Wake Up

• Jorja Rowe, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2016

Skyler sat up in the old willow tree thinking. Her brown hair in a thick plait and her blue eyes stared dreamily into the world beyond. A blackbird cheeped on a higher branch and she whistled back the song in a soothing tune. The bird glided gracefully down to the branch below and landed on her outstretched finger. She smiled and pulled a small brown paper bag out of her pocket. She tipped what seemed to be breadcrumbs onto her other hand and feed them to the little bird then sprinkled the rest over the grass. Other birds of all colours flew down to the ground and picked at the crumbs. The little bird dived down and she swung herself from the tree and walked away.
She walked down her long stone drive way and out the gate. She crossed the road from her farm home and down into the old bush track. She walked until her feet hit hot sun baked sand. Then she started to sprit towards the water, ready to dive in and feel the cool sensation of the salt water, but something flew past tripping her. Something big and white like a ghost of flesh and bone. She lay on the ground for a while thinking. It was late so nobody else was at the beach. Nobody else saw what tripped her. Skyler felt certain that it was a horse but no one had seen a horse out here in years. She stood up and headed home.
At dinner she told her parents all about what happened to her but she knew they didn’t believe. So she went to bed and lay restlessly for hours before she heard the flick of the light switch and murmurs of her parents before she felt certain it was safe. Not safe to sleep but safe to find her ghost horse. She knew she hadn’t imagined the horse, she knew it was real no matter what her parents had said at dinner.
She ran down the old bush trail. It was different at night but she had crossed it so many times she knew it with her eyes closed. She stopped when her feet felt sand. She knew she hadn’t imagined her horse because her horse was there, in front of her. She stepped slowly towards it and its ears flicked towards her. She stopped and it walked up to meet her. It dropped its neck as if asking her to get on. She slipped herself up onto the horse’s warm bare back and the cantered down the beach. Skyler had always wanted to fly like a bird but this flight was much better. Especially on her horse, her ghost horse with cool sand underneath her, water by her side and the night breeze in her face.
But you always have to wake up and head home.