My First Time Away from Home

In his recent exam for Mr Jameson, I former Nevin McCone wrote this as his composition:

It was my first time away from home and family. I was five years old at the time and I was staying at my granny’s house.

The daytime was always great with Granny. We would run around the garden and play with the dog. In the summer we would listen to the lone cow’s moo in the field. When we heard it we would fall to the ground laughing in the bright, dazzling sun. 

I had never slept at Granny’s house before but I did always stay for tea. There was always a smell coming from Granny’s marvellous kitchen. Whether it was delicious cupcakes or scrumptious roast beef, Granny knew best! All the family would be at the table enjoying a piping hot cup of tea. But this time it was different….

Mum and Dad had just left at eight o’clock. Things were still going well. Soon the moment I had been dreading came around. Bedtime. I don’t think I got a single wink of sleep that night. First of all the bed sheets smelt of the horrible stench of old people. Already being freaked out I heard the most terrible sound I think I have ever heard in my whole entire life! Granny was taking out her false teeth. 

She groaned as she attempted to get them out, like a wolf howling at the full moon. Then came the plop as the teeth went into the glass of water.  Now I was freaked out and traumatised. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, good old Gran started snoring. The windows, walls and doors must have been made of titanium because how she didn’t wake up the county is truly beyond me. Like a roar of a steaming locomotive she went on into the night. Finally after counting 5,672 snores Granny eventually awoke.

It was a miserable day and was raining, not cats and dogs, but mammoths and elephants. When I hauled myself out of bed and carried my legs downstairs, Gran was back to her old self, making me a bowl of Coco Pops and roasting hot milk. Surprisingly Mum and Dad came just before lunch, which was an extremely great relief to me. Driving away with Gran’s frail hands waving at us in the near distance I looked out the window and was asleep before you could say “dentures”.