CHAPTER 14 — MOUNT SORROWING

The rocky slopes of the mountain now towering above the twins looked dark and forbidding, and its peak was completely hidden by heavy, black clouds. No birds sang, no insects hummed. Fallen gravestones, black with age, littered the ground. There were no signs of life anywhere.
Tammy and Tommy looked around, fidgeting. Even Red seemed affected. He kept his head down, and his tail curled between his legs.
In a low voice Choosy said, “If you have any questions, ask them now, before we start up the mountain.”
Tommy shivered. “What is this place?”
“This is Mount Sorrowing,” Choosy answered.
“Do we really have to climb up there?” Tammy asked in a worried voice. “Can’t we just go around this mountain?”
“I know it doesn’t look very pleasant,” Choosy said sympathetically, “but this is a very important mountain. Unfortunately, it’s also just about the most difficult one.”
After a pause she shrugged her shoulders, pointed to one of the gravestones, and said, “Notice what it says there.” Carved in plain letters were the words, OK SORROWING IS WHAT WE SAY OR DO TO SHOW WORRY, SADNESS OR ANGER, WITHOUT BEING MEAN OR MISERABLE.
“You mean, if I said, ‘I don’t like this place,’ that would be a sorrowing choice?” asked Tammy.
“Yes, indeed,” said Choosy Chicken, “and an OK one too. Just make more like that and you’ll make it to the top easily.”
“Well,” said Tommy, taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, “We better get it over with. There’s no point in standing around here all day.”
Keeping close together, the four of them set off, passing as swiftly as possible through the tortured-looking landscape. All around them there was not a thing to be seen but dirt, rocks, and scrubby, twisted little trees.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Tommy said, and his lower lip quivered.
“Me, too,” agreed Tammy. “And I don’t think it’s going to get any better, either. Look up there.” She nodded her head and pointed toward the top of the mountain. Lightning flashed, and a low rumble of thunder followed.
“Uh, oh. If it rains, we’ll get soaked. We don’t have any raincoats or umbrellas, and there’s no place to hide,” Tommy remarked.
“It’s getting colder, too,” said Tammy shivering. “I sure wish we were home. I don’t like it here. It’s ugly and I feel scared.”
“Yeah,” said Tommy softly. “I know what you mean.” He gave Tammy a gentle nudge. “Come on, let’s go. The sooner we get it over with, the better. That storm really has me worried.”
“You know what,” Tammy said as they began to walk, “I think just about all those things we’ve been saying are sorrowing choices.”
Choosy Chicken winked and nodded solemnly. “Just about anything people do with their negative feelings — except get bossy — is a sorrowing choice,” she said. Then she clapped a wingtip over her mouth as if she had said too much.
Tammy thought a moment, then said, “So, getting mad or pouting or hitting someone — those are sorrowing choices.”
“And I bet even stuff like lying, cheating, and stealing — or destroying property, like in a store — is, too,” Tommy observed.
The twins looked toward Choosy Chicken who appeared to be ignoring them as she stared off into space, but after a moment she gave a long, slow nod, and blinked her eyes.
“Oh, right,” said Tammy.
As the twins continued their climb they commented often on their thoughts and feelings. Suddenly, Tammy yelled, “Watch out!” as she slipped and fell, and then slid back into her brother, sending him tumbling to the rocky ground.
“Owwww! Why don’t you watch what you’re doing? You hurt my arm, stupid!” shouted Tommy. All of a sudden there was an ear-splitting roar as a bolt of lightning struck the ground close to where Tommy sat.
Terrified, the twins clung to each other as the air around them crackled and hissed, and the smell of burning sulphur filled their nostrils.
When the dust and smoke cleared, the twins cautiously raised their heads. Red gave a low, fearful growl. Where the lightning had struck was a gaping hole in the side of the mountain.
The twins stared in silence for a moment, and then Tammy said in a shaky voice, “Now I really don’t like it here.”
“Boy, was that ever close,” said Tommy. Then he turned to Choosy and asked, “Did that happen because I blamed Tammy for hurting my arm, when it really wasn’t her fault?”
“You know I’m not supposed to answer any questions, now that we’re on the mountain, but you’ve got the idea. Just be sure to make OK sorrowing choices the rest of the way up,” said Choosy.
Silently, Tammy and Tommy, with Red at their heels, began climbing again, carefully avoiding the gaping hole in the mountain.
After a few minutes they arrived at Mount Sorrowing’s most distinguishing feature — an S-shaped waterfall. The rushing water rapidly twisted and tumbled, back and forth around huge outcroppings of rock and down the mountain side, plunging noisily to the valley below. The twins could see that a narrow ledge high above the valley was the only path to the top.
Holding tightly to each other’s hands, they stepped onto the ledge and began inching their way along it carefully. The air was cold and Tammy and Tommy were quickly drenched by mist from the waterfall. The twins felt miserable. Red whimpered as he followed Tammy and Tommy along the path.
“I’m freezing,” Tammy said looking fearfully up at the mist-shrouded mountain top, and then down to where the waterfall crashed upon the jagged rocks below them.
“Don’t be a baby. Anyway, you’re just making things worse,” answered Tommy in an angry voice.
A moment later Tommy began a gentle slide in the mud on the mountain. He grasped at a small outcropping of rock that saved him from a hundred-foot drop. “That was close. I’m scared,” he said.
“But you’re a boy. . .,” began Tammy, but a loud clap of thunder stopped her before she could finish her statement that a boy shouldn’t be afraid. She thought a moment and changed what she was about to say. “You’re a boy,” she began again, “and you have as much right to be scared as anyone.”
A wet and cold Red tried to huddle closer to Tammy. “Ooooh. You’re soaking wet, and you’re starting to smell. Get away from me,” she said.
Tommy found his footing and let go of the rock. “I’m going back, Tammy! You’re nuts for trying this!”
As Tommy turned around to move past Red and start the descent, the ledge all of them had been walking on disappeared into thin air! Speechless with shock, the twins realized the only chance they had to get off Mount Sorrowing safely was to keep moving ahead. As they progressed slowly, their hearts pounding with fear, the twins saw the ledge behind them continued to disappear with each forward step they took.
After what seemed like hours, Tammy, Tommy and Red reached the top, drenched by the fog and drizzle, and shivering with cold. The twins and Red dropped exhausted to the ground.
“Here children,” said Choosy Chicken as she emerged from the swirling mist at the top of the mountain. She was carrying a fluffy blanket and two steaming mugs of cocoa. Though the children couldn’t imagine where those gifts had come from in that barren place, they took them gratefully. They wrapped the blanket’s warm folds tightly around their chilled bodies and around Red. As they sipped the hot cocoa carefully, they noticed another grave marker that read, OD SORROWING IS BLAMING OTHERS, OR BEING MEAN OR MISERABLE.
Tommy stared at the sign, nodded, and then lowered his head. “I guess we make OD sorrowing choices all the time,” he said after a moment in a quiet voice. “Like when I acted mean to Red and fussed at Tammy.”
He thought a moment more and added, “Or when I threw clay at your bulletin board stuff, Tammy, because you were having fun and I wasn’t.”
“Or when we start to fight and blame each other for starting it,” Tammy replied. “Or when we sulk or make a fuss like we did when we couldn’t go to the zoo.”
Choosy Chicken nodded several times, then said, “Since you’ve obviously had so much practice making OD sorrowing choices, you won’t need to make any more on the way down. Just be careful in the future. Try to make sorrowing choices without being miserable inside yourself, or mean to others.”
As they all started down the mountainside, Choosy saw Tammy and Tommy look at each other, then stare down at the ground.
“You’re not the only ones who need to learn that,” she assured them. She thought a moment, then added, “That’s something almost everyone needs to work on.”

Chapter 14 — THE BIG IDEA

For Chapter 14 the Big Idea is: Sorrowing choices are the things we say or do that express our negative feelings.

The first sign Tammy and Tommy saw as they climbed Mount Sorrowing said: OK SORROWING IS WHAT WE SAY OR DO TO SHOW WORRY, SADNESS, OR ANGER WITHOUT BEING MEAN OR MISERABLE. They also learned that the best thing to do with negative feelings may be to tell someone about them.

All of us have negative feelings from time to time. What do you do when you have negative feelings? Do you tell someone about them, or do you become mean or act miserable? Think about this idea and how you can use it to make your life better.

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