Справедливый бог

Hello, my name is Polina Skumatova and I’m the author of this short story.  I’m 15 years old and I live in St.Petersburg and study in the 9th grade of school 213.

Actually, I’m not as much into writing as I want , because of shortage of time, school and daily routine , but I hope i`ll pay it much more in future. I like writing because it helps me to express my thoughts and ideas, invent them into stories. Writing is also a way to be heard – and, probably to become a role-model for someone, because literature can give us advice, can teach us some things and help to solve problems.

But now back to my story. Originally it was created for the school task: pupils were given amount of certain words of the book we’ve read during the vacations and they should create a story, using those words. So did I. My English teacher, Svetlana Petrovna Rudenko, liked my story and suggested me taking part in this competition and I agreed.

The story I’ve written is placed below and still going to tell it to you, so I don’t think I need to place the short retelling of it in my introduction. I would only name the main characters and give some more information.

The characters are:

The God – the mystical figure, but not a human, the Indians worshipped and obeyed, who had a real magical power and control.

Jack The-Eagle-Cry – the Indian’s human-leader. People from the community were afraid of him because of his power and appearance.

People from community – people of different age and gender, who were doing their best to survive in the alkali desert.  

Nomad people – the exhausted travelers, who hoped to get help from the people from community while they were passing their village.

Enjoy reading.
P.S. all the pictures in presentation are drawn by me.

A FAIR GOD

Author of story and presentation: Skumatova Polina,
school # 213, grade 9 b  

English teacher – Rudenko Svetlana Petrovna

Let me tell you a story I’ve heard from my Granny when I was a little child.
The narration took place in a small Indian village, built nearly 10 years ago. The village was situated in an alkali desert, full of desolation. There were no deep lakes or swift-flowing rivers, only rocks stretching straight to the horizon. All days long you could see vultures sitting at the summits of the mountains. Among plants there were only dwarfish bushes and tumbleweeds. So, it was dry and no one but the Indian tribe lived there. All in all the view was empty and dreary.

That year was unlucky for the Indians – there was a draught and crop failure. Everyone was really disappointed by the fact there were no sprouts but the solitary ones – but even if the Indians could get the harvest from those tiny sprouts – it won’t be enough even for a family.

One day at the meeting Jack-The Eagle-Cry – the Indian’s leader- told his people that they should find a way to solve the problem and not to starve till the next harvest. Jack was a man with creepy black eyes,long dark hair and high check bones, he was tall, massive and muscular, so some people were afraid of him, but everyone respected and obeyed him.

Suddenly, one little girl came out of the crowd (of the people) and suggested saying a prayer for their Gods, asking them for a rich harvest. Everyone begged the God to be clement to them and save them from the hunger and death. The God had heard their prayers and agreed to give a good crop only if those people helped every person that’d got lost in the desert and needed water and food. After the Indians accepted the rules, the rain started. It rained for a week so the soil was full of water. In three month the tribe got the best crop ever.

One day a woman, who’d been sitting on the road, saw a speck on the horizon that was approaching slowly. In an hour she could see an exhausted man, who had his eyes sunken, whose skin was tanned and yellowish, he was wrapped in a shawl and had a small empty boundle and a rifle in his hand. He introduced himself as Louis and added that he’d run out of water and food and hadn’t eaten for many days. The woman took him to the village, fed him and put him up for a night. He left the next day with the jar full of water and a basket with some food.
Some days after that group of about 20 nomad people came. The Indians, remembering their God’s words, fed them, put water into their jars, gave food for their trip and a bed for night. The next day the tribe left.
Some days later, again a woman saw an enormous speck emerging. She immediately ran to Jack-The Eagle-Cry to ask what to do – they didn’t have enough food for themselves, to say nothing about a large group of hungry and sick people. Jack was determined to neglect the promise he’d given to God. He ordered everyone to go home and to pay no attention to the unknown people at the street. An old lady, who was very superstitious, said they should not neglect the promise otherwise they would regret it. But everyone left her words without a notice though she was considered to be a prophet and everyone understood the gravity of the situation.

When a large group of nomad people reached the village, it seemed to be abandoned. That’s why a crowd just passed over it.

When God learnt about the situation, he’d threatened to punish the Indians; He’d sent a hurricane that destroyed everything. People who slowed to escape in the shelter died, some people fainted and vaguely remembered what’d happened. When everyone was strong and cured the Indians began to restore the settlement. And every time they tried to, the God send another disaster and they had to restart again. It happened every year. Probably it was the way to punish those who’d let the others die.

Strict but fair, isn’t it?