Twenty Word Stories
Late at night, Trixie sometimes wondered what would have happened if she’d travelled to Jamaica with Jim instead of Honey.
Late at night, Trixie sometimes wondered what would have happened if she’d travelled to Jamaica with Jim instead of Honey.
Day 3, Sentence 3:
Di blushed an attractive pink, attempted to smile and, giving that up as a bad joke, covered her pretty face with both her hands, while everyone else present on that occasion laughed, though not in a mean way, as they all liked Di and felt concern for her health and mental well-being, which sometimes suffered due to her propensity for confusing words and phrases, often in amusing and unexpected ways.
Original sentence: Di blushed, and everyone else laughed.
Source: The Mystery of the Phantom Grasshopper (p. 60, cream oval).
Day 10, Sentence 1:
As Trixie Belden sat, contrite, in the foyer of the Sleepyside Police Station, awaiting the arrival of her parents to take her home and having just been caught on the roof of Crimper’s where she was attempting to spy on the new school janitor as he stuffed a highly suspicious package into the back of his car, Sergeant Molinson towered over her, scowling, and said, “You’re going to be a policeman yourself someday, if there’s an ounce of justice in this world, and then you’ll understand what I go through every time you come up with one of these crazy schemes – and, incidentally, it wasn’t a dismembered body; it was a sack of potatoes.”
Original sentence, day 10, sentence 1: You’re going to be a policeman yourself someday.
Source: The Mystery on the Mississippi (#15, p. 142, short & ugly).
Day 1, Sentence 1:
The two girls, caught by surprise, stood rigid, frozen in their tracks with fear, as the boy on the mattress woke up in a flash, sat up and grabbed the gun, a look of hostility in his green eyes, though Trixie could not help but notice the small smear of dirt across his face and the heaving of his chest as he breathed heavily, perhaps as fearful as they were.
Original sentence, day 1, sentence 1: The girls stood frozen in their tracks as the boy woke up in a flash and grabbed the gun.
Source: The Secret of the Mansion (#1, p. 43, Random House).
Dan laid the engagement ring in Honey’s hand.
“Keep it,” he told her. “Where I’m going, I won’t need it.”
Day 10, Sentence 2:
After an interminable week of school ended on Friday, all seven members gathered at the clubhouse for an evening of even more intense boredom as Mart and Jim carried out the annual audit of the contents of the clubhouse, Trixie was forced to dust everything and meanwhile Brian calculated the depreciation of all of their assets, the dullness only broken by the break for refreshments, which lasted just twelve minutes.
Original sentence: After school on Friday, all seven members gathered at the clubhouse.
Source: The Mystery of the Phantom Grasshopper (p. 152, cream oval).
Day 4, Sentence 1:
The laundry door creaked opened and Maria looked up from her washing to see who had just come in, eyes widening as she saw the dark and brooding form of the young man and the slighter figure of his honey-haired companion, then as a deep, instinctive compassion replaced her initial alarm, she dropped the garment she was wringing and reached out both her hands to the girl, whose own hands dropped to reveal that she was pasty white and silently sobbing.
Original sentence: Maria had just come in, and she was wringing her hands and sobbing.
Source: The Mystery in Arizona (#6, p. 188, cream oval).