Meeting my five-year-old self

For our creative writing competition this, we partnered with Welland Park Academy and asked the young people to submit entries responding to the following briefs:

• “If you were to set up home on the moon, what would you bring with you, and what would you miss?”
• “Write a story about your 5-year-old self meeting your current self”.

This entry is from Curtis Mason-Moor.

I was walking along the dark street. Plop, plop went the raindrops as they splashed into the ever growing puddles. I lifted my head as my neck was hurting from being bent down for 15 minutes. Then, I saw a little boy that looked familiar. He was VERY short for his age, like me, and he also had sparkling, saucer[1]wide, blue eyes.

In his hand he held an umbrella with a Lightning McQueen print (he seemed to like Lightning McQueen). He wore a raincoat with the same printing as his umbrella. He had the tiniest little welly boots that made me want to go “Oh so cute!” He looked up at me and said with a smile on his face.

“Hello, big boy.” I was flustered. I didn’t know what to do. It was all I could do to bring myself to say “Hello, little boy.” Then it dawned on me. This boy was my 5 YEAR-OLD SELF! While I was staring into space in awe, something grabbed onto my leg.

I realised it was the child. “Take me with you.” He complained. “I need to find Chris,” he explained. Wait, Chris! Of course (Chris is my little brother).

“Where are Niki and Dough?” I asked him.

“They took me to the park before it started raining.”

“Oh”

“Then I left to find shelter and bumped into you.”

“Ok. Where are they now?”

“Don’t know. They probably went back home.”

“Well, let’s go find them. Do you know the way back?”. He stared at me.

Of course you don’t, you’re just a 5 year-old boy. I thought of the consequences. Well, I could take him in and have a 5-year-old at my tail all the time. Or, I could leave him here at the mercy of the world. I decided I would take him with me. Then, at least it wouldn’t be so lonely at home.