Problems In The Jungle

• Wyatt Paradise, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

It was early Sunday morning. In the jungle, the birds were chirping and the animals were moving about. It was foggy, miserable and quite warm. It smelt musty and wet. The road was slippery because it had rained all night.

Sam was 35 years old. He liked to play football and go pig hunting. He spent most weekends hunting with his dogs in the jungle. All the exercise made him fit and muscular like a lion. He was an outdoor kind of person but he worked in an office.

Sam had been driving for a couple of hours on the wet, slippery road. The mud was thick, covering the motor like glue. This caused the motor to seize up and the car slide off to the side of the road, hitting a tree. Sam’s head hurt like heck as a trickle of blood ran down his face. He got out of the car and walked to the front where he discovered some mechanical problems. Should he go to a hut he knew was nearby or stay with the car? Sam had a problem.

Sam was tired, scared and wet. The car was a muddy mess. Sam instantly knew that he had two choices. He could try to fix the car, the repairs might not be major and be fixed quickly. On the other hand he might not be able to fix it and he would have wasted his time. He could use the sat phone, have warmth and shelter if he went to the hut, but he could get lost, the phone might not work or he could end up wasting his time and feel wet and cold. He had to make a choice.

Sam knew what the right decision was. He must go and find the hut. He set off at 5pm. The night was long and cold. Finally the bird’s songs broke the night’s silence and the sun wrapped its arms around his cold shoulders. As the day went on, the thick canopy held the heat and he cooked. He was hallucinating and thought he saw the hut. He ran and ran but he found nothing. He collapsed to the ground and scrunched his hands together. He got up and kept walking for a couple of hours. Finally, through the trees he saw the hut. He ran inside, grabbed the sat phone and called someone to come and get him. That day he learned a valuable lesson that he should not go somewhere without help quickly available.