By Natalia Babic Age: 11
Ealing NumberWorks’nWords
Fort Mamula

Wind brushing through my hair, water splashing on my face, I, Natalia, was on a speedboat with my family. My mum, my brother, my dad and I were leaning out to sea, our clothes flapping about in the wind. Suddenly we were heading towards a jagged rock in the middle of the sea. Dad couldn’t turn the wheel… It was locked! Our eyes all met. Then “CRASH!”

My eyes flickered open like a faulty light bulb. I could hear the ocean pushing and pulling in the distance. I opened my eyes. An array of fuchsia pink flowers surrounded me. As my pupils started to get used to the colour and brightness of it all I felt a strange feeling on my leg, fluffy and soft. I looked down and saw a small black figure. Then it started to become more vivid. A small jet black rabbit was leaning on my foot. I looked around. More black rabbits, eleven or twelve more. All of a sudden my attention was drawn somewhere else. There was a pair of huge doors with locks and bolts all down the wood. Above them, a name:
FORT MAMULA
I wandered around. I loved rabbits and was so distracted by them I didn’t realise for a while I was in front of a round, stone fortress. I wandered through its oppressive doors. There were weeds twirling and twining around the flat acacia trees that arched over me. I pushed away the leaves and branches and found an isolated area in the middle of the fortress. I headed for the centre and then… Creek… BANG! The doors were shut, locked and bolted down.
“No one lives here,” I murmured to myself as I started to go through all the possibilities in my mind of this being logically explained. There were no logical explanations. None. My heart started to race now. Where were the others? I could hear myself breathing rapidly. I shook my head violently. I swallowed sharply. It felt like I had swallowed a tooth pick. I noticed some straps attached to the wall and had a strange feeling that they were used to strap people upside down. I shuddered. It was only then did I realise I was inside a torture chamber!

The chains jangled around me sounding like out of tune wind chimes. It was clear someone was there. I instantly ran to the edge of a wall making sure no one was behind me. Then I stuck my head round the corner…
“Ahh!” My scream was cut short by a wet salty hand which had covered my mouth. I felt a sharp pain in my neck and started to go all hazy. I was on the ground. I couldn’t feel my legs and arms. I couldn’t move!
‘This is weird,’ I thought to myself, still a bit light headed. I felt a cold hand running down my arm. Then a hot velvety feeling came around my eyes and I was wide awake.

“Hello, my name is Marcus” said a soft voice from beside me.

I turned to look at him. He had a kind old face with pale blue eyes. I looked behind him to see if anyone else was with him. I didn’t need to. He was see-through! A ghost! I tried to escape from him but he pulled me back again.

“You are lost. I know that your family are alive on the next island. I will help you find them,” Marcus explained.

I instantly relaxed. He led me to an old wooden, handmade boat which he said he had used whilst trying to escape. But ‘they’ kept bringing him back and he had died there. His suffering was clear. The boat’s decks were battered and the oars were rotting away.

“We need to fix it!” I said.

He nodded. It would take about two days so I’d have to stay for a bit longer then I wished.

In the morning we started on the boat. Hour after hour we hammered nails in and covered the rotten bits up with palm leaves. We painted the deck with clay and water in a tone of brown. It was also useful for holding the boat together. Finally, we were finished and the boat looked good enough to sail! I tested it on the crystal clear water and held the boat with one hand. It floated! Marcus looked at me with his clear blue eyes. I had a feeling he had bonded with me as I had with him. I looked out to sea at the sun going down. I couldn’t sail in the night, it would be too dangerous. I decided to set sail the next day. In the morning I felt anxious. I looked at Marcus sleeping and sobbed. I hugged him gently so that he didn’t wake up and turned away bravely. Finding a chalky pebble and I wrote on a large flat rock:

Dear Marcus my loyal friend,
I have really enjoyed my stay with you and you looked after me well. I hope you don’t mind that I have taken half your supply of food so I can stay alive on my journey back to my parents. I have left you sleeping so it wouldn’t be too hard to leave. I hope you understand. You have been a very good friend to me Marcus and I appreciate your helpfulness. I wish that we could meet again but sadly I doubt it. But you never know, I may have another boat crash again.

Yours thankfully,
Natalia.

I looked over the sea, pushed the boat off the shore, jumped in and set sail. I stared back at the fort and kept having an image in my mind of Marcus sobbing all over the message on the rock. I pushed the thought out of my mind and rowed frantically. What was Marcus trying to escape from? I guess I’ll never know…

The End

Kimberley Morlese Age: 10
Ealing NumberWorks’nWords
The Kidnapper

It was a cool, crystal clear night as Daniel and Finn pretended to sleep. They could hear the hooting of a nearby owl. A holiday is something that you are supposed to enjoy, however they hadn’t done a single thing that was fun. They vowed that they would have some fun that night. What they didn’t know was that this vow would lead them into danger.
A few minutes later they were stood outside their terraced house. They synchronised a deep breath and paced towards the forest.

The murky mud seeped into their wellington boots and the swaying trees blocked their vision. Annoying ants were climbing into the trees and the irritating flies went “Buzz” as though they were bees. They were as noisy as bees so they could have been bees.
All of a sudden, from behind him, a man on a motor bike snatched Finn and drove off with him.
“Daniel, Help me! I’m being kidnapped!” Finn screamed.
“I’m coming! I promise!” Daniel replied, not wanting to give up.

With a new power to his legs, Daniel bolted towards the van. The murky mud was not hindering him any more. Trees swayed from side to side and Daniel felt his strides getting longer and more frantic. With each glide he got nearer and nearer towards the vehicle. Soon the world didn’t matter, his only brother needed his help and Daniel would give it to him. Soon Finn was in arms reach, however the bike violently swerved and Daniel was left by himself. Finn, and all hope, had gone.

Daniel felt completely and utterly alone. His hugest companion had been taken away from him and left him without any hope. He felt his heart beating through his ears and just wanted the ground to open and swallow him up. Soon he was too tired to be conscious and fell asleep.

The next morning, he woke up in his bed with amnesia. He was right next to Finn and seemed to be holding someone’s hand. When he looked up he saw that it was his girlfriend Ella. She kissed him on the lips and said “You’ll be fine babe, I promise.”

The End

Ruby Ardizzone Age: 10.
Ealing NumberWorks’nWords
Lizzie Wonders

Lizzie Mayson always wonders why people don’t like her. Lizzie spends hours with her head in her hands thinking “Why, why doesn’t anyone like me?” She thinks it’s because she smells, but really that’s nonsense – all she smells of is perfume. Maybe it’s because she never has the courage to make decisions for herself (she’s certainly old enough).
The next day at school Lizzie stayed away from all the other children and minded her own business but at play time a boy called Malcolm pushed her over and she fell on her knees. Lizzie thought “What did I do wrong?”
That night Lizzie crept down stairs and grabbed the telephone and the phone book to see if she could get in touch with an agony aunt. She started writing to a helper called Stevie.
Lizzie’s letter to Stevie:
“Dear Stevie,
I don’t know how to make any friends at school and everyone is terribly mean to me. I need some serious advice.
Please, please, please can you tell me the best ways to make friends?
Yours,
Lizzie.”
Stevie’s reply:
“Dear Lizzie,
I can see what trouble you are going through, I feel very sorry for you. Here’s some advice…
When people are mean to you just say what it feels like inside and how they would like it if someone treated them like that. When someone physically hurts you tell the teacher and they’ll sort them out. Also use your wits; walk away, ignore them, tell the teacher, or stand up for yourself.
Hope my advice works.
Yours,
Stevie.”

The next day at school Lizzie did just what Stevie had advised and it actually worked. She made lots of new friends and more people liked her… but of course you can’t get everybody to like you.

The End