Way Home

• Enya Gunasekera, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2022

I feel anxious and I feel scared. I feel people stare at me. It is the way that people look at me that makes me anxious, I am not like other kids, I’m not wild or crazy or fast, I’m just quiet, shy and even scared... I even went to the doctors’ and the doctor even says I have a type of anxiety that does not make me feel motivated. I am called a “refugee”. That is not my name, but they call me a refugee.
I remember that I hid with my parents, from the men with guns and water cannons all of us were under a thick tree or was it a bush? The night was full of loud WILD bangs.
I spotted a Robin staring at me from the tree, I knew the bird was showing the way to home! Me and my family followed the bird with the cold windy breeze I was basically running like a cheetah as soon as we can go. We all saw two humongous boats. I felt so bright because we were leaving behind the war! The boats were filled with so many people but since the men with the guns were near my dad, he had to go to another boat, while me and my mum were in the second boat. I started crying and shouting and screaming like I was never going to see my dad, my mum calmed me down.
My mum would play with me and tell me stories of happy days in Sri Lanka and of my “achcha” my grandmother who is 91 years old and my grandfather I never saw... He died when I officially turned 1 year old, I would always think about him... So, I don’t want to lose dad... We had nothing to eat, and we were starving but mum had some dried sultanas and mangos wrapped up in a piece of foil.
Kind people in the boat gave us food to eat.
We had to drink rainwater... There were lots of dangerous sea animals down under the water.
And now, since then we are in Australia. My mum is a waitress. We even stay in an apartment for the last two years. I love life now but then something is missing. It was dad...
I tried forgetting about it, but the thing is it’s so hard forgetting someone you love, I would always cry before bed, it was very hard… The next day coming back from school, I noticed my mum cry. Did she get fired from her job? I had so many questions in my head, why she was crying, I was so worried, I asked “Mummy what happened?” My head said to me, ‘IT’S SOMETHING BAD’ my heart was racing, while waiting for her to reply... She replied... “Check the door...” I just knew it would be something bad...but instead I was wrong, it was something I’ve been waiting for to see… DAD!!!