Worst Day Ever

By Ellen Hooge

Worst Day Ever is book one of Jackson Little-Light's Big Adventures.
Jackson had a great week at summer Bible Camp and decides to follow Jesus just like his counselor does and just like his Mosom and Kokum do. They are the three people he admires most in the world and he really wants to be like them.
However, life keeps taking unexpected twist and turns that prevent Jackson from living up to his expectations. The more he tries to succeed in life the more he seems to land up in trouble . . . big trouble!
Life on a Cree First Nation challenges Jackson to discover what it truly means to become a warrior as he valiantly battles a variety of situations that threaten to destroy his friendships, his family and his faith. One thing leads to another until Jackson ends up in a life threatening situation that all begins on his Worst Day Ever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ellen Hooge
• Release date: Nov 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311337764

Ellen Hooge

Ellen Hooge’s inspiration for Jackson Little-Light’s story comes from her Grandmother. She was a woman who loved Jesus, her 28 grand kids, her First Nation friends and telling stories about her prairie childhood.Ellen and her husband Jack have worked and lived alongside the First Nations community for over 30 years. They and their four daughters have had many great adventures with their Aboriginal friends that just beg to be told. So it’s time to pass on some stories to the next generation of kids. Many of Jackson’s experiences are based on true events!

Book preview

Jackson Little-Light’s Big Adventures

Worst Day Ever

Ellen Hooge & Ray Keighley

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Ellen Hooge - 2013

Copyright: All rights reserved.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is a work of fiction. With the exception of recognized media personalities and historical figures, the characters in this novel are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Illustrations by Ray Keighley

Formatting by RikHall.com

Dedication

to all kids who go home from camp determined to follow Jesus.

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10:28

Introduction

Jackson Little-Light lives on a Cree First Nation. He doesn’t want to get into trouble every time he turns around, but it seems to happen a lot!

Jackson had a great week at summer Bible Camp and decided to follow Jesus just like his counselor did, just like his Mosom and Kokum did. They were the three people he admired most in the world and he really wanted to be like them.

However, things kind of got out of control on the first day of school when he decides to jog to school in his brand new runners instead of taking the school bus. He doesn’t really mean to get the rodeo bulls so mad and . . . well you will have to read all about it.

Cree words you’ll need to know

Mosom – Grandfather

Kokum – Grandmother

Nosisim – Grandson

Iskwew – Woman

Moniyas – White man

Bannock – bread that can be fried or baked

JACKSON LITTLE-LIGHT’S WORST DAY EVER

Chapter 1 – First Day Worst Day

Worst day ever! Jackson slumped down on the couch and stared at his bare feet. His dark eyes clouded with pain.

How could it have happened? Everyone hates me now. How could everything have gone so wrong?

His chest tightened and his throat closed up but he refused to cry. He sure didn’t want his little sister asking him what was wrong. She would never understand. Who would understand?

Jackson! Where are you? I need to talk to you.

Jackson’s head snapped upward. His eyes widened. Oh no! It’s Mom! I’ve got to get out of here!

Bolting to the back door, he grabbed his old runners, ran behind the shed, stopped for a panicky minute to put on his shoes and tore across the field toward the river without looking back.

At the river, Jackson once again stared at his feet in despair. This time his hands rested on his knees as he gasped for air.

Nosisim! What’s your big hurry?

Great! He hadn’t even seen his grandmother sitting on the riverbank with her fishing pole. What next? How could this day get any worse? His breathing began to slow down as he watched Kokum reel in her line.

Did you catch anything? Jackson asked between breaths.

Just a little speckled trout but that won’t feed everyone. Food seems to disappear fast at your end of the table.

Do you want me to try my luck for a while?Jackson asked.

Grandma glanced sideways at him, I don’t know . . . I saw the look on your face when you were runnin’ here. It doesn’t look like you are havin’ a very lucky day. she said.

Jackson didn’t say anything. He dropped down onto his stomach in the prickly prairie grass and buried his face in his folded arms. He didn’t care if the fragrant sage tickled his skin. He didn’t care if ants crawled up his nose. He just didn’t care. And he wasn’t going to talk to Kokum about it even if she used all her tricks on him. He wouldn’t let the tears squeeze out of his closed eyelids either.

Well, I guess I should start to go home now. said Grandma as she started to pack up her tackle box. It takes me a long time to cross the field at my age. I might need help from someone young and strong.

I’m not going back with you. I’m not ever going back. said Jackson.

Well then, you should keep my fishin’ gear and the little trout.

Grandma looked around at the wide prairie landscape and pointed to a place by the river bank.

My family used to camp over there. It’s a good place. We dug into the earth and built a log roof on top of the hole. Then my Kokum cut squares of prairie grass right out of the ground and planted them on the roof so the wind couldn’t get in.

Grandma pulled her eyes away from the riverbank and stared straight at Jackson. But one dark night, she went on, when I was already in bed, her voice got louder as she told the story, I could hear a pack of wolves chasin’ a deer. The sound got closer and closer until the deer ran right over the roof above my head. His foot crashed right through the sod. It was hangin’ there an inch from my face while the wolves finished him off, snarlin’ and growlin’ above me."

Stop it Kokum! Stop it with your scary stories. I’ve had a really bad day.

It couldn’t be as bad as that night with the wolves and the deer hoof hangin’ above my head.

It was much worse. At least the whole world wasn’t mad at you.

The whole world? That’s a lot of people for sure. And they’re ALL mad at you?

Well, my whole world is.

Am I also mad at you Nosisim?

Probably.

Because of the laundry I hung on the line this mornin’? Was it you that ripped my dress off the line and trampled it in the dirt?

No. It was the bull.

Yes, your Dad mentioned the bulls at lunch.

Jackson lifted his head up in alarm, Did they all get out?

Your Dad and Mosom Jeremy spent the mornin’ roundin’ them up and fixin’ the fence. They say someone must have been teasin’ them but I thought I saw you walk to the bus stop this mornin’ so it couldn’t have been you.

Jackson buried his face in his arms again. I didn’t take the bus this morning, he mumbled. Austin and I decided to jog to school in our new runners.

Ah . . . said Kokum in her faraway-thoughts voice. A young Paul Acoose are you?

Paul Acoose? asked Jackson, lifting his head again.

He was a great runner in my grandmother’s time, continued Kokum. He lived on Sakimay First Nation and once held the world record in long distance runnin’.

It must be in my blood then. exclaimed Jackson as he sat upright to tell the story. "I was really excited about my new Nikes Kokum! I was going to start training for the Olympics by running to school.

Jackson’s shoulders suddenly sagged again. But now my runners are ruined and stinky so I hid them in the barn.

How did they get stinky my boy? I thought I gave you clean socks this mornin’.

Jackson ignored Kokum’s comment and hung his head guiltily. We only pretended to go to the bus stop. When we got to the main road we ran back along the trail by the bull field. I guess we were a bit tired by then so we stopped for a breather and saw that the bulls had horse flies all over them. There were thousands of horse flies Kokum. We weren’t really teasing them.

Jackson glanced sideways at Kokum to see if she