Happiness?

• Chelsea Nunn, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

Pure white fog covered the tall, steep mountains. Eyes stared at the wondrous colours covering the mountain slopes. Red, blue, orange, purple, green, white the list went on and on, but in the crowd two eyes slowly turned away.
Living, breathing, this cold mountain air was a night mare. She wanted to be where it was warm and sunny all the time. Never cold or foggy, never sad, never lonely but did such a place exist?
Slowly she started to jog, run and sprint away into the darkness of the night, of life as she knew it. Running, running from the crowd. Never escaping. Living was a downhill slope, never stopping, plunging deeper, deeper into her heart. An emotional wrecking ball of human life. When would she be released from the pain and suffering? When, when would freedom come? Questions. Never answers.
She had no friends, no family, barely a life at that. Stealing and scavenging through shop bins and dumps. A wretch, a thief, an escaped slave.
The one memory, the one that made her smile, was as a six year old, just escaped from that controlling, cruel man of the king’s palace. She danced, oh how she danced, the warm summer wind brushing through her hair. So free, so long ago. But this was now. Emerging slowly out of the darkness, a boy. A slim, shy boy, with brown hair. Surely he must have seen her! Running, chasing, pushing her body to the limit, then more. The intensity of the chase going to her head. Why was she chasing him? Why did her instincts take over her body so sharply, so quickly? Did she really want to know this boy? Yes, but why?
“Finally! Who are you?” …. “Who are you?”
“I am Sam.”
“I am Ella……………………………………………….”
Long, long silence.
Eventually the silence was broken. “You seem harmless enough. I will take you to my home.” Travelling far along the mountains, they reached their destination with a scream of delight. A tropical place unlike any other Ella had seen before. It seemed they were not in the mountains anymore. Tropical landscape filled her eyes. Could this be a person who wanted to be her friend? Could this be the place she was meant to be? Could this be the life that would make her happy; happy for the rest of her life?
“I know you have no home, no family and no friends. I believe I know most things about you, though you know little but nothing of me. But you Ella, you are meant to be here in this marvellous place this area was meant to be your home it was created for you, no one else but you, this is your home this is your life.” ‘This is Happiness.’