Kwartał z przyszłością
W ramach projektu „Kwartał z przyszłością” zaprosiliśmy uczniów naszej szkoły do udziału w konkursie na opowiadanie w języku angielskim. Wizja przyszłości przedstawiona przez większość uczestników była – niestety – ponura i pesymistyczna. Ocieplenie globalne… Świat bez roślin… Wszechobecny pył… Brak tlenu… Pycha, która zgubiła mieszkańców Ziemi… To tematy, które zostały poruszone w pracach konkursowych.
W konkursie wzięło udział siedmiu uczniów. Jury złożone z nauczycieli języka angielskiego postanowiło przyznać następujące nagrody: I miejsce – Marii Kurko (obecnie klasa IIb) za tekst „The Sunset in Cold Summer”, II miejsce ex aequo – Annie Kamińskiej (klasa IIIa) za pracę „The End” i Jakubowi Kancerkowi (z klasy IId) za tekst „My Brain”, III miejsce – Julii Migdałek (z klasy IId) za opowiadanie „The Future”. Dyplomy uznania otrzymali Aleksandra Kubas (IIb), Wojciech Kufel (IIe), Filip Cichowski (IIIa).
Poniżej zamieszczamy teksty nagrodzonych opowiadań:
Maria Kurko “The sunset in Cold Summer”
The rain tapped on the windowsill like an uninvited guest, who wants to come in. Jenna was reading a book. She was sitting in an armchair, near the window, so she heard the rainsong very well. The girl’s brother, Alex, was exhausted after playing video games.
‘I want to sleep, but this annoying noise doesn’t let me,’ said Alex lying on the couch. ‘I hate it! I want to back to Dunfermline! Soon Skye will be under the sea,’ he grabbed his mobile phone and turned it on.
Jenna noticed it, so she pretended to be reaching for the biscuit tin without looking at the boy.
‘Alex, you are spending the whole day playing games on your phone! Go outside!’ she yelled suddenly.
‘Jenna! It’s raining! How can I…?’ Alex looked at the window.
Jenna opened the tin and took out one shortbread biscuit.
‘I’m going to see the sunset. Come with me,’ she suggested. ‘I’ll be ready soon.’ Having said that, she walked out of the room.
‘You are insane, lass!’ said Alex. He started reading new messages. He didn’t feel like leaving the house.
*****
When Jenna drank her cup of tea, she told her aunt that she was going outside.
‘Aye. Jenna, take Bonnie for a walk,’ said her aunt. ‘She’s here!’
The girl took the dog’s lead. She came into the kitchen and woke up the sleeping dog.
‘Come, Bonnie. We are going for a walk,’ she said.
‘Watch out for Selkies. They like sitting on seashores,’ said her aunt smiling.
****
Jenna didn’t want to go on the beach, because the rain changed the sand into a mire. That’s why the girl and the dog stood on the edge of the cliff. The sun slowly ended its daily routine.
‘Look, Bonnie! Look at…’ Jenna stopped speaking when the sun disappeared among the sea waves. It wasn’t a sunset. The sun drowned!
Jenna was scared. She couldn’t believe what had happened. Bonnie barked. She felt the girl’s fear.
‘Sshh! Bonnie stop!’ Jenna cried. She felt tears running down her cheeks.
Suddenly Jenna noticed ice forming on the sea surface. A frosty wind started blowing through the rain. She was freezing to the bone. The rain changed to snow.
Jenna saw the growing ice reach the top of the cliff. Oh, it’s Skye, not Iceland! What’s going on? thought the girl shocked. She pulled the dog’s lead, because Bonnie was still standing put.
‘Move on!’ snapped Jenna. She started running, but she fell down onto the ice. We were threatened by global warming! And what do we have? Bloody global freezing! thought the girl angrily spread on the ground.
She stood up and walked towards her aunt’s home. Unfortunately, the girl could see nothing through the snowstorm. Soon Jenna got lost, but she still went forward. She was walking for twenty minutes when she felt something wet in her shoes. Jenna looked down and she noticed that she was standing in a puddle. This water smelt like salt. The girl let Bonnie free, because she knew that she was trapped.
All Jenna could see now was the dog running away, when, suddenly, the ice broke, and she fell into the cold sea.
She felt nothing more.
Jakub Kancerek “My Brain’’
I’m here again, I know exactly where to go, I know what to do. I have little time, in two minutes, Sam will wake me up from a coma and the next attempt will be until tomorrow. I’m walking in the middle of the road and looking around checking to see if I missed any details. Darkness is above me, an endless space in which there is nothing. I move between two different worlds trying not to be out of the way.
On the left side I see modern buildings, each of them presents a different motive for my actions, everything is different and people dressed in suits are my stable thoughts and constant mode of action. Everything works fine, like one big machine. Nothing can disturb it, almost nothing.
On the right, in turn, there is eternal chaos. Colors creating something similar to the aurora borealis. Each man who visits this land is a different event, imaginary or real. Each color of a person means a different emotion and different action. From music to art. All crazy ideas are born there, emotions are born there. I love being in this part is so beautiful and carefree, almost always.
Shaking off, I quicken my pace. Nero, you have one goal, you need to go deeper, know what is inside you. I start running, I pass the metropolis and I lose sight of the color chum. I feel that I am going downhill, the vault seems darker and everything is quiet down. I haven’t been here yet but it’s my head what could happen to me, I’m not afraid. Repeating myself „I’m not afraid” all the time, I kept going forward.
The light source from two worlds barely reaches here. I don’t have time to look back, now there’s no turning back. I take a few steps forward and see the figure in the distance. Its posture reminds me, in the end it is my head that here everything will remind me to some extent. I look at my watch. I don’t have much time left, compress Nero. I’m trying to run up to the character. This one opens its eyes and I froze. This thing can’t be me.
Red, bloodshot eyes emerged from the darkness seething with hatred. I slowly take a step forward, wondering if this is really my subconsciousness. Suddenly I hear the sound of the chains and I see red eyes jumping towards me. I fall with terror covering myself with my arms and all I can think is „Can I die here?”.
-What are you, why are you here?!? – I can barely say these words. I don’t know what to expect from this creature.
-Don’t you recognize me, Nero? I’m finally you.
-How you are me, I know myself and I certainly don’t look like this! – How this thing can be me? Now I have the opportunity to look at „me” closely. A well-built man with gray skin. He has full scars on his body and shackles on his wrists, he is chained to something. I have no idea to what but I think I know why.
– Tell me what you are?
– I am your alterego.
It said this at moment when I felt an invisible force that pulled me back.
– DON’T THINK IT IS END! YOU WILL SEE ME BACK HERE!
– I’m counting on it.
The last thing I saw was „my” gray back. All lands around my head flew by. I closed my eyes, and the next thing I saw was Sam’s face.
Anna Kamińska “The End”
Cold breeze brushed over my skin, causing slight tingling in my cheeks. I took a deep breath, letting the air, soaked with aroma of smoke, fill my lungs. I don’t think the sky has ever been so dark and stars so bright, looking like diamonds scattered over jet black velvet. My granny told me the skies had always been most bewitching during those freezing winter nights. Yet, it was not the cold that bothered me, not at that moment. The only things that mattered were the stars and the wind, howling in the branches of trees. They were standing tall and proud, even though they were lacking their leaves. They looked intimidating, pulling out their twisted arms as if they wanted to reach the heavens. Snow was shining like shattered glass in the orange light of a distant street lamp, distant enough, so that it wouldn’t disturb my stargazing. The white layer covering world in its cold embrace gave the already idyllic scenery even more heart-warming feeling. Those little houses with their sloping roofs, windows lightened up by a warm shine and wooden fences seemed too peaceful, too calm, just too perfect to be true.
Oh, what a shame I had to open my eyes and confront the reality. What a shame I’ve never seen a single star, due to thick, grey layer of suffocating smoke and dust covering the sky for the past five decades. What a shame that the last tree died twenty years ago, not being able to bear with the omnipresent pollution, just like millions of its kins before. My grandma told me that its fall was the symbol of their falling hope. By this time, no one had any illusions that human race could survive.
Looking at a cold stone, I kneeled down and wiped off the dust of its the surface, just to reveal my grandma’s name engraved on it. A single tear rolled down my cheek, as I sat down by her grave. Suddenly, all those memories of her came to my mind. Her laugh, that sparkle in her eyes when she was telling me stories of her youth, sense of serenity that always surrounded her, even if the world around us was slowly crumbling.
But in a little while, all of this won’t matter anymore, as we are slowly, but surely, running out of oxygen. Soon we will all fall asleep, one by one. Our world won’t end in flames, crushed by the wrath of elements or destroyed by the cruelty of war, our world will be slowly fading away, will be becoming a little emptier with every pair of eyes closed for an eternity. And finally, with the last drawn breath, the Earth will die in silence.
Maybe one day, some strangers will set their feet on this lifeless land. Maybe, whoever they’ll be, they’ll weep over the fate of the long lost world, once so bright and beautiful. Maybe in those miserable remains, they’ll be able to see busy cities and all the shades of green and blue that once filled the Earth. Maybe they’ll hear echoes of our music and our faint voices. And now, we can only hope that they’ll learn from our mistakes.
Julia Migdałek “The Future”
The ant had a specific aim. Finding food and coming back to its anthill, and then working even harder than before for the greater good. I don’t know if ants can think the way I perceive the concept of thinking, but if she could I’m sure her only thought would be: “The queen”.
While the sunlight was trying to catch the ant which was hiding in the shade, above its little world there was a whole another universe! So many things were happening, each one completing another all the time, without any lunch break. It might have looked chaotic but truly everything was connected and meticulously organised.
As I’ve said, the sun had reached the sky and everything in the forest was awake. A bird mum had just caught food for her tiny babies and was feeding them with it. Well, that caterpillar wasn’t lucky enough to become a majestic butterfly like the one feeding itself on the nectar from a nearby flower, acting like a supermodel of this forest. In its defence, because I might have sounded like I was judging it, that butterfly with its wings so blue that the sky was green with envy truly was a superstar. But honestly it was just one small piece of the incredible range of colours around.
The butterfly and every other animal in that forest felt like their home was just everything in the world, and there’s nothing more. I can understand why they saw it like that, but it was just wrong.
Far away from this forest an egg had just crushed. A lucky penguin couple became parents and were trying to do everything they could so the baby would be safe. It was their whole universe.
By the time a new life was born, something had been dying. A huge supernova had just exploded in some very far end of the space. It used to be a big star making tons of elements and energy. The explosion was gigantic and breath-taking. One would think it was a wonderful and glamourous end.
But was it really the end? Let me answer this question: no, it was not. The supernova is gone but it has left a huge nebula which in some time will give birth to many new stars, stars that will make solar systems, and maybe on one of its planets a microscopic living cell might come up with an idea of dividing into two brand new cells.
Can you see it already? All the animals including those living miles away were perceiving their home as the whole universe. They didn’t know there was something more and that they all were connected in a simple circle of life.
Once on planet Earth there were beings which thought that the world was revolving around them. They felt like their future was so important they didn’t seem to care about anyone else. Well, they couldn’t been more wrong, their existence was made of stardust, and they were just a itty-bitty part of the universe, the universe that has always been following its own rules. I have no idea what happened to those guys and I don’t know what is my future going to be but I do know that some things never change and that’s the essence of time.
