The Chicken, the Aunt and the Lighthouse

The chicken, the aunt, and the lighthouse

Written by:

 Tristan Vasquez  Lucy Colahan  Jack Colahan  Hannah Zubair  Steffani Chang  Isabella Ong  Anika Lu  Calvin Walther  Sofie Smith

Illustrations by:  Lillian Tan

To the children who read this book, Always have faith and courage. You inspire us! Love always, from Team I Hate Sand

Published by Team I Hate Sand, Somerset College, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba, Queensland 4213 Sofia Smith, Calvin Walther, Jack Colahan, Steffani Chang, Isabella Ong, Hannah Zubair, Lillian Tan, Lucy Colahan, Anika Lu, Tristan Vasquez Copyright © 2020 Somerset College All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

The Lighthouse – Sofie Smith Ayden stood before the lighthouse, eclipsed by its shadow. The sky was grey, overcast. The ocean was grey, too, and the bay. He shifted anxiously, feeling out of place in his neon green Velcro Skechers and matching bandana. Casting a final glance over his shoulder towards his parents’ disappearing Holden ute, he sighed. Ayden had spent the entire drive complaining and pouting, and frankly he was exhausted. His parents were angry. According to his mother, he cared more about his double contrabass flute than her. According to his father, he spent more time in the band room than at home. And so, they confiscated his sheet music, told him to pack his bags and brought him here. To the edge of the civilised world. To stay with his antiquated Aunt Helga in her run-down old lighthouse. To study and self-reflect. Ayden raised his fist and knocked on the door. He winced; several splinters wedged in his skin. “AUUUUUNTIE!” he wailed, cradling his hand. The heavy door swung open. Ayden stared up at his Aunt Helga, who smiled heartily. She was a broad-shouldered woman with muscled arms and tanned skin, from a lifetime of hard work. Her face was square and freckled, with a scar traversing her cheek. She would always claim it was from a shark, but Ayden had his doubts. Aunt Helga held the door open and ushered him inside, chattering politely. Ayden shouldered his bag, looking pained. His double contrabass flute was especially cumbersome – he grasped it with both hands and limped inside. The lightkeeper’s house was bleak, small in comparison to the imposing lighthouse. The floors were cold wood, the walls either cobbled stone or beige plaster. It was cold, the windows were stained with salt and the house smelt of the ocean. A slow, high pitched whistle rung throughout the house. Ayden knew he couldn’t live here. Where would he practice the double contrabass flute? He looked around despairingly – no TV, no phone, no PS4 to play The Virtual Orchestra: Step inside the Philharmonia Orchestra (conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen). Aunt Helga pointed out his temporary bed – a collection of blankets and pillows tossed upon an ancient couch. Ayden abandoned his bags and rose, dashing outside. His aunt stared after him, confused. Ayden sat in the shade of the lighthouse, beside a small chicken coop and yard. He sighed, wiping tears from his eyes. 14-year-olds don’t cry! As he sat and composed himself, something shifted in his peripheral vision. He jumped and turned, only to be met by a blinding light. A muscular chicken strutted from behind the coop, feathers glistening red in the sunlight, blue eyes shining. “That… is one attractive chicken” he muttered. “How you doin’?” asked the chicken, voice deep, smooth and utterly bogan. Ayden was disturbed, needless to say. But once he introduced his pet rock and engaged in a thrilling conversation about the double contrabass flute, he felt much more at ease with the concept of talking chickens, particularly handsome ones named Drumstick. By evening, Ayden left Drumstick and returned to the house, prepared to face his doom. Chapter 2 – Anika Lu As Aunt Helga was telling Ayden his chores for the week, he began to shout and scream “What the in the world is a chore‽” Helga let out a deep sigh and explained. “It’s something you’ll be doing every day from now on, good luck!”. He slowly inspected, in pure frustration, the list that was thrown at him. “I HAVE TO WASH DISHES?” he screamed, indignant. “DON’T YOU HAVE A DISHWAHER?”. “No Ayden, do you think I have a spare $700 just sitting around?” she responded, genuinely impressed at the boy’s arrogance.

“Uh yeah? Who doesn’t? I mean it’s like not wearing Velcro Sketchers, which is something literally everyone does”. Drumstick couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle and sighed in relief, his plan was ready to begin. The bickering continued on for hours, as they negotiated his chores. They ended up fighting over mopping the floor if it was just to get dirty again in a few minutes. If that wasn’t bad enough Drumstick followed around the tension like it was dinner. Agitating the crazed band nerd and the health junkie so badly that they threatened to throw him out into the grey sea. Out of rage Ayden threw his contrabass case on the floor and began to play an abhorrent medley of twinkle twinkle and happy birthday. Helga couldn’t handle the discordant notes ringing throughout the entire lighthouse, and neither could Drumstick, who was now screeching in pain. He stopped for a second and glanced at Helga who was trembling with shock wondering how music could sound so, bad. “What’s your problem?” he finally asked, not understanding the awful sounds he was making. “Your music is TERRIBLE” Aunt Helga explained, trembling in anguish. “Fair go mate” added Drumstick. Ayden thought to himself, ‘no way my music could be that bad, if it’s played by an amazing genius how can it sound bad?’. “NO, YOU!” he shouted back pulling out an Uno reverse from the pocket of his oversized basketball shorts. “HA I win!” he screamed in triumphant teenage ignorance. “What’s that?” “Something that helps me win every time” Ayden explained in no detail. Suddenly he stopped talking and looked at Helga in distress. “Do you hear that?” a faint cracking sound was slowly growing from inside the roof. BOOM! Chapter 3 – Hannah Zubair The roof caved in and an ominous cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the lighthouse. “My vision is obstructed!” Ayden screeched. Aunt Helga coughed and wheezed and croaked until she could no more. She picked up her tattered gold scarf, threw it over her shoulder and stumbled up the spiralling staircase. “Drumstick,” she called. “DRUMSTICK!” “HOLY DOOLEY WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED” squawked Drumstick. Aunt Helga adjusted herself before deducing that “The roof collapsed… well what are you all standing around for? Let’s go see what happened?!” They bolted up the staircase but stopped at the top. A colossal light towered above Aunt Helga, Ayden and Drumstick. The glass surrounding it was shattered and the light slowly flickered off. A burning smell wafted around the room. Ayden squeezed through the doorway and cautiously made his way through the lantern room. A tear ran down Aunt Helga’s cheek and Drumstick cried out in sorrow. “Our light is gone… how are we going to fix it?” Ayden asked tearfully. “We can’t fix it,” Drumstick snapped back, “We should just give up”. Helga exclaimed, “No, no, no! We need to fix it. Ships rely on us to guide them safely away from the cliffs. If our light isn’t working no boat will have a clear view of the shore”. Ayden looked at his watch and spoke, “Well it is approximately 12:13 PM. According to my trusty clock and my intelligence I would estimate that sunset would be at 5:49 PM.”

“Oi you sure you can fix this bloody lamp in 5 hours. Gee mate you’re off ya rocker!” Drumstick said doubtfully. He hopped on top of the light and kicked a piece of glass onto Ayden, who was fiddling around with his watch. “Have a little faith Drumstick,” Aunt Helga stroked his head and intently stared towards the gloomy, menacing ocean. The smoke had cleared leaving the remaining pieces of broken glass and wood scattered on the floor. They all looked up at the wide gaping hole left in the roof. Ayden asked in dismay, “So, what are we going to do now?”. Chapter 4 – Isabella Ong As they walked down the remainder of the light house, they both tried to decipher what had caused the light house to cave in. The stairs creaked slowly and without the light the fog was building. The view from the light house was barely visible at this point and the scenery was becoming increasingly distant. Looking off the side of the railing, the fall was incredibly long and basically no chance of survival. As they slowly walked down the spiralling staircase, they brainstormed what could be the possible reason for the accident. Both denying that it was either of them that caused it. Overtime, the anger between the two of them built and the volume increased. “This is your fault,” Aunt Helga said. “No, it’s yours, I didn’t do anything” Ayden replied. “This has NEVER happened before” Aunt Helga retaliated becoming annoyed with her scrawny nephew. “And…” he replied, about to continue before his Aunt exploded. “YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING. AT ALL!” She yelled. “I KNOW HOW TO DO STUFF OK, I’M NOT AS USELESS AS YOU THINK I AM” he retorted in the same tone. “You have been sent here BECAUSE you are useless, you don’t know how to clean, cook or do anything, if you weren’t aware” making Ayden hesitate momentarily. From the sidelines, Drumstick smirked in glee. Serves them right he thought, after all this was where his ancestral background was from. Chickens from generations ago grew up here as well before it was taken over by humans. He had the right to be here and had to do his best to get rid of them. By them splitting up, he would be able to eliminate them one by one. Drumstick thought to himself, ‘I’ll take the old lady first, the boy couldn’t last a day by himself’. The arguing continued, each of them turned red in anger. Each of them becoming increasingly more irritable as they walked down the seemingly endless staircase in opposite directions. “OH MY GOD!” Aunt Helga yelled in expiration while storming out the lighthouse. Chapter 5 – Tristan Vasquez Helga angry, storms back into her destroyed lighthouse, thinking about what to do about her nephew. Through this mess, Drumstick appears behind Helga, wielding a cricket bat.

“Where did you get that?” Helga Questions. Suddenly, Drumstick swings and her.

“What are you doing?”. Helga demands to get an answer, now running form the enraged chook. “You took everything from me!” cried the enraged bird. A fight broke out between the two. They ran around the entire lighthouse, Drumstick still swinging the cricket bat and the surprised old Helga defenceless from the barrage of abuse. Suddenly, Helga dove for the cricket bat, trying to get it away from her feathered foe. The struggle continued between the two. One last time, Helga demanded to know why drumstick was doing this, and once again, Drumstick remained silent. Through the struggle, the cricket bat was thrown into the air; the deranged chicken took advantage of the dazed Aunt and pushed her on the ground. Now, Helga was on the ground and drumstick prepared the swing at her. Helga blacked out and wakes up only to find herself strapped to a chair, hands tied behind her back and legs strapped to the chair. Her head was hurt from the cricket bat that had struck her. Waking up from her coma, her senses slowly returned to her. She could feel the cold wooden chair she was strapped to. she peered around the dark room she was in, with one dim light allowing her to see around the room, and the stairs leading to the living room. Her hearing slowly returns and suddenly, she hears footsteps in her living room.

“Ayden, is that you?” Helga asks. “Come down here and untie your Aunt.” Instead of seeing her Nephew coming down the stairs, she looks at the feathers rolling down the stairs, the talons scrapping down the wooden planks, all she saw was Drumstick.

“Why did you do it?” Helga demanded an answer. “You took everything from me!” the bird squawked. “What are you talking about Drumstick?”. “You see,” Drumstick began, starting to monologue, “chickens ruled the world before any humans, sure humans existed, but they didn’t rule. Over the years, the respect for chickens dwindled, as people began caging us and eating us. Using our children and eating them to. Now me, as the last egg king of the world, will restore order to the egg kingdom!”. As Drumstick raised the cricket bat, they heard a knock at the door… Chapter 6 – Jack Colahan “What’s going on in here?” Ayden yelled as he burst through the narrow doorway. A look of confusion spread across his face when he saw his Aunt, tied to an old wooden chair with her hands tied behind her back. Standing beside her was Drumstick, looking as handsome as ever.

“Drumstick!” Ayden said, “Did you do this?”

The fowl glanced Ayden up and down and then proceeded to strut over to him.

“Ayden! My boy!” the bird squawked as he drew closer. His long, bronzed legs gleamed under the dim lighting. The fowl’s talons were long and shiny, as if they were coated in gold.

Ayden was puzzled. Why was she tied up? Who did this? Why was Drumstick so good looking? Ayden wanted answers

“Drumstick!” He announced, “Did you do this?”

Drumstick craned his neck forward and stood up proudly under the light, his beautiful golden feathers highlighted his chiselled, smokin’ hot body. The energy and raw, smouldering power Drumstick emanated made Ayden nervous. He started to sweat.

“Ayden you must understand, I had to do this.”

“Oi! Don’t listen to that filthy fowl Ayden. You gotta set me free. You wouldn’t dog ya old Auntie would ya?”

Drumstick puffed his chest up, highlighting his beautiful, magnificent 14-pack glistened in front of Ayden’s eyes, mesmerising him.

“Ayden, you handsome young lad,” Drumstick whispered, “you must listen to me, I had to trap your Aunt, she was getting in the way of my plans. I-”

“Don’t listen to the bird Ayden!” Helga interrupted, “You gots to ignore him and listen to me”

Ayden knew he had to make a choice. Who should he help? His Aunt, or the immaculately groomed Drumstick? Dozens of thoughts crossed his mind. He weighed up every option until, he had made his mind up.

“Drumstick,” he said, “follow me, I want to show you something.”

The bird smoothly and casually waltzed over to him.

“I want to show you my Double contrabass flute.”

Drumstick peered inside the case, “that’s strange,” he said “it’s empty.”

Ayden knew this was his time to strike, with one swift movement, he shoved Drumstick inside the case. The bird had little time to react, and fell straight in. Ayden struggled with the bird, trying to close him inside. Aunt Helga cheered on in the background. And then, Ayden overpowered Drumsticks resistance and clicked the case shut, trapping the bird inside.

“On ya Ayden!” Auntie cheered, “I knew you had it in ya!”

Chapter 7 – Calvin Walther With Drumstick taken care of the two solemnly made their way to the main chamber of the lighthouse. Without a word spoken between the two they sat in their individual chairs, respectively. The silence of their previous dispute hung in the air, only broken by the thunder which was a clear reminder of their dire situation. Eventually Ayden spoke; “I’m sorry for being annoying. And rude. And mean. And pretentious. And stupid”. A pause entered the room and the silence returned. “Don’t forget stubborn” Helga said with a chuckle. Ayden couldn’t resist a smile. The two embraced each other with a warm hug. The slate cleaned between them and their nemesis defeated, there was only one issue at hand. The lighthouse itself. Helga pointed out that with the roof collapsed upon the light, it was only a matter of time until a vessel got to know the shore an awful lot. As if by divine intervention, the crash of thunder marked the urgency. Turning on their heels the two ran as fast as their feet would allow to the base of the stairs. Without a second to lose they flew up the stairs at record speeds. Helga overestimated Ayden’s physical capability however, him tiring at the same record pace that she could run. The ascending of the lighthouse crawled to a halt, Ayden simply being too unfit. As they climbed the flight of stairs with the incessant sound of heaving breathing following, Helga’s phone buzzed aggressively. Unknown number. She reached into her pocket to grab her phone in contained excitement. “Gday this is Helga speaking” she began, giving Ayden the break, he needed. Ayden, even in his tired and bothered state, still noticed the shaken and amazed face of his aunt. “Yes sir, I’ll pop you on speaker now sir”. Ayden was intrigued now, Helga being a stern woman and not one often prone to authority, it was a most curious reaction. Hand outstretched and finger raised just above the speaker button, Helga whispered one word. “Scomo”. It all made sense. “Oi, which one of you bloody bludgers broke the bloody lighthouse!”. It really was him. The prime minister himself. Their excitement could barely be contained however before they could admire his soothing voice, he piped up again. “Well. Which one of yous’ was it?”. “It was the storm sir” Ayden explained. “Well where’s the damn tradie?” Scomo requested, clearly impatient. “We don’t have one up here yet” they explained. There wasn’t a tradie remotely close to the lighthouse. Helga was entirely responsible for maintenance of the lighthouse. They explained this to Scomo, his tone switching from frustrated to fearful. “I’m 10 minutes out of the island and the captain can’t see Buckleys. If you don’t get that bloody light up and running, I’m afraid I’ll be kaput”. The phone hung up. They were running out of time.

Chapter 8 – Lucy Colahan ‘’I know what to do! Ayden, pass me that wrench over there!’’ Helga exclaimed. Ayden stood there, staring at Helga, unable to comprehend what she said. ‘‘Helga, what’s a wrench?’’ he asked. Helga’s face screwed up. ‘This kid is bloody useless’ she thought. ‘Scomo is going to crash and it will be all his fault’. She used all of her strength to keep a straight face. ‘‘It doesn’t matter I can get it’’ she politely announced, being the aunt, she needed to. She reached over and grabbed a small metal tool with a square-like shape at the end. She started working, putting pieces of metal and wood together by screwing nails in between them. She then noticed a hammer sitting on the windowsill. She reached over to grab it, but accidently knocked it off the edge. She gasped when she looked over the edge, to see the hammer fall as if it was in slow motion. She looked up and saw Scomo drifting closer and closer towards the rocks. ‘We’re doomed!’ Helga cried. Ayden’s face suddenly lit up. ‘Wait! I have an idea,’ He reached over to his double contrabass flute and broke the mouthpiece off. ‘Take this’ he said. Helga looked up from crying. She smiled, reached out and grabbed the metal shard. She then started whacking the nail into a piece of wood. Ayden watched patiently. ‘Done!’ Helga shouted with delight. ‘Wait, what about the light?! I don’t have a light bulb! What will help lead Scomo away from the rocks?!’ A wave of fear and disappointment in herself washed over her. She knew that she couldn’t save Scomo. Ayden thought long and hard. ‘What is something hard and big that you can use to wack things?’, he thought to himself. Ayden had a genius idea. ‘Do you know how to make a fire?’ Ayden asked. ‘I think I remember. I learnt when I went camping in the wilderness.’ Helga explained. She grabbed two rocks and rubbed them together urgently. Ayden sat next to her, waiting patiently. Suddenly, a spark flew and landed on a pile of dried up grass that Ayden collected whilst Helga was making the roof. A fire emerged rapidly. Ayden stood back as the flame got bigger and bigger. Helga quickly passed a big stick and lifted the tip into the fire. A flame formed. She cautiously placed the flame in the middle of the lighthouse. The flame glistened and glowed. Light covered the ocean surface, leading the way for Scomo as he sailed off into the horizon. But then, just for a second, Scomo turned around, and linked eyes with Helga. She felt sparks fly between them. She smiled and blushed, as Scomo smouldered. A single tear fell from her eye has Scomo and his ship slowly crept over the horizon. Chapter 9 – Steffani Chang The next week or so was relaxing and serene. The weather had cleared up, no longer grey and dismal but instead, different shades of bright blue speckled with white. In the mornings, Aunt Helga woke Ayden at dawn with a loud slam of her bedroom door followed by a rough, “Ayden!”. They’d trudge up the dirt path to the lighthouse, the morning light escaping over the edge of the cliff. After a hearty breakfast of vegemite on toast and an oversized cup of Milo, then went about the daily farm chores, sweeping the floors, feeding the chickens and scraping up the manure. On the morning of Ayden’s departure, he woke up as the sun was rising outside his window shining rays of gold into his bedroom. He turned over onto his side and put his glasses on, pushing them up his nose. On his bedside table, he spotted the red UNO reverse card and grinned, realising that the week had been special, despite being long and eventful. For some reason he was even dreading going back to Sydney.

After changing back into his city clothes, Ayden looked at his oversized denim overalls and felt a wave of sadness. A rejected pile of socks and underwear sat on the floor waiting to be packed back into his duffle bag. He shuffled his stuff out the door, took one last look at the place he called his bedroom for what seemed like so long, and walked out into the kitchen. “What’s wrong mate?” Aunt Helga asked Ayden as she watched him pick the last pieces of his bacon and waffle. “Nothing, I guess I’ll just miss this place… as much as I’d hate to admit it.” He replied as he placed his plates in the sink. “Aw, come ‘ere,” His aunt said and wrapped her large arms around his small frame, and for the first time, Ayden felt happy and safe. When it was around noon, Aunt Helga and Ayden sat down together for a final lunch before he had to leave for the ferry. They opened packets of chips and bubbly lemonade, cutting pieces off the succulent, golden roast chicken his aunt had prepared that morning. It was a peaceful and sunny afternoon, with the hungry birds chirping and a light breeze flowing through the meadows of the island. Well, let’s just say no rooves caved in and no evil chickens were threatening innocent lives.

Blurb On a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere, lives Ayden’s obscure Aunt Helga. When he is banished from his home for two weeks of reflection, a horrible accident occurs. To make matters worse, the two despise one another. An attractive chicken named Drumstick, an annoying young musician and his burly old-fashioned aunt must work out their differences before it is too late.