Nov
30
here it is. its a narrative, for school. its not finished. please give me your opinion. and what should happen next?
Lightening crashed loudly, in the dark night outside, and I shivered under my thin, cold sheet. I held my breath as our old, purple caravan, rocked around, sending our stack of weekly fresh eggs, off the shelf, and onto the floor.
On the top bunk, above me, I could feel my older brother, Jay, tossing and turning, and on my right, I could see that my sister Ava, obviously wasn’t very comfortable on her fold-out foam mattress.
I sighed loudly. For 13 years I had been living like this.
Circus performing, travelling, home-schooling, and never doing anything other than these three things.
Ava, Jay and I, me being the youngest, were taught trapeze as soon as we could walk. We have lived in the same caravan, our whole lives, and have been travelling with the Galliano circus, for as long as we can remember. Sure, it’s been great, we’ve been to many more places, than your average teenager and we’ve had heaps of great experiences. But recently, things have been beginning to change.
Ava, now sixteen years old, is sick of dancing, and wants to stop performing, and the circus manager, Digby, is now considering dropping Mum and Dad’s act, for a younger, new couple from Russia who are more experienced.
We know that it’s coming, any day now, our lives are going to change, and we’ll be forced to step out of our usual routines and leave the circus.
At the moment, I’m praying that it’s going to be soon.
One cheap, rusty caravan can only handle so many storms.
Well, it happened.
One week ago.
Henry came over to our caravan, with a large white envelope. He sat down, and explained to us, that our time at Galliano’s was finished. The cast would miss us terribly, and that our family was a huge loss to them…. Blah blah blah.
He gave Dad our final pay package, and then told us that when the circus moved on to Cornwall, in the next few days, that we could quietly depart.
I think Mum was a bit devastated really, since we don’t have any place to go.
‘What are we going to do Jerry?’ she sobbed
‘Don’t worry, love’ he said kindly. ‘Everything will sort itself out’
Ava jumped for joy, and even Jay started dancing, until he crashed into the ironing board, and Mum scowled at him.
‘Mum! It doesn’t matter any more! We’re going to go to a normal school and we’re going to have a normal house! With furniture that doesn’t fold out!’ I shouted loudly.
Over the next couple of days, we packed up our belongings. I didn’t have much. Just a small brown, box with a few books, some clothes, and some stringy home-made jewellery. The others didn’t have much either. Dad had the most, because he collects heaps of junk that he can’t bear to throw out.
We also performed in our last show, which was a bit sad, but also happy at the same time. I took a deep breath as I walked onto the sparkly stage and displayed my tricks for the very last time. We weren’t going to join another circus. We’d had our day. It was time to start a-fresh.
I leaned back into the plush, reclining chair of the aeroplane and looked around.
Dad was gazing out of the window, admiring the views, while Ava was shutting her curtain window because she felt sick looking down. Good old Mum, was stashing away some free biscuits in her handbag for later and well, I’m not quite sure what Jay was doing. Sleeping, maybe.
Dad had decided that we needed a short holiday before we moved back into town and began high school. We were all delighted at this idea, and Mum had chosen the Caribbean as our destination. I was very appreciative.
In two hours we would be landing at the Aqua Turtle Resort. Pure luxury.
A pretty air hostess, with long dark hair and very long eyelashes, came up to me.
Her name tag read Louise.
‘Hey sweetie, would you like a grapefruit Spritzer?’ she said, gesturing to some tall glasses with a fizzy pink liquid in them.
‘Sure, thanks’ I replied. I removed the pretty umbrella from the side and took a gulp. Yum.
Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. The plane began to shake violently and I dropped my drink, smashing glass splinters into my ankle. I caught a glimpse of Ava’s pale face as she tipped sideways, I could hear people shrieking and crying. The shaking got worse, and I saw a flash of orange flames before my eyes. I heard a painful smash and then all was dark.
_____________________________________________________________________
My sleepy, swollen eyes, opened a tiny bit, and I was blinded by harsh, dazzling, sunlight. I breathed in, and nearly choked on the foreign, sweet tasting air.
Where was I? Surely, I hadn’t hit my head on the tightrope bar again? Ouch. Yes, my head definitely hurt.
I pulled myself up and looked around. Bodies. Everywhere. Mess, blood, bodies, debris, and dirt. A massive pit of it. I looked down at myself, my hands were both bruised and cut, and my right leg was resting on a funny angle
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