Ebony And Ivory

• Lyndal Easdown, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2010

One winter morning, Ivory walked with her mother on the way to the gift store. It was a week until Christmas arrived. “Ma, do you think I could ever play the piano?” Ivory asked, holding her handkerchief close to her nose. “Yes, sugar. You must follow your dreams,” Ivory’s mother replied.
When they arrived at the gift shop, everything seemed to glow, all except a girl. She had skin the colour of ebony and her hair in tiny braids. The girl’s name was Ebony. Ivory entered the toy shop, her head darting around to look at everything. Ivory started to wander through the shop and as she did, she bumped into Ebony. Ebony could have fainted with the shock of seeing a person with such pale skin. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were there,” Ebony whispered. Ivory just smiled. “What would you like for Christmas?” Ivory asked. “I want a piano with Ebony and Ivory keys,” Ebony replied. And from that day on, those girl’s saved up for the one thing they both wanted. This is their story.
Ebony whisked her curly hair into an untidy bun. Ebony had changed her way of looks, but she didn’t dare have her ears pierced. Ivory laughed and put clips into Ebony’s hair. “Let’s just concentrate on saving up for this piano,” Ebony said. “We have saved….. $1530 dollars,” Ivory sighed. “$350 dollar’s more, Ivo!” Ebony wailed. “Wait a sec, Eb. This sheet talks about winning a prize of $1000 dollars, if you make up a cool as story. Let’s enter!” Ivory said excitedly. “Don’t count on us winning, because other people across Australia know about it too,” Ebony warned Ivory. But the two entered the competition anyway. Together they spent hours working on this wonderful story they were making. It kind of sounds like the one I’m telling you now.
On the day when the winners were being announced, Ivory and Ebony were getting impatient. They felt as if they would burst if the judges didn’t hurry up with their speech.
3rd place went to Daniel Youth, 2nd place went to Waterlily Skyline. The girls were getting a bit desperate. Then the moment they had been waiting for, who won first place? 1st place was awarded to…. (Drum roll please)... Ivory Frangipani and Ebony Gasket! Ebony squealed with delight and Ivory was too shocked to speak. The girls came up to accept the award. “Hi. We’d like to thank the judges for choosing us, but what about these others without a prize? Well, if you want a prize, come line up behind Ebony. We have a little bit of a shopping spree here to do,” Ivory said, as planned for the speech. The rest of the day was spent shopping for toys for the people who entered and didn’t get a prize.
In the end, Ivory never did get her piano lessons, and Ebony never got to touch the softness and smoothness of a piano, but all was well.