Lele
By Emma Hurlbert, The Head-Royce School, Oakland
Prologue
June 2000
My name is Lele. I am a fairly ordinary girl. I go to school. I love chocolate and I drink milk. This is the life I wish I could have, but I am just a word. I am a sound that Charlotte, a three-year-old, makes a song out of. Except Charlotte says my name more like Leeeeeeleeee, instead of Lele. I come alive every time she speaks my name. While people think about what she is saying, I can think and I am alive, like right now for instance. Rebecca, Charlotte’s mom, is getting annoyed and telling her to be quiet. So Rebecca is kind of thinking about me. The rest of the time I can’t think. This is terrible. I hate being a word.
Chapter I
July 2006
Whew! I can think again. I have just been written down in a diary. I will live forever now. I haven’t been alive for six years! Wait a second. I am getting ahead of myself. Charlotte is now thirteen. She hasn’t said my name in a long time. As the years went on she said my name less and less. A blanket was named Lele, but when Charlotte stopped using her blanket, that diminished most of my name’s use. When Charlotte got into first grade, people called her a baby when she sang the Lele song. So liltle by little, I disappeared.
Chapter II
“Charlotte! Your father and I have some news to tell you.” Charlotte bounded down the hall and into the kitchen. ‘We have decided to move to Fargo, North Dakota.”
“I have never even heard of that, middle of nowhere place! I am not leaving San Francisco.”
Charlotte hated the idea of leaving her friends and neighborhood. However, when you’re thirteen years old, some things are out of your control.
Chapter 3
I, or should I say, the diary that I am written in got left behind. My only hope is that someone will find me and use my name.
Today a new person moved in. Her name is Cindy. She found me only about ten minutes after she came in. I think that she is an author. I was lying on an empty shelf when she found me and put me in her room.
Then, while she was eating tacos for dinner, she read my diary. My heart leapt when she said, “Lele, that will be my character’s name.” I interpret this to mean that she will make me famous. I can’t wait!
Chapter 4
I think that Fantasy for a Four-Year-Old, you know, the book with my name in it, is getting published. Wait, it’s even better than you think. The story doesn’t just use my name, it is my story. You see, after Charlotte stopped writing in her diary, I somehow, I don’t know how, but I made words appear. It was like I could write. It was my diary. Cindy read the diary and just basically edited it. I might get so famous that I will be a regular household name, like Harry Potter. But what if I get too famous. Maybe my name won’t be special anymore. No, that won’t happen. I shouldn’t worry.
Chapter 5
I was right to worry! It has been one short year since Fantasy For a Four-Year-Old was published. I swear, every child in the United States, no, even the whole world, has read that book. Lele purses, shirts, sweaters, water bottles, lunch boxes, and even Lele sunglasses have been made. My character has been changed sooooo much. No one knows who I really am anymore. I wonder if Charlotte recognized the story to be mine. Where was I…, oh yeah, there are so many different versions of my story that only I know which one is right. I just remembered, I keep telling you about this story, but you don’t even know what is in it. Well, the original version basically says that when Charlotte was little she made a song about my name, just like the beginning of this story, but with a lot of made up details. I guess that if I know what is real in my heart, I can live peacefully even though other people don’t know the truth. If there was some way that they could find out, though…. I could publish this story!
Epilogue
Lele went on to publish this story. She published it under Emma Hurlbert’s name though, because Emma is a human and it seems (to the oblivious public) that she would be more likely to write a story than Lele, and it also keeps Lele still kind of a mystery.
Go to: Top of Page Home Fifth-grade Contest First-place Story Second-place Story Third-place Story
Membership Benefits Requirements Application
