storyteller: matilda

Imagine A World…

Let me tell you a story about the time my dad found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow…

Bang! “Get down!” yells Dad. My head is racing, I feel like I’m going to faint. Dad pulls my arm as he crawls into a dusty corner behind the chair. He cuddles me in close and I start to calm down, but before I can ask what’s going on. Bang! “That’s the second gun fire,” panics Dad, “The war has started…”

Gunshots echo through the town, listening to screams of wounded people trying to survive, days and sometimes weeks with little food and limited water. That’s the world I’ve been living in for 2 years… Dad went out hunting every day. He was awake before dawn and was back when the first ray of sunlight would have shown. Dad, Mum and Mable moved into my room which meant that when someone started to get out of bed I would wake up. Dad gave me a hug every day before he went out. But today he didn’t. I didn’t even wake up before he left! I woke up when the sun kissed my face. When I realised it wasn’t Dad’s warm hand I freaked out! That was the first time in two years that the sun had come out. I ran into the kitchen and guess who I saw, Mum! No Dad, just Mum. 

The familiar aroma of pigeon stew and gunpowder wacks me in the face. The bubbling boil of the stew blocks out the sound of the echoing explosions. Mum turns around holding a ladle, “Ellie come try my stew.” The warm broth bubbles in my mouth, the tender meat falls to pieces like sand at the beach, and the crunch of the carrots remind me of the joy when I played in the snow at Christmas time. I swallow, thinking of how lucky I am to have a magician of a mother that can turn dark times into magic. “Why is there salt in this mum?” I ask. Her see green eyes twinkled meeting mine as she slowly looked out the window. A smile covers her rosy red cheeks.” I just thought it would be a good day.” Mum pours me a bowl of pigeon stew as I sit down and look out at the snow falling.

The crunch of the footsteps in the snow wakes me up from my daydream. I breathe onto the window and wipe it with my sleeve, crossing my fingers it’s not a Nazi solder trying to invade us. No it’s a person in black -black hoodie, black jumper, black pants and black shoes, lots of black. Wait.. Those are white shoes. Not just from the snow. They are white! Those are my Dad's shoes. “ Dad’s home!” I shout. But before I could run to the door, I saw him take something green out of his jumper. It must be food! “Dad's found food!” I scream. I hear the door creak open. “Look what I found!” Yells Dad. He rips a green pot with a four leaf clover on the side out of his coat. The thing as bright as the sun, beams and I can’t look at it for more than a few seconds. “Dad, what is that?” I ask in anticipation… “It's a pot of gold!” Yells mum. I see her staring at it hypnotised. I look too with disbelief. Pots of gold are only from fairytales… Aren't they?

Mum pours dad a bowl of stew, trying to calm him down. Though she is still bouncing around the house. “Dad isn’t a pot of gold only from fairytales?” I ask, still looking at it very confused. “How, how did you find it?” questions mum hesitantly. Dad sits in silence and fidgets in his chair as if he is trying to find the right words. “Well, I slept on the couch last night because your mum was snoring in my ear. I woke up earlier than normal with my stomach in knots. I needed to eat something. All I found in the pantry was some dry bread that I ate in small pieces. I decided to go out and look for food. I went to wake you up, but you were both looking so happy, so I let you sleep.” Dad explained with a smirk on his face. “I was walking in the snow when it started to rain. I was cold and exhausted so I started to walk back home when I felt a glow come from behind me. At first I thought, I’m dead, they found me, so I turned around ready to be shot. Instead I saw this rainbow. It was beautiful. It had every colour you could ever think of. It’s magical glimmer had control of my legs. I followed trying to find the end of it. OWWWW!” Dad bellowes. “Dad, are you ok!?” I shriek “Ohh, Allie.” Dad taps his knee, I hop on and he continues his story. “I hit something, something hard. I looked down and that’s when I saw it. The best part of the rainbow, a pot, overflowing with gold.” Dad took a deep breath like it was happening right now. “It was glorious and only a few metres away. I grabbed it and tucked it under my coat. Walked slowly, carefully and cautiously back to show you both.” Dad’s face was a lightbulb, mum was crying with a smile on her face. “ What are we going to do with it? “ I ask. Dad and Mum talked for a few minutes, they looked at me and said they would buy lots of food and donate the rest of the gold to the army to make the war stop. 

“Enjoy!” Mum exclaims, my fifteen cousins and I bury ourselves in mashed potato and gravy, juicy roast and bucket loads of pudding. “You know what this reminds me of?” I say, “The pigeon stew mum made us in the war.” It’s been a year since then and life is great. We went back to school. We got to play outside and I got to see all my friends. The thing I like most though is that we still keep the pot with one gold coin in it!

Even in the darkest times, light can shine where you least expect it. 

Storyteller: Matilda

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