Livia's Narrative

One dark and stormy night, the wind howled outside and the rain pelted down.  A father was telling his 10 year old daughters Frankie, Harriet and Rose the story of the headless trainman.

“Once upon a time,” their father began, “There was a headless trainman, who roamed this very town, haunting all the people and searching, searching, for an unsuspecting victim. He died one dark and stormy night, much like this one. He was driving a passenger train while the rails were wet and the train slipped off the rails, plunging down the side of the very same cliff we live on now. While it was tumbling down,” he said, “His head got cut clean off by a shard of broken glass, and went falling down the side of the cliff, never to be seen again. Now legend has it, he still roams this place, searching for his lost head'.  

By now the three girls were shivering with fright, but wanted to find out if this was really true. So, when everybody was asleep, they quickly made a paper māche head with a smiling face and snuck out.

They soon came to the train tracks, and hid behind a nearby bush.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a ghostly light. The girls saw this and ran away screaming stopping a few metres away. 

And there, before their very eyes was.......  John! He was holding a lantern.

“What are you girls doing” he laughed.

"Oh, uuummm... okay, we thought you were the headless train man" they replied, embarrassed.

"Okay, I'll be on my way then." 

And with that, he briskly walked away.

The girls ran back to their hiding place behind the bush and waited. Before long, out of nowhere,

A ghostly light appeared, and when they looked down at the ground, the feet were floating above the ground. The girls looked up, where the head should have been.... Nothingness.

The girls screamed for all they were worth, and ran and ran.

About half way to their house, Rose panted to Frankie,

"Where is the paper māche head?"

"I threw it on the tracks"

They carried on running and as soon as they saw the house, they ran faster.

Harriet ran so fast that she tripped over in a puddle, and fell flat on her face. The sisters helped Harriet up and asked if she was okay.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just a little bit sore"  she replied. 

Frankie and Rose were not so sure though, as Harriet had scratches all over her face, and her knee was bleeding, but they took her word for it.  

The girls carried on running home. By the time they reached their house,they were so sleepy that they could hardly walk, but they made it into bed.

The girls slept in, and in the morning, they had completely forgotten about the night before. 

Slowly, they creaked down the stairs to have breakfast. But what the girls saw on the table made them scream, because there on the table was......  A paper machē head,  and there on the head was... A frowning face.