A Day In The Life Of...

• James Du Preez, Grade 7, Athelstone Primary School
• Short Story
• 2013

Excellence Award in the 'Dream Big 2013' competition

Waking up early in the morning, I looked around and saw that I was packed into a white canvas bag with all my brothers and sisters. We were all dressed in pink with the queen tattooed on our right arm and the parliament house on our left. Suddenly, the truck we were in started moving and we were thrown backwards.
After five minutes of driving the truck stopped and a couple of the other bags got taken out. Where are they going? What is happening? Are we next? They were just some of the question filling my mind. We started moving again. At our next stop a man opened the back door and roughly grabbed the bag that I was in. He walked to another man and handed the bag to him. He walked into a building and took us out of the bag. He roughly threw us into a cold, rusty metal box.
I laid in silence nervous about what would happen next. Zing! The cold metal box slid open and I got taken out and given to a man with an unkempt beard and cold dirty hands. He shoved me into his pocket that was filled with old cigarettes, half eaten chips and grease. I hated being here.
After a while I got taken out and given to a woman who put me into another metal box. At least I knew what was coming this time so it wasn’t that bad. I lay there in boredom. Hurriedly I got taken out and given to a rich-looking lady who was clearly in a hurry. She hastily put me in her pocket like I was worth nothing to her. Her jacket pocket was a lot cleaner but I didn’t like feeling so unappreciated. She walked out of the shop and into a busy street.
As we were walking along a gust of wind caught me and I blew out of her pocket. I fell onto the cold, dirty ground. Getting dirtier and dirtier as people stepped on me I lay there for hours. I got picked up by a young boy that looked pretty poor. Happiness filled his face as he put me in his pocket.
His pocket was warm and comfy and it felt good to feel wanted. He walked into a store and took me out. I got handed to a lady with soft, warm hands who gave the boy a chocolate in return. “This is the first chocolate I’ve had for two years,” said the boy. I felt sorry for him and I enjoyed being used for something that was so special to a person. Before I could enjoy the feeling for too long I got shoved into another dark, metal box. All in a day of a five dollar note I suppose. ?