Budding author's two short stories

A pupil at a school in Cranleigh has turned her hand to penning short stories.
Holly KentHolly Kent
Holly Kent

Budding author Holly Kent has submitted two short stories to the County Times.

The stories written by the pupil at St. Joseph’s Specialist School and College, Cranleigh, are featured below.

The Campfire Story

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One day Archibald organised a Campfire Beach Party on a sandy beach in Kuwait, a small but important oil producing country in the Middle East, and he invited Amanda, Mark, Dollie, Veronica and Annabelle. We had delicious sausages, bacon, fried eggs and bread, all beautifully cooked by Dollie herself, a visiting Chef from London’s Ritz hotel.

We had a lovely time watching Kuwait’s amazing sunset show. It was nearly time to go, but we had been feeling for some time that we were somehow not alone. There was something or someone possibly watching us, so I went out to see who, or what it was. When I looked there was nothing there, so I thought it was just the wind; but there was no wind. Maybe it was a snake in the leaves, but it was not. I checked. I am not afraid of snakes. I hoped it was not a ghost. I am panic-stricken in the extreme at the mere thought of spirits.

However, it looked like a boy and he was crying. I screamed and ran out of the bushes.

Veronica said, “Why did you scream?” I replied, “You won’t believe me.” “Yes I will. So what did you see?” “I saw a ghost in the bushes and it was crying.” “Why was it crying?” Veronica gasped. “Go and see why it is crying”. I said “ok”, reluctantly, but then out of the blue Freddie, a cheeky college friend, jumped clear of the bushes and shouted, “I tricked you!”

We all laughed.

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Soon afterwards, we all said good bye to Archibald and then we went back home but I went back to see Archibald as he kicked sand on the fire to put it out. The sand underneath was red hot and he burnt all of the skin off his big toe, but in six weeks it had grown back and he came back to England. We were so happy to see him again, so we had a campfire at school, but this time there was no sand. We got to stay up until 1:00am. And guess what happened.

Archibald didn’t burn his toe this time. He was very careful and we were so happy! And let that be a lesson to one and all. Never wear flip-flops at a fired up beach party!

The Farm Story

Not many people would believe that a new born lamb is a dangerous creature to behold. Why dangerous? It’s bad for your heart! If you have one!! It will melt almost beyond repair!

One day I invited the rest of my class to come to the farm where I was doing work experience at Barns Green. Lambs were being born and I fell deeply in love with a lamb whose mum had just had twins and wasn’t paying any attention to it as it was the second of the two lambs to be born.

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She seemed to like the first one but not the second, so I adopted the lamb and named it Smudge; and now, all the sheep now go ‘baaaaa’ when I walk into the barn. I think they see me as their guardian and protector. Little did they know… how right that was going to be?

It had been in the local paper that farms in the area had suffered from stray dogs attacking their sheep in the night. 50 sheep had died of a heart attack because of stray dogs chasing them at night.

So I decided to do something about it. I sat behind the barn with the double barrel shotgun that the farmer had given his wife for her birthday. Believe it or not, I am an animal lover, and I even have feelings of affection for stray dogs. I didn’t want to hurt the dog.

My plan was to take two cartridges, empty out half the gunpowder and all the birdshot and replace it with salt. I waited and waited until midnight and a lamb went baaaa and a large dog started barking, so I got up and told the dog to back off.

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I shot the gun up in the air but the dog just kept growling and started to run at me, so I aimed the gun in the air high above the dog and pulled the trigger. A gentle fall of salt fluttered down on to the dog.

He obviously didn’t fancy that much salt with his supper. He whined, chased his tail for a while and ran off into the night. I then shut the sheep in so if it came back it couldn’t get them and they would safe once again, and best of all, I could go home and get the good night sleep I deserved for my good deed.

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