Editor's Choice
The Mystery of the Wooden Box (Henrietta Branford Writing Competition Winner)
The unmanned rowing boat escaped the current, and veered towards the quay. Wood struck wood, sending a shiver through the planks beneath my feet. The boat came to rest with its flank against the wooden ladder that descended into the water, as if inviting me to climb down and board it.
It was still now, but not silent. On the deck lay a long box of wine-red wood, studded with tiny, tarnished mirrors. From within came a soft but insistent knocking.
I walked towards the box shivering with fear. I wondered what could be inside but couldn’t bear the thought of it being something bad that I had unleashed. I slowly, but carefully, lifted the box and tried to look through a tiny crack that was in it.
The boat started to sail away and before I knew what was happening, I was in the middle of the sea. I was crying and crying and threw the box into the sea.The box opened and I saw at the bottom of it five little objects. I reached out and brought the box back into the boat.
I tipped the box over on to the deck of the boat and out fell: a door knocker, glove, rag dress, strings and a flower.
I wondered why such eclectic objects were in that box and what did they all have in common.
People always said that I have a vivid imagination so I thought and thought and thought, and then I realised that all these objects could have been from fairy tales. The door knocker could be from Alice in Wonderland. Alice could have had a door knocker and then decided to get a doorbell, so the door knocker ran away as it was no longer needed.
I liked that idea, but what about all the other objects? What fairy tales did they come from?
I love the story about Cinderella, it’s my favourite story and maybe the rag dress is Cinderella’s because when she became a princess she didn’t need her rag dress anymore so it ran away because otherwise it would have gone in the bin.
So then I thought about the glove. Why the glove was in there and why was there only one glove?
Peter Pan! I remembered that Captain Hook only had one hand and so only used one glove. The hook didn’t need a glove and so the glove also ran away.
I finally understood all of the items. But I didn’t understand why the strings and flower were in there. I couldn’t remember any fairy tale with flowers in it.
I looked down at my hands to think and I saw my thumbs. Well there are no fairy tales about thumbs so that’s no help. I couldn’t get the word thumb off my mind, it must have been a clue. What fairytale’s name starts off with a thumb? It took me quite a while to figure out what it was but I did eventually remember Thumbelina!
How could I forget - that was such a lovely story! When Thumbelina went to live in the house with her mummy, the flower that she was born in never got seen again so it must have run away as well!
All of these objects must have been very sad to all run away. And the strings must have run away as well. The only story that I could think of with strings in it was Pinocchio, but why would the strings run away? I wiped away my tears from earlier and one of my tears hit the wooden box. That was what made me realise that Pinocchio was once wooden but turned into a real boy and so he didn’t need his strings to operate him anymore.
I was glad that I had worked it all out. It probably wasn’t true but I liked the idea of it all. I felt so sorry for all of these objects that they were once in great stories and got taken out because they were no longer needed.
I decided to write a story about them in my notepad to show my Mum and Dad when I finally got off the boat, but after a while I gave up. It was too hard for me to write such a story. I was only in Year 2 but my Mum always said never give up, so I didn’t. I carried on trying to write a story. I was found by the police the next morning. My Mum and Dad were really worried about me and had called the police asking them to help look for me!
I was taken home but left all of the objects lying on the bottom of the boat. When I had gone the boat carried on sailing away. I left my unfinished story there as well.
For homework at school we had to write a story, so I did a story about all the objects I found in the boat that never got to be in a story until the end without disappearing half way through. But they finally did.
And that is the story you have just read.
Abby Posner (10) Hertfordshire
4 responses so far ↓
1 Charlotte Jacqueline Pearson // Jun 26, 2007 at 3:28 pm
This is a very interesting story and it makes you think!
2 Eloise Thomas // Jun 26, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I Really liked the ideas in your story, Abby!Where DID you get the idea about the fairytale charecters and their missing things from?It takes me ages to think of stuff like that!!!
3 Izzy // Nov 22, 2007 at 8:34 pm
The story didn’t really grab my attention. The title was great but you maybe should have planned it out more carefully. Good try, though!
4 Peggy // Mar 31, 2008 at 5:35 am
The beginning was great–vocabulary, description, everything. But as it moved onto the part with the box, the style of writing began to alter. It changed to a…younger outlet, as if a story written for little kids. But overall, it’s a great story for a 10 year old! [I'm 12]
Leave a Comment