A Visit from Antarctica

I wrote this story when I was eight and entered it into a competition. The first paragraph was set by the judges. I was one of the winners and got book tokens from the sponsor, The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, London, UK. 



“All right, all right, I'm coming!” shouted Tim as the knocking grew louder. He hurried down the stairs pulling on his tartan dressing gown, tore open the door and peered out into the winter garden, barely visible in the cold dawn light. There was nobody there.

Tim closed the door and thought, “ Could it be a ghost or an animal or who could it be?”

Then, Tim heard the knock on the door again. This time, as he opened the door he said, “Who are you?”

Tim heard a small weak voice coming from below him. It was saying that it was cold and lost. Tim looked down and saw a tiny baby penguin. He felt sorry for it so he picked it up and said, “Don't worry.” They went into the house and Tim splashed some warm water on the baby penguin and rubbed it dry with a hand towel. The penguin felt much better.

Tim told the baby penguin that his name was “Tim” asked what its name was. It told him that its name was Oshia. That night, Oshia the baby penguin slept in an empty tissue box with a hankerchief on top of him as a blanket. It was hard for Tim to go to sleep because he was so excited about his new friend but because he kept thinking and thinking about Oshia his head got tired and he fell asleep.

In the morning Tim was so excited and he ran to the tissue box to see whether Oshia was awake. Tim saw Oshia dancing about with excitement. Oshia said that he was so happy to have a new friend. Tim interrupted Oshia's dancing and said, “Come downstairs and have some toast with anchovies.”

“I only want anchovies, not toast,” said Oshia.

“Okay,” said Tim. “Would you like yours raw or would you like to try it fried?”

“I would prefer it raw because I am used to that,” said Oshia.

“I'll have it raw too,” said Tim. “I forgot you only had raw anchovies in Antartica.”

After they had breakfast, Tim and Oshia went to the forest. Tim was so impressed when Oshia jumped from tree to tree. Tim asked Oshia how he learnt to jump such long distances. Oshia told Tim that his uncle was a rockhopper penguin and his uncle taught him how to jump.

“But there are no trees in Antartica,” said Tim. “Where do you jump over there?'

“From iceberg to iceberg, of course,” said Oshia.

Later on that day, Tim and Oshia went home and had fish and chips. Oshia found out that he actually liked chips and mayonnaise, but he hated tomato sauce because it was sour, especially Heinz's. Soon it was bed time. Tim was tired, but Oshia was even more tired because he had been jumping from tree to tree. Oshia fell asleep straight away but Tim kept thinking about what had happened and kept wondering what would happen tomorrow. Soon fell asleep. Tim dreamt he was dancing to the song of penguins with Oshia.

The next morning Oshia woke up first and decided to surprise Tim with breakfast. Luckily he remembered where everything was kept, so he went downstairs and made breakfast. When Tim woke up he heard a lot of noise from the kitchen. He was really worried. He raced down the stairs to see what Oshia was doing. When Tim saw what Oshia did he was very happy and thanked Oshia. He had not had anybody prepare breakfast for him in ten years. They had a lovely breakfast. together.

Tim quickly showered and got dressed before going to the forest with Oshia. At first Oshia jumped from tree to tree, but suddenly Oshia stopped jumping and started chatting to a blackbird. Soon Oshia and the blackbird started to play. They played for so long that Tim thought that Oshia had forgotten about him. Tim felt a little sad. But after Oshia had finished playing, he ran over to Tim and told him that he had made a new friend. The blackbird's name was Blobby, and every day after that, Oshia and Tim went to the forest to play with Blobby. Sometimes Blobby went home with them and taught them to sing and and to make lots of bird sounds.

Then one day Tim had his dream again. It was the same dream. He was dancing to the song of penguins. He decided that he would travel to Antarctica. Oshia loved the idea. Tim packed his things and took Oshia and Blobby along.

The penguins were happy to see Oshia again. Every night, the penguins stood in a circle to sing and dance. Tim and Blobby joined them. In the mornings they all dived in between icebergs to fish for their lunch. Tim got used to the ice and the cold, but after one month he wanted to go home and he told Oshia and Blobby this. Blobby decided to stay on in Antartica. He liked being the only blackbird in the penguin colony.

Tim and Oshia visited each other many times. When they were at Tim's house, they carried on going to the forest every day to play and for Oshia to jump from tree to tree. One day Tim told a joke. Oshia laughed and laughed because he had never heard a joke before.

“I love you, Oshia you are my best friend,” said Tim.

“I love you too,” said Oshia.