Kerang Restores the Heart

One day Maddison who regularly visited the Kerang Library was in the Library near the bay windows.

As she was sitting there she heard a very strong whistling sound. Maddison said: "That's strange it's not windy, what's that sound?"

Maddison's friends said: "Are you crazy? I can't hear anything." Maddison said: "Move closer." When they moved closer to the old brick water tower right next to the Library suddenly they could hear it too. When they all looked up they saw the tower bricks were shifting and vibrating in and out of place.


The librarians came and looked too but it was all quiet. "False alarm," they said. "Maddison you've just got too good an imagination".

Maddison and her friends started looking for stuff on the Net again but after only a moment Maddison heard the sound again. "Come on!" she whispered and Maddison and her friends hurried out of the library.

They looked up at the Tower - yes - the bricks really were shifting. The old ladder was glowing and shaking too. Even the roof was jumping up and down! "Aaah!" They all screamed.



Just then the door seemed to open on its own and they heard a voice saying: "Come on up! Come on up! Come on Up!"

They couldn't help it - they were irresistibly drawn up the tower steps. Once more there was a weird whistling sound and the tower door slammed shut. They were trapped!

As they started climbing the tower Matthew said: "The stairs are disappearing behind us! How will we get down now?"

Holly said: " Don't worry about that - look down at the town! It's like somebody has put a dark torch all over Kerang. Hey, that's weird! There's a horse and sulky!"

Kayla said: "Hey, it looks really old, maybe it's like the old days, 1914 or something!"

A band came marching down the Murray Valley Highway. As they came closer into view the children could see that they were soldiers heading off to war.

Suddenly it was like the war was happening right up there in the tower: there were sounds of battle, gunfire and the weird whistling sound they'd first heard in the Library. The sounds built to a crescendo and the tower shook and shook while everybody hung on to each other.

A kookaburra laughed and gradually everything became still. Kayla turned to the others: "Look Kerang is coming back to colour."

But as Kayla said this she looked up and saw a man with bandaged eyes standing right in front of them.

The man unbuttoned a pocket in his shirt and said: "I'm looking for my family." Quietly he held up a small and worn photo. Maddison looked at it and said: " That looks like me!"

The soldier said: "Yes child, tell me your name?"

As soon as Maddison said her family's name he said: "At last, at last! It's your great grandma, I have carried her photo next to my heart all through this terrible war." Then he sighed and his whole body started shimmering and shining and growing brighter and brighter till it was finally so luminous that he disappeared.

Where the soldier had been standing there was just a bandage with a red cross and some dark marks left behind. When they looked closely they saw that the dark marks were a message written in blood: 'Thank you Maddison - I now rest in peace."

Maddison and the children started descending the tower using the old way. When they got near the bottom the Librarians called the SES and they helped put the ladders down.

So what should you do if you visit Kerang?

Well one of the things you must do is to visit the Library and take time to look at the bandages which are kept in a beautiful old box near the window by the water tower. And if you listen quietly you might suddenly be back in the small town by the Loddon River many years ago.

( © This story created by Daryll Bellingham and young participants at the Kerang Branch of the Gannawarra Shire Council Library Service vacation activities.)

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