A Narrow Escape

• Felix Lin, Grade 3, Artarmon Public School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

Lunchtime!
After guzzling down our lunches like pigs, we raced like cheetahs to the oval for a game of "Forty Four Homes". To my dismay, the basketball court was inhabited by our sports team. The only game my best friend Xavier and I came up with was ‘Tips’. It was to be played around the giraffe-sized pole.
Xavier and I ran around the pole, occasionally nearing the pole and tipped each other. My nightmare was then to follow…
Someone had knocked me and I ended up skidding right into the rusty razor-sharp fence. My left forearm was spiked... literally like a fishing hook at the fishes' mouth.
As I screamed at the top of my lungs like five elephants trumpeting, Xavier raced for the teacher on duty. She came. I silenced. I could see between the tears from my eyes that the oval was being evacuated.
The school Principals were running towards me and before I knew it, the Deputy was calling someone on her mobile.
Was it the ambulance? In the distance, I heard sirens. Not one, but two fire engines; one ambulance, even the police and finally... my mum.
The ambulance officers took out their equipment to free me from the fence, after the school gardener's shears failed attempt. I was however still left with a hook curled to my forearm.
The ambulance officers took my blood pressure and bandaged me to prevent any dirt blowing on it and being bumped into.
It was then straight to the Emergency Department of Royal North Shore Hospital.
X-rays were taken. What a narrow escape!
Fortunately, the results were only superficial wounds, which could be removed under local anaesthetic and a bit of laughing gas. It wasn't at all a laughing matter!
I did start to miss school but all’s well that ends well. The fence was removed from my forearm and as a reward... a bag of hot, salty chips.
The only thing I was thinking of was returning to my swimming lesson the next day.