The Magic of Imagining: The Sheriff

By Robert Beck

Nathan and his brother and two sisters go on the greatest adventure of their lives. Nathan comes up with the idea of using their imagination to become different people and to go to a different place. Once the four of them start using their imagination, they are transported to a new town and become a sheriff and the troublesome trio. Then the adventure begins, with the troublesome trio escaping from jail and causing all kinds of trouble in the town of Timberville. The sheriff does everything he can to catch the Trio, but they are hard to find and catch. There are some twists and turns when they are playing the greatest adventure game of their lives. Will the trio get away, or will the sheriff catch them and put them back in jail?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504967099

Robert Beck

Robert J. Beck was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He currently resides in Socorro, New Mexico, with his cat, Maui.

Book preview

Chapter 1:

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The Power of Imagining

Nathan loved to play outside all day, every day, and he would get sad when he couldn’t. As we all know, you can’t always play outside, especially on cold and stormy days. This is where our story begins.

You can probably guess what kind of day it was. That’s right: it was a cold and stormy day, and Nathan was stuck in the house to play. This was Nathan’s least favorite place to play in the whole world, and he knew it was going to be a long and boring day if he didn’t come up with something to do—and fast.

Nathan’s younger brother and sister, Kyle and Maddie, were twins, and his other sister Lauren was the youngest in the family. They were also stuck in the house all day long to play—a recipe for a potential disaster for their mother. All four of them were bored out of their minds, but Nathan was the most bored of all. He kept asking his mom what he could do over and over again. Everything she suggested was something he didn’t want to do. She suggested clean his room, pick up his toys, and help her clean the house. There was no way he was going to do that.

Hours went by, and Nathan started to really bug his mom. His younger brother and sisters had already driven their mom to the point where she made them go into the basement to play with their toys. Kyle, Maddie, and Lauren didn’t mind playing in the basement; to them, it was like their own separate house. It had carpet on the floors, a couch, chairs, and even a television to play video games or watch a movie, and it’s where most of their toys stayed anyway.

Nathan kept bothering his mom, and she finally made him go to the basement too. Kyle, Maddie, and Lauren wanted Nathan to play with them, but he didn’t want to. He was upset that his mom had sent him to the basement.

Some time went by, and Nathan was still bored playing by himself, so he decided to play with his brother and sisters. He asked Kyle what he wanted to do. Kyle suggested they play with his toy cars. Nathan, Maddie, and Lauren did not want to do that. They thought playing with toy cars was a dumb idea.

So Maddie suggested they play with her dolls and dollhouse. You can imagine how that suggestion went over with Nathan and Kyle. You guessed it: not well. There was no way Nathan and Kyle were going to play with dolls and a dollhouse. They thought that was just too girly for them.

Although Lauren didn’t mind Maddie’s suggestion too much, she didn’t want to do it either. So Lauren came up with the idea of playing with her toy horses and all of her horse accessories. To Nathan and Kyle, that was just as bad as playing with dolls and a dollhouse, if not worse.

So they were right back where they started: still bored.

They all went to different parts of the basement to play. Kyle went back to playing with his toy cars. Maddie went over to her dolls and dollhouse and picked up right where she had left off. Lauren went back to her horses and started to build a pasture around her barn.

Nathan just walked over to the couch and flopped onto it, letting out the biggest sigh you have ever heard. Even though Kyle, Maddie, and Lauren were playing what they had suggested, they still weren’t having very much fun. Although they weren’t enjoying playing by themselves, they kept playing because there wasn’t anything else for them to do. At least they were doing something.

While Nathan sat on the couch moping, he watched his brother and sisters play with their toys. He started to notice little things they did. This made Nathan think, so he began watching them very closely. He started with Kyle and his toy cars. Nathan noticed Kyle playing with his construction vehicles. Kyle was building things with toothpicks and then tearing them down. Nathan also noticed Kyle playing with his police cars and chasing bad guys around. He noticed that one of the police cars had Sheriff on the side of it. That gave him the start of a great idea of an adventure they could all go on.

Second, Nathan watched Maddie play with her dolls and dollhouse. He didn’t think that would give him any ideas to work with, but he watched anyway. To his surprise, they did. He noticed that Maddie had made a little town for her dolls. It had a store, a beauty shop, and other little shops. He also noticed that she made one of the dolls go in and out of the shops, talking to the other dolls that worked there.

Then Nathan turned his attention to Lauren, playing with her horses and all of their accessories. He noticed that one of her horses was mean to the other horses and would boss the other horses around the pasture. That was all Nathan needed to come up with his idea for the greatest adventure ever.

Nathan sat on the couch with a smile and started to think of everything they would do. When he finished, he would explain it all to Kyle, Maddie, and Lauren.

Nathan started with himself; he would be a sheriff in a small town. There would be a general store, a bakery, and a barbershop. Oh, and of course, there would be a sheriff’s office and jail. If there was a sheriff, there had to be a villain or two. Or three.

Then Nathan came up with some characters—imaginary ones, of course. There would be Miss Sarah, Granny Sue, and some others to be met later. Nathan thought about what the villains would do and what he would do to catch them. He thought of all the details he would need to make this the greatest game and adventure ever played.

Nathan finally finished figuring out the details, so he got off the couch and walked toward his brother and sisters, calling out to them that he had a game they could all