Jan: My Story

• Tiana Schimpf, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2019

The steel under my feet is cold and wet. The world around me sways and creaks all day every day. Swaying and creaking. The other shapes and forms down here are huddled in the dark corners, silent, always silent. There are mothers with young kids even babies. Men, women, boys and girls.
My name is Jan, I am 10 years old and I come from New Zealand. There are bad men above us, yelling, screaming, swearing and cursing. Always. It’s scary. I cried and cried for days. Now I am dark and cold inside, feeling nothing. It is so dark in here. The boat is heading somewhere – a straight, never changing course. West, I think, towards the sun… towards the light. Towards hope?
War is coming. The sky is turning grey with smoke, the big fighter planes are roaring over us every few minutes and the huge grey war ships are thundering past in the distance.
I have lost track of the days. I long for my parents every day. I watched these bad men plunder my village and slaughter my mum and my dad right in front of my eyes. I still wake up in a cold sweat. The twisted bloody faces of my parents’ cold, dead bodies are burned into my eyes, and their blood curdling screams still ring through my ears. I’m scared! I’m scared of dying, scared of never seeing grass or trees again, nor happy birds or bunnies. I’m crying again. I’m crying for my parents, crying for others who have lost loved ones, and crying for the bunnies. I’m choking. Truly, I’m choking on my tears and spit. I hear a shout and the whole ship is jerking, making us stumble and fall.
The roof opens unexpectedly, letting in streams of sunlight that blinds me. My eyes sting as I stumble and fall again. Then, a huge, strong hand is pulling me up. His hand is squeezing my arm until it feels like my arm is going to break in half. I bite my tongue to make sure I don’t cry out.
If there is one thing I have learnt from the bad men over these horrible, stinky and sad days, it is to be as quiet as possible. My friend paid the lesson for that one. She screamed one day. She never came back. Where are these bad men taking me now? I didn’t make any noise? Did I?