A Better Place

• Alexa Carey, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

I look up at all the buildings touching the clouds. "Wow!" I say to myself.
I wonder what's on the other side of them, the obstacles that keep me from escaping. Escaping to what? A better place.

Right now I'm trapped in a city that seems like a lonely graveyard. A deserted cemetery.
No one ever talks to me, everyone's too busy being miserable in their old and dull coloured houses. But I am different to them.

I am desperately trying to arrive at the place that motivates me to not complain to anyone about our miserable world. The spot that lets me have just a taste of what it feels like to be in a better place.

I finally arrive there. In between two huge shops, I see the gap behind two rubbish bins. I make my way through to the gap and see a tiny bit of sunlight shining through a secret hole in the fence and it makes my insides light up like a hot air balloon. I rush over and look in.
Past the trees, I see many happy people lying on a soft carpet with a huge pool of water surrounding them.

I wonder why our city isn't like this, but then I remember that I'm not even supposed to know about all this. Anyone who wants to change our city gets punished as the leaders don't want us to ruin what they made. But I don't care, I want to be there instead of here and so I pull my crate out of my bag and place it in front of me. I eagerly pull myself over the fence, hungry to see what's on the other side.

Luckily I land on the soft yellow stuff under me and as I look up I realise what a great place this is.

But then the unthinkable happens. I turn around to see an eye looking at me through the hole. I'm now going to get punished. The leaders are going to take me in and torture me. However, I've made a decision. I'm not going back to the miserable place. I'm staying here where it's magical and wonderful. I turn around and it hits me, how am I going to survive this journey?