Friday, March 18, 2011

1st place story

This story is part of a writing competition which I just recently entered. I won first place along with AED 200. Here is a peek at the story:

It must have been very late, but I heard the sound of crunching snow outside. Drowsily, I got up and crept outside to check. There was a raging blizzard outside! I couldn’t even see anything. It could have been an animal or something. Assuming this, I went back to sleep. I dreamt of myself, all alone somewhere, I called for someone but no one answered, I was in a lonely world, no friends or family. Then the dream faded away in darkness. The sound of barking woke me up, it was morning; I drank some ice-cold water and crept outside. To my surprise, there was a tent pitched right outside of my igloo and a man was standing there with a dog and reading something in his hand.
“Waqaa young fellow, is this your house?” The man asked looking up at me.
“Who are you? What are you doing here, explain!” I blurted out demandingly.
The guy smiled and looked at a big piece of paper in his hand.
“I am the founder of the Alaskan Resource Society of Juneau, ARSJ, and came here along with a crew of miners, excavators, and researchers to collect the mass amount of mineral wealth which lies underneath this plateau, therefore we need you to leave.” The guy explained.
“This is my home, the land of my people, you can’t just kick me out for some minerals!” I replied angrily.
The guy then said that this land is subjected to my father and he asked where my father was. I told him that my father died and that I took the place of care for this plateau. He shook his head and said that I was too young to look after the plateau.
“This place is my home, I lived here my whole life, and I know everything about this place!” I told the guy angrily.
The guy said that he would give me money to support me if I left. I laughed at him and told him that I would never leave.
I remembered my father’s words about how I should never leave this Arctic plateau, that message kept me willfully strong.
“I’ll give you some time to pack up and if you don’t then you’ll see!” The man said turning around and packing his tent away. His dog growled menacingly at me.
“ I’m not leaving!” I retorted back at him.
I thought I saw him smile as he turned around with his backpack and the dog. What did he mean by you’ll see? Was he going to force me out!

I lay down on my woolly bed staring into space. The guy didn’t scare me at all and I was definitely not going to move somewhere else or accept the money that the guy offered. That would be the act of a coward. But I didn’t want to see that guy come bursting in here with some mechanics or with the miners. That would destroy nature and damage the plateau. All of this thinking made me hungry so I got up and cooked up a big fish steak from whale meat, which my father had caught. The meat was splendid and it would be even better with friends or family. Still eating the meat, I heard the sound of a dog barking; at first I thought it was the guy’s dog and that he came back here. But then I realized that it was a different bark. The bark was deeper and louder. I peeked outside to check and smiled in relief.
“Hakino! Come here boy, come here!” I said playfully.
Hakino is my Alaskan Husky who got lost in an expedition in which my father and I had. Luckily, he managed to find his way back. Hakino ran fast towards my direction in excitement, I was so happy to see him that I hugged him so tight.
“You must be hungry, right Hakino?” I said.
The dog barked in reply and we went inside the igloo and I gave him the remainder of the whale meat. He gobbled it up and gave me what looked like a smile. This is what I wanted, some company, now I felt a lot better. I brought Hakino to the water hole and let him drink up all he wanted.
“Get out of there, kid, your time is up!” A sudden voice said.

2 comments:

Eitazul said...

Good job Arief. We're so proud of you.

مريم said...

وظيفة جيدة عريف. نحن فخورون جدا بك.

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