Our Space Our Words

Story, The Lucky Cruise Ship, 15 August 2007

Molly and her friends couldn’t wait to go camping in the forest. Molly wanted to make a real campfire and tell ghost stories round it, and sing campfire songs.

    ‘Molly, hurry up,’ her mum shouted from downstairs.

    ‘Coming,’ Molly called back. She was so excited and she couldn’t wait to put up her tent.

    ‘Wow,’ Molly gasped when she saw the forest.  The trees looked like they were leaning against each other, shutting out the sun.

    ‘Mollie,’ someone called.

    Mollie turned round and saw her friends, Bella, Ann and Ellie.  ‘Hi, guys.’

    She hugged them tightly.  ‘Let’s get our tents up.’

    …’Now what?’ said Bella.  They had set up their tents, and got the campfire going.  The sun had gone down and where the light from their campfire didn’t reach it was dark, really dark.

    ‘Time for scary stories,’ Anne exclaimed, and they sat round the fire, toasting marshmallows.

 Ellie started the story.  ‘Once…’  She insisted that it was true, but she was making it all up to scare her friends.  ‘Once there was a man who stayed in a hotel very close to hear, right on the edge of the forest.  He thought it was a good hotel until they gave him some food, which he was allergic to.  It made his feet swell up and he was furious, really angry.  He had told them he was allergic, had even written a note which they should have pinned up in the kitchen but they hadn’t taken any notice.

    The cook came out of the kitchen to have a word.  ‘We didn’t make any mistake, sir.  No food you are allergic to when into that stew.’

    ‘Then who put it there.’

    The man realised someone was out to get him.  Perhaps the scoundrel had run into the forest. 

    ‘But I’ll find him,’ said the man, ‘and when I do, I shall teach him a lesson he will never forget.’

    Off the man went, out of the hotel close to hear on his swollen feet.  Thump! Thump! Thump!  The cook and the people who ran the hotel, and all the other guests could hear his footsteps fading into the forest.  And that’s the last they ever saw of him.  People say he is still in the forest to this very day, looking for the person who had given him the wrong food….

    Everyone round the fire was speechless. It was all so scary. Ellie looked pleased with herself. She’d fooled them.  Everyone believed the story was true now.  Thump! Thump!  Thump!  It was very hard not to laugh.

    ‘Come on,’ Bella yawned at last.  ‘The fire’s nearly out.  Let’s go to bed.’

    Everyone got into their cosy sleeping bags, zipped their tents shut and went to sleep.  Ann woke up in the middle of the night.  She could hear something.

    Thump!  Thump! Thump!

    It was the man from the hotel, still looking for the person who had given him the wrong food. 

    ‘It can’t be,’ Ellie confessed.  ‘I made the whole thing up just to scare you guys. ‘

    But there was the sound again.  Who was making that noise then?

Thump! Thump! Thump……!

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Firstly, I am going to tell you about the best dog to get. It is a dog that does not need much walking and is not very big. This dog is a daschund.

What is a daschund? 

Well, a daschund is a small dog from Germany and it means “Long- badger”. They are mostly called sausage dogs because they are so long,  a bit like sausages! They have very long ears because in Germany they used to dig a lot so the long ears make no bugs crawl into them.

Daschunds’ backs

Daschunds have very long backs which need to be looked after. If they break their spine, they cannot survive. But don’t worry because there are some ways you can prevent this from happening. If you have stairs in your house you must carry them up it, and when you carry a daschund, always carry it horizontally. If you see or carry your daschund vertically it is very bad for its back.

Types of Daschund

There many types of Daschunds you can choose from. There is long haired, short- haired or wired hair. The colours you can get our black and tanned (brown) and tanned. Here are some pictures of what they look like.

Finally, I will sum it up for you. A daschund is a great pet to have but you need to look after it well.   

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By Purnika

You might think that pirates are long gone but they are not.  The pirates have returned to modern days. In the 16th and 17th centuries they often hung pirates for nothing.  Sometimes they even sent to the gallows people who were mistaken for pirates but were not. It was the law in some nations that

Piracy started to develop as soon as vessels which could sail on the open seas were built, especially ones that could sail at a distance from shore. Pirates might have been poor men but they were also smart, as shown by the fictional character Jack Sparrow who seems to have been modelled on some of the most famous pirates in history. Their heyday were in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.  Here there were often battles between the English and the Spanish, who were bought after the gold and silver brought by slaves from the new world. 

Today there are indications that piracy is on the increase in some parts of the world! 

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 May 19th was the day I was going to Barcelona on holiday, for two whole weeks. I couldn’t wait to go and the best part was that I was going there on a cruise ship. 3 days on a cruise ship – that was the best part of the holiday as far as I was concerned. ‘1 more week to go,’ I kept thinking all through the days before. I started packing bags and equipment in the car a week before with my brother.

* * *

All of my stuff, and the other’s, was packed in the car. So we set off to the cruise harbour. It took nearly four hours to get there. And then we had to wait another two before we could get on the ship. I have to say I got a bit angry because I really wanted to get on and see what the ship was like inside. The person who was in charge said we had to park our car outside and carry our luggage on board. I was quite happy to do that because it meant I could go on board at last.

It was so posh, it was rated a 5 star ship. I told my mum, ‘can I please go swimming in the pool?’

‘Ok,’ she said, so I ran in my swimming trunks and jumped into the pool.

* * *

The water slides were really fun but it was getting dark. I got dressed and called my brother and sisters, ‘let’s go to the cinema.’
So we went to watch a film, on board a ship. It was HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. Three hours long, it was a really good film. By the end of it, it was about midnight, so I went to my room with my brother and sisters and we all fell asleep.

* * *

Day 2 of the cruise!

I had lots of things to do today. I ate my breakfast: bacon, sausage, egg, baked beans and toast. After that I got dressed in my new clothes and went to look around the cruise ship. I was thinking of something that I needed. My basketball. I went to my room and got it. My brother was waiting for me in the basketball pitch, so we played for a couple of hours. Later on mum called for us to go to the restaurant and have our lunch. I had pizza and chips, the others all had different things like hamburgers, jacket potato and seafood. Soon I was feeling full and needed to relax. I thought perhaps I should go and watch another film. My brother didn’t agree. ‘Let’s hang around with mum and dad.’

So we did. We looked around some more places on the ship. There were shops where you could buy clothes, and my mum and dad decided to buy some. We had to wait while they tried them on.

Suddenly I heard something. People were shouting and screaming.

‘The way ahead is blocked with a huge rock. We can’t get through this canal.’

I was so scared, my heart was beating fast. Everyone else was panicking, saying that the ship was going to sink underwater.

‘Don’t panic,’ said the captain. He had come out to assure everyone that we were safe. But where we? From the deck you could see the huge rock looming closer and closer towards us. We got closer and closer to it. Then I had a thought. There was a missile on the ship. I told the captain to use it.

He said it was a good idea. But we only had one, so we had to wait until we were really close to the rock before we could use it.

BANG!

The captain fired and the missile and it hit the rock. ‘We’re going to die,” I thought. But the good thing is, nothing bad happened. Everyone was so happy.

* * *

The captain gave me £1000 for my help. I was even happier when we reached Barcelona. I gave my mum and dad a hug. We were here at last and we went to a nice hotel. A hotel in Barcelona!

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Movie review, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 14 August 2007
Poem, Midnight, 14 August 2007
Article, Wild Things! 14 August 2007
Story, Innocence, 14 August 2007

Story, Pirate Island, 14 August 2007
Story, Back from the Past: The Pirates Return, 15 August 2007

12 dead, hundreds wounded and an estimated 100 raped, along with hundreds of houses burnt down.  Thousands of locals have left, due to fear of another riot.

In the early hours of Tuesday, conflict broke out between the landlords of Nairobi’s largest slum, Kibera, and gangs of tenants who lived there,  armed with machetes and clubs. This was one of the violent situations  Nairobi has seen for a long time. The cause of this was a disagreement in the price of rent. The tenants in the slum were unhappy that they were being charged so much rent on land that the lords didn’t actually own. Minister Odinga,who was looking for the popularity vote in the next election, saw that the slum dwellers were easy targets, so he instructed the landlords to lower their rent by at least half. They refused because they had been given the land at the beginning of the century, and so they could do what they wanted on it, even if it really belonged to the government.

The  fighting started when, on  Monday night, one slum lords’ tenants wouldn’t pay the rent he asked, a small argument exploded into mass fighting. Police spent two days trying to stop the conflict. Once the turmoil had settled, it was clear that the  damage had been done.

The opposing party Mps, along with most of the Kibera residents, said that Odinga did more damage telling that landlords to lower the rent and not finalize an agreement, than if he had just left the situation. Even after this, Odinga is still demanding that the landlords must half their rent. The landlords are only settling with a 20% cut.

Many residents have no intention of returning to the slum before a proper agreement is settled between the Minister and the slum lords, because they feel that without a cast-iron agreement, another fight is imminent.

Life living in a slum is bad enough as it is without further fighting. The sect gang has been terrorizing the entire ring of Kenyan slums, and their crimes have got so bad that the police have been ordered to  shoot to kill any suspected sect member. 700,000 people living in an area of only four square kilometers sharing only 600 toilets equals giant cesspool. People crammed into smaller and smaller spaces, and with toilets few and far between, many people resort to using “flying toilets” – plastic bags filled with excrement flung as far away as possible. The government every so often bulldoze the edge of the slum to make way for more modern housing . Not only does this squeeze the residents into smaller and smaller areas, but even though the rest of Kenya is benefiting for modernization, the slums are not. The government are spending as little as they can on the slums.

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I love little dogs
They are so cute and fluffy
I would name mine
Woof

My little hamster
Eats too much
Sunflower seeds
So he is very fat

I have a pet dog
And I name her
Daisy Dog
I love her a lot

I grew a flower
I grew it from a small seed
It will grow quite big.

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I am lying down. The hot sun shines brightly at me. I open my eyes little by little. The ground under me is really soft. I touch it and it feels like sand, running through my fingers.

I sit up. Where am I?  

I am stuck on a hot deserted island, that’s where. I just know it.  I start to scream - and my other 5 friends Charlotte, Marie, Nicole, Lucy and Corbin start to wake up.

Like me, they are really confused.

‘This is a dream. We’re dreaming.’

‘This is a fantasy.’

‘No it isn’t.”

‘It’s real, believe me.’

They get up with confusion. Corbin and Lucy seem to love the island. They think it’s beautiful.

I think they are crazy. I scream at their face. ‘There’s nothing here but sand.  Boring sand.’

Then I walk off.  They must think I’m weird, screaming like that, kicking up the sand. They tell me to chill. Nothing bad is going to happen to us.

But they are wrong.  I know it! I sit down, close my eyes and try to relax.  If only I could shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen.
           
Suddenly I hear cannons being fired.  There are pirates headed to the island. The fire cannon is blowing up trees. We make a run for it.

Luckily there are too many palm trees for the pirates to see where we are going.  When we pass through the trees we find ourselves on the banks of a river.

I know its name. Long River. They is no way we can get across it, because there is no bridge, no fallen to tree stretching from bank to bank.  And there are poison fish in the water.

Corbin points out a boat. We leg it but the problem is, there is only space for four people on that boat.  I really want to live, so I go in after Corbin.

The others start to fight and argue with each other. Only two more can get in. Who should it be?

Nicole and Charlotte have a catfight.  Meanwhile Marie and Lucy sneak onto the boat. Angrily, Charlotte pushes Nicole in the river. Poor Nicole can’t swim. She is surrounded by poison fish. Her body starts to sink little by little.

We can see her hand bitten off by fishes. I feel really sick. Charlotte feels so guilty, she wants to follow her into the water. I can’t lose another friend. I get out the boat and try to stop her.

She doesn’t jump in. Somehow, we all cram into the boat; now we can’t leave anyone behind. I have never felt so scared in all my life.

Then the boat starts to tilt. I hold onto Corbin. Corbin really likes it and smiles back at me. I am so glad when we reach the other side. We get off the boat just in time.  As I hop on to the bank, is starts to sink. The others get out really quick and the fishes are eating the wood as if it were a piece of meat.

The sun starts to fade away. It gets darker. My heart is beating faster and faster. Corbin knows I am scared so he gets up and starts to sing and dance to entertain me. I feel much better.

We all cheer then Corbin wants me to dance with him. My friends start to cheer for me. I get up and dance by his side. I love it and the others want to dance.
          
While we are dancing we hear people talking and also shouting. We stop at once and I look through the bushes. It’s the pirates, looking for us! I step back and step right on to a dry stick. The snap sounds like a gunshot in the dark. We run! 

It’s so dark that I can’t see and I have to hold hands with Corbin. Marie falls over. She can’t get up. We try to help her,

“I think she’s broken her leg,’ says Charlotte.

Marie says, “go without me”.

I can’t lose another friend but Corbin says we must go.  Her screams fade away every time I ran further away. As we run we fall into a hole in the ground. I land on Charlotte and Lucy and Corbin land on me.  Ouch, the pain! I’m thinking how stupid can we get. This time we can’t escape. The hole is too deep, the sides of it too slippery to clamber up.

We sit down and stare at the moon. It is really beautiful. Corbin thinks it is romantic. Charlotte and Lucy start to fall asleep. I feel really sleepy too. And that’s when I notice Corbin is really upset. A teardrop rolls down from his eyes.

I look at him and tell him, “everything is going to be fine, trust me”.  He smiles back at me and we fall asleep in that pit, in the middle of the humid jungle on an island goodness knows where.

The next day I wake up to find I cannot move my arms. We are in a dark cave. We are strapped to a pole hammered into the ground. Marie is right beside me.  I wake her up. How did we get here from the hole in the ground?  Had the pirates captured us while we were sleeping?

The others are with us too. Corbin tries to break the pole but it’s too strong to break.

‘Quiet, everyone,” I gasp after a while.

I can hear footsteps. They come closer. It must be one of the pirates. He comes closer to us.

He says his name is William. As it turns out, he is not one of the pirates, just a man who was marooned hear many years ago. He offers us a deal. If we help to kill the pirates, he will help us escape. We all say yes.

Quickly, he cuts the ropes and we escape from the cave. He shows us how to use a sword. He’s got a pile of them, hidden away in a chest.

We practice all day long but where are the pirates? We look behind and suddenly pirates jump out from nowhere. They are ready to fight. We start to fight.

The battle is terrible.  Pirate’s body parts fall off like we are using light sabres. But we can’t get to the captain.  His name we learn is Savy. He claims to be the worst pirate in the history of pirates.

Suddenly everything goes as quite as the grave around me. The only thing I can hear is someone breathing. I know someone is behind me. I turn around. It’s Corbin.

‘Do you want to fight?’”

‘Don’t be silly.”

He finds the remark funny and starts to laugh. I realise he is not talking to me but to Captain Savy standing only a few feet away.

The duel lasts a long time, me and Corbin fighting Captain Savy together. We ate doing quite well. Then Captain Savy pushes me aside and it’s Corbin and him now. Lucy and Charlotte help me up. Corbin doesn’t do so well on his own. Before I know it, Captain Savy’s sword comes down and I hear Corbin howl.

The next thing I know I’m holding Corbin in my arms.

‘You can make it out of here,’ he whispers. 

I am so angry that I pick up my sword and start to duel with Captain Savy again. We are fighting on the edge of a cliff. Captain Savy is worn out and me too but neither will give up.  Then I hear a shot. It’s William. Slowly, Captain Savy falls over the cliff into the sea below. 

 We carry Corbin to William’s ship and leave the island at last. If only we can get home in time to get Corby help!  Then the ship stops in the middle of the ocean.

‘This is the end of the line for you, I’m afraid,’ says William.

I was shocked. “I trusted you”.

‘Never trust a pirate,’ he howls gleefully.  And he makes us all walk the plank while he throws Corbin into the sea. I try to hold on to him but I can’t.  I have to let go.  Then I feel something swimming underneath us.

It’s dolphins come to our rescue. And behind them is a boat, clouded in mist.

I shout for help!  But I see one guy has a musket.  He fires and I see the bullet coming towards me, straight at me.  I close my eyes, and then I open them again.

I am in bed.  I’d just had a nightmare. Lucky none of the adventure was real, otherwise I’d now be… dead.       

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By Safiyah

(12A) Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman. 138 min

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is returning for a 5th year at Hogwarts with the knowledge that his enemy Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is gathering a new army. But Harry’s attempt to create his own army is dodged by the idiots at the Ministry and their appointee as new instructor, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), a cheesy-smiling, pink villain. Harry is constantly busy tutoring his new and helpless army but on the bright side he got his first screen kiss.

Often the computer graphics were so realistic that I thought it was real! However, this film is quite different to the previous four mainly because it was more just about Harry than Harry and his friends. But overall it was a success.

* * *

Do you agree with Safiyah’s review of the movie, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’?  Click on the ‘comment’ link below and let us know.

Yesterday I had the most brilliant pleasure of talking to …your not ready but …Seyi Star! We arranged to meet at Nando’s and we did. She was sipping some coke while we dined alfresco. She was so amazing and eager to get interview I couldn’t wait!

So Seyi where is your place of education?
SS I go to Burntwood.

Do you like your school?
SS No I only like it because my friends are there but the lessons are good.

Have you got any pets?
SS No but I would love to have a pet dog.

What kind of music do you like?
SS I’m feeling Bashment, Crunk, hip hop, R’n’B, Gospel and Grime.

Have you got any brothers or sisters?
SS Yes a little brother, he’s two.

What nationality are you?
SS Nigerian

What’s your favourite food?
SS I’d have to say Chinese, mum’s cooking and Lasange.

What’s your favourite colour?
SS Blue

What TV shows do you like?
SS Comedies are the best.

Fave movies?
SS Bambi, I just love Bambi.

Who is your best friend?
SS I don’t feel having one is necessary.

Any other comments
SS I just wanna say hi to all my friends and I hope everyone enjoys their summer holidays.

I sat up in bed
I heard my heart beat
A ticking clock
A wolf was howling
Long and loud
My room as cold as a freezer
And as I drew the curtains I peered out
The moon as white as a new born polar bear
A perfect circle
Floating in the middle of the inky sky
No other light was on
Curtains and blinds were closed
I was the only one awake
I checked my watch
Midnight

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They roar! They pounce! And if you don’t watch out, they’ll attack! But are the well-known predators really out to make mincemeat out of humans or do we just think that because they eat deer they will eat us? Do big cats really scratch or are there more dangerous creatures in the jungle we should look out for? Do we realize that actually leopards and tigers don’t see us as prey but will only eat us if we are the only thing around! This is because human beings are the only species that kill for the sake of killing. Wild cats will not harm you unless you threaten them or they are really hungry and there is no easier option for food. The thing is, the rainforest is pretty safe animal-wise.

And while you should certainly exercise caution, there are a whole host of other things that you should be more concerned about before you start worrying about tigers, snakes and spiders like getting lost, not falling down a hole and making sure your drinking water is safe, and so on.

What are you afraid of in the rainforest? The true horrors of the rainforest are not big cats or poisonous snakes; they are leeches, mosquitoes, centipedes and rattan (similar to bamboo) that you have to watch out for. You have a smaller chance of being eaten by a tiger than by leeches!

Think of that if you are ever stuck alone in the jungle and you hear a blood-curdling roar among the trees!

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    “Mum! I’m home!” Georgia yelled, rushing into the living room before her best friend Kate who had come to tea.
    “Oh hello darling! How was school?” her mum replied in her usual tone.
    “Yeah, yeah, great. But guess what!” Safiyah rushed her words so much that her mother took a few moments to try and figure out what she had said.
    “Wha-”
    “We’re going on a Safari trip for school!”
    “The whole world doesn’t need to know!” her best friend Kate pointed out as she strolled into the living room.
    “That’s wonderful, darling. We all know how much you love nature and animals!” her mum started to natter on. “Did she tell you, Kate? She wants to become a zoo keeper when she’s older! Her father isn’t very pleased about it but I just tried to explain that if she…”
    But the girls had left the room.
    “She does like to go on doesn’t she!” Kate sighed walking out of the front door “I better go and start packing!”
    “Yeah me too!” See you at the bus stop on Monday.” Georgia shut the door “This is gonna be the greatest trip of my life!”

Or so she thought.

*****

   On the coach they slept, ate and chatted about celebrities and fashion. But most of all, they gossiped about their classmates! After three hours they arrived at the airport. They checked in, gave in their luggage and got a coffee. Ten minutes later they had to give their hand luggage in to be checked and had to walk through the metal detector. Then they choose their seats on the aeroplane and carried on with their conversations from the coach. Eventually, they arrived at the safari resort. They put their belongings away then went to sleep.
    The next morning they were up and ready by eight o’clock. They clambered into the Jeeps (three to a Jeep) and Kate and Georgia were put with a boy called Charlie. So they set off seeking elephants, sneaking up on tigers and following trails of fresh poo. They became quite close to Charlie and even ate with him! On the third day of being at the safari the class went in a coach because they were only doing written work and the roads were wider where they were going.
Kate needed the toilet. Desperately. And there were no toilets around.
    “Georgia…” she whispered “I need the toilet!”
    “Well you’ll have to hold it!” she whispered back “There are no toilets around!”
    “But I’m DESPERATE!!!” she said a little louder.
    Georgia sighed. She looked around.
    “Look there’s a hole over there.” Kate just looked at her blankly. Georgia grunted “Fine, I’ll come with you!” Georgia said slumping out of the coach.
    “Hurry up Kate or the coach will go without us!” Georgia nagged.
    “Don’t worry! Charlie will tell them to wait!”
    Back at the coach they were moving but Charlie didn’t tell the driver to wait because he was worn out and was just dozing off into sleep.
    “Okay, finished.” Kate stated feeling better “We can go back now.”
    “Alleluia alleluia!!!” Georgia sang sarcastically.
    “OMG!” Kate yelled.
    “What?” Georgia snapped.
    “WHERE THE HELL IS THE COACH!” Kate screamed.
    “Oh you’re KIDDING ME!” Georgia cried. “You are so annoying!”
    “What! Charlie didn’t stop the coach!” Kate defended herself.
    “But it’s not Charlie’s responsibility! Is it? If could just hold your stupid wee we wouldn’t be in this mess would we! And it’s not like were still in Wimbledon and we can walk home… WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A JUNGLE IN AFRICA!!!” Georgia roared!
    “Well you’re a supportive friend aren’t you!” Kate screeched.
    Georgia smiled.
    “Listen I’m sorry I was so hard on you. It wasn’t your fault. It was nobody’s fault.” Georgia said hugging Kate.
    “Yeah, but right now we need to find a way out of here! Do you have your map in your bag? I have a compass.” Kate replied as they parted from their hug.
    “Yeah I’ll go and get it.”

*****

“Well if the resort is there… and we went twenty-eight miles south west… then the nearest airport is seven miles east of us!” Kate mumbled as she looked at the map. Georgia was busy seeing how much of the necessities they had left.
    “We should go back to the resort to get some more food and water first.” Georgia pointed out.
    “GEORGIA!!!! OF COURSE WE COULD GO BACK BUT WERE NOT BECAUSE THE AIRPORT IS CLOSER BY ELEVEN MILES AND IF WE DID WE WOULDN’T BE IN ANY TROUBKE AT ALL!” Kate answered. Georgia made an ‘O’ with her lips.
    “Well we probably have enough food to last us a couple of days. So are we gonna get going now?” Georgia asked.
    “Yeah, we might as well.”
    So they trekked off into the jungle for 2 hours before they had a rest.
    “It’s getting dark now; we should eat and get some rest.” Kate announced.
    “Okay. You set up the tent and I’ll make the fire.” The girls had rice pudding and went to sleep until 6am. In the morning they finished their left over rice pudding then had half a slice of warm bread each and put away the tent. They had hoped someone would see the smoke from their fire but nobody had come. So off they went again struggling with the weight of their bags with the heat of the sun beating down on their face. Georgia even fainted once while Kate suffered from sunstroke. They staggered on. They had travelled six miles now.
    “Only 1 mile lef- ARGHH!!!”
    “Georgia?!?!” Kate bawled.
    “Help! Kate? Someone! Ouch! Help!”
    Georgia! Where are you?” Kate was panicking like mad!
    “Down here! Help please! Something is eating me! Help!” Georgia was practically crying now. Kate looked into the hole in which her greatest friend ever had fallen down. Their she was, covered in leeches. Suddenly Kate stopped hearing her friend’s screams of agony. All the times she had spent with her friend flashed trough her mind. The parties, picnics, the sleepovers. She remembered that people say that before you die your whole life flashes before you. But she was only seeing the parts of her life when she was with…
    “Georgia” she whispered as she reached over to help Georgia.
    “Wait” she thought “This is leeches we’re talking about! I might die… but then Georgia might die… Oh Gosh! What should I do?” But by the time she turned around to help Georgia she had gone. All that was left were some bones covered in leeches.
    “No… No… NO!” She bellowed as she fell to the floor with misery. Was she too afraid to save her friend in case she died? Was she the worst friend ever; getting her lost and then… killing her? Kate thought about the answers as she trudged on for the last mile.

*****

When she arrived at the airport she was a little less depressed. She walked around looking at departure and arrival times when an important point popped up in her mind. How was she going to get back to England? Kate looked around. She sat on a chair and thought about how she could maybe stow away on an aeroplane to England. How would carry on with her normal life when she was the only person that new what had really happened? How would she get over the guilt? How could she go on knowing that she had not even tried to save Georgia’s life? She was a coward and she would never forget it.

*****

“Kate?” she was woken from her sleep by the soft, familiar voice of
    Charlie.
    “Charlie? Charlie! What are you doing here? Oh my gosh! Wait until Georgia finds out you’re her she’ll b-” but Kate stopped when she realised that Georgia was never going to find out that Charlie was there.
    “She’ll what? And where is she anyway?” Charlie looked around. Kate hesitated.
    “Uh… we had an argument. Yeah. Ur she… stormed off somewhere.”
    “In the airport?” Charlie questioned.
    “No in the jungle.” Kate answered.
    “Oh. Well I’m so glad I found you!” He said as they hugged awkwardly.
    “Yeah, me too. But how are we gonna get out of Africa?”
    “Don’t worry! My mum is coming over to get us and we can go back on another plane.” Charlie sat down next to Kate “She will be here in five hours.”
    “Oh thank you so much! So… ” Kate paused “what are we gonna do in that time?”
    “Dunno” Charlie moved closer to Kate. She looked up at him as he was a couple of inches taller than her. They smiled. They moved so close their noses touched. Kate could smell Charlie’s sweet musky scent. Their lips touched. They kissed. Softly at first then quite passionately. Kate wanted to stop but she wouldn’t… she couldn’t. In fact they only stopped when a mother and her twin tree year-olds came along and they didn’t think they would want to see two teenagers kissing. Now it was awkward. They were silent for about an hour. Then Charlie went to the toilet and Kate got a drink. When they got back they only had 2 hours left until they could go home so they went to look at the shops and have some time on their own. Kate got a slice of cake while Charlie got a packet of crisps. Eventually Sarah (Charlie’s mum) found them sharing a milkshake and she hugged them both.
    “Oh I’ve missed you!” She grinned “Come on now or we’ll miss our flight.” They checked in, Charlie gave in his luggage and they got on to the aeroplane. They slept the whole time because they were so exhausted and comfortable. Sarah did some tricky crosswords and word searches and had a small snack.

*****

When the aeroplane landed Kate started to walk away from the airport when she suddenly turned and ran to Charlie. He hugged her and she started to cry.
    “What’s the matter?” He asked sympathetically.
    “Charlie…” she whispered.
    “Yeah…”
    “Well… do… do you wanna run away with me?” she burst out.
    “What?!?” he said in a loud whisper “Are you crazy?” Kate started to cry.
    “Oh, I didn’t mean it!” he said rolling his eyes.
    “No! It’s just that… well…” she paused. Could she trust him?
    “Of course I can!” she thought to herself. “He came all the way to the airport and called his mum over just for me! I think I can trust him!”
    “Georgia didn’t really run off she fell in a ditch and was eaten by leeches. And it’s all my fault because I needed the toilet so she waited then the coach left and I didn’t help her because I was afraid of dying myself!” Kate said so loudly that Sarah started to wonder what they were talking about.
    “Wow, wow! Brain overload!” Charlie joked but Kate didn’t laugh. “Listen, it can’t be all your fault! I mean of course your not gonna give your hand to someone covered in leeches! And you needed the toilet! That’s hardly your fault!”
    “But it is my fault! I know it!” Kate moaned. “So what do you say?” Charlie looked puzzled then remembered.
    “Come on, that’s hardly a reason to run away! You’ll get over it!”
    “You know,” Kate started to turn around “I always thought you were more sensitive that that!” She turned completely when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
    “Where are you going?” Charlie asked.
    “I’m running away!”
    “You can’t go on your own!” He sighed “Okay! Fine1 I’ll come with you. But you have to let me go home first.”
    “Okay. Tomorrow at four A.M.! Meet me outside my house.” So they went home and prepared for the long journey ahead.

*****

“Where are we gonna go?” Kate asked nervously.
    “Urm… we could go to a BNB?” Charlie suggested.
    “Okay let’s go.” They travelled on the train until they got to the Deforest and asked to stay at a small Bed and Breakfast Hotel that they found. It belonged to an old lady and she warmly welcomed them in. They stayed there for a month and considered getting a job so they could pay for the rent and the lady agreed to let them buy the flat in the end. One day when they got home they turned the television on to relax, and watched the news. And as Kate watched the screen she started to sit up.
    “Charlie!” she shook him and he sat up.
    “What?”
    “They’ve sent a search party for us!”
    There was a knock at the door.
    “There’s someone to see you dearies.” The old lady called.
    Charlie opened the door and shut it again.
    “It’s them!”
    “Oh my gosh! What are we gonna say to them! I can’t tell them what happened to Georgia! I can’t tell them why I ran away!” Kate cried “Help!”
    “Well my mum is a social worker. She can change our names and stuff and only she and one other person will know.” Charlie suggested.
    “Who?”
    “Your mum…” Kate thought about it.
    “Do I have to tell them what happened to Georgia?” Charlie nodded. It was silent.
    “Okay. Fine. I’ll do it. Open the door.” So awkwardly she faced her parents and slowly told them what happened to Georgia. She started to cry. They hugged her.
    “Listen darling.” Her mum said reassuringly “It wasn’t your fault! It was nobody’s fault! It’s okay. Don’t cry!”

*****

“Sophie, can you pass me the butter please.”
    “Yes, mummy.” Her daughter replied. Twenty years later, Kate was now Alice and Charlie was now Jack. They had got married and bought a big house in the country. They had two daughters and often visited their parents who had completely forgotten who Katherine Fisher and Charles Guffik were.

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“Where shall we explore first?” Sally asked her friends.  She had just moved into a new house, a big house and she was eager to show it off to all her friends, Anne and Lily and her new neighbour Emily.  The group split up, everyone going off in different directions.  They climbed stairs, turned corners, opened doors and entered rooms where light bulbs had yet to be replaced.  Somehow, they all ended up where they had started, on the landing on the top of the stairs, a big landing for a house this size, Sally thought.

    ‘Wow,’ someone exclaimed when Sally pointed out a massive painting of an old lady on one wall.  It was such an old painting, the frame looked so rickety, Dad had decided not to move it until he got expert help from an antique dealer.

    ‘There’s something behind it,’ said Emily, one of Sally’s friends.

    They jiggled the frame and the whole painting swung out like a door on hinges.  Behind it, set deep in the wall, was a door. A secret door!

    ‘Is it locked?’  Lily, another friend made her way to the front of the crowd. She tried the handle and the door opened, letting out a creak like a someone sighing in their sleep. Behind it was a narrow passage, a tunnel that led off into the musty dark. It was so narrow, Sally wondered how people could squeeze through without holding their breath.  But somehow they managed it, walking in single file, giggling, Emily holding up a torch. She trained the light on the wall, revealing faded wallpaper, the old kind with big patterns.   Sally couldn’t make out whether it was dragons, done in blue, or just faces.

    ‘Hey, look,’ said Emily.  The torch was illuminating words scratched, gouged even, in the old wallpaper.

    BEWARE OF THE DOLL

    Ann and Lily giggled.  Fancy being scared of a doll!  A toy!  It must be someone’s idea of a joke.
 
    The corridor led through a maze, going behind the rooms in the new house.  At last they ended up in a tiny room, so tiny it looked almost like something in a doll’s house.

    Emily looked around her.  ‘But where’s the doll?’ she asked.  ‘We’re meant to beware of the doll.”
    No one took any notice. ‘We should come back here tomorrow and make this room our secret club house,” Sally said, letting her hopes up.

    Everyone agreed.  ‘A club house all our own.”

    They all started talking at once.  And that’s when they heard it. A Click!  The door had swung shut behind them.  The key had turned in the lock.  Ann ran up and tried the handle.  The door refused to open.

    “We can’t get out,” she screamed.  All the girls rushed at the door at once, hammering on it with balled up fists.  ‘Let us out!  Let us out.’

    And then they heard a voice, a chuckle, a laugh.  ‘Why go out when you can stay and be dolls like me.’

    They all swung round to see two pairs of googly eyes staring at them.  There was a doll in the chair by the corner, a doll that had definitely not been there a few moments earlier.

    As they stared, it blinked.  A small china hand went up to her head and patted the curls – made of real hair – into place.  The doll was alive!  It breathed! It lived!

    ‘You too can be a pretty doll like me,” she repeated.  Her little hand, so pretty and dimpled, reached into a chintzy pocket and a knife flashed.  Everyone screamed, loud, but it was too late, far far too late……
 
    Beware if your parents buy a house in London.  In one of them there is a secret door behind a painting that swings open in its frame.  Behind that painting is a secret door that leads down a wall-papered passage into a tiny room, small enough to look like something out of a dolls house.

    In that room is a table, laid for tea, and round the table five pretty china dolls waiting for the door to open and guests to arrive…

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There once was a writer called Paul
He was remarkably tall
Quite famous he is
He doesn’t like fizz
But he does have a squirrel quite small

(PS. true about the squirrel, don’t know about the fizz)

What do you like best about this picture?  Click on the ‘comment’ link below and let us know.

What do you like best about this picture?  Click on the ‘comment’ link below and let us know.

What do you like best about this picture?  Click on the ‘comment’ link below and let us know.