The Underneath by Ellie, 7-8 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

The Underneath by Ellie, 8

Jade woke her twin brother Michael.

          “Come with me,” she said.

          “No!” Michael replied. He knew right away where his sister wanted to go. “You know we are not allowed to go down to the underneath.”

          The Paste family lived in a floating house hundreds of meters above the surface of the Earth. Twenty-five years ago, the children’s mother, a scientist, and their father, a doctor, decided to leave the surface of the earth and move to their house in the sky. They left because they were tired of living in the pollution, and illness, and greed that nobody wanted to fix. Their parents always told them the underneath was a horrible, dangerous place where people could never smile. But Jade was curious. She wanted to see for herself what was actually down there.

          “I’m going with or without you,” Jade said.

          Michael knew she meant it so he followed her. Jade had a secret. She was very good with animals. She tamed an eaglet three years before and she was finally ready. She’d been waiting for this day for years, and now that she was eight she felt like she could finally take her backpack and go. She packed her bag with water bottles, blankets, and a bag of potato chips to share with Michael, maybe…

          “Michael, let me introduce you to STRIKA!” Jade said proudly. She whistled for the giant bald eagle with flashing eyes. The eagle looked ready for the ride down. Michael did not.

          The kids climbed on the magnificent eagle. Michael’s face was a purplish green.

          “This might be a bit bumpy,” Jade said, “but it should be perfectly safe…for me.”

          Michael wished he was still in bed.

          The bird swooped down. The wind in Jade’s ears sounded glorious. Strika caw cawed. Jade caw cawed. Michael screamed, “Watch out!”

          It was dark. He saw giant clouds of toxic fumes and he thought Strika would fall dead to the ground taking them with her. The bird swooped around tall smoke stacks. They saw ugly shopping malls. In the distance, the sky was turning a light orangey pink. Then they heard a moaning sound.

          “ZOMBIES!” the children yelled. They had heard stories from their parents about the people who turned into zombies after getting horrible diseases like the X plague.

          Strika was getting tired. She landed by a big building. The kids got off of her. The moaning was getting louder. Jade went inside curiously.

          “We are going to go see the zombie,” Jade said. “Get your weapons ready.”

          “What weapons?” Michael said.

          The kids walked inside toward the moaning and met an old man with white hair and white beard, tan skin, and fresh, glittery blue eyes. He was singing a song called Ladidahdidah. He didn’t sing very well.

          “You’re not a zombie,” Michael said.

          “Zombie! Of course, I’m not. I’m just old Mayor George Palycarry.”

          Jade was hungry. She took out her bag of potato chips.

          “Where did you guys get that?” George said. “Plastic bags are extinct now. They’ve gone the way of the Tasmanian Tiger. I haven’t seen one since I was twenty five years old. We only use nudie zips to hold food now. We can reuse those.”

          “We’re very sorry,” said Jade. “We have never been to the underneath.”

          “What do you mean the underneath?” asked George.

          “We were born in the sky,” Michael said. “Our parents gave up on the world. We’ve never been here before.”

          “Oh kids are so funny these days,” George said.

          “No, we’re actually saying the truth,” Michael said.

          “Well, let me show how the world is now,” George said.

          First, George took them towards his window. The toxic clouds were actually big, clean fluffy clouds. They looked over the city at the giant smokestacks. In the daylight, the smokestacks were scary looking. They hid behind George.

          “What is the matter?” George asked.

          “Sm…sm…smoke stacks!” said Jade. “So many toxic fumes!”

          George laughed. “We’ve converted the smoke stacks into beautiful vertical gardens. The only thing that comes out of them are seeds and oxygen. Let’s take a walk.”

          George and the children walked outside. They saw lots of really, really, really old people.

          “How are these people still living?” Michael asked.

          “We have regenerated our medicine into super medicine and now everybody is very healthy and they never get sick.”

          They walked towards the giant shopping mall. Michael and Jade thought they would see people fighting over tea pots and stuffed animals inside the shopping mall. When they walked inside, it was a giant library filled with beautiful illustrated books. Jade ran to get a book about baby octopuses.

          Michael asked, “What happened to all the stores?”

          George said, “People don’t want to buy things they don’t need anymore. We don’t even have money or banks anymore. We treat everybody fairly now, and people work just to help each other.”

          They walked through the library to a beautiful botanical garden. It was filled with people hugging trees and smelling flowers. Michael couldn’t resist the flowers. Jade whistled. Strika flew to her.   

          Jade said, “Let’s hop on and tell mom and dad they are wrong about the underneath.”

          “You can stop calling it the underneath,” George said. “You can call it fantasy land.”

          Michael wasn’t ready to leave. Jade pulled Michael’s hand. They got on to the eagle and flew home to their very worried mom and dad.

          “The underneath is wonderful,” Jade said.

          “It can’t be,” the parents said. “It was so awful when we left.”

          “People worked to change things. They concentrated on making out world better. We can finally have friends and be around other people,” Michael said.

          “It can be a new step in our life,” Jade said.

          “It’s not safe down there,” their parents said. “We have a beautiful home up here.”

          “We’re going down to live there, with or without you,” Michael said. “It’s time for us to all be brave.”

          The children left on Strika again. Two days later, their parents finally joined them. The kids showed their parents around and introduced them to George.

          “Hi, my name is Amber, and this is my husband, Clark,” said their mother.

          “Can we stay here forever?” asked Michael and Jade.

          “We have a lot to think about,” said their father.

          THE END for now

Above by Willem, 11-12 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

Above by Willem

I’ve been awake all night.

A sweet smell fills the room. I hear my sister groan. “Wow.  I say “Olive How can you sleep?” She emerges from the covers and pushes her dark hair from her face. “I love storms.and better still I smell breakfast” “Max, Olive. Time to get up,”Our mum’s voice rings out over the pounding rain. I shove my feet out of bed and land on the wooden floor. Suddenly the house tilts sharply. “Woah”I say “it’s going to be a rough day”. I steady myself on the bed. Olive grabs her bed head and we look at each other. “Ready?” She says. “You first”. I take a deep breath and launch myself off the bed and slide into the closest wall. The foam cushions my landing. Olive laughs. “Nice one” “See if you can do better”. I say. Olive slides on to the floor and wraps one arm round the bed leg.“Wait for it” I say.  A burst of hail drowns out my voice. The house suddenly tilts back horizontal and we both make a break for the bedroom door past all our furniture that has been clamped to the floor.

At the top of the stairs is a chair attached to a conveyor belt with a padded harness.

Olive straps herself in and presses an orange button. The chair descends with a jolt, mum’s voice calls out. “ Everything ok? These pancakes are getting cold.” Olive lands at the bottom and says. Better hurry up! She sends the chair back up. The house starts to sway wildly. I steady myself and make a leap for the chair. I pull the harness on and grip the soft arms as I descend.

The pancakes smell  so good. The house rights itself once more and I make it the kitchen.

I glide into the kitchen on my socks .Mom stands in front of our eating pod with a steaming plate of pancakes Olive is already zipped up inside the transparent sphere. Inside the pod is a leather booth with harnesses and plate and drink holders. I take the plate from mum and unzip the door. Olive is on her second serving!, I sit down and fill my mouth with blueberries and maple syrup. “Yum”  I say. “ Shhhh”  says mum outside the pod. “Listen,”she says. Her finger pointing to the ceiling. Everything was suddenly quiet and still. “It’s stopped raining,”  said Olive. Mum smiled. That was quite a storm.

A door flings open and a bearded man with a raincoat and a cable with a hook staggers in from the outside. “Dad!” We yell, I hurriedly unzip the pod and  run over to him. You almost missed breakfast!” Olive says. “Did you save me some?” He says wiping his brow. “Always” I say as I help him off with his jacket and hang the cable up by the door.

Dad stands in the kitchen scoffing a plate of pancakes and gives us the lowdown.

There’s been some damage but the forecast is looking clearer.

“I think we can still do the supply run together.” He says.

Mum peers out of the kitchen window.” I can see some blue sky, she says.

Dad finishes his last mouthful. “Ok you kids ready? Let’s call in the scouts. “

We grab out coats and go outside.

White clouds drift past us. You can now see the edge of the garden. Dad looks up and cups his hands around his mouth and lets out a high pitched “KRIIIIIIII!!!!”. A dark winged shape overshadows us. Then another and another. Then through the clouds three huge albatross glide in for a landing.

“ Here's our ride” dad says. The birds ruffle  their  feathers and sit obediently As we carefully climb onto their backs. Warm feathers enclose our legs and we wrap our arms around their necks. I smile and look at dad. He winks.

My albatross starts to run towards the edge. I bury my face into feathers afraid to look. Then with a surge I am lifted into the air.  I look across at Olive and dad as they soar up beside me. The wings of my scout stretch out and the wind rushes past. Down below I can now see a big fishing vessel emerge from the blue blanket of the ocean. The albatross pitch and slowly glide down towards the boat. A scruffy bearded man with a yellow raincoat  waves and walks out from the bridge with a basket of fish,lobsters,kelp and even a stingray! “

Our scouts shake their heads and tap their beaks  in unison. Dad dismounts and greets the fisherman.” Hello Sven” says dad. “Quite a storm we had” “Aye a feisty one” says Sven.  “How did you fair up there in the clouds”  he says “not too bad” says dad. We’ve made some improvements to the house”KRII!!, ! ” The albatross shove their heads in the basket and start fighting over the fish. “Hey get out of it!” dad says and takes out three fish and throws them to the birds. Sven puts a cane lid on the basket and clicks the straps to a large saddle which he attaches to dad’s scouts  back while it gobbles up the fish.

“ Now my friend”  says dad “ For your troubles” . He takes out a greenish blue crystal that glints in the sun and hands it to the man. Svens eyes light up. “Umbreon Lumonium”  he says. “What a beautiful specimen”

Next time I will get you three lobster.” Wonderful “

says dad.

“We should get back home to mum, Dad.”  Olive says climbing onto her scout.

Our birds stretch their wings and stamp on the bridge. “Goodbye my friends” says Sven.

The albatross takes a few clumsy steps and lifts off . Then using the wind currents they deliver us safely home. Mum is standing in the garden with the mower and waves. My scout glides in, extends its feet and slowly lands on the grass. There is a bit of a jolt when we land but other than that it is quite smooth.

“ How was your trip?” Mum asks “it’s beautiful down there,'' I say. Dad lifts the basket lid.

“A treat from Sven. I’ll cook. How about Mulligatawny?

“Let’s go check the clouds” says Olive.  The house is steady so we don't need the chairlift this time.

We reach the attic above the stairs and climb a ladder. I push up the trap door and we step out onto a beautiful green platform of flowers and plants. Next to the edge there is a picnic blanket and some cushions we flop down and stretch back and look up at the drifting clouds. The air is cool on our faces. We close our eyes.

“Dinner.” Dad bellows from below. We sit up. I look upon the horizon, below the sea glistens, above the pinkish,reddish sky and in the middle a shining orb slowly sinks and beams of light radiate upwards towards them. I smile “You know…”I say “this is the best part about living on a floating island…”

The End