Zach And The Bandits

• Christian Meyer, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

In a house on Liberty St on December 24th there was a boy with great blond hair sitting in his room crying because he had just woken up to another morning of his parents screaming at each other. This kid's name was Zacharias Narat. He was eleven. But when his mum and Dad had started yelling at each other it just made his life horrible. They were barely ever paying any attention to Zacharias so it made him really upset and he would spend most of his days in his room crying. Whenever his mum and dad weren't fighting they were either at work or at the pub. Anyway, Zacharias was walking out the door to go and walk around in the bush to get away from the house for a while when he noticed his friend Dean was doing the same thing as he was so he went ahead and yelled "Hey Dean! want to come with me into the bush!?" and Dean looked at him and nodded but didn't say a word. There was something wrong with Dean and Zach was pretty sure he knew what it was.
"Trouble with your dog Snappy?" asked Zach. Dean nodded and spoke for the first time that day. "He's really sick and the vet says he might...." Dean trailed off mumbling. So they went into the forest where they ran to their favorite tree to climb. Zach and Dean were running to the tree when Zach heard a voice and ran off in the direction he heard it from. He heard some voices but couldn't quite understand them. He creeped closer when he saw a clearing through the bushes which was where he saw two big muscular looking men arguing about something to do with money and birds. Zach ran back to the tree straight away to tell Dean what he had seen. When he got there he found Dean on the highest branch so he shouted "Hey Dean come down, I want to tell you something!" So he told Dean everything that had just happened and by the end of the conversation Deans mouth was as wide as a cardboard box. Dean seemed quite serious about it and wanted to go to the police but Zach thought otherwise. Afterwards they went to Deans house and had dinner. Ready for Christmas the next morning he went home. Again he heard the annoying yelling, so he sprinted up to his cosy warm bed to get ready for Christmas.
In the morning Zach raced down to the dining room and found a pile of presents and his mum and dad sitting on the couch with very unconvincing smiles. Then he heard voices outside; the same voices he had heard in the forest but saying "No Officer, please not jail! I was framed!" Those were great words. He forgot all about the men and started unwrapping his presents with his parents helping him and that was the best feeling ever.