Waking Up

• Beau White, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

I opened my eyes. It was dark. Very dark. Extremely desolate. I was alone and had no memory of anything recent. I sat up and poked my head out of the prickly scrub I was sleeping in. I was at the beach. There was no one around. Only a skinny slice of moon was showing, dimly lighting the clouds surrounding it. I looked at the sea in front of me. Calm rippled little waves continuously crashed at shore, creating a gentle sloshing sound. I stumbled out of the prickly bush onto the fine, dry, cold sand. I stood up and studied my silhouetted surroundings. The black outline of a row of huge old macrocarpas waved slowly back and forth. They were lined along what looked to be an old gravel carpark, further up the shore. In the carpark there appeared to be one vehicle. An old eighties model Volvo station wagon. It had no colour along with everything else in the black and white landscape.
I slowly and cautiously crept towards the carpark. Once I got through all the prickly bushes I blindly marched over to the car with my knees raising high in the air with each step. After crossing the pothole covered carpark I managed to get to the Volvo parked under a macrocarpa. I sneakily tiptoed around it twice, attempting to see through the dust coated windows. It looked empty so I tapped on the drivers window with my fingernail. All was silent so I opened the door and whispered. 'Hello, is anybody in here?' Still no reply so I sat down and closed the door. I turned on the interior light. A satisfying brightness lit up the car. I peered behind the steering wheel, and noticed the key sitting in the ignition, ready to go. I didn't even think that the car might be locked, so that was a good sign that luck was on my side. I reached for the key, and turned it one hundred and eighty degrees to the right. With a deep clicking roar the Volvo burst to life. I took off the handbrake and drove off.
I left the carpark as fast as I could, creeped out by the isolation of the area. The rough gravel road away from the carpark was lined with swamps full of paperbark trees raising up from the mud and muck. There was the odd log bridge along the bumpy road but apart from that it was all very similar. Suddenly a human like shape appeared ahead. I slammed on the brakes and just bumped into it with the car.
'Wake up! Wake up!' My mum was yelling at me lying in bed, curled up in a ball. 'What the?' I stuttered. 'Get up or you'll be late for school, I've been trying to wake you for the past ten minutes.' She had made pancakes for breakfast, dribbled with maple syrup. They were delicious. 'Hey mum, I had the weirdest dream last night. It all started...