The Chicken, the Aunt and the Lighthouse

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.