Off To Madrid

• Hamish Williams, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2010

It was the 23rd of December 2010. I was so excited because I was going to Madrid in Spain for Christmas because all of my family lived there. We were going for three months.

I had been practicing my Spanish for a long time. But I was still nervous. Would I make friends? Would I fit in? What would the other children think of me? These were the things that had been going through my head for many weeks. It had been four years since I had seen my cousins, aunts and uncles and I was looking forward to seeing them.

Our family was leaving tomorrow because the flights were a lot cheaper near Christmas. That night was the most restless night I had ever had. I woke up at 5am because our plane was going to leave at 9:30am. I jumped out of bed and ran into my brother’s and sister’s rooms. I shouted, “Please come out here, Jose (age:8) and Currita (age: 5)”. “Is it that time already” shouted Jose? “Yes” I replied, “or we will be late for the plane”.

By this time mum and dad were up and getting ready. Mum was helping Currita get dressed and dad was ringing a taxi. He was shouting into the telephone. That is unusual I thought, because dad never shouts. When he got off the phone he said, “ I have tried all the taxi companies and they are all on strike. We won’t be able to get a taxi to the airport. I am going next door and asking if they can take us to the airport”.

It was 7:00am and things were getting frantic. Dad was next door begging for a ride to the airport, while our neighbours were still in shock because they had been woken up so early. Finally they agreed to take us to the airport.

Jack, our neighbour, drove like a madman and finally we reached terminal four of Sydney’s international airport. We jumped out of the car, heaved our luggage out of the boot and ran to checkout terminal two. The boarding call for our plane was blaring so we were pushed to the front of the line.

The woman at the front desk said “here are your tickets and run to gate 39”. We all sprinted for our lives and finally we made it to gate 39 just as we heard the final boarding call. We gave the steward our tickets and got on the plane. We all laughed so hard when we sat down on our seats. I hope they serve Spanish food on the plane, I thought.

By Hamish Williams