Warned

• Lori Duffey, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2019

Warned

Wading into the water was the worst decision anyone could have made. On a deserted beach on a stinking hot summers day, how bad could it get? I mean really a toddler would have been able to swim in this water or so I thought. Warnings on the news about possibly some of the worst currents Bondi will see. But the surf was like a long carpet of endless beauty stretched kilometers out ahead of me. Only little rolls of white wash managed to make the journey to the shallows, let alone to the sand that I was standing on. Seagulls way out circling something, something big, something dangerous. That something I did not know about. I slowly made my way out to the open water, it was glossy and a hypnotising blue. The calming water was now up to my waist and I suddenly felt a strong undertow grasp my ankles.

That’s what they were talking about.