Wake Of The Dead

• Christina Lombardi, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2007

Long ago, a lost spirit wandered the base of Uluru, looking for children out alone, perhaps collecting food.
She was tall and spindly and knew the area well; she had been dead for 48 years. She died when she was five, for a reason to most unknown. The people’s only clue was a small pile of sticks and ashes the old lady would not visit.
She didn’t have a family, so there was nobody to miss her. But the woman had sworn revenge, and nobody, not even visitors, went there anymore. Even those who didn’t know the deadly secrets the desert held refused to go.
But one particularly hot day a young girl of about nine wandered the harsh drying plains. Her eyes were blank, as if she couldn’t see the world around her, but a different world, a private world, her world.
“Spirit hunting” muttered the spirit, whose name was really Grace. “The stupid girl probably thinks she can see me.”
Grace crept up behind the girl and meowed. The girl looked down. “What are you?” she asked wearily. She was only playing Grace’s game now; she knew there was no cat. “I’m a cat” replied Grace, lamely. “You don’t look like a cat, you don’t sound like a cat, you’re not a cat! You’re that girl that got burnt at the stake when she was five.” “How would you know? You’re only a girl.” “I was there, I was watching. And now, you want revenge. You want everyone to feel the same pain as you.” “How could you have been watching? You’re not 48 years old.” “I am part of the Wooboo Tribe. We live forever, but we stop growing when we are nine years old. My mother looks exactly like me.” “Anyway kid,” said Grace, “Goodbye.”
Chuckling, Grace pulled a knife from her belt and stabbed the poor startled child, killing her instantly.
The next day the girl’s mother came. It was only when she picked up the cold limp body that she realised her only daughter was dead.