Creative Corner by Sonia Marta

creative corner

by Sonia Marta

CREATIVE CORNER Story

The Williams and The City of Chaos

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!” wailed a voice from inside the banana.

It was foggy outside, and it had been raining all day. William was outside playing with mud, not noticing his mother shouting.

“Darling, it’s dinner time!” she yelled. He took no notice. Again, she yelled. And again. He pretended not to hear her. William was one of the naughty boys, who would spend all day playing Fortnite, pretending his parents wouldn’t exist; take no notice of them; or wouldn’t do his homework. His mother was getting quite annoyed now, her face turning a burning red colour, and steam almost exploding out of her ears. She rushed to him - by now already soaking wet due to the rain -and pulled him up from the muddy ground. “I’ve had quite enough of that young man!” she roared while pulling him to the house. “What happened to you all day? You have been completely avoiding me lately. What’s gotten into you?”

“I don’t know ma’.” William answered sarcastically.

“Well sort it out then.” replied his mother. She walked into the house, leading her son to the kitchen and slamming the door. She called his father downstairs and now they all sat around the messy table. “We need to have a serious talk,” she said with a face William had never seen before. This time she was serious. She grabbed her flamingo pen from her fawn-coloured purse. She was moving assertively with a look of disappointment in her eyes. A red pocket notebook was then followed by a handful of crumpled papers. “Right. We need to do something about you.” she glanced at William. “What happened? You know you can tell us everything, right?”

“Yeah.” answered William quickly. He tried not to make eye contact as he knew this would only make things worse.

“William?” questioned his Father.

“Yes Pop?” he replied quite bored.

Father put on a brave voice, and said: “Look, we know that you aren’t a little child anymore, but we need to know what’s gotten into you. Me and your mother are very concerned. And you know very well that we don’t like it when you’re hiding things from us. So that’s why we need to be aware of what has changed. You don’t seem to be yourself anymore lately.”

“I really don’t know!” he replied sarcastically.

“Well it seems like this discussion will have to be held tomorrow, but for now young man, you go right up to your bedroom and sleep. Tomorrow is a very big day for you,” interrupted Mother.

William was changing schools and tomorrow was his first day. He wasn’t ecstatic at all. He cried a lot before he arrived in this huge and crowded city. If you’re wondering why they had to move, it’s because of his parents’ new jobs – their salary had increased by about seven times, and his parents couldn’t possibly reject the offer, as this meant the world to them. This meant that they wouldn’t have time anymore for William, and this led to him being lost, with no friends, and nobody to talk to.

The next morning, Mother came into William’s bedroom to get him ready for school. It was sunny outside, and very warm. She promised him they would go to the seaside when a jolly day arrived, but because of what happened the other day, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

“William, it’s wake up time!” she said softly from the bedroom door. He gently twisted a bit, and then finally opened his eyes.

CREATIVE CORNER Story “Good morning ma’” he said sleepily, with his eyes almost shut. You see, he wasn’t such a morning person at all.

“Put on your new school uniform – it’s on your desk, and then come downstairs for breakfast. Remember, you don’t want to be late for your first day of school, do you?” And with that, she headed towards the kitchen to make his food: a medium-sized omelette with extra, extra, extra cheese; avocado and extra, extra, extra onion; and a smoothie with strawberries and bananas. After about ten minutes, William dashed downstairs, ready for school, with his backpack on his tiny shoulders, waiting for his breakfast in the huge, new kitchen.

Mother had only finished mixing the ingredients for his son’s smoothie, and handed it over to him.

“Thanks ma’” he said gratefully and with a great smile on his face. He quickly gobbled it up like he had a mouth as big as a crocodile. He then put his roller skates on, not forgetting to take his shoes in a bag. William’s family lived quite far from the school he was transferring to, and so he decided to take either a bicycle or a scooter.

“Not this time, darling,” she said. “I’ll give you a ride to school today. So take your skates off and hop in the car.” she added. So, with that, he jumped in the car.

Suddenly, the road started to feel bumpy, and noise was filling the car. Something awkward was taking place. Mother, on the other side, seemed not to notice at all what was forming around her skinny body.

“Mother?” questioned William. Mother took no notice. Again, he asked, and again she did not answer. Neither did she turn around to face him. He tried once again – just to make sure that she didn’t mishear – or anything else. The same thing happened again. William was getting quite scared now, and started to panic a little. I guess you didn’t think it was because of the age (the reason he was panicking, (oh, and by the way; he is eight years old, just one more week before his ninth birthday) but because Mother always answered him way quicker than what happened now. She would normally even answer before the person finished his or her sentence – it was like she could read what was in that person’s head. Getting back to the story, William was absolutely petrified of what was going to happen next, and so that is why he had to be really brave and do something he had never done before: break the rules. And so, he took off his seatbelt and shuffled towards the front seat, where Mother was staying. He gently patted her on the shoulder, waiting for a response. There was no sign of movement – absolutely nothing. He was panicking now. One more thing, even a little one and he would burst into a bomb of fear.

CRASH! Suddenly, all he could see was road – sky – road – sky – road – sky. William woke up. He looked around in a daze. He realised he was on the ceiling of the car, while the car was somehow on its roof. He kicked the door in desperation, trying to exit. He hastily opened the door, when suddenly, he was now completely falling down in the middle of nowhere.

Falling.

And falling.

And falling.

And falling.

And falling.

Then something came into view. What looked like the top of Tilted Towers appeared, marking the entrance to some sort of place. It was a sort of a vintage place; quite old I can say. William landed with a bump. He looked around and noticed a road. A U-shaped road. He ran.

He kept running on the U-shaped road, desperately trying to find help. In the middle of the silence, he yelled at the top of his voice: “Somebody help me!” All of a sudden, he saw a banana (yes, a banana) running towards him. As you could imagine, seeing a human-sized banana running towards him, had William slightly confused. His brain started filling up with thousands of questions, like ‘What is wrong with me?’ or ‘Am I really seeing a walking banana?’. Unbelievably, it kept jogging casually towards him, and it responded: “? Ouy era Htrae no tahw” which meant ‘What on Earth are you?’. After what I think was about two minutes, William had realised that he was talking backwards. He tried to responding politely, but this is what he said anxiously: “Mailliw si eman ym.” he tried responding ‘My name is William’. However, he didn’t speak as fluently as the banana whose name wasn’t figured out yet. They then spent some time talking to each other, becoming friends quickly. I can say that William was now quite excited, not only that he met him, but the fact that he met someone he could actually talk to; they talked about why he was so distant lately – it was because of them moving and about him having to leave his best friends in his past. Move somewhere new, that sort of stuff.

And so, when they talked, William realised something, something that made him regret what he had done in the past. Realised that he needed his parents more than ever. He turned into the best person he could ever be. And he found out all sorts of new stuff – stuff that he missed out. And because of that, he started being the best he could ever be. William Williams. Tilted Towers was now the place he had found himself – his true self – the place he will always be grateful of. He promised he would start doing his homework from now on, and listen to his parents. And all those things about the old William that I have mentioned in the beginning.

But then, everything started to shake; it shook and shook like millions of earthquakes taking place. Danger had struck them. Suddenly, a honk was heard. And another, followed by what I think were 6 others. Then something roared “YOU LOST!!!

HAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahhahaha.” Everything started to make sense now: William was back in his huge, black Rolls Royce, with his mother angrily honking at people’s cars – and him, with his phone, who just lost a Fortnite game; they were on the way to school. This was going to be his new start.

Sonia M.

CREATIVE CORNER Story

The Wandering Knight

The Wandering Knight. That was his name. Or, at least that’s what people called him.

I first discovered this fact when I was at my grandmother’s- she apparently had heard it from rumours.

She also told me that she wasn’t one hundred percent sure that that was his or her real name. Well, I was thinking it sounded more like a nickname anyway. It just wouldn’t sound right. ‘How could a person’s name be The Wandering Knight?’ I used to think.

Well, it all started to make sense the very first time I saw him. Yes, it was a he.

He was dressed in shiny, silver armour, except for his steely face; apparently he had a deadly stare when he looked you in the eye. Luckily, I didn’t get to see his deadly stare because I was standing on the highest hill of the village. Probably the whole country. Maybe even the entire continent! If there was an Olympic trophy awarded for glancing down with absolutely no fear, I would totally win. But there is no such thing. Perhaps that’s why I was the only person not deeply captivated by his charm and the sparkle of his armour.

I had once seen a colleague in my last school, crowded in the fascinating danger dust zone, sulking at the sparkle in his eyes. DISGUSTING! Well, it was her clothes that she was ruining not mine. And, anyways, it was her dilemma and not mine. So, I had no mercy. To be honest, I actually burst into tears.

I became lost, deep in thought. How could he be that wonderful?

I thought and thought for ages. You couldn’t tell exactly, but the most hilarious idea that raced through my mind was that he was a wizard. A real-life wizard. And that was the reason why my colleague was sulking.

I had to be brave. I needed to be.

CREATIVE CORNER Story

This was my plan: walk normally down and …well …push my way through the crowded village square that seemed to have formed at the very first second sight of The Wandering Knight, up to the very first line of villagers eagerly gazing into his far away, distant eyes in want and hope.

I looked up, steering through his battle worn mask!

I pinched myself, trying not to be caught by his alluring spell, frozen in time, lost to all but the deafening sound above my head. The mechanism I saw floating in the foggy, grey sky has haunted me ever since that day. It looked like a flying fish, but with no face.

I unexpectedly slapped myself. What was I doing? It was as if The Wandering Knight was controlling me. But how? Black magic? Telepathy? I was too busy to think, preoccupied by the tremendous pain in my cheek, feeling like a trillion knives stabbing me. OUCH! The pain was killing me. Why? I couldn’t walk any more. I turned around for a millisecond. Everything was the same as before. Then, I fell on my knees.

The next thing I noticed, right after standing up and gathering myself together, was that I heard a grass-cutting machine. Where did it come from?

A moment later, everything disappeared! Where was The Wandering Knight? Where were all the villagers?

I was in a huge, orange kitchen with a lady. Who was she?

Suddenly, everything made sense. It was all a dream.

Transported back to San Francisco, in my kitchen, beside mum and the irritating neighbour from next door cutting the grass. Things were just as they had been when I left.

I glanced at the clock. It had been but a minute.

Story by Sonia M. Illustrations by Ecaterina B.

CREATIVE CORNER Story

CREATIVE CORNER Story

My First Book of Poetry I first started to ask my mother to write poems with me when I was 3 years old. I loved the sound of rhymes as it was fun and easy for me to memorise them, so we ended up spending hours and hours together just playing with words making up poems that often made me laugh.

We usually choose topics that were normal every day activities I we did together, which eventually grew into a collection of more than 300 poems over a period of about 4 years, from which 16 have been selected for my first book of poetry, titled ORACOL. I chose ORACOL as the title for my book because for me it is a journal, but in this case written in rhyme.

The poems can be read and enjoyed by children of all ages, but can also be used as a source of inspiration by mothers with children aged 2-5 years to explain in a joyful way to their children what it is like going to kindergarten, where you have the opportunity to dance and draw and learn about animals and the many new and wonderful things I was experiencing each and every day.

It’s also a book of poetry which captures the feeling of my time with my mum, which for me is always really enjoyable, as my mum always encourages me and makes me feel like I can do and achieve anything I set my mind to.

This book is also a reflection of the encouragement and support I received at the International British School of Bucharest, especially in the creative writing club, which I’ve attended with devotion since I was 4 years old. The teachers running these clubs really nurtured my talent, encouraging me to pursue my dream of becoming a writer.

The beautiful illustrations in my book are by Ioana Rusu, an extremely talented artist who says she was inspired by my poetry and my close relationship with my mother. The pictures are bright and colourful, full of warmth and sensitivity, and in my mind compliment my poetry perfect;ly, in a way telling their own story, so I hope the children who read my book will be able to relate to them and love them as much as I do.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to Tinmar Energy, the International British School of Bucharest, Autograf, along with other sponsors who prefer to remain anonymous, because without your support this project would not have been possible.

I hope my book will be a source of inspiration for my friends, my family, and for all children who have a dream. I realise now more than ever what it means to have a dream, and how with hard work and determination, believing in yourself and having the right people around you to support you, it can come true.

If you would like a copy of Sonia’s book, it can be found in all Autograf stores throughout Bucharest.