Photo by: Charlize Alcaraz
Josh Bowden is a Grade 10 Laser that many would recognize from the Debate Team, REACH Team, Praise Team, United Fandoms Club and the school’s talent shows. He is known to be extremely talented, creative, smart and energetic. Josh is passionate and approaches every task with enthusiasm and fresh new ideas.
In each club that he participates in, Josh gets to express a different passion of his. In United Fandoms he spreads his love of multiple fandoms to others as his duty is to organize events alongside Mr. Barron and his co-leader. Josh also enjoys public speaking; thus, Debate was definitely in his sights this year. So far, Josh has been to one debate tournament at the University of Windsor in November, and he and his partner won one out of the three debates. Josh is looking forward to the upcoming tournament at the University on March 2nd and later on hopefully going to Assumption. In the spring talent show last year he stole the crowd away with his performance of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” This past November he came back stronger singing “Piano Man” by Billy Joel. Finally, for the Canada 150 performance, he rocked the stage with Bryan Adams' “Summer of ‘69.” In Praise Team, he gets to share his God-given gift with the school at our masses. By just looking into his extracurricular participation, it is evident that Josh is definitely a man of many hats.
Despite his busy schedule, Josh still manages to work on his writing— something that not a lot of people know about. One June afternoon Josh got the idea for his debut novel of a possible trilogy that’s yet to be titled. Josh describes it as a tale about a “nobody” named Harrison who has the ability to see the exact way a person will die. Basically, he and hundreds of others are descendants of ancient immortals who are on the level of gods, and they choose people who they give “the sight” to and those people become Seers.
Below is an excerpt from his novel:
Then, as if on some otherworldly cue, there was whiteness. A whiteness which was the universe itself coming into existence from nothing whatsoever. That is because it wasn’t just light, it was an intense heat as well. What happened next was almost as odd as witnessing the literal creation of everything.
What happened next was like the universe was set to ten times its normal speed. Watching the swirling nebula become the milky way, the gas clouds of our galaxy form stars and eventually our sun. The dust and gases swirling around our sun eventually becoming our solar system; then, the whole process of heating, cooling, water particles forming into oceans, volcanic eruptions, and evolution of creatures and plant life. Which makes up the creation of the little blue ball we call Earth. Then I watched everything go downhill. Watched the meteor kill the dinosaurs, the evolution of humans, and literally the entire history of the human race. All the violence, the fighting, the injustice, but also the peace and love that we have done as a species.
Before, as it was like I was just some floating conscientiousness outside of time. The next thing I know I was in the body of someone who I’ve never seen before. It was likely around midnight and I was running for some reason. There was a crisp wind, likely the season was early winter or late fall. As she ran, I began to take note of the body I was looking out to the world from. For starters, it was female, about 5 feet 3 inches, possibly around the age of 15, and maybe on some sort of track team. Next thing I know she’s doing one of many things you don’t do in a horror movie, and that’s slow down to look behind yourself. Luckily the coast was clear and there was nobody behind her. Us? However, you describe looking through someone else's eyes.
She looked around, and I finally get a good look at my surroundings. It seemed to be some sort of cave made from a type of stone I couldn’t recognize. The walls were damp, and there was this strange low buzzing sound. This girl got closer to the wall, and 2 things were evident. The first was that the wall was vibrating, like not like your phone vibrating in your pocket, more like the vibrations from something banging on something else. Kinda like a shark bumping into the protective glass at the aquarium. The second thing was that this wall was unnaturally hot, the heat radiating from the walls was unnatural-- dangerous even. That’s when she or I heard it.
There was a laugh, a laugh not of innocence, but of an escaped psychopath finally free from the asylum and thirsty for the blood of his next victim. It was the kind of laugh that haunts the dreams of even the most fearless of men. It was coming from the direction that she or I— or we— were running from. That’s when she started to run like a monster was behind her, which for all I know it could’ve been. We ran, and ran, and ran until we reached a dead end. That’s when the laugh came again, and this time there was a voice to that laugh.
“Trying to run lovely? You should know you cannot escape destiny.”
That voice, I will never forget the way it spoke. It was insane, high, but not feminine high, like a high of someone whose strained their vocal cords for hours on end. She turned behind her, and that’s when things got real. There was a figure behind her. It was so dark in these caverns and all that could be seen of him were piercing yellow eyes— kinda like a cat’s— and a smile that looked almost as if this person sliced their mouth so that they could smile unnaturally wide. Next thing I know a hand was wrapped around her or my throat and we were pinned to the wall. Then the girl finally spoke in a hoarse, dry, yet soft voice.
“P-please, don’t do this! There has to be some other way!”
She was practically begging this to this freak. Then I felt something smooth, cold, metallic, and sharp press against her or my throat. The person spoke again. These words were said with so little sympathy you’d think they were a robot.
“Why don’t you shut up and die like a good little girl? You’ll be with your family and that pest of a friend soon.”
Then he struck her with whatever weapon he had with him, and…
Stay tuned!