Yet I Did Nothing...

• Rachel De Waal De Waal, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2012

I wandered down the cobbled road. A mouth watering smell wafted over a dark brown fence and my stomach rumbled. I waved to the old lady trimming her roses and carried on walking.
Further down, I passed a worn out hut. Inside I saw a mother calming four starving children and dark brown men being whipped in the fields. I continued on. I saw the lonely men with too much and the hungry families with too little. I smiled to the people who were happy, generous and kind, whose lives were fulfilled, so they gave hope to others.
I ran through the endless cells of people who had done wrong, wishing for another chance. I watched the controllers of countries stress over countless things and cheer when things went right. I wandered through schools of happy children and offices of concentration, women sewing clothes and cafes full of people.
Then I stopped, there was no more, I looked back over my shoulder into the empty streets and the crowded shops. And I saw, I looked, I watched all the good and all the bad, all the stressed and relaxed. Things passed by, so many opportunities turned down, so many children starving, so many cold and homeless waiting. Yet I did nothing…