December 1958 School Magazine

·Brisban9 Girls' Grammar School !'-1agazine

Decemb er, 1958

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

December, 1958

I do not catch a crowded bus but, instead, walk to school, Jilling in twenty-five minutes with thinking and day drea:nir,g. In a few more weeks the jacaranda blossoms will have formed a carpet under the trees, the shy leaves will be dense foliage and the crisp morning a ir will have g;ven place tu oppressive and sticky vapours, but even in the hectic examwa- tion weeks I will prefer to walk to school in the mornings . - ) .L., IVD. JUNE-1999 I am in the unique position of being one of the six remain- ing members of the human race. I shall herewith proceed to relate my singular escape. It all started when the minerals of the various countries having been exhausted, the nations turned to the sea. Under- sea mining was considerably more expensive than the other sort, and very little room was left for shipping! However , soon even the marine minerals petered out, and men began to think of the vast amount of minerals which must be in liquid Jorm in the centre of the earth. A huge hole was drilled in Antarctica, over 300 miles deep. One of the lunar transports was fitted out with atomo- magnets, and was to take off directly above "The Pit" os it was called. The metals were to be attracted by the magnets, and it would rise in a column to be solidified in the air, from where it would be lowered to the earth by grapnels. This scheme was also a means of melting the ice of Antarctica and, with the heat of the metal, uncovering fertile soil. There were to be six of us on board, all of us atomic scientists. The day set for take-off was the 29th June , 1999. We took off on schedule, switching on the magnets when we had attained a height of 1,000 miles above sea level. A column of molten metal of prodigious volume began to rise slowly out of the pit. It was an a wesome sight. Suddenly the ship began to shake. Horrified, I realised we were being drawn into the shimmering column of death! It must have contained metals which had a strong pull on our' magnets, and our only hope was to turn them off. I did so. We gave the ship full power, a nd shot away from the terrifying pillar. With a helpless fas- cination we watched the column. It was the colour of liquid fire-if there could be such a thing, and it was quivering as if it were alive. It was at least 1,000 miles high, and 50 miles w ide- a solid mass of liquid metal. As we watched in silent fascination, it twisted upon itself. With a reverberating crash that echoed to the stars, it fell back upon the earth. As we watch, the metal spread and engulfed the g lobe , thot is, all 40

·of it that we could see from where we were. Not daring to go ~own to see the extent of the damage, we stayed hovering at about 1,000 miles, and saw the metal solidify and harden. A grea_t crack appeared on the surface, and with a rending crack, split the hollow globe asunder. The two "halves" rapidly c 1 isintegraied before our eyes; some of the larger pieces swung into orbit around the moon . · It is a strange feeling, sitting here in our ship, the six of us-all men, knowing that we are the last surviving members -of the human race. Now what's she yellin' about? Can't an old man of eighty ·'a'te a moment's peace? "Now, ye lazy-good-for-nothin' get down an' mend them netsl D'ye hear?" Aye, as I sit 'ere a-mendin' these blessed nets, I gets to ihinkin' o' rna sailin' days, when I be but a lad. Now I remember when I be on'y nineteen, on tha' fine ship ihe Tern, a-headin' for Noraway. Some months back a ship 'ad been wrecked orff the coast there; an' this ship she 'ad on'y men aboard 'er, an' they was still marooned upon an island orff the coast of Noraway. Well, here we was, orff to rescue 'em with their wives an' chillen aboard. We was a-sailin' up the coast of Scotland when we runs into a sudden storm-worse I' ve yet ta see. She was a terrori -- an' the waves was so 'igh they looked like they was the mouths of whales. So bad it was, tho' we was asked ta abandon ship. Ahl I'll always rememba tha' night. Our cap'n he wasn't much good. One o' them thare sissy fellas, wi' a domineerin' wife. Cap'n Harcourt , he was, an' hard caught he was too, wi' 'er for a wife-she 'ad 'im under her thumb good an' proper, she did-used to boss 'im aroun' no end. Anyways, in this 'ere storm he gets the jitters, and she takes over an' a proper mess she made of it , too. Orderin' them life boats down all a' once, so's 'alf o' them capsizes. Our boat she be first orff, me in the stern an' Her in the front, wi' the men, women on' chillen in between. Arhl What a nightmare tho' be, to be sure. Us a-lookin' back an' seein' boats smashed to pieces by the ragin' waves. An' men, women an' chillen fallin' screamin' into the dark sea, lash'd by white capp'd monsters. Ma throat had a chokin' feelin' in it, an' we turn'd away an' hid our faces. What 'ad we done to deserve this? A STORY OF THE SEA "Matti Matti Whore be ye, lazybones?" - Barbara Kay, 4A.

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