It was 7:00 pm on a cold wintry evening when my family and I were having dinner. I was having spaghetti with meatballs and I was video calling my friends. I had been playing with them online for quite some time, and they were asking me if I could continue. It would be bedtime soon, so I said no. after dinner I went to bed. I lied down on the soft sheets and started to dream.
The Flaming Orange light
It was the middle of the night and I was kind of half-awake. One of my eyes was closed and the other one was open. That is when my mother jumped out of our bed and rushed to my dad’s study. She was in such a state of agitation, I could literally hear her stomping. Now, I do have a slightly funny mother but I can swear that I had never seen her in such a frenzy ever before! So, I got up and as I looked at my window, I saw flaming orange light. I could smell something burning, so I also jumped out of my bed and hurried to my dad’s study. My mother started screaming ‘Get up!! There is a fire!!! Get up!!!’. My father hurriedly jumped out from his chair and grabbed his glasses.
The Panic
I was totally confused and I didn’t know what to feel. As if following my mother in a daze, I hurried down the stairs holding her hand. My father was walking down the stairs in slow motion, holding a jacket and was about to wear his mask. In a fit of passion, I got completely boiled over. Terrified that the fire would light up our house as well, I started panicking real bad. I shouted at my father ‘STOP WALKING!! COME ON!! I SAID STOP WALKING!! RUN OUTSIDE!! AREN’T YOU SCARED!?’ My mother and I were already standing outside.
It was Wild!
After coming out of the house, the three of us saw it. It was a car that was roaring with fire! We could hear booms and bams and even shouting! I was horrendously running, just running away from that car. It had scared me so much, I thought it would burst! But then, there was my dad again, instead of running away, he was running towards the car! And the next moment I noticed that he was standing only 5 inches away from the car. This got me and my mom really mad ‘DAD!! COME HERE, DAD!! MOVE AWAY FROM THE CAR!!’. You can say it was wild! With people moving about hysterically, it looked like animals screaming and running around everywhere!
A Sigh of Relief
A while later a police car and a fire truck came running. There were 2 police cars! I saw 3 men hopping out of the fire truck and pulling the water hose. At once, the firemen started extinguishing the fire. Trust me, it wasn’t that easy. It took at least 10 minutes for them to extinguish the fire completely, while I was standing, miles away from the car, shivering. I was outside for half an hour and finally the fire doused down completely. Then, one of the policemen told us that we could go back home. I was relieved, since I didn’t have to wait outside in the cold anymore. Heaving a sigh of relief, my parents and I walked back home.
I thought my sleep was gone for good. I thought I couldn’t sleep anymore! But very soon my mother massaged me back to sleep.
But, ever since that incident, I have always been alerted, every single night! Even in the middle of the night, I open one of my eyes to look for any weird noises or colours. And then, in the mornings, I sleep until 9:00 am, or even till 10, if I know it’s a holiday!
Writer : Akankhita Chaudhuri
Grade : 5 (Year 2021)
Place : Sydney, Australia
