Page 18 - Words

Creativity Lam Jinn Laan, Serene 5D (2016-2017)

Leonardo’s lips trembled, ‘No, Lisa, you went out to the lake, did you?
Why?’
‘Yes. I went out to the lake and broke the ice to get fish. But that
doesn’t matter, all that matters is that we have food and we can survive!’
‘Lisa, there’s a blizzard out there. Don’t do this ever again.’
‘All that matters is that we survive... All that matters is that we
survive...’ Lisa repeated.
‘Lisa... Lisa... Please...’ Leonardo pleaded, using his hands to touch
Lisa’s cheeks.
‘No, Leo. This is the only way!’ she screamed, as if to give herself
strength to justify her actions.
After that, every dawn, Lisa would return with a fish. Every dawn, Lisa
would look paler and paler. Every dawn, when Leonardo held her in his arms,
shivers moved down to his body, as Lisa was cold like the snow outside.
Leonardo could not smile anymore. Each day, he would grab a stone
and a bunch of branches, and start rubbing the branches against the stone.
Day by day, he rubbed and rubbed.
Pop. It was a spark of fire. The small bit of orange startled Leonardo.
He crawled away at once.
Slowly, he turned back to observe the unknown danger. However,
it was nowhere to be seen. Leonardo’s curiosity was awoken instantly. He
rubbed the branch against the stone again. Pop. There was another spark.
He was encouraged to rub the branch even harder. Soon, the spark became
a small fire. It crackled and took over the branch Leonardo was holding.
The heat was too much for Leonardo that he threw the branch over to the
bunch of broken branches he had used to rub against the rock. The fire

18 With Pride, We Stride