A Stormy Night

• Jaylin Tamoe, Grade 5, Acacia Ridge State School
• Short Story
• 2017

Excellence Award in the 'Spread The Word 2017' competition

It was a cold stormy night, and Wren couldn’t sleep. Kept awake by the whistling of the wind, Wren tossed and turned in her strange uncomfortable bed. Her imagination vivid and her head filled with the thoughts of reality; love, hate, peace and war. All floating around her head, mixing with the thoughts of the fiction she’d read to create a masterpiece unseen by anyone. A life of reality, clouded with the untruth of novels, confusing anyone who tried to make sense of it.

Slowly drifting further and further away. She was in a constant state of confusion, drifting past the point of no return. It was all building up to nothing. This was the anticlimax of a surprise gone wrong. The point in which everything becomes one and one becomes everything. She tried to reach out, screaming, but there was nothing but silence. The bitter silence of an empty space, but the pain of a noisy room was confusing the mind. Bitter sweet, it was taking over and she couldn’t let it win. Let the pure confusion destroy her imagination. There was nothing she could do but try to understand the world around her.


The sadness came next. Filling the place where the confusion had once been. Still drifting further, the tears started to roll. The sadness took over, like the waves on a beach drowning the sand. Words were harming her more than anything else. She was trying to escape the constant circle of pain, when the confusion came back. The reason behind the sadness was still unclear. Self doubt flooded her mind, like an avalanche in the mountains. She was suddenly self conscious, and more confusion came clouding her mind like clouds on the peak of a mountain. Trying to escape the fog, she tried reaching out again but she was still drifting. She was now far past the point of no return, with no chance of escaping.

This was when the light appeared, the light at the end of the tunnel. There was a chance. Happiness was now the only emotion in Wren’s mind and she was glad. She was getting closer and closer to everything she loved once again. She was in a state of happiness and she was pleased she was free from the tunnel. The confusion was over and so was the sadness.

Suddenly Wren woke! It was bright and sunny outside and she was feeling wide awake. She jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to find her mother and father in the kitchen making breakfast. Her imagination vivid and her head filled with ideas of books. Love, magic, friendship smiles, all floating around her head mixing with the thoughts of fiction that she’d read to create a magical masterpiece for Wren only. She had decided that she was going to write a story about her dream.