Surprise Endings

Last year after my family got back from Norway, I felt like writing something unusual. So here is something that I sent to a few of my friends then:

Dear friends,
I'm afraid I have some dire news for you. That is, it may be tragic for you but it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It seems that as my family and I traveled toward home from Reykjavik, Iceland, on our plane, they had some technical problems with the engine. It was quickly dying, and as the pilot lost control he couldn't get the plane in time to the nearest safety. Suddenly, the engine sputtered and stopped, and even as the crew frantically tried to replace it, we surged straight downward toward the middle of the cold Atlantic. My ears were practically bursting at the rapidly changing altitude and pressure, and for a moment I blacked out. Soon we were rushed toward the nearest exit, where I jumped out onto the plane wing with my sister Kendra and leaped toward the evacuation slides. As the massive blue water loomed ever nearer, we prepared to clamber into the life rafts that were being prepared for our use. Many people in a panic were rushing onto the plane wing. Suddenly, a mere score of feet from the water, the steep angle of the wing was too much for me, and I slipped. Before I could regain my balance, my feet were flung from under me and thrust into the still whirlingly trying rotors. Instantly I felt pain shoot through every nerve, and then everything went cold. The water encased me, and as I struggled at kicking my feet and staying above the water, I found that I couldn't move them. I sunk farther and farther, my lunges bursting, but feeling strangely sleepy and very peaceful. Blackness encompassed me, and I knew no more. To make a long story short, quite frankly I'm dead. Don't worry, I'm not in the hot place, but in a place of melodious joy and whiteness. The chaps up here aren't a bit stuffy as we might have supposed, and they play the harp quite expertly--better than Yo Yo Ma any day, supposing he could play the harp. Also, I've become better friends with Someone very special. I hope you will too.
I'll be praying for you. Still fast and forever you friend,
Kayla Rebecca--I'm afraid I can't give you my new name yet!

Don't you just love surprise endings? Now this one may not have come as a surprise to you, as I was rather hinting stuff as we went along, but in general I think surprise endings are very nifty, for the obvious reason that you're not expecting them. Sometimes I don't like the book that you just know what's going to happen, and it's always obvious who so-and-so is going to fall in love with, etc. This particular technique that I used, (that is, writing in first person and ending with the fact that you died), will usually come as a complete shock to most because obviously it never occurs to people that you can write such things in other places rather than on earth. I actually got the idea from Mr. Pass, (thank you Mr. P!) as he told us in writing club that one year he told the bibleschool guys a story of how he met a bear in the woods and as he got to the climactic point, sitting on the edge of their seats so to speak, he told him that he had died. Hmm. . . obviously this style of story is not of the most truthful variety.

While I am on the subject of surprise endings, I shall mention some stories I have read that I thought had good ones. For one thing, Agatha Christie is very good with surprise endings. It's odd because almost every time you try to form theories they are almost always wrong! Like in this one I recently read, the person who was first suspected of committing the murder then became the least suspected, and then she was the one who did it! I also remember reading some stories I enjoyed in 7th grade literature. One of them, called Gold-Mounted Guns, had an unusual ending on the amusing side, and the other, called The Last Leaf, had a surprise ending on the more sad and touching aspect. Great stories, each one of them.