PROLOGUE CORRIE'S DREAM
A loud banging noise echoed through my head. It woke me up with a start.
My eyes jolted open and the first thing I noticed was that I wasn't in my
bedroom anymore. Instead, I was in a large room, one I didn't recognise.
The walls were made of rippled galvanised steel sheets, as if the building
was thrown together overnight and was to be destroyed the next day. The
roof was of the same material too. It was raining outside and the noise it
made as it fell on the roof made me feel as if I were hung over, it was so
loud. I looked down at the floor and noticed that there wasn't one, it was
just a dirt ground like you'd find outside. It was orange and hard, with only
scattered grains and clumps here and there. I tried to write my name in the
dirt, to see if it were possible. It wasn't. I ripped my index finger nail in half
and made it flake and peel to a point that would make Aunt Claudette faint
at the sight of it. I lifted it up closer to my eyes to observe the damage.
When I did so, I heard a noise coming from the other side of the room. My
ears pricked up, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I dragged
my attention away from my brutalised nail and turned it to the direction of
the muffled groan. What I saw was rather random. It was the golden
coloured chest my mother had set aside for me. She would always tell me
that when she died she would leave me the key and I would be able to
unlock and open the chest and whatever was inside was mine to keep. I
crawled over to it, my pajama pants scuffing and scarring on the dirt. I
noticed, rather unexpectedly, that I was wearing a long crimson scarf with
dangling tassels that dragged along in the sand as I crawled. I had never
seen it before, but I left it on. I was more determined to get to the chest.
But it kept moving further and further away. I couldn't get it. Everytime I
came within 2 metres of it, it moved 2 metres away. I could hear voices all
around me encouraging me to go forward.
"Get the box!" They kept cheering. And I kept trying, really hard. But I just
could not get that box. All the voices went silent as I gained on the chest.
This time, I was sure I was going to get it. But something stopped me dead
in my tracks. A piece of white paper fell in front of me. Printed on it, in bold
black letters, were the words "To the left." Beyonce's song played in my
head as I turned to the left. A large man that I couldn't recognise was
standing over something, muttering "It starts. This is the beginning." I
found my feet and stood up, then walked over to the balding man in the
grey-white singlet with back-fat rolls. As I approached him, I noticed what
he was standing over.
"What the hell did you do?" I screamed at him.
My mothers body lay limp on the ground, her eyes pale and empty staring
up at the roof. Her neck and a rope tied around it, and her chest stayed
deflated. She lay sprawled out like a star.
"Mum? Mum?" I started screaming, hoping for a response.
"To the left, to the left" She sang.
I jumped back a metre when she did. Her voice was raspy and her lips were
blue.
"Mum, what?" I asked. I wanted her to say it again. In some way, it was
really funny.
"To the left, to the left." She groaned again.
And I did the worst possible thing.
I laughed out loud.
And that's not meant to look shocked, it's just showing that it had an impact.
Yeah, those two things along with the spelling out two (though that's already been said...) are the only things I could think to fix. Good job!
I like how it really seemed like a dream, with random things happening that for some crazy reason or another make complete sense...even though they really don't.
And i like your descriptions.
