Don't Go Over The River

• Tahlia Hill, Grade 2, Falcon Primary School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

One night an old woman let her dog Peppy out of the house to do a poo like she normally did. This time the Peppy saw a rabbit and chased it. No one is allowed over the river because weird things can happen to animals and people but Peppy followed the rabbit across the stepping stones over the river. The old woman followed Peppy because she loved him. The rabbit went into the forest and Peppy followed. The old woman slipped on the stepping stones. She slowly and carefully got up and ran into the forest, looking and looking until she found Peppy.

Peppy was trapped in a thorny bush and making soft whimpering noises. He had scratches on him. The old woman had a stick from when she fell on the slippery stepping stones so she chopped at the thorns to free Peppy. As she was doing it she felt cold. Something weird was happening! Snowflakes were coming out of the ground instead of out of the sky and then the rabbit came back as a half dog and half rabbit.

It was all so weird so the old woman reached into the pocket of her apron and what was there? It was a knife. She got the knife out of her pocket and chopped at the thorns and picked her dog up and ran. She didn’t stop at the river and she tripped on the stepping stones and heard a voice calling “Get up, be strong, you can do this”. It couldn’t have been her husband because he was dead, but it WAS her husband speaking to her from heaven. She listened and got up and ran home. She and Peppy were safe and the rabbit was never seen again.