My Specsavers Short Story Competition Entry

Hi guys! So in mid November, I was getting my new glasses from Specsavers and I picked up a little leaflet that I noticed whilst waiting. It had a little cartoon on it, and advertised the Specsavers 2013 Children's Short Story Competition. For more information on the competition, go here. The closing date for sending in entries was the 29th of November, and I did scribble a little story and post it to them, but I've also decided to share my story with you. The rules of the competition were to write a story inspired by the cartoon on the leaflet, which was a man and a woman, dressed in summer gear, on one of those little pedal boats, stranded in the middle of glaciers and polar bears. The woman is saying 'I told you not to pedal so fast!', and inspired by the themes suggested by the cartoon, I based my story around global warming. Hope you enjoy! 

Selfish

I can only remember how pretty the glaciers had once been.

They rested in the water, like diamonds were encrusted in their peaks, because that’s exactly how glittering, dazzling, brilliant their appearance was. Some had sharp peaks, sharper than a silver knife, ‘could slice right through your veins and arteries and capillaries so fast you wouldn’t notice’, as my father always used to say, accompanied by a chuckle. Some had softer, more glossy, more delicate curves as peaks, like freshly whipped meringue, but they all were astoundingly beautiful, and as the cold North wind used to blow on my face, watching the glaciers float in the -50 degree waters relaxed me, eased out my stresses, like my hometown always did when I returned.

But there’s no glaciers anymore, there’s no sharp or soft peaks, there’s barely anything left of my hometown, the phenomenally warm weather has taken all of our glaciers from us, melted them down into the clear icy water. When I finally came home, at long last, my mother told me with sad eyes how I didn’t even see them melt, didn’t see the biggest interests of my childhood fade away, whither into water, but I was happy. I didn’t need to see them shrink, melt into the water as the snow covered mountains surrounded them, as the sun shone brightly down on them, killing them slowly without realization. I’m happy that I left when the glaciers were still there, and I’m happy I have come back and they have vanished.

And I never got to witness their vanishing because he always drove fast. Right from the moment I met him, he didn’t like to waste time getting to places when he could already be there. Literally. Each time we got into his car, I would barely close the passenger’s door before he would hit the road, 100m/ph. And I didn’t care, I loved the dry road. I loved Nevada, I loved how he had taken me there, I loved how he rode the car along the dry tarmac as the sun poured all around us. I loved how he had taken me from a quiet town in the North Pole, and flew me out to Nevada, on the second week since I met him. I loved how spontaneous he was, I loved how free our mad adventure was.

 I was only 17 when he swept me away in a flourish, and I ran away from reality with him, my only reality was him and the bright sun, the land of passion and extreme heat and unimaginably free desires.

And that’s probably why I’m on my own now, staring at the ocean that was once full of breathtakingly gorgeous glaciers. Maybe it’s because he drove fast, made ridiculous decisions that weren’t carefully thought out. Maybe it’s because he did things and consumed things until things consumed him, damaged him and his surroundings, impacting him and all those around him, bleeding long after the sword had struck.

So I hope you enjoyed that little story, all it took was one sitting to write and edit! I haven't gotten a reply from Specsavers yet, fingers crossed! I used the terms of upbringing roots, home, tragic love and tied it all in at the last paragraph. Like I said, fingers crossed!


My Twitter- @gabysayshey


Gaby x