A Daring Visit

• Anuja Dahanayaka, Grade 1
• Short Story
• 2022

Sam loves a good adventure and unfortunately none came his way. His life was boring with school and home. Except one day, his mum asked him to visit Aunt Margaret who lived on the other side of the “spooky forest”. Everyone in the village spoke about the spooky forest and no one dared to cross it on their own. “Spooky forest” he thought, “is it really really real or is it the imaginary work of Mrs. Wilson who lives across the road, who loves making stories.. Well there’s only one way to know, test it yourself, he thought. Sam wanted to be brave, but also go and visit his poor, lonely aunt. He decided to take the risk!!
The backpack was packed and he stormed out of the door, waving “Good Bye” to mum. Sam crossed the road and soon he is walking down narrow path leading to the bushland. The bushes were getting thicker and thicker, he kept on the foot path, making sure he doesn’t get lost.
“GRRRR”.. Sam stopped, he heard the growl again. A massive, bear was standing right next to him, a very angry bear indeed! The bear growled at Sam and was about to gobble him up in one big bite!! Lucky Sam, he remembered his lunchbox was full of sausage rolls. He started throwing out sausage rolls and the bear was distracted. He started chasing sausage rolls instead of Sam. “Phew”, Sam got back into the track and he wanted h=get out of here as soon as he can. Then he saw a wild deer. The wild deer was charging at him. Sam is very smart. He started pulling grass and throwing at the wild deer. While the deer was eating he crept away. He kept going, “this is not spooky, but full of wild life..” he thought.
Soon he found and entire meadow full of bulls. These bulls do not seem to like grass, they like hey. He picked dry grass, he did it as quickly as he could, because the bulls were fast. Then he made a fire. He made it so high, so that the bulls lost sight of him. While bulls were having trouble finding him, he found more dry grass. And he throwed it at the bulls. Bulls were distracted by the hey. And Sam managed to escape.
There he was, at the edge of the woods. He could see the village. A sigh of relief at last!
He was so glad to be home in peace with his aunty Margaret. “Hope you had safe trip, little fella”, aunt Margaret chuckled. Sam nodded his head, still his heart pumping fast.