The Kallerbay Stories 16-18

By Frances Fahy

Kallerbay was conceived as a short story project for 6 – 11 year-olds, written in a first-person child-related style and the “storytellers” are a class of 25 children in this age bracket. In an uncomplicated environment, we follow the adventures of 25 schoolboys and girls in the fictional seaside town of Kallerbay where life is adventurous and often exciting. Under the guidance of their teacher, Miss Emerson, each pupil tells a story about family, friends, neighbours, joys and fears. The country location is not mentioned. It’s an anglophile Fantasy Land. It’s where the child wants it to be!

This page contains three more Kallerbay stories. New stories will be posted as time goes on and linked from the preceding stories. Depending on when you read this, you may find those links already there or not.  To go back to the first Kallerbay stories, and follow along in sequence, click here.

16. The car and the goldfish

by Vicky Banks

Hello! My name is Vicky, and I’m eight. My mum’s name is Roberta, my dad’s name is Nicolas, and my baby brother is Tim. He’s only a year old, and he’s a pest. My mum is always busy with him now because he’s crawling everywhere and he can even crawl up the stairs, and then he slides down backwards! My best friend is Katy, and my favourite boy at school is Omar. He’s really cute, and when I’m a big girl, he’s going to be my boyfriend and then we’ll get married. No, that’s not a good idea because then we’d have kids and they’d be pests like Tim. So he’ll just be my boyfriend.

Now I have to tell my story.

One day I went to a big supermarket near Kallerbay with my Mum and Tim. We had a trolley and the baby’s buggy, and we were managing fine until we got the smell. Tim needed changing. We parked the trolley in a big space at the front of the supermarket. There’s a goldfish pond there, and seats and people can have a rest. The toilets are near the pond. Mum told me to wait beside the trolley and not to move, and I said OK.

There was a little girl near the pond playing on the wall with two tiny cars. She was crashing them into each other. Her mum was talking to another woman. I was watching her, and suddenly one of the cars turned over and fell into the pond. The little girl started to cry. Her mother went over, and they looked in, but they couldn’t reach it.

“We’ll have to leave it,” said the mother.

“No,” the little girl said. She was tugging her mother’s sleeve.

I took off my shoes and socks and went up on the wall and into the water. It felt a bit slimy. There were a few fish near me, and I think they got a fright. I found the little car, and I gave it to the woman, and just as I was getting out of the pond, my mother came out pushing Tim’s buggy. I was sitting on the wall, and my mother was staring at me. The woman gave me a packet of tissues.

“What are you doing, Vicky?” My mum was very angry.

“No, I have to thank your daughter. She went into the pond and got my little girl’s toy car back.”

My mum was surprised. I was drying my feet and putting on my shoes.

“I’d like to buy her an ice-cream if you have time,” the woman said.

“I’m afraid we have to rush because the baby will soon be hungry and we still have to call to the fruit stall. But thanks anyway,” Mum said.

Tim again, of course! I’d have loved an ice-cream. And I was just going to say that.

“Lovely to meet you,” Mum said. “Let’s go, Vicky.”

We said goodbye, and I wheeled the trolley towards the fruit shop. We bought bananas and pears and grapes and some vegetables. Just as we were leaving, the little girl came over, and she handed me a paper bag. Inside there was a big colouring book and a box of pencils. She ran off to her mother, and they waved to us.

“Thank you!” I shouted.

Mum and I were leaving the supermarket, and she said: “Tim is sleeping. I think you and I deserve two big ice-creams on our way home.”

I wasn’t sure why I deserved the colouring book and an ice-cream because I had great fun getting into the pond even though the water was slimy and cold. As they say, I suppose it pays to be nice!

 

The next story is by Quinn Taylor. He’s my friend too.  I have lots of friends, but Quinn is special. Bye, everybody.

17. Story Time

by Quinn Taylor

Hi, I’m Quinn Taylor. I’m recording a story, but I’m not sure if I’ll give it to Ms Emerson. During Story Time she’s always on the lookout for the best ones for our class yearbook. I don’t know if my stories will ever be in the yearbook. I’m telling this one to my recorder at home because I don’t speak at school. I don’t like school most of the time. It’s very hard to be in the classroom with the others because some of them make fun of me. Miss Emerson says I’m special, but she says that Evanna Hunter is special too. Evanna is blind, and that’s what makes her special but I’m not blind, and I’m not in a wheelchair like Stan Loman. Someone said he’s special too. I think I’m special because of my stammer. A stammer is when the words are in your head, but they can’t come out through your mouth. They come out all wrong, and that’s what makes the other kids laugh. Some grown-ups laugh, too, but I don’t mind them.

My mum told Miss Emerson that I don’t stammer so much at home and that I don’t stammer at all in the Den. I love the Den. That’s where we watch TV or play games, and I talk to Mum. Not so much to Dad because he comes home very late, and I’m usually in bed by then. So Miss Emerson asked Mum to get me to tell her a story and to record it because she couldn’t believe I can talk without bah, bah, bah, all the time. So we do this every week, and the teacher is amazed when she hears me speaking so well.

Then something else happened. One evening a boy in my class called Archie Baker, who lives just across the street from me, knocked on our door. He’s the same age as me. Just a few days older. He had the football, and he asked me to come out so we went to the football pitch and there were a lot of kids there, and I played well.

Archie is OK. He never asks me questions when we’re walking together and when I’m playing on the team, I forget and call out everyone’s name. I love when I can do that. Then,  after the game, Archie stayed a while at my house, and we watched a cartoon, and just before dark, his sister Yvonne rang the doorbell. I answered, and she said: “Tell Archie it’s time to come home.”

“Five minutes!” Archie shouted from the Den.

Yvonne came in and sat down. “I won’t go home without you,” she said. “Mum will be cross if we don’t hurry.” She’s ten and she’s always in a hurry.

She was looking around the room.

“This room is cool, Quinn,” she said.

I didn’t say anything, but I wanted to tell her about my power-driven car that I’d got for Christmas, and I wanted to show her all my DVDs.

Suddenly, the words just came out. “This is where I record my stories with Mum.”

Yvonne pretended she wasn’t surprised to hear me speak, but I didn’t mind.

“I’d love to record something together,” Yvonne said. “ Let’s record a song?”

“OK!” I said.

Next day she phoned my mum and asked if she could come over.

Mum was a bit worried for me, but I said it was OK. She came at five o’clock, and we sang three songs and recorded them. She didn’t tell Archie she was coming, which was nicer.

She came again on Saturday, and we recorded some more silly songs, and then I said:
“Ladies and gentlemen Miss Yvonne Baker will sing The Ballerina song.”

Mum brought us some juice, and she said to Yvonne: “You have a great voice.”

“So has Quinn,” Yvonne said. I was happy.

“Have you recorded your story for next week?” she asked me.

“No,” Mum answered. “We haven’t had time. We’ll do it later.”

“You can record it with me if you like,” Yvonne said.

I didn’t know what to say, and Mum said: “We’ll see, dear.”

I wanted to say I’d like that but I couldn’t so I stayed quiet.

Mum left the room, and Yvonne said: “Come on, let’s try it. You can pretend you’re Nat and you can get really angry.” Nat is one of the boys who makes fun of me.

“OK,” I said. I was so excited that I was going to do something cool.

I did my breathing a few times like the therapist told me and then out came the words in a voice that was just like Nat’s.

“We’re going to go to Old Granny Mulkin’s this evening Libby, and we’re going to throw a stone at her window.”

“Yes, Nat. I’ll do whatever you say.” Now I was doing Libby Tomkinson’s voice. She’s only seven, like me, and she always imitates my stammering cos Nat tells her to, and she’s afraid if she doesn’t Nat and Waldon won’t like her.

“Then we’ll bang on Mr Hunter’s door, and we might even scare Evanna and her dog.” Now I was doing Waldon Scott’s voice, Yvonne was amazed.

I said in my own voice: “If you come over on Monday, I’ll try to re-re-record my story with you.”

My voice wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t say record very well, but she got it.

“We’ll keep it a secret,” she said.

So now when I have recording homework, Yvonne comes over and listens. It’s much more fun than doing it with Mum because when we finish the homework, we sing and say poems and rhymes, and when I have the microphone in my hand, I can say nearly everything.

But I still can’t speak in the classroom. I don’t mind, though. I love listening to everyone and copying their voices when I go home, and someday I’m going to surprise everybody and read one of my stories. It will be the best story anyone in the class has ever told.

 

The next story is by Rosemary Winters. She’s nine. She has a sister called Iris, who’s six and who’s very funny.

 

18. The Strange Fairy Tale

by Rosemary Winters

Hi! My name is Rosemary Winters. I’m nine. I’ve got a sister called Iris, and she’s six. She likes ghost stories, and I love fairy tales and stories where people are turned into animals and birds, and my story is about a girl called Annabelle who… no, I’ll just tell the story. I can’t remember where I heard it. I think my dad told it to me when I was very small.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Annabelle, who loved the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. One of her favourite stories was about when Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and became king. She sometimes even dreamt about Arthur and Merlin the wizard.

One night she dreamt that Merlin could transform her into a night owl. Her owl name was Gufo. She had big eyes with rings all around them. She loved being an owl and roaming around hooting at night when she wasn’t on a mission for Merlin. He always sent her on special missions. She was like Marlin’s post-bird. One day Merlin said to her: “Now Gufo, you can’t spend all your time playing and frightening everyone in the middle of the night. I have an important mission for you.”

“Yes, Merlin,” Gufo said all excited.

“There’s a swallow’s nest in an old barn just behind the red house on Hill Road in Kallerbay. Two of the nestlings have fallen out, and they’re too small to get back up. Your mission is to gently pick up the nestlings as quickly as possible. There’s a hawk on the lookout, so be careful. You’ll have to hoot all night just to make sure they’re safe. They should be able to fly in a couple of days. Go now. There’s no time to lose.”

“Yes, Merlin,” said Gufo again.

It was a long way to the red house. She’d seen it loads of times. Off she went hoping she’d make it in time. She didn’t particularly like swallows, but if Merlin thought it was important to save them, then that was good enough for her.

Her night vision was perfect, and she found the frightened little nestlings shivering on the ground. They would surely think she’s come to eat them up so she beamed her owl stare at them and they just fell asleep. She picked them up with her claws and located the nest. She placed them gently in the centre and then looked around. She could see their mother watching on, and she cooed at her and flew away.

Merlin appeared in a jiffy. “Good job, Gufo. Now I need you to catch a few fish for Arthur and his friends. Maybe a salmon might be a nice treat.”

Gufo didn’t wait to be asked twice. She knew just where to find the perfect salmon for Arthur. She hovered over the water until the moon was shining then she swirled down and caught one. She delivered it to Merlin and decided to have a look at the nestlings before settling down on her perch. She flew low. All was well. Their mother had them nice and cosy under her wing.

“Annabelle, Annabelle!” Gufo heard someone calling. She tried to hoot, but there was no sound. Then she knew she was going back to People Land and she tried to find Merlin to say goodbye, but he was gone too.

“Annabelle. Time to get up.” It was Annabelle’s mum.

She was almost afraid to speak in case she didn’t have a real voice so she just hugged her mum and decided she’d test her voice later.

She wrote the word Gufo on a piece of paper in case she forgot it. It was the nicest dream ever. She couldn’t wait to become Gufo again and have another adventure.

The next story is by Stan Loman. He tells such cool stories. Bye!

We continue next time with stories 19, 20, 21 of The Kallerbay Stories.

Story 19      Stan Loman   Table Tennis   Stan referees a match, and it doesn’t go well

Story 20      Omar Bild      Mythology        Omar’s memories of his dad’s storytelling

Story 21      Uma Greenwood       A day in the park      Fun, games and ice-cream for the class

- Total nr. of readings: 382 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.