The Boat Wreck

• Olivia Nellestein, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2019

The cold waves washing against my skin is the next thing I remember...
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Walker and I am the middle child of three children. I have one younger brother named Jacob and one older sister named Susan. Jacob is my twin brother - but I am older by four minutes.
The day started out really exciting. We were going on a boat trip out to the islands with Mum and Dad. Not long into the boat ride a bad storm hit us. And when I say a bad storm, I mean a very bad storm. With no sight of land, we grabbed each other tightly as the boat shook left then right then left and then right again. It almost looked like a water tornado!
After that I have no memory whatsoever, until the cold waves washed against my feet, startling me awake. The storm had disappeared as quickly as it came. I had to brush the sand from my eyelashes before I could see properly. I was definitely on the beach.
I figured that I should start walking home just in case my parents were worried sick about me, but when I stood up and looked around it looked nothing like my home town beach.
I was starting to panic when, from the corner of my eye, I saw Susan and Jacob over by a couple of rocks, I shouted out to them but they couldn’t hear me. I ran over as fast as I could.
“Elizabeth!” The twin-thing kicked in and Jacob ran to meet me.
We decided we should look for our Mum and Dad. We looked everywhere, but no sign. We kept walking and searching. Finally, we saw some footprints.
“These look like Mum and Dads” Susan said with a sigh and looked around at Jacob and I.
We followed the tracks for about ten minutes. Suddenly, the tracks disappeared. It was that moment I realised that we were going to be here for a little while longer than I had hoped...
We split up, but not too far from each other, and started scavenging for things that may have washed up from the boat. After a little while we met back up together to find that all together, we had found eleven and a half items: I found a compass, a flashlight and matches. Jacob found a fish knife, three ponchos, a couple of jackets and half a bag of chips. Susan found a signalling device, a first aid kit, a long line of rope, a couple half-filled bottles of water and big silver plate.
Susan fiddled with the signalling device while Jacob and I munched on the chips. I was amazed they weren’t soggy.
“What’s that noise?” Asked Jacob.
A strange whirring noise seemed to be getting louder and louder. We jumped to our feet and started waving at the helicopter. As it got closer, we saw Mum and Dad waving back.
Finally, we were saved!