Gravity by Jocelyn Sung Gravity works in peculiar ways, like falling. You panic because you've been taught falling is bad; stained knees bruised arms tear-stained cheeks. Falling proves you're a failure, only it doesn’t need to be proved since you chose to believe it a long time ago. And a majority of the time, the loved ones you trusted to catch you? They're the ones pushing you over. You teeter on the edge of a cliff, and so you reach for them. Your hands are desperate creatures, and they scream for help. But they just stare at you, and it’s then that you realize they are nothing more than passing strangers. This is perhaps what hurts the most; worst than skinned knees 23which can be healed through band-aids and time. So gravity pulls you down. Your body falls faster than the tears streaming down your face. It's a race; one you can never win because every time you run fast enough you find your shoelaces have been tied together. The faces in the sidelines? They're not cheering you on; they're screaming at you to give up. But the same liars who taught us falling is bad? They forgot about the bliss of falling in love Because pains scars deeper than happiness. They forgot that the good means memories, And the bad means experiences. They forgot that without falling, There wouldn't be such a thing as rising They forgot that falling makes us stronger. 24ADDINGTON: I'M DRAWN TO YOU LIKE THE OCEAN. | SEE YOU AND! UNCONSCIOUSLY DIVE IN. YOU'RE SWIMMING ALL AROUND ME AND! DON'T MIND. BUT THEN COMES THE PUSH AND THE PULL, THE TUG AND THEN THE RELEASE. I SOON START TO REALIZE THE REALITY IF I cei =a aed ts | =n] b) =e YOU'LL CONSUME ME WHOLE AND LL DIE. e6 25DAISIA PIERCE45 DAISIA ) PIERCE 27MAKIAH 7 ARVISOOSIAYV HVDIVIN 31JOIN M.E.S.A AWE Uw Oe ENGINEERING, SCIENCE PNG SS RlMAKIAH ARVISOMAKIAH ARVISOee ADDINGTON: Bee a a Pee AND ASK ME HOW | PAINT STRAIGHT. | JUST SAYI DO. YOU WATCH INTENSELY WHILE | GIVE MYSELF AWAY WITH EACH SCARED BRUSH STROKE. MY BRUSH DOES NOT LIE, ESPECIALLY NOT TO YOU. | HAVE BEEN FOUND OUT. a 37March 21,2018 6:44PM by Sage Addington Chei took me for a ride in his truck to get fast food. He told me about the first day of spring and a surprise. Yesterday Gram went out to feed the horses and she found, besides her big white horse, a small colt: red with tan and white speckles on its back. The baby was still covered in blood and placenta, probably born some fifteen minutes before she stumbled upon it. Chei described the newborn horse and made hand gestures to represent bucking, “But that didn’t last long. It didn’t even live twelve hours.” | knew what he was going to say next: dogs or coyotes. It was what my grandma always said about the chickens, the sheep, and the geese growing up. | already knew who the killers were. | already knew the colt was killed. My grandpa skirted around details regarding the death at first and told me little things. He told me my uncle had to drive to town to get fencing for the barn. He told me the family worked all day to clear out the old barn from pointed rocks, thorns; anything the baby could hurt itself on. 38Then he laid out a timeline of the colt’s short life: he told me by eleven the colt was nursing; by five the baby was bucking; by nightfall it was dead. | stared at my grandfather the entire time he talked and every now and then, during the pauses, he would look back at me. Then he laid out a timeline of the colt’s short life: he told me by eleven the colt was nursing; by five the baby was bucking; by nightfall it was dead. | stared at my grandfather the entire time he talked and every now and then, during the pauses, he would look back at me. Chei told me he can’t stop imagining the moments leading up to the death. He imagines the horse lying down and sleeping, or simply walking around the barn. He was a cowboy and would break wild horses in his youth, but never got to raise a colt. He told me, “Oh, Sage, it was beautiful! You would have painted it.” Chei suddenly went into excruciating detail. 3940 He told me when they found the colt, it had a hole in its neck nearly two inches in diameter, many other tears in the jugular. Bleeding bites covered its knees and gashes ran up its limbs. Because the horse was a newborn, the skin was still soft, tender, and easy to tear into. Despite being so mutilated, the dogs did not kill the young animal completely. The gurgling of blood and soft wheezing was still coming from the holes in the colt’s neck. It was night and Chei had to drag the colt out of the barn. Abigail cried and screamed, covered in her baby’s blood. Gram and Darrel had to shield Chei from Abigail. Chei put it in the back of his trunk, and drove it away. He shot the colt twice to make sure it was dead. He stayed up late and dug a hole deep. He covered the hole with enough dirt so the dogs and coyotes wouldn't be able to dig it up. He told me that day he was “so, so tired,” from working, but that he couldn't sleep. We were at an intersection before the bridge when he told me he was so angry he decided to shoot my grandma’s dogs and did.He told me they were playing the next day and showing no remorse for the kill. He said he was going to “start shooting dogs left and right.” He sighed and said, “I've seen some bad things, but this was just awful. It’s just like all these school shootings.” My heart ached because my grandpa wasn’t just sad about the end of a truly innocent life, he was also drawing parallels between violence in animal nature and men alike. He was drawing parallels between parent and child. He saw the colt as a child. He saw the barn as a home. He saw the hounds as the evils that get in and hurt the babe you worked so hard to provide for and protect. “Sagey, somethings are just bad,” he told me when we pulled into the drive thru, “Dogs are awful. Men are awful.” Men are dogs. | wondered why he told me all of this when he could have told my mom or my brother. | cried like a child because | didn’t know what else to do. My grandpa was picking me up for food as if it were normal; maybe he needed normal. 41My grandpa is an old, old man; he is well into his seventies and naturally has seen his fair share of terrible things. Even though father time has taken his toll, nothing has suppressed my Chei’s surviving spirit. He wears his cowboy boots, blue jeans, and flannel; he drives around in his single cab truck; he continues on. clea aN ee ¢ NX a Zo £.0™ \ ) Z / q ay ~~ 42ueAe}3 OLG ‘“INo4 Za ‘Aepsiny, 9a ‘AeBeg andy gq ‘uo}Buippy ebes ¢q ‘seunes @11807 La ‘Buyesunog 6y ‘opeuopyew eunsuyo gy ‘Auaes5 cy ‘edJeld BIsIEG ZY DOWN 1. Who is the artist featured on the cover? 4. Who is the magazine editor? Cc rossword 5. Which artist is featured on page 8? 6. Animal Awareness meetings are on which weekday? 2 7. How many class colors are there? is cs 10. How many students are in the magazine? ACROSS 2. Which photographer mostly submitted black and white photos? 3. Which poem uses a scientific theory as a metaphor? 8. The short story The Park is by who? 9. Where does Native American Club have their meetings?v r www.ghsambush.weebly.com