Articles from the Neighborhood Newsletter

by Elizabeth and Christopher Wren (Hillsdale Road)

A window into the imaginative play of students enjoying the playground renovation at the Bishop School. Many thanks to the Bishop Playground Improvement Committee and others in the community who helped to make the renovation possible.

The Sisters had recovered the arm. It was a feat of extreme bravery: the Sharks were vicious this time of day. The Mother had sent them so that the Baby could have her arm back. The Hospital on the Ship could easily re-attach a severed limb.

The Travelers seem forever fated to risk life and limb crossing the dangerous Bay. They’ve been trapped in these Shark infested waters ever since the Ship’s anchor snagged on a Lobster Trap, ending their voyage to the Great Destination. Lucky that they snagged near the New Home, with it’s Food and Supplies. Tragic that New Home is not the paradise promised at the Great Destination… so they cannot simply abandon the Ship. They wrestle a hard life out of the two locations: Ship and New Home.

New Home is an archipelago of wind-blasted, black islets. The Travelers can rest here after the frantic crossings. They dry their soaked hair in the hot sun. They gather the things they need from the land, but they cannot stay long on these inhospitable lumps of rock. Soon they must cross back to the Ship. They rest and prepare, hoping to outrun the Sharks on the return crossing.

The Ship offers sanctuary, at least for a while. The Landing where they will crawl out of the water. The wondrous Hospital where they cure the wounds inflicted by the Sharks. The perilous bridge to the Engine. The glorious, glittering Engine that must be maintained for heat and light, and to power the Hospital of course, but alas, never again to move the Ship.

The endless cycle: New Home to Ship, Ship to New Home, and always the looming threat of the great Sharks guarding the stretch of water separating the two.

Actually they’re small Sharks.

Small?

They’re the wood chips. We walk on them.

So many Sharks teaming in the waters that it was said a brave Traveler could walk across the Bay on their backs, without even getting wet.

Sometimes they get in your shoes too, and then they fall out in the Ship, so there are some Sharks in the Ship too.

So you like the new playground?

Yeah. It’s a creative place!

Tags: bishop, children, fantasy, school

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 8:02 am and is filed under Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.