Young Storykeeper Volume III

192 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME III AGE ELEVEN | 193
AGE ELEVEN
THE REAL LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER
I was on the boat, on my way to the lighthouse, where I would
be staying until the war was over. It was on a small island off
the coast of Southampton, in England. I would be staying with
the lighthouse keeper. He was not married, had no children and
was not very friendly. I would attend the local school, with some
children from my school back home.
I had only been there a week when I woke up one night to
the wind howling and my room as cold as ice. I got up to see if
a window had been left open. I opened my bedroom door to find
that the lighthouse was empty.
I ran to the living room to check if anyone was there but it
was as empty as the corridors.
I could hear a noise from the basement. I thought it might
have been the dog, a friendly fella called Challa. I was also
scared that it might be a ghost hiding down there. So I grabbed
a butter knife to defend myself. I tiptoed down the stairs to the
basement and opened the door very slowly, looked inside. To my
surprise, sitting there tied to a chair with tape covering his mouth
was the lighthouse keeper. He told me the person who had been
taking care of me the past week was not the real keeper but
an imposter. He was an illegal drug seller and was getting a big
shipment that night. We had to stop him.
I didn’t know what to say and just wanted to pretend it
never happened. I was absolutely terrified. I untied the
keeper and he said they would be at the harbour and that
the shipment was due at 2am. I looked at my watch and
it was 1.32am. We only had twenty-eight minutes!
He told me the man was known as Red Ninja
and that nobody knew his real name. He was part
of an illegal group known as The Ninjas. I had never
heard of them before.
He instructed me to grab both our jackets. I
ran to my room for my jacket and saw the tin my
dad had given me before he went to fight
in the war. Then I remembered what
was safely inside it: a pocketknife
and a lighter.
We ran outside and jumped
into the boat. It was tied to the
post but I used my pocketknife to
cut us loose. Once we reached the dock, I
ran straight to the phonebox and called the
police. They arrived within fifteen minutes.
In that time, Blaine, the real lighthouse
keeper, had tackled the Red Ninja to the
ground and tied him up. We then set the
drugs on fire with my lighter, so that nobody
would ever have them.
The police arrived and arrested him.
They told us we did a very good job and that
Red Ninja would spend a long time in prison.
Keelagh Young
Co Wicklow
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Once upon a time, there was a girl
named Ella. She lived with her dad in a
lighthouse. One night she was wandering
around the lighthouse, when suddenly
she spotted a seal. He had landed on the
rocks and had got his flippers caught! Ella
called her dad for help. Her dad came
running down and they pulled and pulled
and pulled, until eventually the seal was
free.
The seal began to swim away, when
suddenly, they heard a BAM! The light of
the lighthouse turned off! Ella’s dad ran
upstairs to see what was going on.
“Dad!” Ella cried. “The seal is
swimming away and he can’t see! He’s
about to crash into a pile of rocks!”
She kept shouting, hoping her
dad would hear her, then suddenly she
stopped shouting. She saw a crowd of
people walking up to the lighthouse. She
stood there quietly, as she had no words.
Finally, she got her dad’s attention, and
he could not believe his eyes.
He was unable to lift the lightbulb
all by himself, it was way too heavy.
However, as soon as all the people got to
the lighthouse, they helped him to lift the
bulb and he replaced the old one.
The light clicked back on. “Yay!”
yelled everyone. The seal quickly turned
and swam back to the lighthouse. From
then on, Ella would feed the seal every
night and they became great friends. She
named him Flash.
Nicole Peterson
Co Wicklow