Spark Writing Competition
Well done to the students who entered the Spark Writing Competition. Their stories have been forwarded to the city-wide competition.
Within school, congratulations to Amrita Dhanda 7.7 and Kimberely Wadyehwata 7.1 who came joint 1st and the runners up – Rebecca Cundill 7.8, Hannah Smout 7.8 and Megan Hunt 8.3.
A Land of The Unknown
Chapter 1
“HELP, HELP, please… Anyone” I cried in misery and pain. There was an Atomic bomb which had just exploded. The contaminated air was closing up on me fast. I just couldn’t shout no more, I was gasping for oxygen. Then abruptly, everything just went black……
Chapter 2
Hell0, my name is Farai and I am 12 years old. I live on the outskirts of Harare with my mother and father. We are very poor and hardly eat anything. My father cannot work because he was diagnosed with Malaria 2 months ago which has now complicated further into Cerebrum Malaria due to lack of medical substances. This has now left him bed-ridden and helpless. I and my mother know it’s almost time up for my dad. The annoying thing is we can only watch helplessly at my bed-bound dad while life is ebbing away from his once muscular, energetic body. As for my mother; who was once a beaming ray of sunshine has become so frail and mentally exhausted which is now beginning to show in her weak stride of walking and weakened shake. I always think to myself, why us? I have no hopes or dreams, which is upsetting considering am only 12. I wake up at 6am, and then go to the dump to see if there are any valuable materials, then come back home with my swollen-blistered feet.
Chapter 3
This day was like every other day in the sense that I would wake up (hungry) then go to the dump. On the way to the dump, I spotted my friend Tendai who is 10 years old and skinny (like me). I ran over to him because he seemed t be crying. “What’s the matter” I asked. “I don’t know if I can live like this anymore, I just want to be a normal child who is cared for” he said sadly. “Am sorry, but we have no choice” I replied. I left Tendai at about 6:30am. Staggering across the sandy roads, I saw a black snake with piercing green eyes slither across a crack. This black snake that I saw made me have bad premonitions about the day ahead of me. I try to brush these thoughts aside but with no avail. For a moment, I felt a trickle of sweat run down my spine.
Chapter 4
I decided to finish work at 3pm because the air was humid which made the litter smell really bad. I walked to my house casually, when suddenly I heard a distant scream, which made me extremely worried. So I ran as fast as I can. When I got there, I saw 2 gunmen who were terrorising the whole village. There was absolute chaos. Next, a 3rd gunman came out of nowhere, then dropped something which seemed to be a bomb which seemed like a bomb and that’s all I remember.
Chapter 5
I woke up with a start. My mind was all over the place, I was confused. Then unanticipatedly witch doctors and Zulus started singing and dancing like everything was normal. One of them found me awake and said “Finally my friend, you’ve woken up, we thought you were dead, come join us”. “No thank you, but I would like to know where I am and what happened to my family”. “Am sorry to say but your family are dead you were the only person that survived”. Then all of the other people that were there turned to me and said “WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE UNKNOWN” in a sinister way. I was crying. After, I looked around me and I saw things that were beyond my wildest dreams…….
By Kimberely Wadyehwata
Arrival in an Unknown Land
As the sky turned a lighter shade of blue Rosie Ajada awakened to the sound of thundering footsteps. Rosie’s hands began to tremble. The floor beneath her began to rumble. Goose bumps started to grow on her smooth warm skin. She bellowed “MUUUUUUUUUUUM” The sound was coming closer. Suddenly the door swung open. .A green, funny thing appeared. This thing looked ferocious. The thing whispered” I come in peace”… Rosie’s heart stopped pounding . “What a relief “She sighed .Rosie hesitated to make a sound. She approached it and whispered “who are you? “The thing said “I am a alien and we have taken all the people over thirteen to an unknown world but have left people who are under the age because they are useless. The Alien vanished into thin air.
Rosie looked around “It must of been a dream, or was it real?” Under the covers she hid, looking blank. The birds began to tweet as the sun shone out side in the cold bitter air.
Rosie ran down stairs and the living room was empty. The mirror before her became all foggy and a silhouette of her mum and dad appeared.”Help us Rosie. You are our only hope all you have to do is research on the website I told you about.”“ok but…”As soon as she moved a muscle her parents faded away. Rosie went straight upstairs to the computer but it didn’t work. Rosie wept as she walked away. Through the tears she spotted something in the corner of her eye, a big building with a sign that said Dare to go in…….Rosie found herself walking inside and all she saw was cobwebs, spiders and lizards. It was strange but for a brief second it was like some body had stepped into her body.
She felt as small as an ant in this huge Cathedral like building. A vortex twinkled in Rosie’s eyes. Without thinking she stepped inside…The whole world was splendid there was more colour than she’d ever seen before. Rosie was mesmerised by the beautiful flowers that bloomed everywhere, splendid Chinese butterflies hovered above her glowing like magical lanterns. She also spotted sea horses that lived on trees. It was the calmest place on Earth. Something was prowling, snorting and clucking. What was it? Then out of the blue a thing pounced on her. What would you do? Scream, run or maybe even hit it. Rosie didn’t do any of that. Rosie got up and cursed the thing like mad, so much that she made it explode with tears. It had a face like a Dolphin, a body like a Peacock and a tail like a gecko. ” Hey why did you scare me like that? Rosie shrieked. The creature said Oh I’m sorry I was just admiring the thing round your hand. By the way my name is Pogo, what’s yours?”Rosie looked confused.”Firstly my name is Rosie and this is called a bracelet. Each charm has a…a..spec I can’t tell you!” She carried on walking as Pogo was following her. They reached to a waterfall, it was getting dark. Pogo said happily getting dark I know a place where you can sleep peacefully shook his wings singing a song which went something like this:TUPERTALATREGALISTICTEXTELOTOCIOUS.The water fall split as it revealed a deep purple cave. They walked inside. Rosie spotted a computer, she squealed ,YES, YES CAN I USE THE COMPUTER PLEEEEESE Pogo!” Before Pogo could answer she ran then sat.”What was the code mum was telling me about? Oh the bracelet! Each charm has a special note! Rosie desperately opened one of her charms which was a shape of an artichoke. The note was
Lionheart? Rosie typed it in as Pogo kept a close eye on her.”What are you doing anyway?” “I’m trying to rescue half the people from Earth as they’ve been taken to a place where I don’t know and I need to rescue them and I have no hope so I found myself in your unknown land and……………”-WAIT CALM DOWN! Lionheart is the most powerful Martian in the world. The only thing that can stop him is the blood of a Ajja or a Jada and no one has ever seen what it looks like.” Rosie stood still. She remembered the story that her mum would tell her every night about two close relatives, Ajja and Jada,had been cursed by the Lionheart.The curse was that if you don’+t bring the people under 13 before the next decade then they will be hanged. This is what they got for being the next rulers of the unknown land. People liked them so much that Lionheart became jealous. She switched on the computer screen and before her were the words ONLY THE BLOOD OF A AJJA OR JADA CAN BREAK THIS CURSE IF THEY STAND IN THE HEART. Rosie fell asleep as the words Ajja and Jada murmured in her head.
It was a beautiful morning as Pogo had brought all his friends ,they all shouted”ZigZag”She realized it meant hello.One of the friends stept forward and asked “Do you mind if I do an experiment on you?” “Of course not.” Rosie spoke half awake. The relative scratched her and touched her blood .They all gasped.Pogo jumped and asked” What is your full name? Rosie was hurt and anxious Ajada. My dads name is Jerry Ajja and my mums is Teresa Jada.My name is mixed.Ajada.” Pogo was astonished mean your both bloods,you have lots of power to break the curse of Ajja and Jada!WE have been waiting for a blood for ages as the Lionheart treats us like slaves and has no respect for others. If you help us then your ancesters in the other world will become the lords of the unknown and then your parents will be released.” Rosie sat down trying to sink this information and thought to her self whether all these stories were true.Then Pogo told Rosie his magic power.If you take one of the feathers then he can tell the future,she tried and she saw her mother telling Rosie’s dad that the heart is with Rosie all the time.Rosie thought hard. What was with her every time?…………THE CHARM one of the charms was shaped like a heart!
She placed it on the floor as Pogo and Rosie shrank into the heart and landed onto a pink jelly like ground. Pogo announced “Ok time for your death. Your blood needs to land on this ground.” “WWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT! I thought I just had to stand here!” Rosie shouted. Pogo was getting angry “Look if there was another way then I would be really happy but this is the only way unless you have paper which can grant you one wish.” Rosie panicked looking for paper. She remembered the notes were made out of paper. Pogo said “YOU can flash to the place where your parents and ancestors are and all you need to do is touch them and every thing will be back to normal.” Rosie clutched the paper as she spoke “I wish I could go to my parents.”
FLASH.
She reached for her ancestors and her parents.Lionheart appeared and looked puzzled I thought i killed every living blood of Jada and Ajja!” He grabbed Rosie pulling her away from touching her dad,her dad reached,stretched and tried everything they could to touch each other. Rosie’s dad managed to touch the charm bracelet. Every thing went pitch black.
There lay Rosie peacefully sleeping with her parents. Then she heard a noise. A strange noise. It was Pogo! He was beaming I just wanted to tell you that every one is ok and your ancestors wanted to give you this.” He held out a little tube with the label ‘Lionheart’s blood. Pogo looked hopeful as he asked “Hey do you have paper?It comes in great handy when you wish to run away from the teachers.” Rosie gave a handful of paper as they said goodbye. She fell asleep again.
The bottle started to glow!
By Amrita Dhanda
