"I thought that the standard of stories was really high. There was a huge range of subject matter. We had people finding that their life had started to run backwards; people being turned into gerbils; people being sucked into their TVs to win football matches and all sorts of other imaginative ideas.
The reason I picked Aoife's story as the winner was because it succeeded on every level. Some of the stories were beautifully written but the plot could have been slightly more exciting. Others had an incredibly original idea but the writing itself could have been a little improved on. The winning story was both beautifully written and intriguing and compelling as an idea. I was wrapped up in the simple, yet magical, story from the first word to the last. Well done Aoife!"
Aoife's winning story
Karri was the first gypsy I had ever come close to before in my life. I'd seen gypsies before, of course. They came every spring to the fields just beyond our farm, but they always seemed so like characters from a story-book – colourful and vivid, but only to be looked at and admired rather that thought of as real people.
Karri had wondered across the field to our farm in search of entertainment. I found her sitting on the pig-sty fence, brown legs swinging carelessly.
"Hi!" she grinned as if we were best friends. "Nice pigs."
"Um, thanks," I smiled back.
"I'm Karri. What's your name?"
"Sophie," I replied, jumping up next to her. "I live on this farm."
"Oh. Am I allowed here?" Karri looked at me.
"Sure you are!" I laughed. "Hey, d' you want to come play in our barn? We have an awesome new rope-swing!"
"Cool!" Karri beamed, leaping off the fence and following me.
Our barn was the perfect playground, with its giant stacks of hay piled up by the walls and the thrilling rope-swing ride across one side of the room to the other. Karri screamed her way across the first time round, but soon got more daring and performed amazing tricks, swinging upside down and finishing with backflips and cartwheels.
"Ooh, let's play circuses!" I suggested.
"We can be twin performers - Karri and Sophie the super-duper duo!"
Karri's eyes gleamed excitedly.
"Oh, and we wear matching little red dresses with top hats and we have those special black sticks too!" I looked down at my scruffy hand-me-down jeans wistfully. When I looked up, Karri was staring at me, concentrating hard.
"Karri, -" I began but didn't finish because a tingling sensation was rushing all over my body and to my utter disbelief, when I looked down again, I found myself wearing the little red dress I had just described.
"How on earth…" I trailed off because Karri wasn't in front of me anymore. In her place was an enormous audience of people, all clapping and cheering.
Karri was swinging across the room on a trapeze, showing off wonderfully.
"Is this magic?" I gasped, rushing over to her when she returned.
"You bet!" she grinned. "Don't tell your ma! Oh - look at the lions!"
Down on the ground, five beautiful lions were parading around on a stage, flicking back their thick manes.
I gasped in delight, and was about to join in the clapping when a faraway voice interrupted.
"Sophie! Sophie, darling?" My mum.
Karri's eyes widened. "Uh oh!"
"Sophie? Where are you?"
As I cast a longing last look down at the lions, I was distraught to see that they were fading away from sight, disappearing into darkness.
"Sophie? Are you OK?"
All of a sudden, Mum was staring expectantly up at me from where she'd just entered the barn.
I turned to Karri, but only to find that she had disappeared.
"Yes, Mum…" I replied sweetly. "Absolutely fine!"
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