Storytelling Contest

On March, 21 the First MELTA Storytelling Festival was held in the Children’s Library in Moscow. We start publishing the most interesting stories composed by schoolchildren.

Falling Stars

I’m going to tell you a most fascinating dramatic story. Somebody just doesn’t believe it, but sure, it can happen to everyone.

During our life we all make a lot of mistakes, but some of them are impossible to correct. These mistakes leave so to say a deep scar which will remain in our heart forever till we stop breathing.

So once there was a young girl and a guy – Juliet and Christian. They lived many years, many centuries ago. Their love was so nice! It was such a sincere, huge, incredible, romantic love! They couldn’t live without each other; they were ready to do everything to keep their love.

Years passed and they lived together happily, till one Saturday morning. That day Juliet got up and said to him: “You say you love me and I want you to prove it.”

He was really surprised. Having heard these words he wondered what she meant.

“Well…I want you to present me star-rain. Yes! Real star-rain! My cherished dream is to see it! Give it to me please! It’s all I need.”

“It’s all I need…” – these words followed Christian’s mind just like an echo.

“But how can I get it for her? OK, I will do it by all means whether it’s wrong or right! I SHALL DO IT!” – He said to himself and went away.

A few days passed, when Juliet began to guess that he had disappeared. However, it was really so. Going to bed she said to herself: “Oh, I’m sure everything’s all right. He will be back soon. I know it.”

Hardly had she fallen asleep when suddenly a familiar voice called her. This voice asked her to come up to the opened window. As this voice was too familiar she did as he said.

Suddenly the Moon disappeared and all the lights turned off… Oh, what magnificent picture she saw! It was star-rain! Yes! Real star-rain! She couldn’t believe her eyes. How brilliant it was! She saw stars whirling around her!!! The stars were so bright and big that her heart began to throb quickly.

Later the magic was over and she fell on the floor and fell asleep.

In her sleep an angel came to her. But this angel was Christian. Yes, it was he.

“Hi, dear” – he said.

“You see, I’ve made your dream come true, but there is one thing…I could never come back. To make your dream come true I had to give up my life. And now I’m an angel. Be happy, dear…Be happy.”

Of course, Juliet got a bitter lesson from this experience, but it was impossible to change anything. May be it was her fate, but in that case this fate was terrible.

So, dear ladies and gentlemen, I hope you’ve understood the message I wanted to bring home to you: dreaming about something don’t forget about what you have already got. If your dream comes true, it may change your whole life. So, in other words – BE PLEASED WITH WHATEVER YOU HAVE, OTHERWISE YOU MAY LOSE EVERYTHING.

Elina Babayants, School 1208, 7B Form,

Teacher N. V. Karelina

Fish or Dolphin?

Once upon a time somewhere in the ocean there lived a fish, named Charlie. He had many friends and a large family. His best friend through childhood was Lucy. Lucy was an attractive fish with a scale of different colours; it was red, yellow, blue and even orange. But for Charlie it didn’t matter that much, he saw in her only a friend.

In general Charlie was a happy fish, but actually there was one thing that made him feel miserable. Charlie, Lucy and their friends were really rather small and big fish used to have them for dinner. So every time they saw any of those fish they had to hide or they would have problems.

Charlie wasn’t satisfied with it at all but he had nothing to do. And each night when he went to bed he dreamed about turning into a dolphin. Yes, yes – a dolphin! It was his greatest wish. He didn’t want any more to be a kind of fish he was because he didn’t like the idea of him or any of his family or friends to be eaten by bi8g fish. And dolphins were respected by the ocean’s inhabitants because they made wonderful tricks and had their own unique language. And one day his dream came true.

One day Charlie swam away so far that he didn’t know where he was. Suddenly he saw a beautiful cave, there was light in it. Charlie swam that way. In the cave Charlie saw Wise Crab, who greeted him. Wise Crab said that in that cave any of his wishes might come true. Charlie had no other dream but to turn into a dolphin. Then Wise Crab said magic words and Charlie found him rather different. He was a dolphin as he had dreamed!

For the first time Charlie was very happy but then he felt that it was not so easy to be a dolphin if you were born a fish. It was difficult for him to learn dolphins` tricks and now none of his friends and family could understand him because he spoke dolphins` language.

One day he met Lucy. He suddenly felt that he loved her and tried to say it but she didn’t understand a word and swam away. When Charlie disappeared Lucy realized that she couldn’t live without him. And when she saw Charlie as a dolphin she found something familiar in his eyes.

One night Wise Crab came to Charlie and asked him if he was happy to be a dolphin. Charlie confessed that he wasn’t. Wise Crab was interested why he did not feel happy.

“I don’t feel here at home, I miss my family and friends and Lucy. I shouldn’t have left them.”

“I can turn you into a fish again – said Wise Crab. – But will it make you happy? What can I do for you?”

“Wise Crab, would you be so kind as to make bigger fish not use us as food?”

“You want too much, Charlie, but I’ll try to think out something.”

Next day Charlie returned home. On his way he found big fish eating alga, Wise Crab made them vegetarians. Everybody welcomed Charlie very warmly, especially Lucy. And now Charlie had no other dream than just to be himself again and be with Lucy.

Olga Minaeva, School 1208, 8A Form,

Teacher N. S. Mikunis

Dream

His name was Alex Lost. He was a usual man of a big city, and his life seemed very complicated to him, as he had the same problems as all the other people. An ordinary person… He was a selfish 23-year old man whose wishes were simple: to earn money to pay for his flat and to buy something to eat. His life was absolutely empty, but he didn’t realize it or maybe he DIDN’T WANT to see it. He had no dream to cherish which could help him find his way. Alex dreamt only of getting a dream. That morning Alex Aniston got up at 9:00. He had never been late for work which started at 9:30 before (he was the best lawyer and earned a lot of money, and it was rather far from his expensive house and it took him 30 minutes to get to it by car. Alex grew very frightened because his boss was rather strict with the people who were late. But to tell the truth, Alex felt like sending his work, his boss and even his life… far away...and for the first time in his life Alex took his phone and lied that he had been injured. He felt he was in need, in dire need of changing something, of making his life exciting, interesting and full!

At first he decided just to watch his plasma-TV as usual, but when he looked through the window and saw the cheerful spring sun, calling him, Alex put on his coat and left the flat. He met his old friend John who told him he had married a wonderful girl and soon they would have a baby. Alex had a terrible character; he was suspicious, critical, unhelpful, moody and impatient. He was very difficult to deal with, and John was the only person who was close to him. But suddenly Alex felt he had lost him – John’s family at that moment was the main thing in his life – the people, who could support and understand him. But Alex was alone, even more than that, he was completely, utterly, ABSOLUTELY alone: nobody missed him, nobody waited for him. When he understood it hе came to the conclusion that he wasn’t actually living; he felt poor and miserable, deprived of usual human love. All of a sudden, something came into his mind, which changed the situation in a second. He got a dream – а dream to love and be loved in return, a dream of being a special person for someone.

That night, for the first time in his life, Alex couldn’t sleep. He was thinking the situation over long and hard. He had everything: he was clever, a lot of women wanted to be with him (but he understood they wanted only his money), he had a wonderful house, a fantastic job. He had achieved a lot, but nobody met him in the evening when he was tired and wanted to tell someone about the events at his work. Nobody. NO-BO-DY. The next day Alex Lost got up at 8:30. He had enough time to get to work, but he didn’t even warn his colleagues that he wouldn’t come to work. Alex’s mood was wonderful and his spirit was bright because now there was something he was eager to achieve, to find. He just took his MP3-player and sat into his car and drove somewhere far away from the life, which he didn’t want to live any more. He was driving towards his dream.

Anastasia Veretennikova, School 1208, 8B Form,

Teacher N. S. Mikunis