Under The Rainfall

• Mia Agnew, Grade 8B
• Short Story
• 2017

Under the Rainfall

I’m so lonely…
As the rain falls on the tin roof, I remember. I remember the brass sound of metal hitting the ground, mothers crying at the loss of children and bullets destroying every living thing.
As I lay shuddering at the thought of my mother being taken away from me, a tear cascades from my eye. I let the memories flow back into my mind, the rainfall comforted my every move.

I live in Africa, the land of war. My village, Arkala was a war zone, full of men with guns and heavy armour. There is no water or any living animals for miles and my mother and I were only just getting by.
One day, the war became terrible. Men in armour with enormous machine guns staggered out of bulky war tanks. My mother told me to run, run as fast as I could and not stop for anything. The men wanted to take all the children away and send them to an island far away. I never thought they could do that, but they did.

As soon as the men appeared, I started to run. A tall, slender man spotted me and started to chase after me. My mother appeared out of nowhere and shoved the man over, he hit the ground with a loud thud. My mother climbed to her feet, tears flowing out of her eyes like a waterfall. I was about to open my mouth and call to her, but it was too late.

As I covered my eyes in fear, I heard my mother's scream. I couldn’t bear to see what they had done to her. I ran, faster than before but this time, no one chased me. No men in heavy armour ran after me, no one. As tears bowled down my face, I collapsed to the ground in a heap of blood and tears. As I gradually turned my head, I wasn’t ready for what happened next.

Joy filled my heart as my loving mother ran towards me, but something was terribly wrong. Her face was covered in horror and fear. I sluggishly climbed to my feet as I heard a horrible sound.
“BANG”
My mother collapsed to the ground. Her loose, lifeless body lay crumpled on the barren land beneath her. Fear overwhelmed my joy as I realised what had happened.

That’s was it… My undoing. I ran for days until I found an old house, I crawled inside. My fatigued body slammed onto the dry cement as I fell into a bottomless sleep. When I awoke, it was raining. The sound of the rainfall on the tin roof was so loud, almost unbearable, but reassuring at the same time.
That’s where we live now, the other motherless children and I, under the rainfall.