the shed

the shed is big and filled with old things. old beds, old chairs, old counters. the bathroom is outside, and at night you have to skip over the toads to get there. if you walk out the back far enough, you will find the river. if you walk far enough to the left you will come to the dam, where a miniature pony and it's mother play. i made friends with them once, but they followed me home.
in the shed, everything is mismatched. everything inside was bought because it was cheap.
i would prefer a nice hotel to the shed. i like things to match, i like new linen, i like new things. i like it when there aren't a thousand bugs flying around your face when you are trying to sleep. when it's time for bed, i pull the sheet up over my face, for fear that the bugs will land in my ears, nose or mouth. one night, i saw a firefly. it was so bright, i thought perhaps it was some kind of alien spy camera, instead of just an innocent, glowing bug.
at the shed we play cards to pass the time. sometimes our games can last forever. but you can only play cards for so long, and after a few games we will go and read on our own instead. i have been reading Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
one afternoon, at the shed, everyone was playing a family game of cricket - except my grandparents and i, i'm not big on sports. as my brother and cousin went racing for the ball, they collided, resulting in a lot of panic and blood. everyone quickly rushed to get the two boys into the car and they drove off to the hospital. my cousin had to have over 20 stitches in his forehead, and my brother had to have some above his eye. i waited nervously at the shed for three hours, watching the driveway closely for any sign of a car. all this time many scenarios were rushing through my head, all as upsetting as the next. so you can imagine my relief when my brother and cousin both sheepishly came back to the shed with stitches and bandages. my brother looks rather funny now. his eye is so puffed up and purple, that he cannot even open it. all you can see are his long eyelashes poking through the puffed skin. i told him, oh well, at least you'll have an excellent story to tell when you get back to school. he agreed with me.
we decided to stay for an extra day at the shed. i didn't want to. i was longing for home, for my friends and an internet connection, but i had to stay. we stayed at the shed full of old, mismatched things until the new year came. i decided that i needed to be happy when the new year came, not upset at the fact that i wasn't home, or else the whole year would go badly. so, i put a smile on my face and played cards with my family instead. we decided not to play cricket for a while. which is quite understandable, if you ask me.