Young Storykeeper Volume III

234 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME III AGE ELEVEN | 235
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER’S SECRET
“Mum, are we nearly there? I can’t believe
we’re finally going to Ireland for good.”
Cara looked over at her mum and
realised that she was asleep, so she gazed
out the plane window.
Cara and her mum and dad arrived in
Ballynasker at three in the morning. Cara
ran up to her room and even though there
was only a mattress she didn’t care, just
snuggled up and fell fast asleep.
The next day Cara and her mum went
down to their new Sea Shell Café on the
harbour. It still needed work, so Cara’s
cousin Anna came to help. They got a lot
done in the morning.
“Mum, can we go up to Granny and
Grandad now?” Her mum smiled. “Just be
home for dinner.”
The girls were up there for ages listening
to their grandad’s usual stories about his
lighthouse keeper days. “I think he’s happy
to have family back on the harbour again,”
whispered Anna.
Anna came back to Cara’s house and
they made a start decorating Cara’s room.
Cara put her speaker on and they sang at full
volume. Before they began hoovering, the
girls dragged the mattress out of the room.
Grandad had used the room for keeping all
his lighthouse supplies when he lived there.
Cara noticed that one of the floor boards
was sticking up. She went over and tried to
push it down. There was something wedged
under.
“What’s this?” she said as she pulled it
free. Anna paused the music and came over.
“It’s a map to the lighthouse.”
“No way,” said Anna. But when she
looked at it she got excited too.
“There seems to be a tunnel from here
to the lighthouse,” Cara squealed.
The two girls spent an hour hunting
around Cara’s house until they found a
hidden door under the stairs behind old
oilskins. After pulling it open, they crept
through the narrow door. Inside, they were
amazed to find two seats in what seemed to
be a giant cylinder that they could climb into.
No sooner were they in, when they zoomed
off. They were in the lighthouse in seconds.
The lighthouse hadn’t been lived in for years,
since their grandad had left. There were
loads of lovely paintings round the walls, of
the views from the lighthouse in all seasons.
“They’re signed by Grandad,” Cara
whispered.
The girls decided to bring back a few of
the best ones. Grandad had tears in his eyes
when he saw the pictures. He told them that
after a bad storm, the lighthouse had got too
dangerous and he’d had to leave everything
behind.
“But why didn’t you go back in the tube
to get them?” asked Anna
He chuckled, “That tube was the
lighthouse keepers’ secret. We all knew
about it but once we left the job we could
never use it again. It just didn’t work for us.
You girls must be something special to get it
going again.”
That was the beginning of the best
summer ever!
Niamh Connell
Co Dublin
THE GUIDING LIGHT OF THE
LIGHTHOUSE
It was a lovely night so my friend and I decided
to get in a boat and go fishing. She told me
about this lovely place out at sea where we
could go but I wasn’t sure because it was
really far away. In the end, she persuaded
me to go.
We sailed out really far and I began to
worry as I couldn’t see the harbour anymore.
I wanted to turn around, but my friend said,
“No, we can’t turn back now we’re nearly
there,” and that calmed me down. The sky
slowly got darker and the waves got higher.
Eventually my friend started to worry as she
couldn’t see the place anywhere.
She cried, “ I think we are lost.” At the
same time, we both shouted “HELP!!!!” but
nobody answered.
Suddenly I saw this flashing light in the
distance. I realised that it had to be some
marker on the land. So with my friend taking
one oar and me taking the other, we sailed
towards the flashing light. We found it difficult
to get there as one minute we could see the
light and the next minute it was gone.
What made it difficult was the high wind
and waves but we were determined to get
to the light. After what seemed like hours
of rowing we finally made it to the shore.
We almost forgot about the wind and waves
as our attention was drawn to this massive
white building that was towering from the
cliff above. In fact the light was not flashing.
It was so big and bright it was going around
in circles. We almost got dizzy looking at it.
By the time we realised where we were, the
waves had pushed our boat onto the rocks.
We quickly jumped out of our boat. We kept
watching the lighthouse shining above us.
Suddenly with the waves almost touching us
we caught sight of a metal ladder that was
rising up to the lighthouse. We started to
climb the ladder, wondering would we ever
get to the top. The ladder was rusty and old
and we didn’t know if we would make it to
the top. We kept encouraging each other by
saying, “Come on, we can do it.”
We reached the top of the ladder and
climbed onto the lighthouse. We looked
down on our boat, being broken up by the
waves. We walked around the lighthouse
and found an outdoor phone. We picked it
up and heard a voice saying, “Coast Guard,
what’s your emergency?” We explained what
had happened.
The person said they would send us
help and asked for our current location. We
told the voice we were okay and we could
be found under the big flashing light of the
lighthouse. We both felt safe. Thanks to the
lighthouse we were guided home by its lights
and lived to tell the tale to our family and
friends.
Again, thank you lighthouse, you saved
our lives!
Chloe Power
Co Tipperary
LIGHTHOUSE
Lighthouses are great
I think they control your fate
Guiding boats at night
Helping you see the light
They stand at the sea edge
Have become more cutting edge
Old as time
U8 can also climb
Staring at the sea
Every time you look at them you feel glee
Elliot Meagher
Co Dublin