'Oh that flood!'

Centenary State High School is located in the middle of Jindalee, and is sandwiched between 4 streets; Jarup, Curragundi, Moolanda and Yallambee.  It is built on a hill, which can make travelling around the school tedious and tiring, however it did that the area was not subject to flooding during the Brisbane floods of January 2011.  Jindalee State School on the other hand was heavily flooded, particularly one block.  It was decided by the Principals of both Centenary High and Jindalee State School that the year 7s at the state school would be housed at Centenary for the first 8 weeks of the school year while the flooding was dealt with.

I saw a small blond girl near the tuckshop.  She was wearing a yellow and blue shirt with a large sun on the left side of her chest that said ‘Jindalee State School’.  She appeared to be nervous.  I came across to her and said, “Are you okay?”  She shrugged and said, “I feel a little out of place, but I’m okay”.  She then shuffled off silently and sat on a patch of grass.  I noticed that she had assumed a cowering position by sitting down and hugging her knees.  Her eyes were darting from left to right and back again, and her lip was quivering.

I realised that she seemed anything but okay.  I went over to her again.  I bent down and patted her on the back, and asked her again, “Are you sure you’re okay?  All of a sudden the small girl jumped up and screamed in my face, “Don’t touch me!”  She waved her hands around like a lunatic, and before I knew it, she slammed a meat pie from the tuckshop straight into my face. She then said sighing, “Oh that flood!”

I was confused, why would that small nervous girl shove a pie into my face? The pie dripped slowly off of my face and onto the grass. The girl suddenly burst out crying and ran away into a toilet saying the word “Flood”, over and over again. I then remembered what she had said before. “Oh that flood!” What does that mean? It must be something to do with the floods earlier this year, but what? I then saw the girl walking out of the toilet, body quivering with red teary eyes. I was about to approach when she saw me and ran off to another block. The bell rang and I knew that I had to ask her after class what she meant about the floods.

Once class was over I raced down to the block where I saw the girl running to earlier which was the English block. I found her coming out of one of the classrooms head down, looking forlorn. I approached her and before she could do anything, I began steering her away from the rest of her class back to the tuckshop. Once we got there I asked her as gently as I could what she meant when she said “oh that flood!” and suddenly, the girl’s face had a faraway and distant look to it and for once she didn’t run away but instead, she launched into a story.

“It was a day that wouldn’t stop raining. It was the Christmas holidays so we didn’t have to go to school. It had been raining nearly every day but not as bad as that day. I never liked rain so I stayed inside watching movies, huddled on the couch, not wanting to go outside at all. Suddenly thunder rumbled and lighting struck so I buried my head into the couch because I hated storms more than I hated rain. But this was no ordinary storm. As the storm violently continued on, a strange noise started ringing in the house. It sounded like a creepy wind gust that had an eerie feel to it. I was curious so I ventured off the couch to discover where the noise was coming from. After looking through a few rooms I found that the noise was coming from my bedroom. But when I opened my bedroom door I got the biggest shock of my life!

Dozens of lit candles were floating in my room. They provided the only light from the pitch black bedroom. There was a mini storm of lightning, rain and thunder pouring down from my ceiling which created a mini flood on my carpeted floor. I was so scared and shocked that I went to leave the room when I realised that the door was somehow locked and I was stuck in there. I screamed my head off for help but I then realised that my dad was working and that my mum had gone out grocery shopping. I was helpless!

I didn’t know what to do and then I saw some writing on the wall in the colour red that said, “You have been warned from this storm. Much pain and loss will come your way!” I wept and wept. Those very frightening words reminded me of a story an old man was telling me when my parents and I moved into this house a few years ago. Apparently someone died here in this house before us and his spirit still lives in the house, creating weather like no other. My parents told me it was just a silly old ghost story and I believed them until now.

Between sobs and screams for help my parents arrived home and rushed into my room which suddenly turned back to normal. They started asking me what was wrong, but I couldn’t speak so they comforted me and gave me a glass of water; none of which helped. Not late after that, the floods occurred and we had to evacuate. We stayed at a friend’s house and helped clean up the neighbourhood after the wrath of the floods finished. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about what happened in my bedroom. Our house was destroyed which was devastating but we soon enough bought a new house a few streets down from our old one.  Whenever I walk by the remains of my old house I can always see a faint glow of a candle hovering within the rubble.”

I was shocked beyond belief. Was this girl telling me the truth? She seems genuine, so I comforted her and this time she took my sympathy with gratitude and we soon enough became friends. But even to this day I have never stopped thinking about that story and how there always seemed to be a faint glow of a candle at that girl’s old house.

co-created by
Mikala Crawley
Year 8
Centenary State High School

as part of the CLASS Project
with Daryll Bellingham
(the first 3 paras of the story were created in a group improvisation with the Year 8's)