Julie Burns

Written age 13
Belmont Academy, South Ayrshire

WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Izzy could see it. Getting closer and closer. Her eyes watering with the sting of the frosty morning. It was coming. Her heart started to thud, louder, louder until it rung in her ears. She willed her feet to continue although the rest of her body felt frozen. Izzy turned the corner and saw it. A sign that read 'Oak Lane'.

The most important lane in her life.

For starters, she had been born here. Yep, no joke.

Her heart leapt as she crossed in front of a small detached house with a neat tidy garden, not even a leaf out of place. She imagined her mother lying there screaming, twelve years ago, on the ground, while confused and panicked residents, eyes still watery from sleep, tried to help this mad women who didn't even live there. Izzy smiled, absent-mindedly shaking her head. Typical, her mother was late for everything. For work. For parents' nights. For school shows. Even too late to go to a hospital to have her baby. She probably would have been late for that too, if she hadn't been the one giving birth.

A single lone cherry tree stood in her path, large roots breaking through the concrete. It looked horribly bare, its summer coat long stripped from its branches The tree stood still, as if waiting for something to happen.

Izzy could visualise two podgy arms stuck out gripping the rough branches, tongue out in determination, her breath coming in gasps as she climbed.

Then finally bursting out from beneath the leaves, head held high, spinning with happiness. Too pleased to watch where she was putting her foot...

The squeal of terror, the thud of impact, the rush of pain. But the thrilling feeling of reaching the top still there, above all other emotions.

She had been four when she climbed that tree and four and a half when her leg had fully healed.

Izzy closed her eyes and let the crisp breeze swirl around her. The still silence filled her with bliss. She opened her eyes to see a small patch of pansies growing in a front garden. Izzy loved pansies. They reminded her of Laurie.

They had been about seven when they met. Izzy was walking slowly down the street, deep in thought about some project they were doing at school when she saw a little girl bending over a flowerbed about to pick what looked like weeds.

"Hi!" Izzy smiled cheerfully.

Startled, the girl lost her footing and crashed to the ground, squashing the delicate flowers under her weight.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry! Here let me help you," Izzy had stammered, giving a hand to the girl and using all her strength to pull her up. Izzy noticed that she had on the same plum coloured blzaer as this girl.

"Great, I've got mud all over me now. Ooo, Mum'll kill me!" the golden haired girl said, gingerly trying to brush the spattered dirt off.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make you fall. Are you new here? Do you go to St Joseph's? I do," Izzy asked, suddenly feeling an urge to bombard the girl with questions.

The girl flicked her hair from her small pinched face and beamed.

"It's okay, I think it's cool. Yeah, I've just moved in. Bit of a dump, isn't it? It's my first day at school today and I wanted to pick some flowers for the teacher."

Izzy felt puzzled.

"Why?"

The girl did another flick.

"Cause I wanted to."

Izzy felt in awe of this glistening girl. She could feel the joy coming off her in waves. Izzy wanted to touch her in hope that some of the happiness would rub off on her. She felt like this girl was royalty and Izzy shouldn't be standing in her presence. The sunny girl grinned and linked arms with Izzy.

"I'm Laurie. What's your name?"

Izzy smiled back, feeling so privileged to even know the girl's name.

"It's Izzy."

Suddenly the bitter wind picked up and brought Izzy back from her thoughts. A feeling of utter loss hit her like a brick as she remembered that Laurie was gone. Izzy had been there when it had happened, ten years old.

It was dark, the street lights creating an eerie flow over the empty streets. She and Laurie had been laughing, she remembered, about how Izzy always seemed the first to fall over or be injured by a ball in PE. Izzy took it good humouredly, feeling on top of the world, joking with her best friend. She felt like nothing bad could ever happen again.

The two girls said goodbye and Laurie started to cross the street, back to her own little house where her mum would be waiting with a tray of biscuits baked fresh from the oven. Izzy shouted something and Laurie turned and laughed back.

That laugh. That's all Izzy could remember.

Not the car. Not the scream. Not the blood curdling sound as Laurie fell to the concrete.

Laurie had fallen before. But this time she didn't get back up.

And all Izzy could remember was the laugh.

The next morning, Izzy set off for school. It was Wednesday, that meant double maths. She stifled a groan as her dolly shoes scuffed the ground. She turned her head up and saw the sign, beckoning her towards it.

But Izzy turned before it, down along the main street where all the hustle and butle was, where all her thoughts were caught up in a single whirl.

She could have gone this way to school all the time, yet she chose to walk down memory lane. To feel sad and sorry, to reminisce.

But now she was strong.

She knew she couldn't change the past, but she could change her future, one filled with life, happiness and success.

A future she wanted to have.