It was a cold wet and rainy day, Johnny and Lucy were off school. Lucy was peering out of the window at the raindrops as they trickled down the glass.
I’m so bored she exclaimed. I really really wanted to go to the park. Johnny bellowed “we can’t Lucy, its just too wet and rainy today” as he carried on moving the controller of his computer up and down, whilst sitting close to the edge of his chair playing his ‘Mario’ game.
Mum overhears them squabbling. “its meant to be nice later today” mum said. Lucys eyes light up and she scurries away to the top of the stairs into her bedroom to find her kite. She really hopes that she can fly it when they are at the park.
As she scrambles around for about 5 minutes, mum shouts upstairs “that’s the rain off now, you two can get your coats on and go out for some fresh air”. Johnny is not best pleased; he was enjoying his computer game. Reluctantly he fumbles in the hallway and puts on his jacket.
Lucy comes downstairs with her Kite which is two times bigger than her head, with read and yellow triangles opposite each other and a long tail of blue bows.
Johnny grabs his new football he got for his birthday last week. Mum kisses them both gently on the head and sends them on their way.
The walk to the park isn’t very long. As they approach the gates to the park they can see there are lots of children in there now. Most likely just like them they were waiting for the rain to stop.
Lucy runs straight to the slide and continues to go up and down over and over again. Johnny played kick around with his ball as all the other children in the park see Johnny, they ask if they can join him in a game of football and Johnny gladly agrees.
As the game gets underway, Lucy goes over to the swings. She has recently learned how to move her legs to help propel her forwards and backwards, so she loves the swings now. She kicks her legs and goes higher and higher right the way up to almost the top of the bars. Lucy hears all of the other children cheering and being friendly with each other and feels quite alone. So she decided to go and get her kite. As she runs with her Kite, a few of the other children come over to see what she is doing, Lucy knows her Kite is great fun.
The wind unexpectedly gets a bit wilder and pulls the Kite out of Lucys hand. The Kite gets higher and higher and all of the kids are cheering and clapping. “Wow its so high” shouts one of the children.
It swishes and swirls in the gusty wind and some of the boys now leave the football game to see the swirling Kite. It goes higher and higher and then suddenly, CRASH!!
It hurtled straight into the top of the tallest tree in the park. Lucy began to cry “oh no my Kite, its stuck, I need my Kite” she pines.
Johnny stops his football game and comes over like a concerned big brother. Although I am sure he was annoyed, as all the other children just left him to see what was going on.
The children were throwing twigs and branches to try and loosen the Kite but had no luck. It was just too high and it was stuck. Johnny then took it upon himself to climb the tree. He climbed higher and higher and reached out but it was too far. He went higher and higher again and he stretched out as far as he could over a bit, over another bit, and then, oh no!!
Johnny began to fall, down and down he went. Until he landed with an almighty thud on the ground. All the children were surrounding him they knew he was badly hurt. It was his leg. One of the little girls mums called for an ambulance to come. Lucy ran all the way home to tell her mother what had happened. Both Lucy and her mother got to the park just as the ambulance got there, with its blue lights flashing.
All the kids were fascinated, but Johnny was sore. Lucy kept saying to Johnny, “I am so sorry Johnny, I am just so sorry”. “its ok Lucy” Johnny said. “ It was my idea”.
Johnny spent 4 hours in the hospital getting his leg treated and put into a plaster cast. He got lots of fruit and sweets and cards from people. The next day he got home.
Lucy was caring for him and fluffing his pillows and getting him drinks of juice. Johnny had another idea. “Lets go to the park” he said. Lucy agreed.
Mum told them to be careful, “don’t do to much with your leg in that plaster” Johnny said “ I won’t, I promise”.
When they got back to the park, a lot of the friends they made yesterday were there again. They treated Johnny like a hero, patting him on the back, and writing on his plaster cast.
One of the boys brought over his ball. “Want a game?” he asked. “Sure” said Johnny, “as long as I can be goal keeper” . Everyone laughed, all except Lucy, who spent a long time looking up at her Kite which was still stuck at the top of the tallest tree, longing for the wind to blow it down again.
Laura Chamberlain is a writer currently in the process of finishing her first novel. Laura is a single mother from Moodiesburn North Lanarkshire.
© 2025 Laura Chamberlain