Commended: Youth, Alice O'Sullivan
Alice O'Sullivan
I am a 13 year old student and I live in Perth. I discovered a new love of writing only this year. Every story and poem I write begins as my observation, unfolds into an enlightening piece of life’s puzzle and finishes with me feeling compelled to share my work. It is an incredible feeling to know I have the ability to create something that my readers and I can enjoy, again and again. I have Cerebral Palsy and Cerebral Visual Impairment, and before I started to put my thoughts into stories and poems, I never knew the feeling of creating a thing of real value. I hope that my stories and poems can continue to bring my readers happiness and contribute to disability awareness and acceptance. In 2018 I have also won the JOHN XXIII College Creative Writing Competition for “Away with the Fairies” and the Eileen Thompson Poetry Prize for “Boys Figure”.
I am a 13 year old student and I live in Perth. I discovered a new love of writing only this year. Every story and poem I write begins as my observation, unfolds into an enlightening piece of life’s puzzle and finishes with me feeling compelled to share my work. It is an incredible feeling to know I have the ability to create something that my readers and I can enjoy, again and again. I have Cerebral Palsy and Cerebral Visual Impairment, and before I started to put my thoughts into stories and poems, I never knew the feeling of creating a thing of real value. I hope that my stories and poems can continue to bring my readers happiness and contribute to disability awareness and acceptance. In 2018 I have also won the JOHN XXIII College Creative Writing Competition for “Away with the Fairies” and the Eileen Thompson Poetry Prize for “Boys Figure”.
A Senior Sabotage
I woke up late in the morning after a solid ten hours sleep. I needed a good one after the overnight flights and all the travel logistics of the day before. I was excited because it was my first full day, on holiday in Japan, with my parents and grandfather, Charles.
I call my grandfather Grumpy Pumpy, because when I was a baby, he wanted me to call him Grand Pumps, but that didn’t work, so in typical Aussie slang fashion, it evolved. In all honesty, he is the grumpiest person I know, but I still love him. Why Pumps though? It’s a nickname he acquired decades before I was born. I have been told that it has something to do with a pair of boots he loved. Before he became my grandfather, many people knew him as Pumps. I think these days, more people know him as Gumpy Pumpy and he has embraced his descriptive new name. His ‘grumpy pumpiness’ certainly added a lot of unexpected excitement and laughs to our Japan holiday. This is a recount of just one incident he caused in Tokyo, that I consider worthy of sharing.
My parents and I prepared our breakfast in the tiny kitchenette. I had an egg on toast. Grumpy Pumpy was already seated at the compact dining table and looked up from his book. “You know you’ll get fat if you eat that, don’t you?” he scolded me. I nodded and said nothing. Mum and Dad looked at each other and smiled. We were all used to him criticising us. Grumpy Pumpy is very keen on eating well, which he needs to do to offset the fact that he drinks too much. Dad calls him a dichotomy. I had to look up ‘dichotomy’, but I think Dad is right.
My parents sat down with us at the little dining table. “What are we going to do to kick off our holiday?” I asked Mum. She slid some printouts over to me and with a gleam in her eye she replied “We’re going to start easy by going to a mall called Venus Fort, a Venetian style shopping mall.” I felt a tingle of excitement when I heard that! Shopping is one of my most favourite activities. Grumpy Pumpy had a different response and groaned in annoyance. “Don’t worry Dad,” Mum said to him “We’ll find you a nice bar to sit in, if you need a rest.”
It was a five minute walk to our nearest train station, Ushigome-yanagichō. After receiving some assistance from the station staff and learning how to use the ticket machine, we went to our platform and waited for the next train. Grumpy Pumpy said his back was hurting, as it often does. He wanted to sit down and rest, but there was nowhere to sit. Instead he decided to pass the time by doing some stretching exercises, including making lots of groaning noises, while leaning on the safety wall that separated the platform from the tracks.
As the bright headlights of the train approached, Mum commented that the train was arriving. Grumpy Pumpy straightened up and craned his head over the high wall, to take a look.
Then, I heard a sound so incredibly loud, that if I had heard it for any longer, I am quite certain that I would’ve experienced long term hearing loss. It physically hurt and it seemed to make time stand still. The train came to a screeching and abrupt halt right in front of us. That was also a surprise. I saw the drivers face clearly. He was shocked, like a wild animal caught in a spotlight. I yelled to my mum, who was also looking stunned, “Oh my God! What is happening?” Then, the noise stopped. The residual ringing in my ears was still at full volume and I was temporarily deaf, but I realised that I wasn’t going to die.
“I’m alive! Huzzah I’m alive!” I shouted as I turned to my dad. None of us could hear each other and we were all shouting at each other and waving our arms around. Uniformed staff rushed to our platform from all directions to deal with the emergency. There was no emergency, just a group of stupid tourists. Soon, the train started rolling forward and we noticed many people on board were looking at us and pointing. The train stopped again, at the right position aligned to the platform this time, and the doors opened to let us on.
“What the heck was that!” I shouted hysterically to Mum.
This time she heard me and shouted back, “I think Grumpy Pumpy stuck his head over the safety wall and triggered the emergency alarm. There was a warning sign not to do that on the wall.”
“I Did Not!” Grumpy Pumpy exclaimed. I glared at him. He was sitting sheepishly in the corner of the carriage, on one of the ‘seniors’ designated benches. He was trying to blend in, but he knew what he had done and had a blooming smirk on his face! As the shock disappeared, Mum, Dad and I started laughing at him. The expression on his face was so funny! Just like a cheeky delinquent.
Other passengers on the train stared angrily at us, whispering in a secretive and judgemental manner.
“People think we’re disgraceful,” I said shamefully.
A minute or so later, Grumpy Pumpy announced, “Alice. We are disgraceful!”
He still had that cheeky expression on his face. A few minutes later, we disembarked, oblivious to the ripples of disruption that Grumpy Pumpy had caused. We were about ten kilometres away from where our journey had begun, but even here, at Shinjuku Train Station, people had been affected.
“Charles!” said Dad, “You must’ve shut down the entire system. Look at that!”
Dad pointed to the schedule board. From top to bottom, every train on it read, DELAYED.
“Disgraceful!” muttered Grumpy Pumpy.
I call my grandfather Grumpy Pumpy, because when I was a baby, he wanted me to call him Grand Pumps, but that didn’t work, so in typical Aussie slang fashion, it evolved. In all honesty, he is the grumpiest person I know, but I still love him. Why Pumps though? It’s a nickname he acquired decades before I was born. I have been told that it has something to do with a pair of boots he loved. Before he became my grandfather, many people knew him as Pumps. I think these days, more people know him as Gumpy Pumpy and he has embraced his descriptive new name. His ‘grumpy pumpiness’ certainly added a lot of unexpected excitement and laughs to our Japan holiday. This is a recount of just one incident he caused in Tokyo, that I consider worthy of sharing.
My parents and I prepared our breakfast in the tiny kitchenette. I had an egg on toast. Grumpy Pumpy was already seated at the compact dining table and looked up from his book. “You know you’ll get fat if you eat that, don’t you?” he scolded me. I nodded and said nothing. Mum and Dad looked at each other and smiled. We were all used to him criticising us. Grumpy Pumpy is very keen on eating well, which he needs to do to offset the fact that he drinks too much. Dad calls him a dichotomy. I had to look up ‘dichotomy’, but I think Dad is right.
My parents sat down with us at the little dining table. “What are we going to do to kick off our holiday?” I asked Mum. She slid some printouts over to me and with a gleam in her eye she replied “We’re going to start easy by going to a mall called Venus Fort, a Venetian style shopping mall.” I felt a tingle of excitement when I heard that! Shopping is one of my most favourite activities. Grumpy Pumpy had a different response and groaned in annoyance. “Don’t worry Dad,” Mum said to him “We’ll find you a nice bar to sit in, if you need a rest.”
It was a five minute walk to our nearest train station, Ushigome-yanagichō. After receiving some assistance from the station staff and learning how to use the ticket machine, we went to our platform and waited for the next train. Grumpy Pumpy said his back was hurting, as it often does. He wanted to sit down and rest, but there was nowhere to sit. Instead he decided to pass the time by doing some stretching exercises, including making lots of groaning noises, while leaning on the safety wall that separated the platform from the tracks.
As the bright headlights of the train approached, Mum commented that the train was arriving. Grumpy Pumpy straightened up and craned his head over the high wall, to take a look.
Then, I heard a sound so incredibly loud, that if I had heard it for any longer, I am quite certain that I would’ve experienced long term hearing loss. It physically hurt and it seemed to make time stand still. The train came to a screeching and abrupt halt right in front of us. That was also a surprise. I saw the drivers face clearly. He was shocked, like a wild animal caught in a spotlight. I yelled to my mum, who was also looking stunned, “Oh my God! What is happening?” Then, the noise stopped. The residual ringing in my ears was still at full volume and I was temporarily deaf, but I realised that I wasn’t going to die.
“I’m alive! Huzzah I’m alive!” I shouted as I turned to my dad. None of us could hear each other and we were all shouting at each other and waving our arms around. Uniformed staff rushed to our platform from all directions to deal with the emergency. There was no emergency, just a group of stupid tourists. Soon, the train started rolling forward and we noticed many people on board were looking at us and pointing. The train stopped again, at the right position aligned to the platform this time, and the doors opened to let us on.
“What the heck was that!” I shouted hysterically to Mum.
This time she heard me and shouted back, “I think Grumpy Pumpy stuck his head over the safety wall and triggered the emergency alarm. There was a warning sign not to do that on the wall.”
“I Did Not!” Grumpy Pumpy exclaimed. I glared at him. He was sitting sheepishly in the corner of the carriage, on one of the ‘seniors’ designated benches. He was trying to blend in, but he knew what he had done and had a blooming smirk on his face! As the shock disappeared, Mum, Dad and I started laughing at him. The expression on his face was so funny! Just like a cheeky delinquent.
Other passengers on the train stared angrily at us, whispering in a secretive and judgemental manner.
“People think we’re disgraceful,” I said shamefully.
A minute or so later, Grumpy Pumpy announced, “Alice. We are disgraceful!”
He still had that cheeky expression on his face. A few minutes later, we disembarked, oblivious to the ripples of disruption that Grumpy Pumpy had caused. We were about ten kilometres away from where our journey had begun, but even here, at Shinjuku Train Station, people had been affected.
“Charles!” said Dad, “You must’ve shut down the entire system. Look at that!”
Dad pointed to the schedule board. From top to bottom, every train on it read, DELAYED.
“Disgraceful!” muttered Grumpy Pumpy.
