Highly Commended Story - A Lonely Home

“A Lonely Home” by Precious Adeyemi, RA International School, Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria, is the Highly Commended story in the junior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Precious Adeyemi is an eleven year old pupil of the RA International School, Bonny Island, Nigeria. She is famous for her caring heart and friendliness. She has a good, strong character and is purposeful in all her dealings. Precious is always optimistic and can quite easily demonstrate responsibility. She delights in writing and presenting her ideas graphically. Moreover, she is always willing to explore new ideas. Driven by her indefatigable care for others, she wishes to become a medical doctor because she believes this would provide her a platform to serve humanity.

A Lonely Home

Early In the Morning

It was a stormy morning on the small, green island of Saba in the Dutch Caribbean when Azacca woke up to the creak and crack of the building shaking and the whine of his dog Max. He sat up at the edge of his bed and glanced out of the window eavesdropping to the roar and howl the thunder caused. He lifted the blanket of his thighs and wore his hoary muted bathrobe slippers. As he paraded down the stairs, with Max close behind him, he bent down to recognize the expression on Max’s face. It was the expression of sadness and loneliness. Scanning the kitchen for cereal and milk, Azacca poured in some milk and all-bran into his bowl. As he gnawed noisily on his cereal, out of the corner of his eye, he observed a dash of lightning strike the pavement. Later, Azacca stood up approaching the store to feed Max his biscuit bones. It was very murky and silent. The only thing that was audible was the roar of thunder and the rustling of tree branches. As he drew closer to the window, he gazed out of the kitchen window to see if the sun had come out.

A Few Hours Later

As time passed by, the sun began to pop its head out or the shadowy clouds with its rays filling in all the dark and lonely corners of the building. Max started to bark trying to attain Azacca’s attention. He gazed into his dog’s eyeballs and noticed the glisten and shiny light coming from the sun reflected in his eyes. Max began to roll on the floor. He knew what that meant. Max snorted favorably and bounded forward as fast as a jack rabbit in front of a prairie fire. As they set foot and paws on the grass, the tropical breeze and smell wafted around Azacca’s nose thrills. Max walked ahead leading the way towards the seashore eager to meet and play with other dogs.

On arrival at the seashore, Azacca walked towards the shore with max to get a good and close view of the dolphins leaping out of the water and splashing around tapping. Sighting the dolphins, having fun, Azacca naively let go of the leash. As Azacca observed Max take off to swim with the dolphins, he realized the terrible deed which he had done. His dog couldn’t float, he was appalling at swimming! As Azacca dived into the lake not wanting to put his dog’s life at risk, he scanned the ocean for his dog but no such luck. Max was nowhere to be seen. As anxiety overshadowed him, he imagined where his dog would be. He heard a familiar bark and whine as he popped his head out of the water to catch his breath. He saw something. There ahead of him was a dolphin swimming with max on its back. Azacca didn’t even delay for the dolphin to get to him, he dived back into the water to go and get max. Immediately he got to the dolphin, max started barking. He probably meant something along the lines of “”The dolphin saved me.” As Azacca clutched and embraced Max, with merit, they watched the dolphin swim away deep into the sea to meet with other dolphins beyond the reflection of the sunset on the calm waters.