That One Dark Night

• Mikaela Bennion, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2009

Life. Life is over rated. We live, we die, end of story. This is what I use to believe, I thought life so simple that all my problems seemed mere fragments of a much bigger picture. But after that one dark night my life as I knew changed forever.

I lived in an old forest, in the usual tree hollow which everyone would expect a possum to live. I thought it was just a small, dirty tree because that was what it looked like and I never saw it for exactly what it was.
One night my mother and I were out collecting food when I heard a loud noise. I turned and stared into the dark, star-lit night and suddenly my heart sank. There in the opening was a great metal object with wheels heading straight for our tree. I couldn’t move, I just sat there, paralysed.
I was suddenly awoken from my trance by a terrifying shriek. I then realised my family was in the tree and my mother had gone to stop the great metal beast.

What happened next was all a blur. My fear, like a great big monster had taken control of my body, I just sat there and watched. The sounds of metal colliding with wood and the blood curdling shrieks of my family will haunt me for the rest of my life.

After that night I realised life is not about living and dying it is about cherishing every moment, every smile, every tear, and every second in which you experience unforgettable moments. Although I will never again see my mother or our tree I still have the rest of my family and the memory of my heroic mother dying for us. So even without a home and mother a smile will always hide the shadow of that one dark night.