Last Run

Joe looked at the prize in his hands; he looked up and saw almost all of the other kids from camp running towards him, after their prized possession, which he was holding. He looked to his left and saw his sandy haired, creamy skinned, blue eyed mate Will, beside him. He knew it was now or never. Joe sprinted out from behind the massive willow that all the little kids were climbing on and jumping off into the crystal clear water of Lemonade Springs. Joe could see the smoke rising up from one of the fires in top camp and could hear the bustle of activity as the grown-ups packed up after a long day at the pre-school.

Joe could see the mob of the other Aboriginal kids thundering towards him with the great Australian afternoon sun behind them. He could feel the heat sapping at his strength. He nearly tripped over a tree root as he was running, snapping him out of his thoughts. The great mob of kids was closing the distance between them, but you could see them starting to separate as the faster runners pulled away from the slower. Suddenly they were upon him, coming from all angles with outstretched arms trying to grab him. He used his free arm to swipe away the bulk of the arms that got too close, otherwise he just sidestepped them. He could hear the grunts and thumps of those who had dived and missed as they hit the ground.

“AAAAGGGGHHHH!” came the scream of Tom, one of the five humongous kids who lived next door to Joe. Tom was about 6 feet tall and used all of his weight in a crushing tackle. The tackle would have wiped Joe out but because Tom had gone low, Joe was able to jump over his bulky frame. Joe hit the ground running and could hear the grunts, curses and yelps as Tom took out a group of people that were hot on Joe’s tail.

Then Joe was out, all he could see was open field in front of him, so he gritted his teeth and kept pumping his legs. He could feel a sudden weight grab him and looked behind him to see one of the red faced boys that had been on his tail the whole time holding onto his shirt. Joe recognized him as Ben. Ben was one of those kids that was good at pretty much everything and knows it. Ben tried to readjust his grip so Joe made his move. He twisted suddenly and threw Ben forward to land with a thump. Joe kept running but then felt a vice-like grip around his ankle. He looked down and realized with dread that when Ben had landed on the ground, he had somehow flipped over and grabbed Joe’s ankle before Joe got past. Time seemed to slow as Joe started to fall.

“Throw it here!” Joe heard someone yell. “Throw it here!”

Joe realized it was Will. Time sped up again as Joe threw a perfectly aimed toss to Will, who snatched it from the air and sped off, running the last twenty metres with no competition to the try line, where he planted the ball on the ground and tipped the balance in the nil all draw the kids had in their football match. Joe felt overwhelmed with ecstasy as he picked himself up, cheering. He heard the woops and hollers of his teammates as they finally caught up. Joe and Will started to walk over to the other team when Joe huffed, “Best...football...game...ever!”

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