Barbed Wire

• Eloise Smith, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2010

One day when my mum and I were reversing into our new house’s driveway I saw a farm across the road. It had an old log fence. Mum
didn’t see it but I did.
The next day I went and looked at the fence. I started to climb it but I heard something rip; it was my pants. I looked down. There was barbed wire on the fence. I jumped off the fence and grazed my knee. It was sore.
Then I saw something weird on the farm. A man. ‘Hey,’ I yelled out but he ran away. I got a log and climbed over the fence. The man was behind the tree or was it a man? I looked closely. It looked like a boy. He was only seven He looked like a grown-up from the fence. There was nobody else on the farm. I brought him to my mum. She let the boy have something to eat and drink and then she had a talk with me. She said that the boy had been on the news. He had run away from home. We brought him to the police. ‘Thank you’ they said. The boy was returned to his mum and dad and I never saw anybody on the farm again.