Trường Liên cấp Việt-Úc

• Khối THCS: Nozima Burkhanova, học sinh lớp 7 Trường Quốc tế Liên hợp quốc - UNIS

• Khối THPT: Đào Phương Liên, học sinh lớp 10 Trường Phổ thông Việt-Úc Hà Nội - VAS Hanoi

Trường Phổ thông Việt-Úc Hà Nội xin cảm ơn các bạn học sinh đã gửi bài dự thi. Xin chúc mừng Nozima và Đào Phương Liên.

Giới thiệu hai tác phẩm được giải
 

EGO

By Dao Phuong Lien (10A1, VAS Hanoi);

At this moment, I could see nothing but a river of blood. That immortal scarlet, without any notice, had been increasingly carved in my conscious and became a close part of my life. I sounded scared, but, actually, it was just extremely conventional for a professional killer like me. No matter what the victims’ identifications were, no matter what they did, my responsibility was to kill them. I not only lived off but also lived on that job, which was all I could do. However, when getting back to reality, this job was not that plain but a thing I had to scramble for being alive. And the present, I was in that struggle: participating in an assassination battlefield in order to maintain my life. Normally, my duty was preventing myself from being hurt, killing as many rivals as possible and assassinating the prey, in the shortest possible time. Not arrogantly, I had to admit that I was always a successful killer without any failure.
 
But at this moment, unfortunately, it seemed that my first failure was also my last failure, because, the bullet was galloping toward me. I swore I had no idea how everything was coming. Things were so fast that I hadn’t had enough time to absorb my feelings and the truth that I would be able to die. I was totally emotionless!
 
            Not only in the last second when the bullet was on the way toward me, did I perceive how serious everything was. What would it be like if I died? Would it really matter if I died? Was there anything that I would regret? I was confused and empty. But, suddenly, the image of my mother in the last minutes of her life in which she told me to live well flashed in my eyes. Before she died, she told that I had to live and live very well.  At this moment, I wondered if I really wanted to keep that promise…
 
            All of a sudden, when the bullet had just been right in front of my heart just about one centimeter, everything paused. And a man in black – The Death, appeared and his words, like a cold wind, went through my flesh;
 
“Oh, well, Daniel, look at your heart! That empty, dry and rotten to the extreme heart-shaped flesh has shown how apathetic you could be! You are unjust, undoubtedly, and do not deserve to live! But, anyway, because you haven’t been destined to die, you are given a chance to live again: going back to some moments in the past to contend with yourself to rescue three people you have killed. You will only have one day to save each and your watch will help you to notice the time. Good luck!”
 
Right after The Death’s appearance, I was moved into another place that I remembered having once visited. And, oh my God, it was The City Square where I first met and intended to kill my enemy Mr. David Brown. He was the one who I indelibly abhorred for his unforgivable sin – killing my family. Since I was a child, he had appropriated my family’s company, and then, annihilated my family. Which was more valuable: my life or my self-esteem? Confusedly, I was just wandering back through landmarks of memories. But when looking at the watch and realizing that I only had twelve hours left, there seemed to have a force which came from my family having fostered in me a strength needed for surviving.
I knew these challenges had been the hardest ever because one who understood me most clearly was me - my enemy then. Also, I somehow felt the task impossible since my scheme had once consumed all of my efforts and neurons and now I had to combat against it. However, the first mission would be the easiest while another Daniel hadn’t perceived my presence. First, I had to define clearly what I had planned to kill David: after looking into his profile, I in the past - another Daniel had realized that David had known nothing about flowers; therefore, he had decided to use “Aconitum Napellus” – dangerous flowers used by German in World War II as biological weapons. After that, he used some tricks to make David buy some flowers for decoration, but actually, buy “Aconitum Napellus”. In the end, David undoubtedly had kicked the bucket, and still everybody thought it was an accident. At this time, I needed to create an effective way to fight against this quite impeccable plan without causing any big change to Daniel’s future – my future. But the most difficult thing was to leave my revenge aside but I had to try. Actually, I couldn’t make any creative ideas, it was too risky. At night, when David was slightly poisoned, I came to his room and helped him. But this would only be known by him and me. After that, I threatened him to hide or he would have to face two problems: continually being assassinated and being exposed of his old sins. Actually, I wasn’t sure anything and just bet on it. Luckily, everything was successful. And the first mission was completed, thanks to fortune.
 
When the watch alarmed that time was over, my surrounding scenery totally changed. This moment, I was standing in front of my used-to-be best friend’s apartment – Tom. Yes, I had killed him for his betrayal and now, I had to save him again. It was because once, we had had the same mission but Tom took it away from me and intended to call the police. I was so frustrated that he and I had a face-to-face battle and he had lost. But actually, after experiencing the severity of being a killer and the death right beside, I was quite penitent because this job required strong aggression and you must choose between your death and others’ deaths – a paradox of this life. However, I appreciated this chance and it was a piece of cake to me because I had thought a million times if only I could bring him back. All I needed to do was just to notify him to get away at the missions time. Thinking so, I decided to sleep for a while. And when getting up and having only twenty hours left, I rushed to find a traveling ticket. Then I came to Tom’s house and convinced him to go away for a few days. It was hard, but finally, I made it. Yes, so I had rescued two people and I strongly believed I would be able to live again. And an idea came across my mind: I would join in mine and Tom’s mission to save the third person’s life…
 
            Strangely, that place was my house. With all the curiosity within me, I came in and saw everything collapsed: glass pieces lying and dirt littered everywhere. And when I came into my room, I saw a terrible scene: I – another Daniel was beating and nearly killing my – his wife. I was entirely shocked, stunned, stupefied. I swore I didn’t have such an image in my memory. Instinctually, I prevented another Daniel from doing anything stupid. But, looking at his empty and hostile stares, I was completely petrified with myself, with my murderous look staring back at me. He even did not realize my appearance but thought that I was just his hindrance. I guessed he had lost his mind and when picking the psychological prescription up, I was sure about it. Linking all the events, I thought about a possibility: Tom visited me and saw everything so he stopped me. Because I had totally lost my mind, I killed both Tom and my wife but still didn’t remember anything and made up another story to convince myself. This idea made me collapse. Even though I killed others to survive, I had never thought that I would harm my family – my close ones. At the same time, he saw me and shifted his knife toward me. He successfully cut my arm. Therefore, I had no choice but fight against him. I took advantage of his unconsciousness to quickly find the gun and shot his left breast. I wouldn’t kill him but just prevented him from killing his - my wife and saving my life. After that, I came to my wife. She was still alive but full of pain and scars. I knew that she had suffered from me a lot and she deserved to be released. I was extremely exhausted both physically and mentally.
 
            As time ended, I came back to the truth and decided to get shot. I was really tired. Could I change my nature as a killer? No, not really. It was doubtful. I was not confident. I was scared of causing any more sins. But finally, I changed the bullet’s direction to my arms. I dared not to die. I would try. After all I had experienced, it was worth trying and changing. The survivors couldn’t pay for the dead, and living was the only way to compensate. And this moment, I felt my heart so warm, so hot, so exhilarated. It was yelling for love, for life again.
 
            So let me begin at the beginning.

 

50 MORE TO GO

By Nozima Burkhanova (Grade 7, UNIS);

        Leaving a place is like getting a tooth out by the dentist. The anesthetic the dentist injects into your gums leaves you with a numb ache which is real and unreal, similar to the feeling of when you hit the road. It was really hard for me, because I’m ‘different’ from other children, because I have attention deficit hyperactive disorder, or more commonly known as ADHD, as well as anger management problems.

        I was a loner up until third grade, when a new girl, Anna, helped me out with my ‘What the Earth means to me’ essay. Since then, things have been better and we’ve been the best of friends. I was looking forward to Middle School without “Violence is not the answer, Eliza” talks. So when my parents told me we were moving from Vermont to New York, I wasn’t very happy. Maybe I should have been, considering that it was New York, and that my dad got a promotion, but I wasn’t, even though I tried. Anna understood why I didn’t want to go, but everyone else was jealous. I can’t blame them.

     After one month, we were all set to go. Seeing as I was the youngest child, since my brother Lewis had gone off to college, my baby clothes were all sold or donated, with a lot of memories and sighs on my mother’s part. I must have been so innocent when I was a baby. The car ride to the airport was agonizing. I hated vehicles of any kind, which is why I preferred bicycling to school or anywhere else. Next up was the plane ride. I was nauseous the whole ride, I couldn’t hear a thing, and the pilot must have been an amateur because he landed with a thump that made my head bang against my seat rest, which was folded up. My head throbbed for the next few hours, and there’s still a lump. I was bored the whole ride because I couldn’t read; I was that tired, but I couldn’t sleep or eat either.

         I came out of the plane as a grumpy, tired, and starving person. I probably looked like a monster that would have scared away the police force. I had to wait two hours for our luggage to finally pop up on the conveyor belt. By then it was already night, and the bright city lights kept me awake. New York was visually pretty, but with a shallowness that Vermont didn’t have. Vermont’s beauty was in nature, and New York’s beauty was man-made. The bright lights looked too welcoming and hostile at the same time. It was all so overwhelming. Welcome to New York read the sign at the JFK airport. It might just have said Welcome to the hardships of your new life.

        We came to our apartment in Manhattan. It wasn’t the worst of places. The service was friendly, and the apartment itself was pretty big and well-furnished, but it still felt wrong. It didn’t feel like home. But Mom loved the apartment, because of the spacious kitchen probably. Our kitchen in Vermont had been cramped up. We went out to eat at Subway, my favorite restaurant, which happened to be right next door. Then we went to buy our breakfast for the next morning from the grocery store. When we went back, I could have fallen asleep on the pavement.

     “Oh god, its 1 a.m.!” my mom exclaimed. I was sent to bed, because it was so late and I had school in two days. I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. After all, I hadn’t slept for 17 hours straight.

      I woke up at 10 the next morning. I didn’t want to haul myself out of bed. My thoughts were sluggish, and I realized that my parents weren’t even awake. I twisted around in bed, trying to find a good angle so that my head wouldn’t hurt where I had banged it. My thoughts drifted back to a speech I had heard at my brother’s college. It was about going with the flow, and accepting things the way they are. It centered around the phrase “It is what it is”, and had stuck like glue in my mind for unknown reasons. I completely disagreed with it. I thought that if no one had tried to make a change, we would have been stuck in the Stone Age forever, so I accordingly named it “The Stone Age Speech”.

      I had a breakfast of cereal and drifted out to explore the neighborhood. Not that there was much to see. I just wanted some fresh air. I saw the looming Empire State Building in the distance. It looked forbidding. I had this sense of foreboding and went back inside for lunch and watched TV until dinner. After that, I went to bed early because tomorrow was Monday and the first day of school.

      I woke up really early the next morning and dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. I didn’t believe in the normal frenzy most girls had before school. I thought them pointless. Why bother getting dressed up for school? So I brushed my teeth and ate my breakfast with my parents, and left the house to walk to the bus stop. It wasn’t so bad on the bus. Probably because of the torture of 7^th grade that would await me when I stepped out. I’m not sure what Croxley Arthen Middle School would be like.

     Since I was one week later than the rest of the students, the teachers kept forgetting my name. They called my Elizabeth instead of Eliza, because there was another girl called Elizabeth in my class. She had black, straight hair and tons of makeup on to give her a gothic appearance. She came up to talk to me during lunch. She seemed kind of nice, despite her slightly scary appearance. Our conversation was one-sided, because her gum was distracting me. She talked on and on. Chew. Chew. This was really starting to annoy me. I tried to restrain myself and thankfully stopped myself from hitting her just in time as the bell rang. Phew. Classes were easy, and I wasn’t alone at lunch. I sat with a friendly girl called Tina who asked me to sit with her. The week went on and on in this fashion until Friday. One week down, 50 more to go till 7^th grade was done. It was then that I thought back to the Stone Age speech. For once, I thought I could see just maybe see a little meaning behind it. Just a little.