“Time To Go.”

• Holly Westaway, Grade 6, Our Lady of Good Counsel Primary School
• Short Story
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'Summertime Fun ONLINE' competition

A cerulean ocean, soft white sand, seagulls squawking blissfully, life was a dream. The sky’s shimmering sunset colours were fading into each other. Buttermilk yellow to cantaloupe orange to carmine red to salmon pink to lavender purple to periwinkle blue to navy-
Shards of jagged glass shattered the scene, and Jadzia ripped her eyes open, needing them to adjust to the dim light.
“What’s going on?” She yawned, covered with fragments of crippled window.
Her mother made a sound that sounded like a sigh. “I don’t have time to answer Jadzia, so listen carefully. I need you to take this pack and run to the bomb shelter. I’ll meet you there. RUN!”
She suddenly felt awake. “We’re under attack?”
“GO!”

Now Jadzia could hear the bombs going off outside, so she grabbed the small, velvet bag her mother was handing her, and crept on her hands and knees through her house. Dirt coated the floor and Jadzia heard a strange, beeping noise. Beep, beep, beep. A bomb! She stayed low, running through the dark hallways to the shack-like shelter. Mutual fear powered her, and she was alert of everything. BOOM! Just as she ran out of the house, escaping the danger, the missile went off, throwing her forwards and she face-planted into the dirt. She didn’t realise until it was too late that someone never made it out alive.

The all-too familiar noise of an ambulance echoed in her mind, and sitting in the back of one was the last thing Jadzia wanted to do. Crimson soaked her mother’s nightgown, too bold and stark against the white clothing to be ignored. Jadzia took a deep breath as reality, in its full devastating form, hit her hard. She was an orphan. She was all alone. Germany had stolen her father, during the first attack on Poland. Now they had taken her mother. Life couldn’t have taken a turn worse than hers had.

She would not, could not let this be her future. A sly grin spread across her face as she thought of a solution. No normal person could pull off her crazy plan. But she wasn’t a normal person. She was Jadzia Nowak. She could do anything if she set her mind to it. This was the moment. This was the time. Determination shone in her eyes as bright as the stars in the night sky. Yelps resounded through the vehicle as her distraction started working.
“Time to go.”