This is the fourth part of STORY A of our #sendastory project.
You can read the entire story so far on this page. This section was written by the pupils of St Andrew’s School in Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
St. Andrew’s Scots School is in Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are are really big school, with kindergarten, primary and secondary areas. Olivos is a peaceful suburban town near Buenos Aires city and our school has been here for many years, although not since its foundation, which was 175 years ago. St Andrew’s is one of the oldest schools in Argentina, it was once a boarding school for boys but now it is a day school for both girls and boys, most of them Argentine and Spanish speaking.
Confused and terrified, I stood up in the forest in the humid soil. I shook off the dead leaves and moss from my clothes. Feeling a sharp pain in my temples, I blinked hard to try to adjust my eyes to the darkness and looked around me.
Suddenly, a match lit an old-fashioned lamp. A strange old man was holding the lamp and watching me closely. My head wasn’t playing games: it was the man from the shack.
‘What is happening to me? What are you doing to me? Who are you?’ I quivered.
‘I won’t hurt you, but the less you know about me, the better for you,’ he answered, breathing heavily. His voice was raspy and deep. ‘We haven’t got much time. Everything is falling apart.’ He handed the photo of the girl to me.
‘Who’s the girl?’
‘She is the one you must help. You must find her and save her,’ the old man insisted. There was a note of panic in his voice.
‘How?’
The old man took out a battered roll of what seemed leather, tied with a red ribbon round its middle. He unrolled it carefully on the ground and I saw it was a map.
