Highly Commended
12-18 Yrs Category
By Fraser Clark
Once a line of picturesque peach trees stood amongst a field in the rich countryside. There in that field amongst those trees, children played. They built dens, played soldiers and feasted on the ripe, succulent peaches when they ripened in late July.
Although this would not last; eventually war came and now, amongst those trees, soldiers, not children stood as the deathly noises of patriotism cracked and settled on the radiant farmland, in between those indelible peach trees. Those children who once played now lay motionless, beneath those trees from which the priceless memories of childhood had faded.
Then the war was over. The war was won. So nowadays all that stands of the once dominating trees in the once gorgeous patchwork land, is a stone with a few brave words written on it ‘Remember the lost.’ Except in a paradox I cannot remember, as I never knew them, but I will remember the trees where, in old age, I can still see the young, innocent boys playing and the bronze fruits glazed by the summer sun.
When I made the trip to spot where they once stood, all I could see was a morose crater surrounded by restricting signs reading ‘Danger unexploded mines!’ But they could not stop me; I crashed through the wire and dived into the ditch. Then boom! The dream of the lonely peach trees was over, marked by the final casualty of war; a caring father blinded by a lonely dream.
