A Story Prompt Writing Exercise
This is a creative writing exercise for fun and without a lot of editing. I struggle with these, but this is my attempt.
Full disclosure, this story is a historical fiction based loosely on true events. All photos are from public domain or free collections.
The idea is to start with a partial sentence, (the story prompt) and add to it to make a story.
Here’s the prompt:
She closed the book she was reading and turned out the…
She closed the book she was reading and turned out the lights.
Georgie Anne loved the story that her great-grandmother had written in her journal so many years ago. The ending of this story was never a mystery to Georgie Anne, and the beginning was better than any love story ever written.
A Soldier
Georgie Anne knew her great-grandfather was a soldier in WWI, but what she didn’t realize was that he was a hero that helped the Allies win the war.
It was 1918 and Atsadi’s unit, the 119th U.S. Infantry Regiment had been assigned to assist the British in the northwest corner of France.
Atsadi, better known as Sadie by his friends, was Cherokee. He and 20 others from his clan in North Carolina were drafted into the military. Some of the young men were in the 119th and the others were sent to the 120th U.S. Infantry Regiment.
His native language was Cherokee and his clan was from the mountains of western North Carolina. Sadie had attended schools where English was taught, but the elders in his clan spoke almost exclusively Cherokee.
He was only 18 years old and found himself 1000s of miles away from home, in a strange land, with people that spoke a strange language. Sadie didn’t speak French, but thankfully his unit was sent to assist the British troops that were fighting in the area.
A Beautiful French Girl
While on a short furlough, Sadie had met a young French girl, just a year younger than he was in the tiny French village. He had a hard time talking to her because he didn’t know the French language, but she was beautiful, and he was determined to strike up a friendship. As his luck would have it, she did know a little English.
Sadie and his unit had a few days off and were able to go to a dance in the village. Sadie met Georgine near the gazebo and they danced until dawn.
Her parents had been killed during the war, and Georgine lived at the orphanage in the village and helped to take care of the younger children there.
Advancing Germans
Sadie was not able to stay in the village long because they had to stop the advancing Germans. And after knowing each other only a few days, they pledged to marry when the war was over.
Sadie’s regiment and the British troops had been assigned to destroy the German strongholds in the area, and with the help of the 120th Infantry Regiment and the British troops they were attached to, they hoped to close in the Germans and surround them. But it seemed like every time they had a plan, the Germans figured it out and knew where the Allied forces were and would attack them. It seemed hopeless for the British troops and U.S. regiments.
Intercepted Radio Transmissions
The Germans were closing in and were getting closer and closer to the orphanage where Georgine lived. In only a few days, they could hear the tanks and the bombing nearby. They just had to stop them before they got to the orphanage, but by late afternoon the Germans had set up camp just over the hill.
The British officers that were in charge, devised a plan to defeat the Germans but the Germans somehow intercepted their radio transmissions, even when they spoke in military code.
The British troops were determined to stop the Germans before anyone at the orphanage got hurt, but how were they going to accomplish it?
Sadie just had to figure out a way to save his Georgine and the children. And then it happened, Sadie had a brilliant idea.
Sadie Had a Brilliant Idea
Knowing there were also some men from the Cherokee clan in the 120th regiment, he developed a new plan.
Sadie would radio one of the men from the 120th, that spoke the Cherokee language. The two men could then discuss the plan while speaking in their native tongue of Cherokee, and no German would be able to understand that language.
As darkness approached, the Cherokee soldiers were able to communicate over the radio and defeat the Germans in the area.
The orphanage was spared the bombing, and Georgine and the children were saved.
Code Talkers Helped the Allies Win the War
A few months later the war ended, and the Cherokee soldiers were considered heroes. They would later be known as the Cherokee Codetalkers of WWI, and the basis for the Navajo Code talkers of the second world war. There were also some Choctaw code talkers. The Native American code talkers played an important part in the war and aided the Allies.
And just as they promised, Sadie and Georgine were married and moved to America. Their son, George, was Georgie Ann’s father.
Great-grand-Papa Sadie really was a hero.
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