You Be The Judge!

• Alex Buckholz, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2012

It was Saturday, just after the sun had dawned and I started to head inside when I heard a rumble. It was soft and distant but felt dangerous. It felt like something sinister was coming like an eruption or explosion. I looked at the extinct volcano not so far from our little village. Don’t be silly I thought, it hasn’t erupted for hundreds of years and it won’t erupt again. Just at that precise moment I heard another rumble, more like a roar but much louder and clearer. I heard it several times before I realized that there were a few blood red drops trickling out of the top of the volcano. The clouds were growing big, black and beastly and the air was cold and stale. I was felling quite hot. Perspiration beaded on my forehead.

I ran like a strong current in the sea and headed into my little house. I flicked through the sets of keys looking for the keys to the new jeep. While I was doing that I hadn’t realized that the volcano was vomiting out hot, red, boiling magma that had already destroyed the close houses. It was now edging towards my house. Sprinting towards my car like a wild cheetah just let out of its cage, I flung open the car door and jumped into my seat. I had my driver’s license but I’d never driven alone before.

Just as I started driving off the silver, black and poisonous ash around me thickened so much that I couldn’t see. I drove 5 metres being careful not to crash into any surrounding trees. I kept on driving. I knew the village had been obliterated and so would the start of the forest. I inched forward 5 metres at a time. I had gone 100 metres. Suddenly, I crashed into a tree and the car jerked to a stop. I looked up to see the tree tilting. It fell on my blue jeep and I was knocked unconscious.

I woke up in Mt Toureyum Hospital feeling tired. Had the volcanic eruption been real? Was it a memory? Or just a dream? You be the judge.