A Girl's Best Friend

• Ashton Langer, Grade 4, St Mary's Primary School
• Poetry
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'Unleashed 2022' competition

Hi, I’m Ophelia Howard, red head, freckles and nine years old. I don’t go to school anymore, I’m happy, I’m free, you might think free means no rules, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s 1994 and I’m living wild in the Australian bush, with my best friend, my dog, he is the greatest friend a girl could have. No parents and no rules. Wonder how I got here… well that wasn’t fun.
In 1993 a war started and in 1994 they came to Maryborough where I lived. We were getting shipped to America, away from the danger. We were about halfway through the journey when the boat exploded. There was a bomb in the hull of the boat. They must have put it in before we left the docks. Then all I remember is the coldness of the water and the red fire blurring my eyes. I held onto a piece of wood from the boat. I must have passed out because the next thing I knew I was on the shore alone. No footprints, nothing, and nothing behind me, but forest, bushes and grass. I wanted my home, I wanted my stuff, but most of all I wanted my parents. I knew I couldn’t go back, so I fled into the bush. I had been walking for about 3 hours and was starting to get hungry, thirsty and tired. Then I remembered, one year, an indigenous man came to our school. He told us what they ate, bush tucker. I was most willing to eat something like goanna, it would be easier than eating a cute kangaroo or possum, but how would I catch one? Just then, I remembered seeing a goanna in a tree. I retraced my steps. ‘I FOUND IT!’ I yelled. My yelling must have startled it, because it came down the tree and started chasing me. I ran as hard as I could, but it was fast.
As the goanna gained on me, I really thought it was the end, but from the bushes jumped a humungous wolf. He was red, with a white star on his forehead. He bit the goanna and dropped it in the dirt. He looked at me with a concerned face. He was limping. I looked closer and he had a big cut down his back leg. ‘It’s okay boy’, I said gently, ‘come with me’, and to my surprise, he did. We walked back to set up camp. He dropped straight to the ground when we got there. I grabbed a leaf off the tree beside us to rap around his wound, he seemed to trust me. I cooked the goanna and tasted it, it was horrid, bitter and slimy, I wasn’t surprised, I mean, it is goanna. I gave the rest to the wolf and he seemed to enjoy it. I laid down next to him and looked up at the stars, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all, I felt safe.