Vanished

• Coen Kendal, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

James!
James!
James!
“Wa-what?”
“You're sleeping again!” said the voice.
“Oh”
“Anyway…so, class, 3x9?”
“27” replied the kids.
I open my eyes, getting blasted with the brightness of the sun's rays, beaming into the classroom.
“Uhhhhh” I groan.
Then I sit up, straighten my back and yawn, looking around the room, noticing that I was in a classroom
“Now James” spoke the voice again “do you know what 4x6?”
Suddenly, a woman with glasses glares over me.
“56?”
“Go again!” commanded the woman.
“Ummmmm, 40…6?”
“Anyone else knows what 4x6 is?”
Then she points to a kid with spiky hair.
“24!” yells out the boy.
“Well done”
RRRing!!!!!!!
“Home time!”She calls out.
These days I walk home from school, since my dad isn't here anymore, and my mum's sick in the hospital.
When I walk home, I notice all the birds, flapping about in the trees.
Across the road is the animal centre, where I go when I feel lonely.
Finally, I arrived at my house, it looks worn out and abandoned, like nobody lives there except for my brother, Jack, who is 15, and me.
I open the front gate, creaking as I push past it. Then go up the cobblestone steps, which most have cracks or are smashed.
Eventually, I come face to face with my brother, who is holding the old wooden door open.
“Where have you been?” he asked aggressively “you were supposed to be here an hour ago!”
“wha-but-I thought “I-um?”
“No excuses!” argued Jack “Go get in your room, and no dinner!”
I looked down and slumped my shoulders as Jack dragged me into my room by my arm.
He plopped me on my bed and told me to stay.
I wandered off, looking at all the pictures in my room, some were my family and me at a park, and some were me with my rat at the centre.

The following day, I started to walk to school.
It was a cold stroll as snowflakes fell from the sky, like little frozen leaves swaying left and right.
I saw the Animal Centre over the road and decided to head over and have a look for my pet rat.
Once I got there, something felt weird, like a feeling you get when you eat something that doesn't agree with you.
Then I arrived at the front desk and asked if they still had my pet rat, Lewis.
The women at the front desk showed me through a narrow tunnel that I faintly remembered, so I walked down the corridor to the animal garden, where they kept all the animals in a small, little garden room
Then I saw my rat, with a man kneeling next to him in his cage.
I went over to the man and asked why he was here.
He said that my rat had died from a disease called hantavirus.
That day at school, I felt angry and stressed like a force was building, and then everything went

black.