Under The Sea - Donna

• Grace Maher, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2008

The story of a young girl and her adventures under the sea.
Entry sent via email, as per below:
Under The Sea - "Donna"
by Grace Maher

I’m Donna, and I’m 10 years old. I’m stuck in the middle of the country in my room doing nothing, dreaming of another life far away. Then the phone rang. I picked it up, but I didn’t know who it was, so I gave it to mum and just sat down and listened to the radio. Then, I realized the guy on the phone was “Wacky Wally” off the radio, and my mum was talking him. He said “If you were offered the chance to live in Sydney would you say yes?” Mum looked at me and I nodded, and then she said “yes”. Then Wacky Wally said “Well, pack your bags because you’re going to Sydney.”
So off we went to Sydney, I was so existed because we got to live right on the beach. The first thing I did when we arrived was to go for a swim. But when I was swimming, I felt weird, I looked down and I had a Tail. I had turned into a mermaid. It was like a dream. I could hear a sound, and I wanted to go, but I knew I’d have to go past the red and yellow flags. I was really scared, but I knew I needed to go. I swam, and swam until I found a coral reef. The sound was getting closer, and I searched and searched until I saw a little tiny baby turtle stuck in the seaweed. I helped it out, and then I laid it on the sand and started to swim away, but I heard something. I turned around and the baby turtle was following me. It thought I was its mum, so I let it come home with me. When I got home and got out of the water, my legs came back. I went home and I told mum that I had found a baby turtle. Mum said if you want to keep it, we will have to get a licence to have one. So, two days later we went to get the licence. It took a couple of hours, but finally we had it, and we went home with my new turtle.
We found out that she was a girl, so I called her sandy. When I got home I found a fish tank and put rocks and water in it, this was to be her new home. Then I ran outside with sandy and dived into the water for one last swim together in the ocean, to see if my tail reappeared, and it did. So I swam around with sandy, looking for something to do. Then we saw something in the distance, we went and had a look, I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was Atlantis, and I was the person, “well mermaid” to find it. I knew I could never tell anyone about it, ever. Our adventure together had turned into something really special, we had a secret place just for us.