Young Storykeeper Volume III

238 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME III AGE ELEVEN | 239
LIGHTHOUSE LUCY
This is the story of how Lucy became known
as Lighthouse Lucy.
When Lucy was eight years old, her
mum had to suddenly leave to take care
of a sick aunt. Lucy’s dad and her older
brother Alex had gone on a sailing trip for
the month so there was no one at home
to mind Lucy. Grandad Tom said she could
come stay with him. He lived nearby in Fog
Head Lighthouse.
While Lucy was spending her two
weeks with grandad, he taught her all about
the history of the lighthouse and the local
area, how to read maps and to know which
way was north, east, south and west. He
told her to never do anything in fear. She
watched his every move because she was
so fascinated by the things he did in the
lighthouse.
It was two o’clock on the last day of her
holidays and Lucy went to wake her grandad
because he had slept in after a long night
at work. He told her to come back when
it started to get dark so he could turn on
the lighthouse lights. Otherwise there was
no way to warn passing ships away from
crashing into the rocks. So Lucy did just
that. At was seven-thirty in the evening she
went to her grandad.
“Grandad, it’s getting dark,” she said.
“You need to turn on the lighthouse lights.”
There was a slight pause.
“Lucy, I can’t get out of bed,” said her
grandad. “My legs won’t move.”
Lucy was in shock and she didn’t know
what to do.
“Lucy, you will have to turn on the lights
by yourself,” he said.
“But Grandad, I don’t know how,” she
replied in tears.
“Yes, you do. You always watched me
when I turned them on before. Remember
what I always told you?” grandad asked.
“Don’t do anything in fear,” Lucy said
with pride. “I can do this, Grandad.”
Lucy ran up the spiral staircase to the
top of the lighthouse. When she got to the
watch room, she realised she needed a key
for the door to get into the lantern room.
She knew her grandad kept it in a safe, but
what was the password? She tried the year
the lighthouse was made - and it worked!
She grabbed the key, unlocked the door and
turned on the light. Now all ships were safe.
Lucy then ran to the closest house
and asked them to call the doctor. After a
while the doctor came and checked on her
grandad. It turned out that he had hurt his
back and this had affected his legs. He soon
recovered.
The next day Lucy headed home with
grandad as her mum was back. Dad and
Alex had arrived home too.
“We followed the light that Grandad
said you turned on. That’s how we got home
safely last night,” Alex said with a big smile
on his face.
Everyone was glad to be home. They
were a family reunited.
Laura Merry
Co Dublin
RED FROM POOLBEG
I have seen many things in my time:
shipwrecks, rescues, storms and seagulls!
Lots of seagulls.
Before I get carried away, I should introduce
myself. I am Red from Poolbeg, the
lighthouse of the Great South Wall.
I’ve been standing here since 1768
and boy, are my legs tired! At first, I was
lighted by candle, in fact they think I am the
first lighthouse in the world to have been lit
in this way.
You may have seen me before; I am painted
bright red to show portside. My closest
friend, North Bull Lighthouse, is painted
green to show starboard. I help ships find
their way in and out of Dublin Bay.
It’s a busy job being a lighthouse and
I have seen a lot of rescues. I remember
when The James and Ann was run into by a
coal ship. It sank but thankfully all the crew
was rescued.
It’s been relatively quiet here recently,
but there has been one rescue I want to
tell you about. You see, there is a boy who
comes down here every day with his dog,
Bonzo. The boy must be about eight or nine
years old. He is not very tall. His dog, on
the other hand, is massive. He’s a chocolate
coloured Labrador retriever. These two love
to play together.
You see, the boy loves
animals. He looks out for animals
while he is walking, especially
birds. Lots of little birds nest on
the rocks beside me, terns I think
they are, and the boy loves to
watch them.
One day while he was
walking, the boy noticed a flock of
birds on the rocks. He just had to
see them up close. So he climbed
down on to the rocks trying to get
a closer look, thinking he would be
fine. But suddenly, he slipped on
some algae. He was immediately
thrown into the deep water.
The boy tried to swim but the
current kept pulling him out into the
sea, away from the rocks. The boy
tried to swim, but he was feeling
so tired and the water was so cold.
All of a sudden, something
leapt into the water. It was Bonzo!
Bonzo swam out to the boy and
with the last of his strength the
boy put his arms around the dogs’
neck. The waves were pushing
against them and the current was
pulling them out, but Bonzo swam
with all of his strength.
The waves kept pushing and
pushing and Bonzo kept swimming and
swimming, fighting to stay afloat. With one
last push, they made it to the rocks. The
dog leapt up onto a hard surface and started
licking the boy’s face. The boy spluttered,
coughed and sat up. When he sat up Bonzo
was standing over him barking happily. The
boy hugged Bonzo tightly.
I have seen many things in my time -
shipwrecks, rescues, storms and seagulls
but I have never seen friends like those two.
Tadhg Bradshaw
Co Dublin