Nancy Saves Her Town

• Tiana Smith, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2012

Nancy Saves Her Town
In a town far away from the city madness lived a girl named Nancy. Nancy lived in a very small town at the top end of Australia. She was a courageous and strong headed 10 year old girl. She grew up on a property with lots of land. Mum and dad were too busy and they never got time to talk to either Nancy or her sister. Nancy found books interesting while her sister played with her friends.
One day when Nancy was walking home from the local library, she saw lots of cars around the council building, which was unusual for the town.
Nancy stopped in her tracks until her eyes rested at the big writing. It said, ‘Mining Co.’ Nancy’s mind started working on what was happening. She walked to the entrance of the council building.
Nancy knocked on the door and it was opened by a tall strong man in a navy blue suit. ‘Who are you?’ asked the man in a deep voice. ‘I am Nancy and I am here to talk to the Mayor about something very important. It can’t wait.’ ‘I am sorry but the Mayor is talking to someone. You have to come back later’ he said as he began to close the door.
‘Wait!’ shouted Nancy putting her hand on the door knob. ‘I am not going away until I see the Mayor.’ The man gave in and said, ‘ok, you have 5 minutes, 5 minutes only.’
Nancy smiled for the first time in hours. She walked inside and walked towards the Mayor’s Throne room. She opened the door and tip toed in. ‘Hello, Mr Mayor, I am here to ask you to help me stop mining in our town. I think mining will destroy our way of life.’ The Mayor smiled and said, ‘don’t worry. Go home and I’ll sort this out.’ Nancy wasn’t sure if he telling the truth.
She walked out but thought of starting a petition. Once she got the idea, she ran home and got to work on it straight away. The next day Nancy built a little stand and a sign saying, NO MINING IN OUR TOWN. She set up the stand outside the town’s main shopping centre. People stopped and began asking Nancy about the petition. They didn’t hesitate to sign up, once they knew what was happening. By the end of the day, 400 people had signed. Nancy was very pleased. Within the next 2 days, another 600 people signed up, which was nearly the whole town!
As the 1000th person, Nancy printed her own name. The next day the whole town marched into the Mayor’s room. The Mayor was impressed to see that many people with Nancy in the lead holding a booklet of 1000 signatures.
The Mayor had to come out and calm the people down. The Mayor could not afford to make his town people unhappy. He promised to tell the miners to pack up and go back.

Nancy became the hero of the town!

Written by:
Tiana Smith
Grade 5