The Runaway   

Edward Smith was forced to leave home but didn’t want to. He stood in silence and his heart was full of sorrow. He missed going out with his friends and missed everything. Because of the war he had to evacuate his country and leave, he only went with a few siblings and cousins. The oldest sibling, John, had to fight in the war because they were in desperate need of people to fight. Since he was the oldest and looked strong they took him. My relatives and I prayed day and night for him. I asked my mum “Do you still miss him?” but she didn’t answer, and just welled up.

Every morning I wake up and go to school. I have a very nice teacher who helps me with all my work and a nice sports teacher. When I go back home I have to do all the chores, and as the second oldest brother I try to look after my family and do all the work. In school I keep my head down as my mother told me to try to learn new things. In the night we have our meal and we go to sleep at 8 o’ clock. I have made a new friend called Jacob, we hang out everyday together.

Once I returned from school I went into my room to get changed and an unusual smell appeared out of nowhere, it smelled like cooked fish and it smelled awful! I told my mother if she could come up and see what it was she quickly grabbed my arm and said it was nothing. I was so confused as to why she did that but I didn’t care. Straight after that I heard a creak in my closet and a hand came out to go fetch a blanket. I screamed and my mother rushed up and said I was seeing things. 

The next morning I was wondering about what happened but she said don’t worry, maybe you are seeing things, I was eager to look inside the closet. I finally gained enough courage to do it, slowly I walked step by step to the closet, and as I was about to open it my mother called and said “dinner’s ready!”. I didn’t want to disappoint her and after dinner I went again but found nothing but a picture of me, my mother and John. I saw my mum go downstairs, so I crept to see what it was and saw John, my brother! I was happy but also very mad because she didn’t even tell me. I kicked the door open and said to my mother “Why did you hide it from me?” She said “I had no choice.”