LITERACY

Bayside Writing Competition Entries

We would like to congratulate all of Brighton’s ‘budding’ writers who submitted their work to various competitions this semester. It can be a pretty daunting task to put your work on show, but these students were up to such a task and demonstrated their ever-growing talents as young writers. We would like to make special mention of three students who were acknowledged by their respective competitions for their creativity and originality.

Kathleen Constanti, Bayside School Reconciliation Writing Awards

                Kathleen was a finalist in the Year 11-12 division of the competition. Her submission was deeply moving, conveying feelings of loss, struggle, and reconciliation through strong imagery.

Abi Geary, Queenscliffe Literary Festival Secondary School Writing Prize

                Abi was a runner-up in the literary festival. Her short story ‘Fire Brother’ was acknowledged for its creativity and originality. Abi was given the opportunity to attend the festival as well as a performance by Emilie Zoey Baker, a performance poet.

Lisa Jawalekar, Enterprise Academy at Mentone Girl’s Grammar Author Accelerator Program

                Lisa’s was offered one of few places at the Author Accelerator Program held at Mentone Girl’s Grammar over the first term holidays. Her story will be published alongside the other participants by the end of this term.

Melissa Antoniuk

LT – English/Literacy

Kathleen's submission

I didn’t think I’d ever say goodbye

To someone I want so badly in my life

So I am sorry,

How did I manage to lose someone so wonderful

I never planned to say goodbye

I didn’t know that I could get this low

I can’t see a world without you

And you can’t see one at all anymore

You are blinded

Your eyes can’t see the sense they used to

You are drowning me

You don’t even know it

You won’t take a life vest

So neither do I

You hadn’t noticed

Unaware

I jump

Into the water

With you

Because I love you

I will follow you through hell

But now there is no life vest

And you are happy to drown

But I am not

And I can’t leave you alone

Or you’ll sink

If I stay

I’m afraid I may sink with you

Alone

In this storm we’ve created

In this sea of silence

Of unspoken words

Moments felt too strongly

Memories resigned to oblivion

Imprints we left on each other

When you left

I thought it would all fade

Or fall apart

Or seize to exist

It didn’t,

It grew,

It changed

With you and I

And I look back at us

And see how we’ve changed

Together and apart

I realise

I’m still in love with the boy you were

But the man you are today has fallen apart

You have missing pieces

I have fallen in love with someone

Who no longer exists

I see you in photographs

And hold onto the moments they captured

Savouring the feeling I once felt with you

But you aren’t the same boy I knew

Somewhere along the road you got lost,

You shut me out

And I’ve been clawing my way back ever since

I’m learning to love you again

Your flaws and imperfections

Your crooked smile

And wandering mind

Beneath your suit and tie

I feel you

And I know I’m home again</

Fire Brother - Abi Geary

The water from the dam sloshed in my boots as I ran across the farm, away from the mess He had made, away from everything I had ever known and love. I ran, not knowing where to go. Just running.

I am Tina. Not Tina Stevenson, Tina john, just Tina. I have no family but my brother. They all left the first time he did it, but I didn’t. I couldn’t just leave him there, all alone and unable to fend for himself. I couldn’t be that cruel.

My brother crawled up to me, nothing but love on his face. At first, he kept asking where mummy was. I couldn’t just tell him mum had abandoned us. So I would tell him she was out with dad, or she was getting her nails done, or out doing the shopping. Eventually he stopped asking. Some days I would ask him if he remembered mum, and he would reply “who’s mum?”. I would cry in the loft when he said that, but he found me eventually, coaxing me out with smiles. He was so young, I couldn’t believe he could do that much damage. Just a boy could do that much. But I guess they always say you can do anything.

The fire raged around me, spitting at me, and the fire laughed when it hit. I gasped for air, the smoke choking me. I looked around for my family, but I couldn’t see anything through the haze. My brother was sitting in the centre of the commotion, cackling away at the top of his lung. My brother. The sweet, innocent three-year-old that he was. I woke up, sweating heavily. I had been dreaming again, about that night. The night that changed my life.

I don’t know how we stayed alive this long, after all, we are just two malnourished kids. I only eat the food I find in the remains of the kitchen and some veggies in the veggie garden. Turns out Nutella will last through a 1200-degree fire. Who knew?

We had been living off slightly plasticky Nutella on carrots for three weeks and we were nearly out. I was starting to wonder what we were going to live off once we ran out. He had had four episodes since the fire, but they were only small and he gave me plenty warning so I could get out into a grassy patch in time and put out the fire. I wondered if mum would ever come back, if they would ever forgive me, if I would survive long enough to see them. I kind of hoped I wouldn’t.

The wind whipped against my cheek. The cold air gave me goose bumps. If this was summer, I didn’t want to know how we would survive the winter. The cold had already set in, chilling me to the bone. I didn’t want to think how my brother was doing. He spent most of his time wandering through the ruins of our house with nothing but a t-shirt and shorts on. When he wasn’t doing that he was sitting in the barn. He was always angry now, not his old, happy self, it really hurt me to see him like this. One day he yelled out, “I wish I was dead”. It hurt to hear that. It hurt a lot.

I wondered if anybody had noticed we were gone. Probably not. I had one friend at school and my brother wasn’t at preschool yet. That struck me as odd. I mean, he was supposed to be going already. I started pre-school at 3. He was nearly 4. Did my parents know that he had this ability, or were they just cheap, leaving it to the last minute? I don’t know and somewhere, deep inside, I knew I didn’t want to know.

He had had another episode. After a year, there was another episode. He had been going so well. There was fire dancing from tree to tree, crackling away merrily. There were flames everywhere, engulfing all that I could see. It had happened again. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. It was happening again. The water from the dam sloshed in my boots as I ran across the farm, away from the mess He had made, away from everything I had ever known and love. I ran, not knowing where to go. Just running.

The branches cut into my arms as I ran, pebbles sliding out from under me, leaving me to stumble and trip my way through the forest. There were tree roots threating to catch you off guard if you weren’t looking. It had to have been an hour. A stich burned in my stomach and my legs ached with lactic acid build ups. The wind whipped at my hair, sending it flying into my eyes. The fire hadn’t caught up with me and it was just a dot of orange light in the far distance. I was so sad. It had happened again and I had taken off. I was so disappointed in myself. I was just a bad as my mother. I was worse. I had abandoned he when he needed me the most. When I needed him the most. A smoothness underfoot interrupted my thoughts. A road, I thought, as I looked down. It spanned for kilometres, stretching from one place to the next and all the places in in between. It was the start and the end of the earth. That was what it looked to my exhaustion addled brain.

I started running along the road, hoping that a car would come up and give me a left to the city to find my family. There was a sharp turn in the road about a k up the road and I ran toward that. As I turned the corner, I saw a blinding flash. I froze in the middle of the road, sirens blazing all around me. There was a terrible crack and then everything went black.