Ball 1, Nature 0

• Conor Hartwell, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2015

Ahhhh… The MCG, a place where memories were made. The grass was green. The crowds were delightful. The lights were bright and the atmosphere was electric. I felt jubilant. These were the reasons why I loved my cricket. The fans, the players and most importantly the entertainment. One night, however, my point of view of the great game changed forever...

I was walking nonchalantly around the MCG trying to look intelligent (as usual).There was a game of T20 cricket on and I enjoyed watching it. Well, most of it anyway. Suddenly, a player smashed that flaming white rock at 100 miles an hour right in my direction. BANG! That blooming ball hit me so hard it almost tore me into two pieces! Oh the pain! Oh the misery! I was sure a few of my bones must have been smashed to smithereens. I felt like a train-wreck. I was sure that I had died for a minute or two.

The worse was still to come. A random bloke in the green tracksuit gestured his hands at me like a GUN! A gun! What was that for!? The crowd erupted in response. I was scared, horrified… no terrified! I was a laughing stock in front of some forty-thousand people. I was humiliated! Man, in that moment I wished I was an infamous MCG pigeon.

Then, like a flash of lightning, the random gunman in green was now SAVING me! I was confused... First he was trying to shoot me then he was trying to save me -what was going on? He scooped me up and carefully placed me over the boundary rope. By now I was in a calmer state. He saved my life and for that was totally grateful.

So that was how I escaped my date with deadly cricket ball bullet. I would like to thank that angel in green who saved my life. By one absolute miracle, soon after I started to walk again. Talk about luck! And I have learnt my lesson: next time when I go to the cricket, I need to watch the ball instead of watching the majestic scenery. Or perhaps I should just go to the beach like all the other seagulls!