Malow Swamp

• Tiarne Reedy, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2009

Katie jumped around excitedly, “I’m going on a camping trip!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. The glass of water she was holding slipped out of her hand and smashed on the ground, leaving a huge, disastrous mess, “Oops.”
“Calm down, Katie!” came a stern voice from the kitchen, “You will bring the house down soon.” It was Saturday, the first day of the school holidays and Katie was packed. Packed for what? You may ask. Packed for the year six camping trip.
Katie’s mum drove her to the boring bus stop. Katie and I, along with half of the year sixes, were waiting for the bus. Which was ……… ………
“Running late!” Mrs Shirley said in a calm but annoyed voice. Mrs Shirley was angry! Very angry! We could tell by the way her mouth was twitching. Her eyes had a murderous glare.
It was now 4pm (by my watch) and we were supposed to leave at 3:30pm! The bus was late! Very late! People were starting to doze off. After several more minutes, we heard an ear- piercing beep. A bright, yellow bus pulled up driven by a small, chubby and bald man. “Come in Campers!” he called cheerfully, herding us into the bus like sheep through a gate. “I’m Mr Moyle”.
I quickly grabbed my fluorescent pink bags and put them under my seat. The seats were shabby and gross. Then I turned around and waved to my mum, out the window. The next events were a blur and before I knew it we were moving across dry, barren and boring countryside. It seemed like we had been driving for a while when Katie asked, “Mr Moyle where are we?”
Mr Moyle looked outside for a moment. He looked at his compass and GPS. “Oh my, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere up the line because I think we are lost!” Mr Moyle exclaimed, “but not to worry, we will camp here instead.”
He stopped the bus, so everyone could jump out and pitch their tents. Looking around we could see boggy marshes everywhere, mosquitoes and bugs zoomed around our heads.
“This is Malow Swamp” Katie told me in a shaky voice, “It gets really windy around here at night.”
The day was boring! Very boring! But that night Katie and I told ghost stories and played UNO. We soon fell deep asleep. Despite the sounds of the swamp, all was peaceful. Until midnight! My tent shook like a piece of cloth in the wind. I could hear everyone else waking up and cursing the disastrous wind. It was howling like a wolf howls to the moon.
Dawn broke to another bright and early day. Despite the windy night everyone was cheerful and the birds were singing delightfully. Everyone was packed to go. “Let’s hope we go to the real camping spot and not come back here to disgustingly gross and creepy Malow Swamp!” Katie joked.