Young Storykeeper Volume III

150 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME III AGE TEN | 151
THE BRAVEST LIGHTHOUSE
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Drip, drip, drip - the sound of
a leaking pipe in the oil tank
of a mighty ship gradually
approaching the west coast
of Ireland. It was quite the
same outside the boat as well.
Droplets began to fall down
from the darkening sky.
All of a sudden, the sea
gave a tremendous rumble,
like thunder on a stormy day.
And before you knew it, a
colossal wave crashed against
the side of the ship. Right then,
the boat was well over half way across the
perilous Atlantic Ocean. But a dangerous
storm broke out and they lost control of the
ship. They were being blown away towards
Greenland, closer and closer to danger.
Twenty miles off Greenland
were treacherous icebergs
and rocks looming about
amid the mist.
But on the mainland,
there was a lighthouse.
This was the boat’s only
way of surviving the rapid
traumatising waters. Kevin
the Lighthouse was owned by his dedicated
lightkeeper and best friend, Lenny the
Lightkeeper.
The ship was progressively getting
closer to the icebergs and Lenny and Kevin
didn’t have much time left to help the poor
ship.
“There is a horrible storm coming
tonight, Kevin!” said Lenny.
Kevin was usually scared of
the wind, rain, seagulls, snow,
mist and especially foghorns. And
he still was tonight. “I’m scared,”
cried Kevin. “I hate storms, like
this miserable one.”
Lenny went to bed for a
rest. After a few hours’ rest, the
wind had really started to blow. Horn noises
coming from far out woke Kevin with a jolt.
“LENNY, LENNY!” he wailed. Lenny
came outside like a bolt of lightning. “There
is a horrible horn coming from far out at the
rocks,” Kevin cried out.
“By Jove, you’re right,” said Lenny in
astonishment. “Whoever is sailing a ship up
this far north in the middle of a storm at night
must have a jolly good reason to, or maybe
they are just stark ravin’
mad!”
“Oh no, I’m absolutely
petrified,” cried Kevin.
“Well, don’t just stand
there, flash your light!”
exclaimed Lenny, “You’ve got
to be brave. There’s a ship
full of scared men out there,
and they are depending on
YOU. You were built to be a
sign of warning. Now it’s your
time to shine. To shine your light brightly!”
So Kevin stared out at the ship that
was sounding its horn louder than ever. He
narrowed his eyes to tiny slits and gritted his
teeth so hard that he thought that they might
fall out. He flashed his light. This stunned
the boat’s captain. Then Kevin blew his fog
horn so loudly that it took the
captain a little while to realise
that it was his chance to get
out of the awful rock scene.
The ship moved away,
the storm moved west
and the sun came back
out. Upon seeing this,
Lenny congratulated Kevin.
“You truly are the bravest
lighthouse, Kevin!”
Kevin smiled a huge smile from window
to window.
Matthew Nelson
Co Down
“Bye, Jane!” Jane’s friends called as she got on
her little boat.
“Bye Grandma!” called Jane. “I enjoyed
visiting you in Scotland, hope to see you soon!”
And off she went through the big blue Irish
Sea. Jane expected to be home in Ireland that
day because it wasn’t rough and the perfect
amount of wind was in her sail.
After about an hour, the sky grew grey
and it was harder to control the boat because
of the wind. The waves soon got bigger and
bigger. They got so big that Jane capsized her
boat and lost her food, water and compass.
She managed to pull herself on the boat again
and to her surprise, the boom swung around
and knocked her unconscious.
When Jane woke up, she saw the sea - it
was still rough and windy. She felt the rain on
her face. Jane looked down. She was on rocks
but she knew if she was on land someone
would have found her by now so she stood
up and turned around. She saw a huge red
and white lighthouse. Jane walked towards it
seeking shelter and hoping the door would be
unlocked. To her surprise, it was!
Jane opened the door slowly and looked
from side to side. The walls were painted white,
although the paint was flaking off and the white
was more cream now. Jane had to spend the
night there. She walked up the first flight of
stairs to an old mouldy kitchen with maybe four
glasses and about nine mugs, a working coffee
machine and a few kitchen utensils. On the
next floor there was a small single bed, with a
blue and white stripey duvet. Jane just needed
a bed and some food, so she decided to stop
there on that floor.
Jane found a pair of decent enough
pyjamas and she put them on after washing
them in the old washing machine. She then
went to find some food. Only one light was
working in the kitchen and the mini fridge
wasn’t cooling anything. But in one cupboard,
Jane found microwave soup!
“Mmmm, that’s exactly what I want,”
Jane thought. After dinner, she went to bed
wondering how on earth she would get home.
The next morning Jane woke up to a
cloudy, dull looking day. She got up and found
some old clothes folded away in an old wooden
wardrobe. She had a bowl of weird tasting
cornflakes and noticed they were in a box she
hadn’t seen in the shops before. It was the old
packaging that the company don’t use anymore!
After half an hour of slowly thinking of how
on earth she could see her family, her home and
her own clothes again, tears came to Jane’s
eyes thinking about it all. She walked outside,
still limping from the cut she got before, and sat
on the damp rocks. It started to drizzle. Soon
it became foggy and Jane looked out to the
distance to see if she could see anything. In the
distance she could hear a faint buzzing sound,
which was coming closer and closer until she
could see a black spot . This soon turned into
a rib boat. She leapt up and started waving her
hands frantically.
Eventually the rib came over to where she
was and there were two men inside. One of the
men handed her a life jacket and helped her
aboard.
“Thank you SO much,” Jane said. “How
did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t,” said the man. “The lighthouse
has just gone up for sale. This is the first
viewing.”
They were soon ashore and Jane got
home as soon as possible. She rang the
doorbell to her home and her mother opened
it, her face pale. She immediately hugged Jane
and bought her inside. As she told everyone the
whole story at dinner, she smiled because she
was so happy to be home.
The next day was sunny and Jane and her
family walked over to the dock and thanked the
men from the rib with a box of chocolates each
and a card. Soon Jane’s family had a party for
her, and everyone was invited!
Oriana Perez
Co Dublin