Magpie Nightmare

• Truc-mai Nguyen, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2014

I don’t expect you are going to believe this but when I went into the bathroom this morning I saw an evil-looking magpie with black beady eyes standing on the toilet seat. As I scanned the room I saw a bunch of messy sticks piled in the bathtub. I crept cautiously towards the bathtub to inspect what it was and I realised that it was a nest. ‘Oh great! Just my luck!’ I thought. Who would want to have a bath when there is a magpie nest in it? Wouldn’t it be dangerous and wouldn’t the magpie swoop you? These thoughts ran through my mind but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, I really needed to have a bath and so I turned on the tap. The water disappeared as soon as it came out of the faucet. “Oh damn! The plug!” I said. The plug wasn’t in the bathtub. It was sitting on the basin which happened to be right next to the toilet. The magpie was still standing there staring at me like it was staring at its dinner. I slowly and carefully reached over for the plug. Fortunately, I managed to grab it without startling the magpie.

As I put the plug in the bathtub drain I felt something hit me head. I swerved around and…aarrgghh… it was the magpie swooping me. I fell into the bathtub, hitting my heard against the tap. “Ouch!’’ I yelled. The pain on my head was unbearable. Worse still, I fell on top of the nest! The sticks and broken eggshells pricked my backside and I was smothered in yolk and egg white. Then I felt a hard scratch on my face. It was the magpie again. That’s right, it was the evil-looking magpie. I tried to shoo it away and it flew out the door but it kept returning to attack me. Then……WHAM! I was knocked out.

About an hour later I woke up. I realised I was in hospital because everything appeared white and I could hear the constant beeping of monitors. Then I saw a blurry image of my mum and thought, ‘Phew! I’m safe now’. I squinted my eyes and as the blurry image became clearer, I could see shades of black and white. Then…..aaarrgghhh….. I came to realise it was…… THE MAGPIE……