As her entry into VICTA’s recent Braille Art Competition, Erin wrote an incredible braille adventure story that we just had to share with you! We hope you enjoy this wonderful ode to braille…
It was a very boring day. Until a mission came on the news. The mission was only for visually impaired people; A secret braille code is buried in France. The secret code was buried by Louis Braille who wanted to help blind people to communicate. I knew that this mission was meant for me, I had to be the one to find it. So, I find the greatest captain of all time, Captain Maddog and her crazy crew. They are at the pirate ship waiting for me and my family to sail across the sea. But first we need to get the train from Crewe to Bristol.
Whilst we are on the train there was a delay. Suddenly, the train screeches to a holt. We will get the bus to the pirate ship. Finally, we get to the pirate ship and start sailing towards France, what could possibly go wrong…
As we set sail on the old, grand pirate ship, luckily the sun was shining bright and the sea was calm, we sail across the deep, blue sea. All of a sudden, the sky started to turn from blue to grey, a storm came out of nowhere. The sea was rough, the waves were crashing against the ship. The ship began to rock side to side. Steph started to shiver because she is scared Fliss goes over to her to sit with her. Suddenly we could see the border of France.
As we reached land we stepped off the ship, I could feel the sand beneath my feet it felt like biscuit crumbs crunching under my feet. I reach into my pocket to get the map so I can read the tactile map to figure out which way to go and start searching for the secret braille code. But we could hear a message trying to come through on the radio, Captain Maddog ran back to listen to what was being said. After a short time Maddog came running back with the news that a villain named Billy had heard of this mission and had set out to try and stop us getting the code.
As we set off, across France following the map that only I could read. We came to a little, old town with little coffee shops with tables and chairs on the cobbled streets. As we walked through the town, my family was describing to me what the houses were like. They were small colourful houses all in a row with different coloured shutters on the windows. The coffee shops had lovely, coloured canopies coming out over the tables to give some shade from the burning, hot sun. Maddog was asking if we could stop for a coffee. “You can get one to carry, but you must be quick. We cannot let Billy the Villian find the code!” I replied quicky.
Suddenly, as we were waiting for Maddog, we heard a loud squark! And in the distance, we could hear a voice, we recognised it was Pollard the parrot “HELP, HELP, HELP!!” squawked Pollard. We all knew who it was that had taken Pollard. Now we had to make a plan fast as we knew Billy was onto us as he had taken our parrot. We followed squarks, they were like a tracker, this led us to a old, abandoned barn. Noone knew what to expect when we walked in as my Steeley was explaining that the barn had mouldy wood that was yellow, green colour and the roof was broken and half of it was on the floor in my way. I had to round quick.
Carefully the pirate crew opened the creaky, old, rusty doors and sneakily walked in, but suddenly, a huge net came crashing down on them. We stayed back so we did not get trapped Billy the Villain. Dad decided to go and see if he could find another way in whilst the crew were making that much noise shouting, no one would hear my dad getting in another way. He found a small window high up, he got some broken bits of the roof, piled them up so he could climb up and get through the window. My Mum was watching him to make sure he did not hurt himself, as he climbed through the window, he popped his head back out and shouted to mum “I can see Billy, he is here. I’m going to get him!”
Everything went silent, then we heard a big crash. After what seemed like a few minutes we heard “I’ve got him!!” We all ran in and helped to free the crew from under the net. We could hear Pollard squawking “I’m here, under the big box.” After we all escaped and left Billy tied up and trapped under the big box, so we knew there was no way that he could stop us now!
Now we had gone off track, I had to feel the map and work backwards to get us back on track. We made back to the coffee shop and Maddog got her coffee that she had been waiting for. Maeve the Brave asked me “Can we have a rest and sleep please. As it was getting late and we’d had an adventurous day.”
The lady behind the counter over heard Maeve and asked us what our adventure was. We explained to her and she offered us to stay in the coffee shop over night. We all agreed to stay as she had big, comfortable sofas in another room behind the counter. We all woke up after a good night sleep when the sun was rising to smell of delicious breakfast, Mary the owner had cooked us a feast to prepare us for our long journey ahead.
Now all the dangerous had gone, I can concentrate on finding the secret braille code. I reach into my pocket and the map was gone!
“Oh no you will not believe this! I have lost the map!!” I say with worry. Everyone looked confused we now needed to go and retrace our steps back to where we found Billy the villain. I could remember the way through the feel of the different textures of the ground, the smells around me. We eventually arrived back at the old barn, something felt strange as we crept in to search for the map. Suddenly Fliss let out a gasp
“He’s gone!” yelled Fliss, we all froze on the spot. I quickly thought and acted fast knowing that we needed to hurry.
“We need to get this map and go, Billy will not be able to read it, so it must be here somewhere!” We all quickly felt around for the map. Maeve shouted as she ran across the barn “I think I’ve found it.” She noticed a corner sticking out between the floorboards that were broken on the other side of the barn. What luck that was.
“Well done, Maeve!” Everyone cheered.
“Now we can get back on track.” Mum said thankfully.
I sat down and felt over the map, I had to concentrate hard because we did not have time to go back the café. This was my time to shine. I manged to figure out where we were and the quickest way to get to the buried secret code. It should take us a day to get there if we moved quickly. We set off once again, in the hope nothing else would happen.
As we approached a village, we can smell a sweet smell of freshly baked croissants and baguettes, we decided to stop and eat as we were in plenty of time to make it before the end of the day. As were sat enjoying our food, Pollard started flapping her wings and squawking “Look, look he’s over there!!” we all looked and there crouching in the corner was Billy the Villain watching us. We all stared in shocked, we all thought he had gone. Dad jumped up and ran over to him and said sternly, “What are you doing, do we need to tie you up again?” Billy looked worried “I don’t like the dark.” He muttered, with tears slow falling down his face. I walked over to him and said calmy “If you stop trying to steal the braille code, which you can’t even read. You can come along and help us because you seem to know your way around here. But you need to keep this promise and not try anything silly.”
Billy replies “Yes, ok I will come and help you. I am sorry.”
We set off once again, with Billy following. Maddog is watching Billy as she does not trust him. Billy suggests that we go off track to take a short cut, I agree but everyone else is unsure and does not want to go. Mum said, “Ok Billy, but how can we trust you?”
“I trust him, so you can all follow me!” I said sternly. In the end everyone followed, we went through valleys, meadows, apple orchids, and forests with streams going through. As everyone was thinking Billy was taking us on a wild adventure. Maeve screamed with joy “What did you say the braille code was buried near?”
“A statue carved into a shield made out of a log.” I replied curiously. Maeve let out another scream but this time it was even louder and happier “I can see it, I can see it. We are near to the statue. It is over there!” We all gasped in relief. Then I said, “I think you all need to apologise to Billy.” In a stern voice. Like an echo everyone said sorry to Billy.
Mum grabbed my arm excitedly and we all ran towards the statue. Once we arrived, I checked the map once more to find the exact spot the code is buried in. Everyone is waiting patiently for me to find the correct spot. I can sense the excitement of them all as they wait for me, so I decide to just sit there and not say anything until Steph asks, “what are you doing, can you not find it?”
I start to laugh, “I knew where it was ages a go, was just seeing how long you would all stand there for.” Everybody starts to laugh with happiness. I lead everyone to the spot, and we all start dig with our hands as no one brought a shovel. We dug and dug for what seemed like forever, until “Ouch!” I shouted as my hand hit something hard. Had we found it? We all hoped that it was the box with the code in. It was the box!
We all tried to open it, but we could not, I felt around the box then I realised it had a code that only I could read in braille. I need to read this and then find the key. I read it as quickly as I could, I shouted “There is a key, it is in the centre of the shield.” Dad quickly runs back, franticly looking for the key. It felt like hours until he came running back “I’ve got it.” he shouted.
“Hooray!” shouted everyone, even Billy was excited. I carefully open the box and in there true to Louis Braille’s word the secret code was there in the box. I read the code aloud to everyone. The code read…
“This is a code for free McDonald’s for a lifetime.”
We all started laughing “What an adventure we have been on all for free MacDonalds for the rest of our lives!” I said to the group. “Now let’s go MacDonalds!!”
By Erin
