I wipe the ingrained rubble from my knees and make my way home. I hear the faraway screams of the hay jump threaded through the cuckoo’s call. The tarmac folds under my footsteps and I look back at my temporary mark. As I round the corner I see my brothers playing kerb to kerb. I hear the plastic spoke beads of
someone’s bike rattling closer; someone who gets Kellog’s Frosties more than once a year
and doesn’t have to fi ght for the plastic treasure inside. My fi ngers thrum along the diff erent wrought iron
gates I pass, each gap in a wall brings me closer to our opening. I have the scooped-out feeling that something is missing. I look behind me wondering if I was worth following for once but I know that her reach is always further than mine.
I will always drop with the anchor while she soars with the sail. She is Mary and I am Laura, the Elizabeth to her Jessica. She is racerback tan lines and I am sunburned freckles. She is Quinnsworth, I am Dunnes. She zooms along with her in-line skates while I paint a P on my wooden tennis racket with black shoe polish.
It’s Wednesday so that means steaklets and chips. I can smell it coming through the open front door as I round the pillars. I like Wednesdays. I still do.
1. Explain in your own words what this story is about.
2. Do you understand the references, ‘She is Mary and I am Laura, the Elizabeth to her Jessica’? Go online and look up these characters to see if you can fi nd out.
3. Out of thousands of entries, this was chosen as the winner. Why, do you think, was it chosen? Discuss
this with a classmate and come up with at least two aspects that make this a piece of eff ective writing.
