New

• Natalie Band, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2012

New. I’ve never been here before and now I live here. New smells, places and sights. All new. It makes me feel queasy. I miss my old home with the dark streets and grey sky. It was nice and quiet with everyone inside their houses, even though it sometimes got a little spooky.
Here, the sky is blue. Strange. As soon as we got off the boat, we had to walk on a yellow pathway of millions of tiny bits of grainy rock, by an ocean that wasn’t brown, but aqua. As we walked, the strange pathway shaped around my shoe. That scared me, but nothing happened.
I looked up at the cloudless sky and saw a big, bright ball of light shining yellow. It hurt my eyes to look at it. ‘Maybe it’s the sky’s heart. Bright because it’s kind’ I thought.
“What’s that?” I asked my older sister, pointing at the ball.
“It’s a street light, from the other side of the water” she answered.
“Oh.”
That disappointed me greatly. ‘How could she know?’ I thought.
I started seeing little shines and sparkles on the path. I walked up to one and looked at it closely. It was about the size of my fist. It was smooth, and clear. It shined in the sky’s light. It had thin strings coming off of it.
‘Maybe it’s a puddle of mermaid’s tears because it looks so pure and beautiful. I imagined a pretty mermaid with long hair and a green tail sobbing on the strange path.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Plastic” answered my sister.
“How do you know?”
“Because I do.”
My feelings dropped. We kept walking. Later on I realized that the water had reached up further and further and then back, up the path, then back down, catching the edge of people’s shoes and getting higher and higher.
Then, after the water had gone down, it left an orange star on the path. I went over to it.
Maybe the men in the clouds got angry at each other and one snatched a star out of the sky and threw it at another man but missed. Then maybe it went sailing into the sea. Now it’s been washed up.
“What’s this?” I asked. I knew that I was right this time.
“Wooden ornament” Said my sister.
“How do you know?”
“Because I do”
“But really,”
She said nothing.
Maybe she’s wrong. Maybe the men in the sky threw the star because my sister was giving me the wrong answers. Maybe the water was going in and out because it wanted to play. Maybe the sky’s heart was shining so bright because it loves this place.I love this place. I don’t miss my old home anymore.
This place is beautiful.