Poppa, a talking bear, was best friends with a lonely caveman who suffered from constant mood swings. Poppa tried many things to cheer up his friend when he became sad, but nothing worked. One winter night, as the caveman cried inside their cave, Poppa discovered how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. When Poppa showed the caveman the fire's warm, orange flames, his mood immediately lifted and he smiled. Poppa realized that darkness was what made his friend sad, while light cheered him up. From then on, Poppa would light fires at night to keep his caveman friend happy.

1. Nicole Rivera Espinal
RISE Creative Writing Competition
#804-14-6890
Thursday, May 14th, 2015
The secret of fire
Long time ago, legend says there was a very lonely caveman that lived in Africa. His
only friend was a talking bear named "Poppa". Poppa and the caveman were best friends,
they did everything together, and they even shared the same living space, the cave. The cave
man had no friends because they all thought he was very moody. Since he can remember, the
only one who has always stayed with him was Poppa, his unconditional friend. Anyone who
saw this friendship thought it was ironic because normally cave man haunt bears and use their
skin to make all sorts of clothing. Poppa understood the caveman, although sometimes his
mood swings made him impossible to tolerate. Poppa wanted to help the caveman with his
constant mood swings but he couldn't figure out what was causing them. One day they were
out fishing and by sunset the caveman started crying without any explanation. His sadness
made him want to through all the fish back to the river. This made Poppa very angry because
they had been fishing all day to save up food for winter, and the cave man had just thrown a
days work like it was nothing. After throwing the fish back to the river the cave man walk
back to their cave. The precise moment the cave man entered the cave; he became unbearable
to be with. Poppa tried making him feel better bringing him many fish for them to eat but this
didn't stop the cave man from being sad. He felt hopeless seeing his best friend go through
this and worst of all, not being able to do anything that could al least make him smile. A
winter night, the cave man was crying, as usual, inside of the cave, and Poppa was trying to
find an alternative way to warm himself that wasn't going inside the cave. Besides the cave
Poppa found two wood sticks. He started rubbing them against each other because this made

2. them warm. After doing these for a long period of time flames started coming out of the
wood sticks. Neither of them had ever watched these happened. Poppa made the caveman
walk out of his beloved cave to see what he was accomplishing. The sad cave man walked
out of the cave to see this weird, hot, orange flame. His mood switch immediately and a smile
was automatically drawn in his face. From this day on, every time the night came Poppa
would lit up a fire to make his caveman friend happy. He concluded that what was making
the cave man sad was the darkness of the night. Light made the cave man happy and feel like
he was alive. This is how Poppa discovered how light affects the mood of his best friend, the
cave man, which was almost always exposed to light.