William Strong: A Short Story Of An Environmentalist

It was a windy, warm spring day in the neighborhood of Woodhaven Fields. The birds were chirping, bees buzzing, and the wind was blowing the trees back and forth. A young man named William Strong had lived in Woodhaven Fields for the past ten years with his wife, Rachel. Everybody in the neighborhood knew William was an outdoors type of person and tried found any excuses to be outside. Even as a young child, William would play outside all day, climb as high as he could on trees and watch the squirrels and birds, and go on camping trips and hikes. He thought about becoming a park ranger or environmentalist when he grew up. However, William was a type of person in school who only did the bare minimum in his classes, usually did his homework, but

When he went outside, the sun was high in the sky, the wind slightly blowing, and it felt like a hundred degrees. He scanned around looking for the animal, saw the gopher defecating on a broken watermelon, so he pulled out his bow, and shot a couple of arrows at it. He missed, and the gopher retreated to its tunnel. He poured the gasoline into the tunnel and threw a lit match hoping the gopher would burn; nevertheless, the gopher escaped and ran into his house. William chased after it throwing knives at it and he shot the rest of his arrows, but he missed and all of the knives and arrows went through the walls and destroyed some household ornaments. He took out his shotgun and blasted it a couple of times but missed each time creating a couple of large holes on the floor and in the walls. When the gopher was cornered, he took out his ax and swung at the animal a couple of times but the gopher dodged each time and the ax left gashes in the corner. He tried to stab and cut the animal with his machete, yet the gopher dodged each jabbed and escaped between his