Courier Autumn

“Yes. Do you have an appointment?” Gabriel asked. “Um, I don’t think so,” Ivy said. “I’ll check my list,” said Angel Gabriel, “yes, it looks as if you have an appointment with Angel Hope.” “I…I do?” Ivy stammered. “Yes, follow me,” he said gesturing to the slowly opening gates. He led Ivy through a huge courtyard with fountains playing and all kinds of exquisite flowers. There were other angels sitting around laughing and chatting happily. Ivy looked around in wonder, everything was perfect here, everyone was so happy. Two massive oak doors opened for them as they stepped into a hallway big enough to walk a parade of elephants through. They turned off into a smaller corridor and stopped at the second door on the left. “Here you are,” Angel Gabriel said knocking thrice on the door. The door was opened by a female angel who looked to be in her 30’s, she had long, chocolate brown hair and wore the same flowing white robes as all the other angels. “Ahh, Ivy, take a seat,” Angel Hope saidmotioning towards two armchairs. Angel Gabriel closed the door behind him leaving Ivy alone with Hope’s warm smile. “So, Ivy, you’re worried about secondary,” Hope said. Ivy didn’t bother asking how she knew about her worries, she was an angel, instead she just said, “yep.” Angel Hope waved her hand and the fire roared into life, “One by one we fall from heaven down into the depths of past, and our world is ever upturned so that yet some time we’ll last.” “Sorry, what?” Ivy asked, completely bewildered. For an answer Hope just smiled. She did a lot of smiling, Page 16 Year 7 English “Ivy, listen to me, you’re going to be fine. We’re here for you,” Lizzie Walton told her daughter, smiling kindly. Ivy looked at her mum and tried to smile back, failing astronomically. She turned to leave but was stopped by her mother’s hand on her shoulder. “And Ivy,” she said, “have some hope.” Ivy lay in bed pondering what her mother had said. ‘Have some hope.’ She didn’t know why this bothered her, after all, it was a phrase she’d heard many times. Then her thoughts drifted to the horrors of secondary school. What would people think of her? Would she like it there? Would the people be nice to her? It was all so stressful. The album ‘Begin to Hope’ by Regina Spektor played on Ivy’s headphones as she tried to get rid of the fact that she was on the bus to her first day at secondary school. She tried thinking about Scruffy (her pet terrier) to help her calm down. It worked for a little while but then she just went back to dreading it all. The bus slowed to a stop outside the school. Ivy stood up stiffly and walked slowly towards the doors. The bus driver smiled at her as she passed and Ivy felt tears in her eyes. “Are you alright?” He asked. “No, I can’t…”then, “I CAN’T!” And then Ivy ran. She ran away from all the stress and the worry. When she finally stopped running, Ivy found herself outside one of those multi-storey car parks. It was a big, ugly stone building that looked really disgusting. At the bottom of the steps that lead up to the top floor, there was a pair of repulsive double doors. Nothing significant about them and yet Ivy looked closer and saw, printed in black letters on the front, one word - hope. Maybe there was someone in there who could help, after all she had no idea where she was. Ivy took a deep breath, remembering her mother’s words - have some hope, she pushed the doors open. Her head suddenly spun inadizzyness she couldn’t control and her stomach felt all queasy. Ivy was hovering about a mile above a huge city that seemed to go on forever. She wished it would stop. She wished she could get down. And then she was falling and screaming. And she kept falling until she hit the road with enough force to kill her. But the strange thing was that it didn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt in the slightest. Ivy stood up and looked around. She was standing outside a mountainous palace with a large domed ceiling and acicular turrets. There was a huge set of gates in front of her guarded by a man in white robes. Sprouting from between his shoulder blades were a pair of swan like, feathery wings. No, that couldn’t be right. Ivy took another look, yes, those were definitely wings. She walked up to him slowly, she hoped he was friendly. “Err, excuse me, but where am I?” Ivy asked as she was fairly sure this wasn’t a multi-storey car park. “You are in heaven,” the man said, “and I am Angel Gabriel.” “Woah, as in the Angel Gabriel?” Ivy asked in admiration. Hope by Benoit Walton Owens We were so inspired the quality of Benoit's creative writing, that we just had to include a long extract from it.