Stuck

• Callum Chiu, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2021

In an oceanside village, there was a small town called Greenville. A large tribe of ants lived under a shiny rock in the billabong.

One ordinary day in the summer, a little ant named Mala was on a tree collecting food for the winter. She was told that this tree, in particular, had the most food so she often went to that tree to help the others. Despite being very tired, she continued to work hard, for gathering enough food is the only way that she could feel completely relaxed.

As Mala was climbing up the tree, a spider was looking right at her and it looked like it was going to eat her at any minute! In a lightning thought, Mala decided to go another route. Unfortunately, when Mala started to step back, she slipped into a spider web!!! She was extremely frightened and almost burst into tears. Worse still, the spider followed her and came down the web as well. As the spider was approaching and stretching his limbs, Mala thought she was going to be eaten up very soon.

Surprisingly, the spider unwrapped Mala from the web and set her free. Mala was so relieved and thanked the spider for his help. The spider then explained that he was lonely and therefore wanted a friend to play with and he liked to help people as well.

The spider told Mala about his story. His name is Felix, he was living with his parents in a good old house attic. One day the people came and did the spring clean, they destroyed Felix's home and took away his parents as well. Although Felix was survived in the incident, he was by himself ever since. Although he went to school, he did not make any friends. Until now, he finally made a friend like Mala.

Felix became happier, he liked to make a lot of friends and cherished the time they were together like a family. Mala, of course, was very pleased about this and they became very good friends thereafter.