Maria And The Playground

• Michelle Elliott, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2015

A long time ago in the Solomon Islands there lived a girl named Maria. She lived in a small town called Tatua. She lived with her mum and sister Georgia. Maria and her family were very poor. One day Maria went down to the beach. At the shore there was a giant ship. The ship was navy blue with the words written boldly SUPPLIES. Maria ran over to the ship to investigate.
Maria stepped inside the boat, there was food, water and lots of other things. Just at that moment Maria had an idea, tomorrow she would secretly climb aboard the boat and it would take her to a faraway place. Early next morning Maria set off to the ship. After about an hour the ship set off. The ship took two days to get to its destination. When the boat arrived Maria found out that she was in Italy. Maria stayed in the boat until no one was looking and then she ran into a crowd of people. After a while she stopped at a very unusual place. In this place there were children playing, Maria walked into this strange place. Maria bumped into someone, the person said "Ciao." Maria didn't know what that exactly meant so she just said "Hello." The girl said her name was Camilla. Maria told Camilla her name. Camilla asked Maria if she wanted to play, Maria said "Yes," they both ran and started playing. She taught Maria how to swing across the monkey bars. When it was getting dark Camilla took Maria home, she introduced her to her mum and dad. She asked them if Maria could stay and they said "Yes." Maria was so happy! The next day they went to the playground. After that day Maria’s favourite place was the playground. The next day Maria said to Camilla that she had to go back home, both Camilla and Maria were sad. Camilla took Maria
back to the ship and Maria went into the cabin that she was in before. Maria waved goodbye to Camilla and the boat set off. It took two days again. When
Maria got back to the Solomon Islands her family were still on the beach looking for her. Maria was so excited that she just ran straight off the
boat. When her family saw her they ran up to her and gave her a huge hug.
Maria told them all about her adventure in Italy. Then she told them about her greatest idea. She wanted to build a playground. Her mum asked the
people on the boat to use some of their supplies. They said yes. So Maria and her family started building the playground. It took quite a while, but
they built it. Maria told her sister about the monkey bars, the swing and the slide. Maria taught Georgia how to play on them. Every single day Maria,
Georgia and the whole town played in the playground.
The end