Puyallup, WA - April 22, 2001

Nick Abel reads his creation for an audience gathered at the Puyallup Spring Fair.

Today, Nick Abel, a local student, scout and creative phenom, treated a crowd at the annual Puyallup Spring Fair to a live reading of his award winning prose titled "On the Way to the Cabin".   Abel, a sixth-grader at Hillside Student Community in Bellevue, was singled out to receive Grand Champion honors for his entry in the creative writing division of the Creative Kids Exhibit held at the annual spring event.  Hundreds of students aged from eight to fifteen from Western Washington entered their best work in categories ranging from photography, art, textiles, creative writing and baking.

On the Way to the Cabin describes pleasant memories of frequent evening trips to the family's Eastern Washington mountain cabin.  For the late hour departures, Nick and his sister Katy and brother Andy  donned their pajamas and treated their parents to a placid 90 minute drive over the mountain pass.  

Nick credits two extraordinary people for his newfound writing prowess: Anne Kiemle, his teacher at Hillside and his mother Karen, from which he inherited his creative talent and good looks.

On the Way to the Cabin

The start of a journey.
It's late and we are all tired.
We slip into our PJ's quickly and sneak down to the car.
The house is dark and silent.
And the car is warm with blankets.
We start our journey heading off to the freeway and towards the mountains beyond.
We snuggle up to one another like warm pillows.
Andy tucks his head into my arm.
Trucks pass like ghosts. We are awash in a pale yellow light.
Mom and dad murmur quietly as we drift off into dreamless slumber.
Our snores circulate the air around us.
Like a cradle, the car rocks back and forth.
And it hums lightly while we drive along.
Up and over the Pass.
The moon looks like a big cotton ball, all smudged up.
One by one, the snowflakes fall.
We descend into a valley cloaked in white.
Our cabin is plainly visibly in the moonlight.
The lone guardian of the road we now traverse.
At last we have arrived.