Bad But Happy Day

• Zara Toet, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2013

It was a foggy morning. All the trees were still as they could be. I was wrapped up in my dressing gown trying to keep warm, when all of a sudden I heard a BANG. I looked around where I was standing but I saw nothing out of position. BANG. I heard another bang, this time I peered through the window and I saw trees getting cut.

“Hey you!” I yelled to the man in a humongous machine.

He pointed his finger at himself, I nodded. I sprinted to my bedroom to get changed into winter cloths and went to the front door. I opened and closed the door really quickly so all the cold air didn’t make it into the house.

The man said, “Why do you want me?”

“Because I was wondering why you are cutting down my trees?”

“Can I cut down your trees?” the man asked.

“NO YOU CANT CUT MY LOVLEY TREES DOWN BECAUSE I AM TRYING TO GROW FRUIT!” I tried to keep my temper down but I couldn’t.

“Gee” said the man who looked like he was about to throw a stick at me. So I went inside and wrote in my TIFF journal. It stood for Thoughts, Ideas, Fears and Feelings. I wrote:

Dear Dumb, but helpful journal,

I had a very bad morning so far. To start with a guy who cuts trees down wanted to cut my trees. So you know what I did. I yelled at him for no reason. If it gets warmer this afternoon I am going to the beach to calm my nerves, scuba dive and have a look at all the different types of fish and corals.

Later that day on my way to the beach, I saw the man from earlier in the day sleeping in his weird machine. So I searched for a feather and tickled his nose with it. The man looked like he was about to sneeze all over me. I waited for a couple of seconds to see if he would sneeze. But instead of sneezing he woke up and so I said “Excuse me but can you please get off my land and out of my way?”

“Sure” said the man gleefully.

So I waited for him to leave and made sure was out of sight. One hour later I finally arrived at the beach. I walked down on the foot-path and saw a sign that said to the beach. I followed the direction, and then I saw sand, so I took off my thongs and went to the beach. I ran straight to the water and dived in. I was so surprised to see all different types of fish and lots of different coloured corals. When it was 7:30pm I decided to go home. Later when I arrived back home I was all happy and grateful to still have my trees and I was so refreshed from the scuba dive.