Maly's Story

• Emma Giles, Grade 5B
• Short Story
• 2017

I can hear the shouting and screaming in the distance as we sit down in our underground war shelter. Someone shouts and starts crying and there is a sudden silence. Sirens sound in the distance but grow louder as they come into our street. They pick up the injured person and carry them off on a stained stretcher. A lady comes down the ladder to our hidden shelter to tell all everyone down here what happened.
“Maly and Ann, unfortunately your father was shot. He should be fine as he has been sent to hospital.” The lady says to me. My sister Ann starts crying. So does Mother. Father is like everyone’s father, he is always happy and kind to everyone. Mother keeps telling all the children to stay strong but we are all losing hope. Even she is. She says we are going to move away as soon as the war finishes but it keeps going on and on. She says Maybe Australia because it’s a new country.
We just had news from the hospital about father. They say he won’t be able to continue fighting, so we are going to move away from Vietnam. Mother says we are going to Australia which is exciting. We set off on the boat another week later. I don’t know whether I want to go there or not. I have never been anywhere out of Vietnam so this is scary. The boat we are on is quite big but because there are so many people on it, it feels tiny. It goes up and down, up and down as we cross through rocky seas. Mother says I have gone all green and I keep throwing up. It’s taking ages to get to Australia. I can’t see any land. There isn’t much food. We all get a tiny nibble of bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The boat tips to one side and a little boy slips overboard. Someone tries to jump out to save him but the mother pulls them back. “No, it’s too late! We don’t want anyone else drowning!” she whispered. I hope there won’t be anymore crazy surprises like that.
We arrived at Australia. We are in Port Melbourne. We got in this taxi thing. We are learning English everyday but it’s hard. One of our mother’s friends taught us some English on the boat but we still aren’t that great. The taxi drove us to a place called Footscray. We are living in an apartment. Father has started work, he is a builder and he gets payed quite reasonably. Mother is home schooling us until we have enough money to buy all the things we need for school. We probably won’t get a new house till next year. Ann and I made friends. There’s Alana, Tim, Yoko and Mimi. Father is earning heaps of money so we will definitely be able to go to school next year.