New Writing North x The Word short story competition 2nd place.
A short story about a girl who creates an imaginary world to escape her broken home, experimenting with forgotten language of the North East.
It was faint but it could be heard. Not too far in the distance. The cry of pure joy. Round a thin winding pathway guided by fir trees either side, came Miya.
Now you’ve never seen anything like Miya; mud everywhere even in her hair, scrapes and bruises from her head to her bare toes from all her wild adventures, with clothes she’d clearly grown out of and ripped to fit on.
She had bright eyes though. Like the moon not the sun. They glowed.
You’ve never seen anything like Miya and neither had I.
She ran at such a speed, arms outstretched as if she were an aeroplane, I thought she was going to run straight through me. But she didn’t, she came to a halt just a foot in front of me.
We were the same height and probably the same age - not old enough to be out in the woods alone.
“Hiya, I’m Miya”, then she asked, as if she’d never seen another person before; “ Who are you?”
I didn’t have time to answer before she spoke again.
“It’s areet, I divent need to know ya name. You can still play with ‘is… haway, I’ve got something to show ya.”
She gave me no choice but to follow her as she yanked my hand and led me away. We walked towards a clearing through a cover of trees. I continued to follow behind this very peculiar girl as I had the whole way there. She let go of my hand to push away the branches hiding our destination. All I could see was grass with two giant rocks dotted in the middle and the rest of the forest behind them. Miya ran excitedly over to these rocks and I have to admit I was intrigued - what could she find so fun about being here?
Standing at the foot of the biggest rock my strange new acquaintance turned to me and admitted, “people would think I’m a bloody barmpot for doing things like this,” she began to climb the face of the rock, ” good job there’s nobody else here!”
‘A barmpot?’ I thought.
When I looked back at her she was halfway to the top of this rock and moving as agile as a cat. I rushed to the other side awaiting her next move. She looked around. Looked down at me with a smile. Squated slightly. And threw herself off the top striking a starfish pose in mid air. Then landed perfectly right next to me.
“It’s geet fun! Try it!” For some reason, despite sensing the crazy, I trusted her and began to ascend the rock.
“Aye, like that,” Miya encouraged as I made the climb. I hesitated when I got to the top. Peering over the edge, Miya some hoe looked smaller than before and the distance from me to the ground grew tremendously in my head.
“Jump!” Miya shouted. And again I trusted her.
“Ready… Go!” She called. And I went. Flinging myself off. Forgetting to pose mid air like she had. Landing imperfectly next to Miya.
“Bet you're chuffed you did that?”she said, looking at me with a great big smile. I smiled back because for whatever reason, I was chuffed.
We spent the rest of the day running around and playing in the forest. Miya took me all around her little world. First we climbed the tallest trees we could find, all the way to the top so we could see the view.
“So ya got a ma and da?” Miya asked me. I shook my head and she replied, “neither do I … don’t want them either.”
We picked flowers together and did cartwheels, I felt like we were free to do anything. That’s probably why Miya liked living out here.
She led me behind a giant bush.
“Right get geet low behind here, scoot over a bit, and shurrup.”
We crouched, listening to all the sounds of the forest. It was magical.
“Where do you live? I just live ‘ere all on me tod, since a was a bairn. It’s mint … absolutely baltic on a night time though. Probably gonna have to divvy up me stuff now you’re here as well.”
“Watch the proggles through here… they bloody sting.”
She shared her rock collection with me and lay on the grass looking up at the sky and laughing together.
“You probably think I blather don’t you. I’ll stop for a bit - give ya noggin a rest. I’m paggered anyway, are you?”
“Wait, what’s that over there?” Miya cryed. I peered in the direction she was looking, I had to squint my eyes to see it.
“I think it’s a tunnel! Bagsy first one to explore!” She ran over to the opening of a small tunnel that looked like two little trees had curled over to each other and formed an archway. She began to crawl through.
“Ew, I canne see anything in here. It’s all claggy. Come on…” She beckoned me to follow her.
I waited for her to go through.
“Haway you numptie.” She crawled all the way through the tunnel. Miya jumped up out of the end of the tunnel. Infront of her was her dirty, cluttered living room. Empty beer bottles flooded the floor and there were piles of clothes and old takeaway boxes everywhere. Crashes and shouting could be heard in another room. She grabbed her ragdoll.
All Miya saw was fresh fields and the tallest most beautiful trees in front of her. She started running faster than she ever had.
She ran and ran through her living room jumping off the sofa and swirling about. Miya couldn’t stop smiling as she ran, doing cartwheels, whooping and laughing. She ran straight out the front door, down the driveway and into the bonnet of a car.
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