Family Times To Remember

• Raine Sutherland, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2009

Family times to remember

I love the beach. It was something that our whole family loved. My brother, my dad and I loved snorkelling and mum loved to spend her time on the hot summer sand. My father was a scuba diver. He loved the beach if it was warm or not. He was attacked by a shark two years ago while watching a baby shark catching its prey, as he was about to become dinner for the mother shark.
How would I know this, it was on film. He had a water proof camera, he filmed the baby shark. You could see the shadow of the shark coming up behind dad and suddenly the camera was lying on the bottom of the sea. A policeman founded the camera when he was searching for dad two days after he went missing. Luckily I didn’t see the film, but I overheard mum and the police talking about it, mum was watching the start of it but she got too upset to watch on.
Mum doesn’t talk about the accident, I wouldn’t talk about it ether. Dad and I had a good relationship as father and son. We both love the beach, salt water, sea animals and we got along well.
Two years after the accident, when I came home from school that day. Mum was nowhere to be seen. As my little brother was almost out of breath from crying, but he was happy when he saw me, but I wasn’t happy to see mum. She was lying on the bedroom floor in Ben’s room. With no time to speak, I jumped down to mum’s side. Thinking fast, I jumped up and Grabbed Ben from his cot.
With Ben still in my arms I rushed to the phone. I was shaking all over as I dialled triple 0. As I was explaining what had happened to a paramedic, I was rushing up the driveway. I didn’t won’t Ben to see mum being taken to hospital, by people in big suites and lots of gadgets that he had never seen before. Giving Ben to our 16 year old girl neighbour, Suisse to look after Ben for me, I started running bake to mum.
The ambulances were already there when I got there. And so were my grandparents, talking with two policeman, outside our house. I rushed pass them and run into Ben’s room, were I last saw mum. I was glad to see mum this time, she was sitting up with two paramedics at her side and two more testing her heart rate, blood temperature, cheeking her pulse and some other thinks. I what’d to run up and give her the biggest hug, but I was asked to leave by a policewomen to be interviewed, on what had happened. Grandpa went with mum to hospital and stayed with her over night and grandma babysat Ben and I that night and until mum got better. After that life went back to normal.