Story competition
In 6th class, we had a class story competition, everyone had lots of fun coming up with ideas, writing stories and sharing them. The standards were very high, which resulted in 5 winners!
Aoife came 1st, Saoirse and Teamhair came 2nd and Danny along with Leah got 3rd place. Every participant got a homework pass and an Easons voucher. Congratulations to our 5 winners!
Here is the winning story:
LIFE IN THE LIGHTHOUSE
It was a dark, stormy night. The waves were bashing off the rocks and boulders. The wind was howling and the rain was pounding against the glass. The radio suddenly cut off. It was an eerie silence from then on. Just a few minutes later the lighthouse lost all power.
I was about to go down to switch on the generator when something in the distance caught my eye. A faint light coming from the sea. This was strange. No ships were due to arrive until the morning. As the light came nearer I could make out the shape of the boat. Quite small but durable. It wouldn’t be a boat full of cargo though. I tried many times to fix the radio to see what was happening. For all I know it could be a boat full of Nazis and if that was the case I was in big trouble. The small boat had docked by the time I looked out again.
I watched as several figures stumbled out of it and onto the rocky shore. All of them looked weak and fragile. Without hesitation I went down the spiral staircase, all different thoughts running to my head. My commander always told me if there was an unknown ship to analyse it and the people on board and try to make the best decision but for some odd reason I had an instinct to help those people. I opened the door and the wind almost knocked me over. Less than 100 feet away was a group of about a dozen people taking shelter behind the boat. I knew at once that they were not our soldiers or the enemy’s.
I slowly jogged over to them, the harsh rain stinging my skin. All the people young and old had gathered and turned to look at me. I motioned for them to go to the lighthouse quickly. I watched as they limped over but when I turned back to look at the boat there was still a woman left onboard. I approached her quietly so as to not scare her. She was in hysterics. Her shoulders were shaking after each massive sob. “Are you okay?” I whispered. She continued to sob and showed me a picture of who I’m assuming was her husband. In the picture he looked young and happy. The poor woman was trying to speak but I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I led her into the lighthouse and gave her some tea to calm her down.
I looked around the room; 4 children (2 boys and 2 girls) and 8 adults. They looked ravenous and when I offered food they gobbled it up like they hadn’t eaten in months. Once the lady with the picture had calmed down I started to talk to her as gently as I could because the kids were asleep. “Hello my name is Rose. What’s yours?” “Emilia,” she replied in a shaky voice. “Where have you come from Emilia?” “Germany”. That shocked me. That meant that there was a possibility that they were spies. “Are you here to hurt us?” I asked. Emilia looked confused. “No”. I pointed at the picture. “Who’s that?” “Arnold”. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to talk much. “Where is he?” “Dead,” she replied. I didn’t know how to reply to that. I brought up blankets from the storage room to keep my guests cosy. I wasn’t too sure what to do with them but I figured we’d sort something out in the morning. I woke up the next morning at dawn. The power was back. I went upstairs hoping that last night’s events were just a dream, but no, the people were very much here. They had raided the cabinets for food and had moved my furniture around to make huts for the kids. I ignored them for a while and tried to get all my daily tasks done. After that I started to talk to the people. Only a few of them could speak English. One young man explained why they were here.
“The Nazis don’t like us Jewish supporters, they hate us, even though what they are doing is very wrong. Our neighbours were Jews and they were so kind and generous but everyone treated them like dirt. And when we said something about it the Nazis turned against us. They took us from our homes and we were left with nothing. No clothes, no food, no books. They took everything. Then they brought us to fields to make us work. It was horrible. The ground was sandy and muddy. We had to crowd into tiny huts. Everyday a few hundred people went away and they didn’t come back. The boys and girls were separated also. So one day we made a plan. The soldiers swap duties at 11:45 every day. It takes 2 minutes for the guards to get into a new position but 2 minutes wasn’t enough so thankfully Arnold gave up his life to save ours.” They all gathered around Emilia and hugged her. “He started a fight with one of the smaller soldiers and we ran. We kept running and the girls did the same. We ran out of the gate and went far, far away. A family friend that we knew owned a boat shop nearby so we kept going until we found it. He gave us a boat and everything was going well until the storm brewed up but we knew that if we waited any longer they could come after us. We sailed across the ocean until we saw land which happened to be here and that is how we ended up in Britain.”
I was in awe of these people but I didn’t really understand why they left their country. I decided not to ask anymore questions though and focus on the main thing; food. “Did you bring your ration books?” They looked at me as if I had three heads. Oh no this was going to be harder than I expected. I had heard of people raiding bombed out houses and it looked like that was what we were going to have to do. I gave them instructions and sent them out to the local towns. I had to stay here and finish my work. To be honest I was a little sceptical that this method of getting food would work but when they came back a few hours later they proved me very wrong. They had 2 big bags filled with enough food to last them all a few days anyways. The children stayed outside playing while the adults made scrambled eggs for brunch. They could stay here for a while but if my commander visited and found 12 Germans hiding in a British lighthouse there would be war. He wasn’t due to visit for three more weeks but trying to house 12 people in 3 weeks was very hard. If this was going to work I would need to get in contact with some friends and fast.
Two weeks later
I was sorry to see some of the people go. They had kept me company while they were here. I had found homes for 9 of the 12 people but the commander was due to come this week. The only ones left were Emilia and her two children, Klara and Finn. The children could hide easily enough but it was Emilia I was worried about. I don’t think she cares what happens to her. She has been brought back to full health but she still cries herself to sleep. I would hate it if they were brought back to the camp that they seem to hate.
I love watching the kids playing on the beach in a world of their own, it’s like watching them play charades. It was early summer now and they had survived on smuggled food for almost a month.
I had gone to get food with them multiple times. The town was an awful mess, buildings crumbling, debris scattered everywhere and the smell of burnt materials filled the air. We had to move quickly and search thoroughly because food was so scarce. We were as sly as foxes. We got lucky quite a few times and never got caught. Once we were in the house when the alarm went off. Thankfully we were able to make a swift exit and got to safety.
It was a magical evening. I was mesmerised by the birds flying across the pink and orange sunset, so much so that I barely heard the rumbling engine of a motor car approaching. The kids snuck in and up the stairs quickly but the commander had caught sight of them. As I expected Emilia just sat huddled in a corner. The sound of his boots as he marched up the stairs echoed around the building, haunting it.This was it, I had failed to help these poor people. He burst through the door and gave me a look that could kill. “Why on earth are there German children in my lighthouse!” he screamed at me. “Are you cra……….,” He stopped suddenly and looked Emilia in the eye. “Emilia, Emilia is that really you?” he uttered in disbelief. “Charlie!” She screamed and it was the first time I had seen her smile since she arrived. She flung herself onto him and they hugged like they never wanted to stop. It was such a special moment but I didn’t know what was happening until Klara came out of her hiding spot. “Uncle Charlie” squealed little Klara. Commander Charlie replied “Hey buddies, I missed you all.”
Once they finished greeting each other Charlie explained. “Oh umm Rose sorry about this. This is my sister Emilia and my niece and nephew, Klara and Finn, as you know. And I’m not really Charlie, I’m Jonas, German man undercover, but I fully support Britain I swear. You see I wasn’t as foolish as the others and didn’t share my opinions openly so I snuck over here and acted like I was British and it worked. Thank you for keeping my family safe even if you didn’t know you were doing it,” he chuckled. It turns out I hadn’t failed and accidentally reunited this family instead.