Calvin's New Country

• Cameron Johnston, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

Calvin’s new country
Calvin’s family has always lived in China, but they were sick of the poverty and diseases everywhere. So they decided they wanted to come to Australia for a better life, but they didn’t have enough money to get plane tickets so they bought an inflatable boat from k-mart for their journey to Australia.
The boat was only supposed to carry 8 people but there was 15 people in their family, plus they had to fit all their possessions and their two pet cats on the boat so the boat was a bit crowded. They bought a second hand 5 horse power motor from the bloke next door and he fitted it to their boat for free since they were such good friends with him. They were all set for their big, life changing journey to Australia so they started up the boat and left, they were all so excited to see Australia and make a better life for themselves that they could hardly wait.
Calvin and his family were about three quarters of the way to Australia when they ran out of food, they were starving so they had to eat something or they would die, unfortunately their two pet cats didn’t make it to Australia…But at least they all made it there safely. Calvin and his family were transferred by the government to a town called Mildura and they opened up a small take-away store called ‘Thom Pack’, they sold chips, dimmies, burgers, pies, sangas, darts, drinks and more. It was quite busy and successful because the food was so tasty and the darts were so cheap.
But one day Calvin left the deep fryer on and the store went up in smoke, the whole store was burnt to a crisp, but luckily the fire fighters got there in time to save the stores around it. Calvin and his family were left devastated, and had no income to support themselves. But the compassionate community of Mildura came together and raised money to get Calvin’s family back on their feet, and in just over a year the store was up and running again and better than ever.
Calvin’s family still owns Thom Pack today and are still very happy living in Mildura.