MENACING TOENAILS : 골칫거리 발톱

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지난 호부터는 지난 3-4월에 걸쳐 ‘어린이를 위한 창의적 글쓰기 사회(Creative Writing for Children Society)가 주최한 제1회 영어 창의적 글쓰기 대회의 수상작들을 소개하고 있습니다.  영어로 읽고 쓰기를 좋아하는 청소년과 창의적 글쓰기 교육에 관심이 많은 학부형들의 일독을 권합니다. 밴쿠버 거주 한국 청소년들의 영어 실력은 물론 이들의 창의력과 상상력을 한 눈에 가늠할 수 있는 좋은 기회입니다.

데니스 상우 홍의 ‘골칫거리 발톱(MENACING TOENAILS)’은 제목에서 주는 인상과 같이 ‘유머’가 한껏 가미된 재미있고 상상력이 풍부한 단편소설이다. 사람으로 치면 기껏해야 자르고 버리면 그만일 발톱들이 ‘괴롭히기’까지 한다니 분명 상식은 아닌 듯싶다. 그래서 작가는 코끼리라는 동물을 주인공으로 등장시키고 ‘발톱검사(toenail inspection)’라는 듯도 보지 못한 통과관례를 코끼리에게 적용시켜 이야기를 풀어나간다. 데니스의 작품의 꽃은 독특한 아이디어를 근간으로 아주 구체적으로 묘사한 데 있다; 글의 생동감을 주기 위해 많은 능동형의 단어들과 의성어들을 활용했다. 이 작품을 읽으면서, 웃지 않는 사람이 있다면, 그 사람은 ‘영어를 아예 못하는 사람’이거나 ‘방금 슬픈 일을 당한 사람’일거다.

『어느 마을에 코끼리들이 살고 있었다. 이 코끼리들은 한 달에 한번 발톱검사를 받게 되어있다. 발톱검사에서 불합격하게 되면 벌을 받게 되는데 아주 고통스럽게 된다. 검사 날, 모든 코끼리들은 무서워 벌벌 떨고 있다. 검사인이 발톱손질을 잘못한 코끼리들을 불러 세운 뒤 발톱손질을 시작한다. 잘려져 나간 코끼리 발톱들이 통통 튄다. 그 중 한두 발톱이 코끼리 코를 통해 배속으로 들어가 온 내장을 다 두드린다. 코끼리는 간지러워 하늘로 붕붕뜬다.…』

‘어린이를 위한 창의적 글쓰기 워크샵’ 중에 제시된 코끼리에 대한 사진을 보자마자 아이디어가 떠올라 거침없이 바로 써내려 갔다는 데니스 상우 홍의 수상소감에서와 같이, 그의 경계없는 상상력과 제한받지 않은 자유함이 여전히 ‘읽고 쓰고 외우기’에서 자유롭지 못한 또래 아이들에게 자극이 되길 희망한다.

-박준형

어린이를 위한 창의적 글쓰기 사회(Creative Writing for Children Society)설립자 겸 저자/홈페이지:www.cwc2004.org/이메일:cwc2004_1@hotmail.com

MENACING TOENAILS: 골칫거리 발톱

Dennis Sangwoo Hong
Harold Bishop Elementary School Gr.5 / Surrey

One sunny, cloudless and beautiful day, Judy, an Asian elephant who was gray and quite big, was trembling with terror. The cause of this unusual fear on such a gorgeous day was because it was the day of her toenail inspection. She locked herself up in a dark corner inside her fence, shivering. She’d heard from many victims that the inspections could go very horrible. 

Checkies, the cheetah, couldn’t eat super-yummy jellyfish cream for two weeks because his toenail decided to dive straight into his mouth! Just thinking about no jellyfish cream and hideous toenails sent shivers down her spine.                              

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! As Judy looked up, she saw that it was Piany, the rhinoceros who had a major sore throat after her own disastrous inspection. “Beware, Judy! Don’t and I mean DON’T let the toenails get out of control. They will sting you until you feel like laughing and crying at the same time! They will go into your body and make your systems go all crazy. There will be no bacon flavoured crispy cornflakes! No sunny warm days! You’ll be locked up in a brightly lit up room full of ROTTEN DAISIES! She finished fearfully.

ROTTEN DAISIES! They were the most horrid creatures in the whole universe! Their stinking smell and aghhhh! She didn’t even want to think about it. Well, she did like daisies only when they weren’t ROTTEN.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! Faraway, Judy could see the inspector happily walking down the dirt road with the tools needed for inspection and a look of excitement on his face. “Keep the toenails in control!” Piany yelled in a bewildering voice as she stomped away to her own home behind her fence.

“Hey, Judy! Get ready for your toenail inspection because it’s the time for it!” shouted the inspector gaily. The weird thing about the inspector was, although he had to use all his efforts to catch and calm the crazy toenails down, he always seemed excited about the job. This inspecting job was considered the hardest in the world. No   one ever could stop him from the job.  

“Put your toes up!” he ordered. Judy knew she just had to get over it, so she reluctantly stood up and walked toward the edge of her fence. From there, she slowly raised her leg and put them on the fence. The inspector scrutinized each and every toenail cautiously and at last spoke, “These toenails are too long. It’s time for some cutting!” The inspector immediately took out his giant clipper and clipped away. As soon as he was done, the toenails started going wild! They leaped around and started to poke Judy. The inspector got a small net and ran for the toenails. They ran around, saying “Catch me! Catch me!” Suddenly, the biggest of the toenails stopped and zipped past the inspector, followed by the other toenails, heading straight for Judy. They jumped all at once in front of Judy, and dove straight into Judy’s open mouth. The toenails enjoyed sliding down Judy’s watery throat and down the windpipe towards the stomach. The inspector quickly got out his cell phone and called the toenail agency for a special mission. The agent came in less than five minutes. When he arrived, he took out a weird rectangular, complicated looking device and zapped himself. After he got zapped, he was tiny. The agent climbed onto Judy and he too, dove into Judy’s mouth after the toenails.

“Stop you menacing creatures!” shouted the agent. He could see the toenails sliding directly towards the funny bone. The toenails stuck out their tongue and said, “Nahhhhhh!” The toenails drummed on the bone and Judy laughed like a maniac. The agent almost caught them, but the toenails just zoomed ahead. Now, they were going to the heart. The agent had to be careful in the heart not to destroy anything vital.     

While the agent was being hesitant, the toenails just zoomed carelessly out of the heart. When at last the agent got out of the heart and looked down, there were the toenails having a party and drumming on different kinds of bones. Outside, Judy was jumping around and yelling and going insane due to the toenails inside her body. The agent jumped down and shouted  “you’re all under arrest!”

“No, you can’t do, guy. You see, we’re having too much fun.” said the biggest toenail.

“Hmmm… How about this? You and I have a belly battle. If I lose, you guys get to do whatever you want. But if you lose, you have to get out,” suggested the agent.

“Fine, get ready to lose and cry, boy,” said the big toenail. Both of them stepped back and one of the toenails shouted, “GO!” They charged towards each other, leaped up in the air, and pushed their bellies out. On the first round, the agent won. On the second round, the agent lost. Now it was all up to the third round. “Go!” They ran, leaped up, did a back flip, and pushed. BAM! They both faltered back, but as they were falling, the agent flew forwards and hit the toenail once again on the stomach, then jumped back to the ground. The toenail couldn’t get a grip on the control, so he fell down. “AHHHH! I LOST!” the big toenail groaned.  

Now, they had to get out of Judy’s body. The toenails glumly followed the agent to the nose. When they reached the nose, Judy couldn’t help but blowing her nose and the group was flung out into daylight. “THANK YOU! THANK YOU!” Judy thanked the agent greatly.

“No prob. Because this is my job!” the agent replied. “Well, I’d better take these guys to toenail jail. Bye!” With that, the agent went to his car, took out a mini cage, and locked the toenails inside. He took it to the trunk of his car and locked it tightly. “SEE YA!” the agent yelled out as he drove away to Central Toenail Headquarters. “Hew!” Judy let out a sigh.

“Um… Judy? There’s still one problem,” the inspector said slowly. Judy turned around fearfully to face the inspector. “You see, as the toenails were carelessly zipping past your heart, they damaged some things on the way, weakening your heart. I’m sad to say, you’ll have to eat… SUPER-YUMMY JELLYFISH CREAM FOR A WHOLE MONTH!” the inspector shouted happily.

“YES!” Judy hurrahed.

 “Have fun eating!” the inspector raised his voice as he walked away. Of course, then, Judy didn’t know how sick she would get of Jellyfish Cream.

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데니스 상우 홍(Dennis Sangwoo Hong)

데니스 상우 홍은 서리의 헤롤드 비숍 엘리멘터리 5학년 학생으로 부모와 형과 같이 살고 있으며 주위로부터 ‘타고난 이야기꾼’이라는 말을 많이 듣는다. 이번 수상기회가 늘 자신을 챙겨주는 엄마에게 가장 행복한 순간을 안겨줬다고, 그래서 이번 어머니의 날에는 엄마에게 별도의 선물을 안드려도 되겠다고 킥킥대는 그의 눈에는 천진난만한 순수함이 고스란히 베어있다. 

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