all this misinformation: Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has so many dinosaur mistakes it’s horrifying. For one thing, they used animatronics instead of the real thing, so it’s stupid on your part to th...

Greetings, all fans of The Summit! This may seem odd and somewhat unimportant, but to receive notifications about new articles, go to the sidebar and click 'follow'. If you're as unsavvy as I am, I'll provide you with a visual: Though on your computer, it'll say 'follow'.  If it gives you any trouble, unsubscribe first, then follow. If you still can't get it to work, contact me at the email address below. You can also write for The Summit , too, by again contacting the email address below. I'll give you full credit for your work, and if you have a preferred pen name, specify it. Also, commenting on the stories is a fine thing to do. It gives me the feeling that my content is actually being read, even if it's not. Thank you From                        The Summit

by O'Keefe Greetings, audience. I'm sure you have noticed that suspense is the one thing that keeps us from dropping the fool book we are reading, or stomping out of a theater and demanding our ill-spent bread back (bread is slang for money - or so I'm told). The average superhero movie is packed with this tool; for if it weren't, Iron Man wouldn't be as iron as he is today. For example, if the film was merely about the goofy-dressed hero fighting crime with his expendable loyal friend, and revealing his identity to his girlfriend (who has red hair) in an obscure location, you would fall asleep halfway into the movie. But there has to be a villain, who has cool armor, and really gets the audience going (though not out of the theater). Usually it's a letdown. The villain either is goofily evil or a crybaby. But you always hear the fool viewers argue, "Well, the suspense was good."        So no plot is needed. All you need is the classical tool of ...

by Peter O'Keefe CHAPTER TWO : Rumors Later that night, the family began to settle down. Herb left to return to his own home, and all the girls had gone to bed by now. Obi got to stay up later because it was his birthday, and Aaron was down here because he'd snuck down to get some leftover cake. Obi was on the porch, sweeping his gaze over the countryside, daydreaming. He was a big thinker, and often got lost in thought, about things like the festival, cities, all the traveling he hoped he would do when he was older, the magnificence of the famous people he would meet, the heroism of the soldiers in battles he would witness. All the greatness was hogged up by the wealthy and their families, and ordinary people like him would never be able to live the life of greatness.        Then he decided to go to bed. He headed for the door, but as he did he realized that his parents were talking. They sounded hushed up, as if not wanting anyone to hear them; they had evid...

by Peter O'Keefe CHAPTER ONE : The Candle The harsh easterly wind buffeted the citizens of Coperna early on an October morning. This village was small, and vastly unknown in the mighty kingdom of Milandria, and the citizens didn't help the matter. All who heard of this small town steered clear of it, for the plain and simple reason that they were known to be terribly superstitious. They believed all sorts of crazy things, from breaking mirrors giving you bad luck to locking your doors at night resulting in a robbery.        But today they had a new superstition. Not only did these cold winds, early for this time of year, mean that the crops would be bad, but they were also saying that something terrible would happen today. The town guards, dressed in their shabby armor and leather tunics, kept on telling the folks of Coperna that they were fools, that today would be just like every other day. These guards were from the great city Osêria, and as a result did not...

by O'Keefe Late night at eight, I drove into the Colonel’s driveway, parked my car, and sat there for a while. My old brown sedan contrasted against all the other cars in the driveway like gold against plastic. There was a sleek yellow Lamborghini, which belonged to Mike Beegan, a young, gaudy entrepreneur who was well known for investing in things that, to the naked eye, looked stupid. He once invested five million dollars into Fake Noses LLC, a company that made fake ears. Everyone said that he was using money like toilet paper, that his investment was the worst thing since bread that was not sliced, but he stuck by his guns, saying they were all wrong and couldn’t see the big picture, that they were melodramatic wusses who couldn’t lite a candle for fear the fire alarm would go off. All his life, he knew himself as a risk taker; a pioneer, if you will. He said he was smart enough to see this was a good investment, and sure enough, he lost five million dollars. Beside the La...

by Peter O'Keefe The ship was stuck. There was no doubt about that. The Vikings onboard sighed, upset not only that they would probably die, but also that they had let this happen. Not everybody made as big a mistake as letting the chief Viking vessel, the Raptor, get its mast torn down in a storm. The captain of the ship, a general of much fame called Ivan, sighed deeply and said, "Well me lads. This is the end of the line. The Raptor's as stuck as she can be. Let loose the anchors! We'll stay here." Endless water stretched out in every direction, giving the Viking crew a hopeless feeling. Food might last them about a week, but that didn't make them feel better. "Hey, Norman!" Ivan hollered. "Prepare the crew some supper! Be good with the rationing too, me lad! Make it last as long as ya can!" Norman was one of the youngest onboard, a man of twenty with red hair and a jolly nature. This was his first trip on the Raptor, and eve...