Young Storykeeper Volume III

280 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME III AGE TWELVE | 281
Katie Chambers
Co Kilkenny
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER
There was once a man who lived on his own in a dull old gloomy lighthouse. He was very
lonely and hated his life. He found his life horribly boring. He did the same thing every day.
His job was to shine a light out to sea so boats wouldn’t crash into the land. His
lighthouse was very rundown. The windows were broken and the lighthouse was filthy.
Located beside the lighthouse was a hut. The lighthouse keeper slept there. The cliff where
the lighthouse was on was connected to another cliff by a bridge. On the other cliff was a
little town. The people who lived there were not friendly. Any time the lighthouse keeper
went across the bridge to buy his groceries, the teenagers on the cliff would tease him and
pick on him.
The lighthouse keeper was old and hated everyone on the cliff. He had no friends and
trusted nobody. One day he got up, ready to start his day, when he heard somebody knock
on the door. He looked through his tattered curtains and saw a boy around eleven years
old at his door. He decided to ignore him thinking the boy would go away, but no, the boy
stayed.
Eventually the lighthouse keeper answered the door and rudely asked, “What do you
want?”
The boy just stood there shaking with fear. Trembling, the boy quietly said, “I just want
to see the lighthouse.”
The man replied, “Well, I don’t want troublemakers like you in my lighthouse. Go away.”
The boy ran away crying. The next day the man was fixing the lights in the lighthouse
when he saw the same boy being beaten up by the teenagers on the other cliff. The man
quickly ran across the bridge and told the teenagers to leave the boy alone. They didn’t
listen to him but then the man shouted “Scram!”and they backed away.
The boy was shivering, and his nose was bleeding. The lighthouse keeper took the
boy inside his hut and give him some tea. The man said, “I am very sorry for treating you
badly yesterday. I have not had very good experiences with people and find it hard to talk to
people. I have been treated badly in the past.”
They talked for a while and then the man said, “You’d better be going to your parents
as they will be waiting for you.”
The boy said that his parents had died and he lived on the street. “You can stay in my
hut,” said the lighthouse keeper.
“That would be great,” said the boy.
HOLIDAY TIME AT HOOK
One sunny morning, Gearóid, his sister Eilís, and their cousins Edel and Peadar decided
to visit Hook Lighthouse to celebrate the start of the holidays. They were staying in their
grandparents’ old cottage nearby. Everyone was really looking forward to seeing Hook, it
was always a great day out!
When they arrived, they got their tickets for the tour of the old lighthouse. Once they
were inside, the tour began. While the others were listening to the tour guide, Gearóid saw
a dark deserted passageway and he decided to wander down it.
But no sooner had he started, when he heard the tour guide call him, in a rather
grumpy voice.
In fact, the tour guide got very, very cross, turning the colour of a tomato with rage.
Gearóid apologised and stayed with the group for the rest of the tour.
“Did you see the tour guide’s face?” said Eilís, the moment the tour ended. The four
friends chatted about why the tour guide had become so worked up and they decided there
was only one thing to do – to come back later that night to investigate the passage for
themselves!
When darkness had fallen, the foursome made their way back to the lighthouse.
To their amazement, the children saw two men going into the lighthouse, a torch lighting
their way. “There is something strange going on here,” Gearóid whispered excitedly. When
the coast was clear, the four friends crept inside the lighthouse. As they were heading down
the dark passage, they heard voices coming, they dived into a dusty old room.
To their amazement, they saw stacks of money hidden in the room, gold too! “Oh my
goodness!” exclaimed Edel. Peadar whispered that they should get back to the cottage and
ring the Gardaí.
So, carefully, the children tiptoed out and ran home.
Twenty minutes later, after they repeated their story to their disbelieving parents and
grandparents, and then to the Gardaí, the children heard the sound of a car coming down
the road. Unfortunately, the two suspicious men heard the car as well. Carrying heavy bags,
full of the stolen money and gold, the men were trying desperately to get to their getaway
car.
In their rush, they didn’t see a jagged rock on the roadside. The first man stumbled and
the second man fell over him. The Gardaí swopped in to get them. The men were caught
and, along with their stolen goods, were brought to the local Garda station. The Gardaí
thanked the children for their help.
Bright and early the next morning, the local sergeant knocked on the front door of the
cottage. He had explained that he and his team had been searching for these smugglers
for a long time.
It seemed that they had been storing their smuggled goods in the old lighthouse and
the grumpy tour guide was part of the gang. The children were proud of themselves. What
a start to their holiday!
Seán Moran
Co Wexford