The Coldest Summer By Ashley Chang Wenzao Ursuline College of languages 41st English Writing
Written by Wei-Yu Chang E4B Instructor: Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 2010
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Story Type: Mystery Number of Words: 1757 Words in Oxford 3000: 92%
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Contents* ---------------------------------------About the author-----------04 Synopsis----------------------05 Characters-------------------06 The Fate ----------------------07 The Marriage ---------------09 The Calm---------------------12 The Storm -------------------15 3
---------------------------------------The Awareness ----------------18 Ricky’s Revenge---------------22 Taking Action------------------23 The last Thing----------------24 Relief----------------------------25 References---------------------26 Acknowledgment------------27
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About the Author* ------------------------------------------Ashley Chang (1991- )
I am now studying in Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. My major is English and minor is German. This is the first time for me to write a novel. I have always been fascinated with mysteries and detective novels or films. After I read a short story about murder, I decided to write this story title�The Coldest Summer.� Hope this novel is thrilling enough to make you get chills. 5
Synopsis* ----------------------------------------
During the summer of 1998, Ricky met his wife, Rose. It seems everything was going well after they married, until the death of Rose came without warning. Due to the fact of Rose’s death, the invisible fiend got under Ricky’s skin and made him sick. HOW could he get rid out of this fiend? 6
Characters* --------------------------------------- Rose – A 28-year-old interior designer. Ricky- A 32-years-old architect. Josh - A client of Rose and Ricky. John - A mysterious man who started a new ice cream store. Mr. G- One of the partners in this unique contract.
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The Fate* It was a hot summer day, Ricky went to work as usual. He was thirty-two years old and was hard-working, perhaps even someone might call him a workaholic. He worked all day long, unless his friends invited him to have a drink together. Currently he was working for Schiverung GmbH, one of the main architectural companies in Germany. His well-designed buildings and enthuses for his works makes him one of the most famous architects in this circle. Josh, one of Ricky’s best friends, was planning 8
to start his own clothing store. It had already been decided that Ricky would be in charge of the architecture for this new store. Rose, who was going to take charge of the interior design for Josh, was a twenty-two-year old, single, competent woman. In order to make the store able to attract customers, Josh arranged a meeting for them three to get an overall idea of what type of his store he had in mind.
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The Marriage* After Ricky and Rose both had gotten an idea of what to do, Ricky decided to meet Rose again not only for discussing for details but also for the desire to see her. It was one still and lovely night, and after Ricky had finished his work for this night, he called Rose and invited her to “the Lamps”, a famous lounge bar, near the centre of the city. It had been a week since they had that meeting about the store. However, Ricky couldn’t stop thinking about Rose? Her Homeric laughter and sweet voice appeared as if she was just 10
nearby. On the way to the bar, Ricky was excited and nervous until he saw Rose was standing outside the door under a street light. He was too nervous to say anything instead Rose eagerly waved her right hand and greeted him with a smile. Then, they went into the lounge bar. The jazz music and the romantic atmosphere there attract lots of couples. Ricky ordered a cup of coffee, and Rose chose an orange juice. After that, they started to discuss how to create the structure of that clothing store. While chatting, Rose was attracted by Ricky’s unique ideas and hard-working, humble behavior. They quickly 11
built up a connection between them. After a few months, they finished the design of the store and decided to get married.
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The Calm* Everything was fine since they got married. Ricky went to work as usual, but he backed out some of his overtime and came home earlier. Rose became a career woman. She was, therefore, working in their new house instead of working in office. Every morning when Ricky woke up, Rose prepared their breakfast. Later, Rose helped Ricky put on his blazer. After a kiss good-bye, he went to work. This seemed to be becoming a daily routine. One day, when Ricky was leaving the house, the phone rang. It was a strange voice that could 13
hardly be heard. It was Rose’s client, John. He was asking Rose about designing an ice cream store. Rose quickly received this case. Then, following normal procedures for interior design, Rose went out to discuss with John for that new store. They met at the same bar, the Lamps. However, this time the atmosphere was totally different. No romance, no laughter, instead all Rose could feel was John’s seriousness toward this work and herself. She felt uncomfortable every time John made eye-contact or looked at her body. Rose quickly ended this discussion and returned home. At dinner, Rose talked about what happened during that meeting to Ricky. 14
However, Ricky did not think too much about this at that time.
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The Storm* After a few days, John invited her out again. At first, Rose tactfully refused. “Yeah, I would like to go, but I already have planned tomorrow. I’m sorry.” “Well, ok! I was just wondering if you could help me select curtains for my store.” However, that was just one of his purposes. “Oh, sure!” Because of her occupational disease, she accepted without much thought. “I think…It’s fine for me to cancel that meeting.” She suddenly remembered that she had already refused him. “Really! That would be great. Thanks! Is it ok 16
for me to pick you up at the main train station tomorrow morning at nine?” “Of course, that would be great.” The next day, she left the following message for Ricky. “I have to help that client that I told you about to choose the curtains for his ice cream store. I will be back at five p.m.” It was still a hot summer day. John was waiting for Rose to arrive. His heart was pumping when he saw Rose approached. He took a deep breath, going out off his car and caught Rose’s attention. After Rose got in his car, John quickly gave her a dozen red roses. She was surprised but refused the 17
offering. However, it was too late to get rid of them. John was losing control. He didn’t want to let Rose out of his car, so he kept driving. Too scared to think, Rose jumped out of the car.
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The Awareness* Ricky came home at five p.m. as usual. He crooned while he was looking for the right key. However, Rose wasn’t home, and he noticed that there was a message on the kitchen table. He waited until eight o’clock. It was already late, and Rose hadn’t even called. Ricky tried to contact her, but her cell phone was turned off which was unusual that Rose always kept her cell phone on when she was out. Ricky suddenly felt something was wrong. Perhaps Rose was in danger. He drove to the ice cream store to see if 19
they were still there discussing the design of that store. However, the only thing Ricky saw was so unbelievable, frightening, causing him to trembling. The man was holding a huge sack. In order to persuade himself that Rose wasn’t in that sake, he was hiding himself to see what John was going to do. While the man carried the sack onto his shoulder, a familiar hair tie dropped out of the sack. At that moment, he was aware of the fact that Rose had been killed by John. He decided to keep the evidence because he wanted revenge.
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Ricky’s Revenge* After Ricky healed his wounded soul, he went back to work. It seemed everything went on well, until he stepped into the building where he worked. Something strange happened, he kept trembling and the death of Rose returned to his mind. Even when he went to the supermarket, the feeling wouldn’t let him go. Therefore, he had quitted his job for a while and stayed at home for an entire week. While Ricky was thinking how to get revenge for his Rose, his e-mail signaled that” You’ve got mail!” It was from a person, Mr. G, who Ricky 21
hadn’t heard from before, but the topic of that e-mail was so attractive and made him curious which was” LET’S MAKE A CONTRACT.” He opened it and the content showed Mr. G’s purpose was to murder the person who was his enmity. For not being suspect after murdering, Mr. G was asking Ricky to commit murder by exchanging their targets, who they wanted to kill. Over the next few days, they contacted each other by sending e-mails. At first, Mr. G sent Ricky the personal information of his target and gave some useful information for Ricky to confirm the target. On the other hand, Ricky also sent him John’s 22
information. The murder was already planned out.
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Taking Action* After a few days, Ricky received the good news from his conspirator. The e-mail showed the news of John’s death. Also, there were a few photos attached, which showed John’s corpse. After receiving this news, he was relieved and thought he could live without that illness anymore. He went to a supermarket, however, when the door opened, the same nauseating feeling came to him. He screamed and wondered why it wouldn’t let him go. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind. He realized that things weren’t done yet. 24
The last Thing* Ricky called an agent in order to get the information of where that person worked. Then, he started his plan. He waited until late at night, drove to an official building, hided behind it and looked around. Here he saw, a kind, honest guy staggeringly out of the building. Ricky calmed himself down, and got closer to him. Slowly, inexpertly taking out the rope, had wrapped the rope around the man’s neck. No one noticed. The man died. Ricky quietly moved his body to a dark, narrow alley. A perfect murder, no evidence left behind. 25
Relief* Ricky returned home with accomplishment and emailed to Mr. G with photos attached. Then, click “Notify me when this note is read.” The only thing that he was sure of was that he wouldn’t receive an e-mail quoting “the letter was read.” After everything had been done, he could finally go back to work as usual. However, there’s only one thing that could not returned that was “Rose”.
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References* ď Ź References: ď Ž Images: http://tw.image.search.yahoo.com/sea rch/images?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-acer&p=killer
Acknowledgment* 27
Dear Mr Smith Thank you very much for what you have taught me. I have really learned a lot from you. I am glad that I can be here in this classroom, and be your student in my fourth year in Wenzao. I have never seen such a considerate and helpful teacher like you. Every time when we were not able to finish our essay, you always postpone the deadline for us. Also, I can see how much attention you have put on us. You read and correct every essay by yourself and gave them to us in a short time. I really appreciated all you have done to us. I would say that though I am not the best writer in this classroom, I have got lot of writing skills from my earnest teacher, Mr Smith. Thank you so much. I will always keep it in mind forward. Yours truly, Ashley Chang
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After making a deal on this contract, WHAT would Ricky do to rescue himself? 29