A Glimmer Of Hope, When All Was Dark

• Peter Lim, Grade 7, Marryatville Primary School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Word Zone 2016' competition

Bleached paint peeling. Two taps leaking.
Neither derelict nor destitution was worthy enough to describe my cardboard box. The tattered flaps swayed whenever a lustful breeze was in town, . This was my world.
Every day and night had been a throne for blue devils to rule over. My frail body rose and fell with every whimper in the darkest corner of the box as a footrest. Though not literally, it was what my existence had always been among the hollow plastic and litter neighbouring my box. Every day and night had been a struggle; a trudge through the fields of death.
Then one day, they struck. They didn’t only strike. They robbed, abused and taunted me. Those miscreants stole all that I had.
On the day they struck, the sky was in a sombre mood. It groaned and glowered, baring its ire through the hazy outline every now and then. Under these irascible clouds, I staggered toward the box, coughing and gasping for air with every tread. While my home neared with every tread, so did snarls and interests from the shady alleys. Yet I continued to stagger through the garbage, oblivious of them.
Days and weeks passed while I was sprawled on a rickety chair. I eventually escaped their wrath but the world was crimson red and painful. Through my tender eyes, I perceived nothing at where my box had been.
Drops of water splattered onto my throbbing feet. Had the monsoon season come already? No. It was just two corroding taps wrenched open by life. I crumbled to the floor and shivered as the sorrow reverberated through my body. Whimpering, I lay on my knees in the middle of the road, begging for nothing but sympathy.
As the seconds merged into minutes and hours, my breath began to falter. My head roared in pain as people briskly sauntered by, not caring to even glance at me. This alien impassiveness pounded at the very doors of my life, challenging my very purpose in this world.
Darkness gradually embraced me as the sun began to cower away. It too was becoming deaf to my sadness but that was okay. The urge to live, to trudge on, had vanished. To me only one path remained. It seemed so near yet simple and painless; a panacea to all my misfortune!
I glanced at the adjacent river. It was like the ideal graveyard to me-strewn with plastics and nebulous. On the water’s edge, I stared listlessly at my murky reflection with apathy in my eyes.
“Hey boy, you okay?”
Bewildered, I leaped backwards into the arms of light. The soothing tone of this light flicked all my dysphoria into the gurgling river, embracing me in the meanwhile. I felt pure again, my heart at home in the luminous sky, refreshed; loved.
Though this stranger left, the light remained. Through the darkness of my youth, this light guided me.