It Never Rains but it Pours

It had been raining for weeks and all the creeks and gullies were full of swirling, muddy water. Some of the bridges and roads had been cut off and the electricity had gone out.

Still that didn't stop most kids in Goomeri from having fun. Some boys were playing in the park on the edge of the gully, throwing things in the water and pulling out the long grass and the water weed to make the water go faster.

One of their sisters was watching from the verandah and called out, 'Be careful Timmy. Don't go near that drain. Drains are dangerous.'

'Oh, I'm all right Alice. The water's not deep.'

'Don't be stupid. Get out of there!'

But it was too late. Timmy slipped and splashed into the deeper water and before any of his friends could help the current was dragging him down the drain towards the culvert.

Timmy was swimming as hard as he could but it was as if some terrible cold force was dragging him under. The last they saw of him was his bright yellow board shorts as he was sucked down the drain.

'Hold your breath Timmy!' yelled Alice as she ran across the park.

'Where is he?'

'He must be trapped.'

But Timmy wasn't trapped. Somehow he had held his breath and came up coughing and spluttering in the drain on the other side.

He managed to grab some grass on the side and pull himself out before anyone got to help him.

'Why are you so pale Timmy?'

'I saw something under the water. It looked like an old grandma ghost.'

'Was she trying to drag you under?'

'No. She looked really worried and said something to me. She was holding out something in her hand. I think her hair was on fire.'

'In all that water. You're crazy.'

'No, no. Look. There it is that's what she was holding.'

Timmy pointed at a glass jug that was been carried along on the flood water in the drain.

'I'll grab it.' and one of the boys picked up a fallen tree branch, poked it through the handle of the jug and lifted it out.

'That looks like a beer jug from the pub. How did your old grandma ghost get that?'

'What's written on the side?' said Alice.

'Goomeri Hotel,1939. Pour it on.'

'Heh, that's what she was saying to me, Pour it on! Pour it on!'

'Did you say her hair was on fire? Wasn't there a fire in the old hotel and people died.'

'Yes. There's a plaque on the wall of the hotel. People died.'

'I think she was trying to pour water on the fire with this jug.'

'What are we going to do with it?'

'Let's give it back to her.'

They walked back up the side of the drain, up above the culvert and carefully put the jug back in the water. Timmy shoved it out into the deep with the long branch and they watched it being sucked back under the swirling water.

'Now don't go swimming in that drain again. It's too dangerous.'

'No way,' said Timmy.


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Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from years 6 and 7 at Goomeri State School.

© 2010

It Never Rains but it Pours

Daryll's Austories Podcast