The Boatshed's Secret

• Chelsey Connell, Grade 10, Heritage College
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

The Boatshed’s Secret
Juliet hesitantly pushed the old creaky door open and peered into the darkness. The light from her torch searched the abandoned shed, eventually pinpointing a hulking locker in the far corner. That had to be the source of the mysterious noise she had heard. Apprehensively, Juliet threaded her way over towards it...
... Thirty years before, the boatshed had been a hub of activity, being the ‘home’ of the uni rowing team. Now, however, it sat derelict, being preserved from demolition only because of its dubious status as a riverside icon.
When passing the boatshed today, Juliet had heard a distressed sound coming from inside the shed. Surely a child wasn’t trapped in there? She grabbed a torch, and strode towards the rickety door...
... Surprisingly, the locker was empty, however, at the back was a shadowy passageway leading into the darkness. Juliet felt herself being strangely drawn towards it. She hurried down the passage and suddenly emerged into the brilliance of a beautiful beach, deserted, except for two young girls playing near the water.
“Hi. I’m Juliet. What’s your names?”
“I’m Lucinda Lawson, and my sister is Chloe.”
“It’s very nice to meet you. Are you out here on your own?”
“Yes, Mama is fetching our lunch,” Lucinda replied.
There was something that didn’t seem quite right. Juliet squinted in the bright sunlight as she looked up the beach toward the car park. There was one car there – an old, rare Morris Minor van - parked near a sign which read: ‘Desolation Point Beach’.
Juliet froze! Lucinda and Chloe Lawson! Desolation Point Beach! It all fell into place. She remembered reading the names of the girls and the beach in a magazine article a couple of weeks before, about the fortieth anniversary of the disappearance of two young girls from a deserted beach. It was suspected that they had been kidnapped by a man driving a small van in the days before they disappeared. Could this be the missing children?
Juliet grabbed her mobile phone and tried to ring the police. No reception! Not surprising since it was 1971! She stumbled up the sand toward the passageway, glancing back towards the girls. They were no longer where she had left them! In the distance was a dishevelled man, roughly shoving the two reluctant girls towards the van. Juliet yelled out but they didn’t hear. Hurriedly, Juliet darted into the passage, then burst out of the boatshed into the fresh air.
The police were extremely sceptical when they received Juliet’s garbled phone call – something about solving a forty-year-old mystery and to come as quickly as possible to the abandoned boatshed. They suspected the caller was drunk or a crackpot!
When the police arrived they entered the boatshed, and scrambled towards the ominous locker. One of the policemen flung open the door...
... Juliet gasped, numbed with shock as she peered into the darkness. At the back of the locker there was no longer a passage. The locker was completely empty...


Word count = 500 words