PSLE: Train Derailed

Jielun and Jiehao were all smiles as they were making their way to visit their grandmother.  They were travelling in a train, surrounded by the bustling crowd of passengers.  Jielun could hardly contain his excitement because it was his birthday and Grandmother was going to bake him a marble cheesecake.  He smiled broadly, showing off his sparkling white teeth. He gazed at his brother who was monkeying around the metallic poles.

The train suddenly rattled and jerked violently.  The impact was so strong that both boys fell to the hard ground.  Everyone was screaming like banshees, wondering what had happened.  As if that was not enough, the lights started to flicker portentously before they went out.  The train continued to whiz forward and its unstoppable momentum forced it to leave its tracks and derailed, plunging into a deep river.

The train started to sink downwards rapidly.  Everyone panicked and pandemonium struck!  People were pounding on the windows.   The water started seeping into the cabins.  Its force was so insanely powerful that the windows started to crack like the design of the spider web.

Jielun turned to his younger brother and shrieked, “Hold my hands.  Take a deep breath and swim upwards with me until we reach the surface.”

Jiehao stammered with quivering lips, “But…but.. I cannot swim!”

Jielun stared at his brother sharply and replied, “Take in a deep breath, kick like a frog until you surface!”

There was a resounding blast and the boys immediately swam out together with other passengers.  Unfortunately, the boys separated and Jielun found himself all alone.  He surfaced and shouted, “Jiehao, where are you?”

Silence greeted him instead.  A cold chill ran down his spine.  Jielun yelled again and again but it was just futile.  He dived into the waters repeatedly but it was too dark to see anything.  Jielun was devastated.  Hot tears began rolling down his chubby face. 

Meanwhile, some adults had already surfaced trying to help the non-swimmers to the shore.  Many had drowned too and their corpses were floating face down.  A burly man then swam to him and asked him what had happened.  Jielun told him tearfully that his brother was still missing.  The man instructed him to swim to the shore while they searched.

Hundreds of grim thoughts filled his mind.  Would Jiehao survive this ordeal?  He prayed hard. “God, please save Jiehao! Please.”

More and more passengers were saved by the kind souls.  But still, there was no Jiehao.  Jielun feared the worst.  Just then, someone swam towards the shore, tugging a little head above the waters.  It was Jiehao!   The savior placed him on the wet grass and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.  Jiehao stirred finally after some lone agonizing moment and started coughing and spluttering out dirty water.

Tears of relief flowed down Jielun’s eyes.  The brothers embraced each other, knowing that they were lucky enough to survive the clutches of death.  It was a birthday that Jielun would never forget.