The Road Not Taken

“The Road Not Taken?” asked Bruce as his uncle’s car drove past a road which was labeled so. Bruce’s uncle, Mr. Bancrofti answered, “The road is forbidden, Bruce. It is the darkest place in our village. None goes in-none comes out of it. Strange noises can be heard from the ghostly road.”

Bruce felt as excited as any other fifteen-year old would. He was on a short trip to his uncle’s village and he already knew what he would be doing that day. After a heavy lunch at his at his uncle’s farmhouse, Bruce decided to investigate the matter. He inquired from the villagers what they knew about the issue.

He inquired from the villagers what they knew about two things- the road was strictly forbidden and that it had been recently, about a week ago, declared as evil and ghostly. Bruce thought of the road and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. Immensely inspired by the detective novels he loved reading, Bruce decided to go to the spot and venture into the road. To make things even more adventurous, he decided to go after sundown and use a lantern as his only source of light.

Sundown.

Bruce stood in front of the forbidden road and congratulated himself for creeping out of his uncle’s house successfully. “Here I come, Mr. Mysterious-Thing-Who-Haunts-this-Road,” Bruce said aloud to encourage himself. Saying so, Bruce lifted the rusted iron lantern and entered the forbidden road.

The road was paved with cobblestones, most of which were broken and cracked. Moss, lichen and Time had decayed the stones to a great extent. The lofty pine trees lining the winding road on both sides looked like giants in the eerie orange glow of the sky after sunset. Bruce clutched the lantern with increased pressure and with increased heartbeat proceeded further.

The road was a long one-each of Bruce’s steps lad him deeper into the unknown. The pine trees were becoming denser and denser and finally it was apparent that the road led to a dark forest. Bruce looked back-the road was so very winding that he could not even make out it beginning. Then the silence of the air was broken by a faint moaning noise.

Bruce shuddered. He looked forward and mustered all his courage and walked on. As he did, a slight breeze started blowing which made the pine trees make spooky noises. To Bruce, he heard the pine trees whispering secrets to him and sometimes even warn him.

The road had finally come to an end. Bruce now stood at the threshold of a wide clearing and in middle of it was a church in ruins. Waves of excitement and anticipation rippled through Bruce. he went closer to the church and inspected it. It had broken stained glass windows and tiles from the roof were mostly missing. Although very scared, Bruce could not but be mesmerized by the overwhelming old-world charm and the thick cloud of miasma that hung over the church.

Then, the moaning noise was heard again. This time, very loud and very clear. Bruce’s perfect senses found the source of the sound immediately-it was echoing out from a well situated beside the church. He focused the light of the lantern inside the well. The well was deep but the light was strong enough to reveal what had caused the moaning sound. Bruce smiled to himself –it was a baby deer and it was evident that it was trapped and needed help. Quickly Bruce hurled the well’s bucket inside the well and was surprised to find that the deer understood its utility. He pulled the poor creature up and carried it to the village.

That night, around a well lit and enchanting fire, the villagers sat and heard Bruce talk about the deer and the road. Everyone hailed Bruce as their hero and Mr. Bancrofti took the beautiful baby deer as his pet. He would search for its mother next day.

Bruce looked at the big, brown eyes of the deer he rescued and he thought of his adventuress. He grinned in triumph at his achievement-he had solved the mystery of “The Road Not Taken”.

NOTE: i wrote this story in the English examination last month. we were asked to write a story entitled "the Road Not Taken" and it was for 25 marks.So thi sis what i had come up with in about 35 minutes. we were given our corrected answerscripts later and i have given the original and untouched story. did you like it?