Imaginative Maths

• Matthew Humphreys, Grade 9, Dripstone High School
• Short Story
• 2011

Excellence Award in the 'Step Write Up 2011' competition

The jungle drums were beating- in my head anyway- as I stalked my prey. I poked my head out from the tree I was hiding behind, to just catch a glimpse of the pink tail of the fabled Really Awesome Indigo Noida Bird Of Watcherupto, or RAINBOW for short. Nobody had ever caught one; I was determined to be the first. I came out from behind the tree silently, slowly; so as not to alert the RAINBOW to my presence. The RAINBOW was legendary for its keen senses, and its ability to disappear when hunted. Some said it had extrasensory abilities, other crazy residents in my village said it was from the sky. I didn’t know about that, but I was getting the feeling that it knew I was there.

“That’s silly,” I whispered to myself,” I’m the best hunter in the village.” I immediately reprimanded myself for ignoring the sacred rule of hunting; NEVER make any more noise than needed. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid,’ I thought to myself,’ you’ve done this plenty of times before, and the one time you might catch the RAINBOW, you stuff it up.’ I softly crept up to an Ognam bush and peered through it, smelling the sweet scent of its fruit, scanning the forest in front of me. ‘What!’ I exclaimed in my brain,’ Where is it? I can’t have lost it!’ There was nothing I could do about it though. It was utterly and terribly gone.

I raced out of the bush into a small clearing, and twirled around in an effort to obtain any sign of the pink fur of the RAINBOW. In fact, I twirled around so fast that I tripped myself up and fell flat on my back. Opening my eyes, I noticed that I could see stars. I sat up to observe my surroundings better.

“Hello?” a mysterious voice inquired.

I froze.

“Where are you?” I managed to whisper.

“Look behind you, and you’ll find out”.

Its voice felt soft and warm; like your mothers after you have had an accident. I turned. “I still can’t see you,” I uttered.

“Really? Oh, sorry. I was still…” the voice trailed off. The leaves in front of me fluttered pink in the breeze; except there was no breeze…

“Angela!”

My visions disappeared as I awoke to the stark reality of the classroom and the voice of my Maths teacher in her ghastly pink jacket, Mrs Trigg.

“Alright, alright Angela. We see you were day dreaming a fantastical story but I don’t think it’s related to maths. Don’t you agree?” The class groaned.

“As I was saying before Angela derailed the mathematics train; the sum of x and n divided by…” Her voice trailed off in my mind. ‘That was close, ’I thought to myself,’ Mrs Trigg nearly worked out that I was actually sleeping. I’ll have to come up with a better one the next time she catches me. Something that has maths in it, she’ll fall for that for sure…’