Sacrifice For A Better Future

• Rebecca Li, Grade 6, Carlton South Public School
• Short Story
• 2022

1st in the 'Summertime Fun ONLINE' competition

The vitriolic wind slashed its sheet of metal across Maria’s exposed face, the raw sensation of swallowing shards of glass infecting her throat. As each billowing wave consumed the aching ship into the midnight abyss of the sea, it could not conceal the cacophony of screams as the voracious waters grew insatiable, every tumultuous jolt a demonic chant for more overboards. A blur of bodies anchoring each other engulfed Maria’s vision, but in the corner of her eye, Maria had tried to scream at what she saw, but the blustering wind whisked her voice away before it even left her lungs. Decades of time capsules, relics of the past - photographs, gifts from ancestors - escaping from her grasp and into the engulfing marine as if beckoning her to join and concede her nugatory journey. But Maria had battled death from the oppressive government, gambled her life savings for a boat ticket out and endured the months of rationed food for her. For her daughter. For a chance for her to grow in a better life. For a chance to be away from their war plagued country.
Maria’s eyes could no longer recognise this 5-year-old girl as her daughter with ebullient orbs and immortal skin, now diminished to a tenuous frame haunted by the thought of food. Her palms were weeping under her frozen grip, limbs glued to her mother, eyes vermillion with trepidation mirroring her mother’s.
Maria’s eyes snapped in front of her as footsteps dulled the cry of the ocean.
He shook his bucket, a rasping mixture of gold escaping. “Payment, or overboard.”
Maria’s eyes glued to her ring finger but it felt like wrenching her finger off. It was the symbol of the happiest memory in her pitiful country - marrying her husband. But the thought of him retrieved how he died excruciatingly; attempting to guard the escape of Maria and her daughter.
With a reverberating cling that burned into her head, the ring was gone, a heart stopping sacrifice for a better future. A sardonic grin plastered over his face, but within seconds, he’d moved onto delivering the same devastating words to another family, leaving Maria lying on the frigid boat planks. Next to her, Maria couldn’t believe her daughter used to wail at the thought of sleeping in the dark, now conquering it with lifeless eyes. The acrid air was impregnated with a suffocating wave of sweat, but Maria didn’t realise, slipping into the haven of dreams.
Light pierced Maria’s eyes like lasers and her tottering knees buckled under her weight. Luscious canopies towered her vision, only golden rays passing through. And finally, her daughter seemed like someone her age, eyes overflowing with jaunty and a golden crack of effervescence replenished her face. The sickly saccharine scent of nectar pervaded her lungs as a mellow euphoria seeped into her skin. Maria took a step into the sodden earth, unconfined of the thought of landmines.
“This is it, isn’t it? Australia, our new home.”