Happy Days

• Summer Wilkes, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2013

I left home at a young age. I was adopted by strangers. I don't remember much, just blurs.
I live on 42 Pennyville Lane. The house with the old oak tree and green roof is ours.
My siblings Delihla and Jack love playing chasey with me. We go through the tyre swing and the sandpit.
The boy down the road's name is Jai and he is my best friend. We go on all types of adventures.
Mum and Dad don't know where I am most of the time because I do my own thing on the street.
Jai and I love going to the creek in Meadow Landings. Meadow Landings is just around the corner, luckily for us. Our favourite part at the creek is when we have to run away from Old Man Gruff. We rarely get caught. His long beard gets in his eyes a lot so it's funny when he falls into mud.
Jai and I love running across the paddocks through the long grass. We jump across the creeks with nothing to loose. Jai is a great friend he is always there for me when I need him. I don't have a bone to pick at him.
We were running away from the farmer as he told us to stay away from his kids. Jai and I were running away through the field when Jai's foot slipped on a loose pebble and he fell into the creek.
I ran about a kilometre downstream. I thought I had lost him but I wasn't about to give up. Then I spotted him on a fallen tree, hanging low above the river. He was just in reach to pull out.
We are very cautious now, knowing the risks. We will never forget that day with the thought in both our minds of losing our best friend.
We both walked home that day, wet and tired. My mum bathed me and fed me my favourite beef casserole. She put me to bed and told me to stay there. I went to sleep very easily that night.
The next morning I went for a run to Jai's house and he was out the front waiting. Jai and I both said in sync "we are the luckiest dogs on Pennyville Lane".
A few days later Jai told me he was going up adoption. My heart sank into a big bowl of beef casserole. I was in the yard moaning when Mum and Dad called me. I came to them with shame in my walk. Mum and Dad called again. I walked into the lounge where the voices were coming from when suddenly Mum and Dad said, meet the family's newest member. There with a dorky smile on his face stood Jai.