Describe A Childhood Memory

Lauren Barnden 10E

It was time to go. I picked up my bright red school bag and headed to the broad brown tall door. I looked around the room one last time before stepping into the fresh air. My dad was stood outside the black gates waiting for me; he'd swept his short dark hair out of his face.

I walked towards him and he held his hand out; I took it. He smiled at me, gave me a bag of sweets and asked about my day at school. As I looked at him something had changed; he said that we all had to move away. My breathing quickened. I didn't want to go. This was my home. I had friends here.

There was a man selling balloons, a variety of colours ranging from red to blue and green to pink. I loved balloon, the way they just floated away talking all their problems with it. My dad saw me envying the balloon and he walked over to the man on the other side of the road to buy me one, perhaps to soften the blow. He handed over a £5 note as crisp as snow. With a red balloon in his hand he came walking back and handed me the balloon. We carried on walking slowly towards the car in silence. In the short distance I could see my mum packing things into the blue ford escort.

We set off on a journey. The journey seemed so far away from here. My mum turned on the radio and the song "Ashes to Ashes" blared out of the very old cassette player. I turned onto my side to take a last look at everything we had driven past. I wound down the window as it had started to get very hot in the car. There were the vibrant green trees and I noticed the soft green fields.

All of a sudden I saw a strange looking man as we were heading towards the end of the road: He glared right at me. He had rather long brown hair, piercing green eyes and he was dressed in baggy clothes, a hoody and cap – he reminded me of the gangsters you see in films. Out of nowhere a huge lorry advertising "Gently does it" soap reversed and stopped right in front of us. There was a lady banging on the side of the lorry to move but it didn't. The scene was chaotic. The lady had a red blouse, white biker jacket, black boots and a pair of black jeans on. I had a habit of noticing the minor details. There was a strong gust of wind and my lovely red balloon flew out of the open window into the air. Seeing as we'd stopped I opened the blue door to go to try and fetch it back. For some reason in my mind it was symbolic of my freedom.

"Alex" said the voice of my mum.

Despite being up a hill I could still hear the song playing,

"With one flash of light"

There was a deathly sickening bang. I found myself curled up in a ball on the floor. There was smoke billowing out of the car at the bottom of the hill; the car that had my mum and dad sitting in was now a big ball of fire. The tyres were melting into the concrete road and there was a bang as the number plate fell off and hit the hard floor.

I collapsed and burst into tears knowing I'd never see my parents again. Even through my tear-filled eyes I could make out a figure running towards me; the figure took my hand and held me close. I was helpless.

I was 5 years old; no child should ever have to see their parents die like that. The figure picked me up and carried me away. I craned my neck and saw the lady who'd tried to stop the lorry break down in front of the fire; she screamed so loudly whilst the fire just kept getting bigger. I tucked my head into the crook of the figure's arms and shut my eyes wondering if this was just a vicious dream. Arriving back at my house we found my godfather Evan waiting for me. He had wispy grey hair but he was so kind to me. He'd told me he would look after me forever. I was silent as I took in his kind words. He told me the details of what had happened. A five year old shouldn't know the horrific details of what happened. Looking back he obviously thought I could take and handle what he was going to say. I can't remember all of it.

"Alex, some nasty man killed your mummy and daddy, he set a bomb under their car and blew them up"

I didn't say anything. I just accepted the truth. It was the only thing I could do. Evan told me it was just going to be me and him now. I was always going to be safe surely wasn't I?

It's the year 2010 now and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't think about my dear loving parents, every now and then when I think of them I cry, but I have to be strong, I can't let that man ruin my life. I now work as a psychologist in memory of my mum and dad as this was what they'd always wanted me to be. From the young age of five they'd had my future planned for me. I wanted to find out the truth why that man had decided to kill my parents. I was about to find out.

I'm sat in my office in the heart of London waiting to see a client who has specifically asked for me by name. Why me personally? Does he know me?.

The black door clicked and a man who looked as if he was in his late 50's walked in. He shut the door behind him, turned on his heel and walked slowly towards me; went to sit on the bold chair that was in front of my desk. He's eyes. It was his eyes. There was something about them. They seemed familiar. It was there, I knew it was, I knew him but how?.

"Hello Alex" the man said

"Hello there, now I'm here to help you, just let everything out" I said back

I got my black notepad out and clicked my black inked pen to start writing everything he had said down.

"I've done some bad things in my past Alex; I've done things that maybe I shouldn't have. Murders, theft, assault, car bombs" He told me.

My pen froze on the white page; I lifted my head to look him in the eyes.

" what?" I stuttered

"That's right car bombs, under politicians cars"

My mum and dad were politicians, was that why they died? Because they was doing right for their country?

"That's right Alex, is it coming to you now?" He moved his hands across his head.

The room started to spin, I didn't feel great.

"Alex, do you want to know how your parents died? It was me, it was because of me, your parents didn't do any good for our country back in the 80s, so I set a car bomb underneath their car" He told me.

I stood up in shock, I couldn't reply. I fell to the floor into unconsciousness.