Jellyfish Attack

• Bonnie Dawson, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2009

Every year our family goes on a holiday somewhere in Australia. This year we traveled about a million hours (6 hours) to Shell-harbor in NSW. Once we set up the caravan (once mum & dad set up the caravan) we decided to go for a swim at the beach, probably about 1.5 blocks away from where we were staying.

When we arrived there, there was an easterly wind blowing. Now you see, when there is an easterly wind, the jellyfishes called ‘Bluebottles’ flow with the current in the sea, so the easterly wind brings the Bluebottles closer to the shoreline, paying us a little visit. The Bluebottles aren’t venomous but they do give a nasty sting.

Before we were in the water, Harry, Libby and I had no idea about these so-called ‘Bluebottles’, or what was about to happen next! We ran into the water with out a care in the world splashing and playing in the salty sea. About 10 minutes later, Libby is running, screaming out of the water, with huge blue tentacles wrapped around her knee. While this was happening dad was way up the sand dunes, and mum was at the waters edge. Mum couldn’t just leave Harry and I in the water, so she waved dad over to pick up Libby and take her up to the Lifeguard stand, and mum was yelling, waving at us to come in.

Up at the lifeguard stand Libby sat screaming in pain, not knowing what was going to happen to her.
The lifeguard splurged water out of a water bottle onto Libby’s leg, trying to grip and grab the large blue tentacles off of her knee. After all the blue tentacles were off and gone there was a big white mark, sort of like when you get an ant bite and it leaves that white mark, it was like that, we thanked the man for helping us with Libby, and went on back to the caravan park.

Libby was in pain, (the sort of pain you get when you get stung by a bee or a wasp but it was about 10 times worse than any wasp or bee bite), not able to walk; so dad had to piggyback her all the way back to the caravan park. While she is on dad’s back, he was getting stung as well, because Libby’s knee was rubbing up against dad’s tummy (so the subtends from the Bluebottle has spread), so he got stung all in that area; but he never complained.
Once we arrived back at the caravan park, Libby had about a dozen showers and a little nana nap and she said she was feeling a lot better than she did when she got stung.

After a few more days camping she was feeling a LOT better and prancing around like her good old self. I was happy the day Libby went back into the sea. No fear and No Bluebottle jelly fish!

A true story by Bonnie Dawson.

I would like to dedicate this story to my sister Libby, who was a victim of a Bluebottle’s sting.