Echo

• Kaylah Reedy, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

Echo
The river was calm, the breeze whistled as the plants danced to the music. Dragonflies buzzed happily above the water. The fish swam below, riding the current and dodging the stems of lily pads above them. The lily pads bobbed on top of the water as a frog leaped softly trying to catch a fly, all was calm. Suddenly the wind stopped whistling causing the plants to stop dancing, the dragonflies scatter and the fish to hide. The water was disturbed as huge vibrations rippled the surface, the frog jumped less gently this time as a massive dark figure crashed into the water. A huge wave swallowed the frog, he was tossed around in the water until something wrapped around him. The frog was put into some strange container; he looked out to see a huge face staring at him.“I SHALL NAME YOU ECHO” boomed the strange creature that now had a friendly and calming smile. Echo glanced back sadly at his old home that was getting further and further away. Echo called out to his home, the fish looked sadly as they watched their friend being carried away. Echo was amazed and scared at the same time as he saw different things that were not at his old home. The creature placed the container with Echo in it on a desk. Echo looked around curiously at his surroundings, trying to picture that he was still at his old home. Meanwhile at the river the wind wasn't whistling, the pants were not dancing, the dragonflies weren't flying around happily and the fish weren't riding the current. The only thing that was happening was flies buzzing loudly and driving the dragonflies away from the river. At the house where Echo was held the creature put 4 ants in the container. Echo did not eat the ants since that was not what he ate at the river. The creature looked down on Echo and wandered why he wasn't eating anything. The creature walked away as Echo started to call out to his friends at the river once more but there was no reply. After a while the creature came back and put some grass and water in the container, but it didn't make a difference, Echo continued to call out even though he knew there wasn't going to be an answer. The creature sensing that Echo wasn't happy picked up the container and started walking. After a while the creature sat the container down and took the lid off, Echo was so happy to see his home. The creature smiled as he said goodbye to Echo and walked off. Echo hopped excitedly to the river but stopped as he saw all the flies. The fish saw Echo and called out for help. Echo knew exactly what he had to do; he jumped from left to right snatching up all the flies. Once all the flies were gone the dragonflies came back, the wind started whistling and everything went back to normal.