An Unforgettable Trip

• Shazfa Makkeen, Grade 3, Auburn North Public School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

Mandy held on her mother’s hand. Memories of the bloodcurdling scream filled her mind. Her brother Tim comforted her. Mandy felt exhausted and closed her eyes to take a quick nap. ‘Excuse me, ‘’ a small boy said, while jostling her shoulder. Mandy rubbed her bleary eyes and noticed something. ‘Where is the train station?’ she thought. She was so worried that tears rolled down her pale cheek.
‘’My name is Jasper,” the boy said, extending his hand. Mandy tried to be polite to him, but it was hard especially when she had just lost her parents. ‘’Mandy, ‘’she replied as she held out her hand to him ‘’You must have missed the train ‘’Jasper said. Mandy’s conflicted feelings plummeted as she looked at the boy’s thigh. A tattoo of an eye was plastered on there.
‘’Oh, my Aunt Flora gave me that tattoo. It’s fake though, because I am too young to get a permanent one,” he said casually when he noticed Mandy staring at his thigh. Mandy recognised that name immediately. Oh no. She ran forward, and Jasper chased her. Mandy was inexperienced at running that she fell on her first step. ‘What’s wrong,’ Jasper asked curiously when he caught her. ‘’First take that tattoo away and I’ll tell my story.”
After scraping the fake tattoo with toothbrush which still had a few lines in it, she told him the story. ‘’My family left New York because of your Aunt. She wanted to kill my Dad who had a high position in his company. She gave him some cookies, but my Dad refused, since he knew they were poisonous. He ran away, and she took our house and lands for herself.”
‘’He and I were angry, so we plotted revenge. He always saw her around Crimson’s house. So, we snuck in. But it was a trap. She captured my father and sent hundred men after me. I am pretty bad at running so I stole a bicycle and rode away.” Mandy said tears welling up in her eyes.
Then the door of the train opened. There was Aunt Flora, in her full wickedness. ‘I had a hard time catching up to you, but young Jasper here showed me your whereabouts, “she cackled. Her face was ugly as she remembered it. Mandy’s eyes widened. Of course. Flora could see through the tattoos. She grasped onto Mandy’s hand and pulled. Jasper tried to intervene, but she batted him away and he fell to the ground. “Whose side are you on, my dear nephew?” she snarled. Mandy felt anger welling up in her. She twisted her arm, made Flora let go and punched her. Just then a guard appeared. ‘Jasper? What are you doing here?” he said and saw Mandy panting and Flora on the ground, unconscious with a dazed Jasper. The guard helped Mandy to her family again and all that were enslaved to Flora were released. The guard left with Jasper and Flora was arrested on allegations of child abuse, enslavement and jaywalking.