The Chicken, the Aunt and the Lighthouse

“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.”