Nature, My Sanctuary

• Miriam Mayenco, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2016

With a steady hand, I pushed apart the enormous fern leaves, but instead of walking into a multicoloured rainforest as I suspected, I had walked into an overcrowded nightclub. Oh my, this is not what I wanted. Walking into a rainforest, where nature is beautiful and raw and I am alone is where I find my comfort. NOT at a loud, sweaty club full of yelling and intoxicated idiots, and skull pounding, chest vibrating 'music'.

I wanted to turn back, but my legs were being made to walk forward without my consent, as if I were a cheap wind up toy. Stiffly I made my way onto the sweaty dance floor. As I went to put my bare foot onto the dance floor, the ground disappeared and I fell silently through a soft and wispy cloud.

Dropping like a loony tunes character; feet first, my stomach rose into my throat. After swallowing it back down, I began to enjoy the feeling of being, well, almost weightless. As my body slowly turned to the front, rocking in the chilly air, I soon began to laugh and flap my wings as if I were a bird that I had seen in so many documentaries. It was a beautiful feeling, like when you make someone miserable laugh aloud. That kind of feeling.

As I neared the ground, I realised I was going to land on a beach. The thought of that beautiful sand inbetween my toes, unique sound of waves approaching, crashing and receding and the cold, biting salt water made me quite excited. I hadn't been to a beach for a swim in many years, probably not since we had moved, the last time.

As I was about 50...25...10...5...2 metres off that postcard perfect heaven, the scene changed yet again, so I had landed on hard gravel. I looked down at my knees and palms, noticing sharp cold glass impaled in my flesh, which was being steadily covered by my think, crimson blood. It stung and I wanted to cry out, I wanted that terror out of my skin. Laughs and jeers from my fellow classmates spun around me. Stop laughing! I cried out, but it only made them laugh more. This isn't primary school anymore! Stop thinking you're too cool to put your rubbish where it belongs! This only encouraged them to double over in laughter and bring out more glass bottles from their bags and backpacks.
With all the laughter and aching blows from the glass bottles being thrown at my sides, I had ended up in the foetal position, wishing I lived in my rural hometown again. The bullies around me started to spin, making me ball up even tighter. Take me home. Take me home…

Waking up in a cold sweat, I rejoiced over the joyous fact it had all been a dream. The problem was, I lived a life a similar to that dream. I AM the school hippie, I HAVE had rubbish thrown at me, I HAVE been taken away repeatedly from the place I love: nature, to live in a smoggy, cold, brutal city.