Ibadat Sohal, age 10, Co. Derry/Londonderry
Inspired by Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
I’ve been walking for miles...
I don’t know where I am. I miss the soldiers, and the little girl. This place is very hot, but where I come from is so cold. I’ve seen the way people live here. They live so poorly whereas where I come from is so busy and people live so richly. I’ve managed to find food in bins, and water from dirty puddles. I’ve just managed to survive!
I’ve seen things humans call bombs. They explode, and if people are too close they could get badly hurt or could even die!
Us dogs get treated really badly around here. Humans throw stones at us if we get too close to them. They call us rodents. Now I understand why there are not many dogs around here.
I’ve came across an odd looking cave. I’m wondering if I should go inside or not. Well I heard people often enough, saying “If you only have one shot it’s better to take that shot.” I only had one shot right? So I went on in. I saw a middle aged woman, an old man and a young boy. The young boy saw me first. They gave me fresh food and water. The woman was called Margaret, the old man was called Albert and the young boy was called Jasper.
They also told me they were leaving soon to go to back to France. That is where they came from, but due to the Germans taking over France, they emigrated like many others. Jasper’s mum said I was going to have to stay behind with Albert. Albert was too weak to travel, and they didn’t have enough money to take me along with them on a big ship. But then Jasper stepped in and said, “Mum I have loads of savings of pennies and pounds found all over the ground, at least fifty odd pounds.”
When Jasper’s mum agreed, I was so happy that I jumped up and down on both of them. But sadly, poor old frail Albert had to stay behind.
We were waiting in line Margaret, Jasper and I. Then Jasper saw a big ship coming to the harbour. Everyone jostled to the front to get on this big ship. We got on board, our cabin number was 279. We saw rich people getting on board, with their fancy pet poodles. I snapped at one of them, not because I’m a bad dog, simply because he got too close to Jasper. When we found our cabin, Margaret realised we were not getting a fancy cabin with a bed or anything like that. Instead we got a cabin that didn’t smell too good, and instead of a bed we got a single mattress. And that was it, our journey had started.
Jasper had gotten seasick from being out on this ship for at least fourteen days now. He was throwing up and sometimes turned green! At least the captain was nice enough to phone the cabin doctor, and the doctor, Mr Magginton, gave Jasper some medicine.
Jasper slept a lot because he was sick. And I tried to comfort him as much as I could. I would sleep beside him, lick his hand and sometimes even try to steal a bit of his dinner to make him laugh. But as hard as tried to get Jasper better, nothing would work. Doctor said it was natural for him to feel like this, as a lot of people get sick.
Thirty two days had passed. Just one more night and we would be in France! Margaret was scared I think mostly because of Jasper. He had got better, that is a positive.
***
We are here! “Land Ahoy!” the captain yelled. Jasper was better. It’s like overnight he just got better.
I could already taste the baguettes. Jasper had told me they were a type of bread, common in France. It doesn’t matter, we were here that was all that mattered. I hope I can eat baguettes, they do sound very nice.
I had made the right decision to go into that cave after all.
