Saffi and Secrets
A story for children aged 6+
by
Su Laws Baccino

‘Don’t go too far Jake, supper will soon be ready.’ Jake’s Mum called from the kitchen.

‘Okay Mum, I’ll show Saffi my new computer.’

Saffi often came to stay when her parents were away in India. He liked her, she was good fun, but he didn’t think it would do much for his street cred if his mates knew she stayed at his house.

‘Come on, Saffi, you’ll never believe this … ’

Jake rushed two at a time up the wooden staircase, his shoelaces flying loose. Saffi followed more slowly. She thought Jake was a bit rough; her brothers were quieter, but perhaps it was because they were older and went away to school.

‘You must promise never ever to tell anyone. Okay?’ said Jake in his most controlling, deep voice.

‘Why, why is it so important?’ Saffi looked puzzled. She played with her long hair, tweeking the elastic band.

‘It’s so exciting. I only found out yesterday. Here, watch this!’ Jake switched on his computer, ‘Look at that green. Weird.’

‘Why does it have to be a secret? Everyone’s got computers, except me,’ replied Saffi wistfully.

‘Not the computer! What it does, silly,’ Jake sometimes thought girls, especially Saffi, were a bit thick, but he liked them.

‘Show me what’s so special about YOUR computer then,’ challenged Saffi; she was a bit fed up with Jake, sometimes he was such a geek, ‘Go on. Show me!’

‘Not until you promise not to tell.’ Jake pushed his hand through his curly blond hair, combing it back; it made him look taller. He pulled his jeans up and tightened the belt one notch.

‘But I haven’t seen anything yet,’ Saffi twiddled the new sleepers; at least she’d managed to get her ears pierced as a birthday present.

‘Do you promise?’ Jake kick boxed the air, narrowly missing Saffi.

‘Yes, I suppose so, but do get on with it. I still don’t understand why people have secrets.’

‘What don’t you understand?’ Jake was impatient, ‘Secrets are things that can't be said ... well, at least, only if they are good things … and you can only tell them to good people. So do you promise?’

‘Yes. Yes. Go on, show me!’ shouted Saffi, as Jake tapped away at the keyboard, ‘Secrets cause trouble. I don’t have any.’

‘You will soon. Are you ready? I bet you’ve never seen anything like this in your whole life.’

Saffi watched as a picture of penguins replaced the green screensaver; it reminded her of a picture she’d used on the web site she’d made at school.

‘Have you made your own web site, Jake? I have.’

Jake didn’t hear, he took her hand tight, ‘When I shout ‘Let me in!’ we’ll travel.’

‘Travel? Travel where?’ Saffi laughed, she thought Jake was being a bit of an idiot, most boys were, but she nodded all the same.

“Let me in!”

There was a loud whooshing sound as Saffi and Jake were sucked through the screen. Everything was suddenly bright and divided into small squares; Saffi rubbed her eyes; all around were bright, shiny objects, everything sparkled and even the colours were metallic. White, grey and black streamers fell from the sky like heavy curtains and looking closer she could see they were cables, like those that clutter the back of computers and televisions. 

‘Come on. Follow me.’

Jake led Saffi across a large square, it looked like concrete, but it had a springy feel; like when you move the mouse around the mat – not hard, not soft, a bit bouncy, a bit like he felt when he held Saffi’s hand. Jake thought Saffi was quite pretty; she had dark eyes.

‘Where are we going? How did we get here?’ whined Saffi, then, ‘What are you staring at? Stop looking at me like that!’

It was awesome, a mind blowing world. A big notice welcomed them to Surf City. Below it, a smaller board pointed down a slippery slope to Virus Village, no through route.

‘Surf City. Isn’t it great?’ Jake was super excited.

‘But what about supper and your Mum?’ Saffi was curious, but something told her to hold on to reality, to remember that she didn’t know how she’d got there and she didn’t know how she’d get back. ‘Hey, Jake, you know Mark in your class …’

‘Stop being a wuss, we’ll be back, time doesn’t count here – look my watch has stopped. What about Mark?’

Saffi was offended. ‘Oh nothing, you wouldn’t understand.’

Girls are weird, thought Jake.

Saffi was getting used to the brightness now, everything looked new. There was a silvery glow to everything, even the sun shone through with an aura looking oddly like fine falling snow.

Jake was thrilled, ‘Isn’t it exciting? Look at the houses. What do they remind you of?’

‘Computers?’

‘Yes. Good one, Saffi,’ Jake was excited, ‘I love it here. And look at that roof - it’s a monitor, and the screen-shape a solar panel. My Dad would like that.’

Surf City was based on computers and everything to do with them. The houses were all different shapes and sizes; the tall flat narrow ones the most expensive. Those with tiny boxes by their side, the cheapest, like the old external modems. And the cars; were designed to suit easy parking in the slots at the side of the houses. Just like CD or DVD ports.

Saffi too was fascinated, not excited, but interested in what she saw; the fields, the trees and hedges were shaped like menu icons, and when she looked closely she could make out numbers and letters, as if they’d been copied from the keypad.

‘Look at that! Looks like a kind of vehicle,’ Jake pointed at a fast moving object rushing along parallel lines.

‘Will it stop?’ asked Saffi.

‘How should I know?’ Jake wondered why girls always asked so many questions, ‘Watch! Oh yes, look, see those round holes? It’s locking into one of them.’

‘Who tells it when to stop, I can’t see a driver.’

‘There are different drivers. ‘SEE’ is the most popular.’

‘Where is SEE?’

‘Er, don’t know yet. This is only my third visit.’

‘Are there any people here?’

‘They’re called Pixels and they’re everywhere, they’re those square bits you can see.’

‘Oh, yes, everything – you, you look as though you’re made up of tiny squares, a kind of pattern. Everything is.’

‘What’s Virus Village, Jake?’

‘It’s a dead area where viruses are stored; once they go in they never come out. Most of them are poisonous and that’s why they have to be locked away. Everything that happens in Virus Village is very secret; no one knows what it’s like in there. No one knows what they look like, but some are worms, and others sound like monsters. Sometimes the people who made them are locked away in our world too; they’re nasty people who have broken the law, that’s why they’re put in prison.’

‘So Virus Village is a bad place for bad things?’ Saffi frowned, ‘So why does no one know what it’s like in there? I thought bad things shouldn’t be kept secret?’

‘Stop asking so many questions, you’re doing my head in,’ Jake snapped.

‘I want to go home. How do we get back?’ Saffi sounded upset.

‘Okay, don’t worry,’ Jake felt sorry, he shouldn’t have answered back like that; Saffi was asking a lot of questions, but she was making him feel rather important, ‘One last thing, we’re allowed to make a wish before we leave. You mustn’t tell me what you’re wishing. It has to stay a secret. It really does work. You can only tell me when, and if, it comes true.’

‘More secrets,’ mumbles Saffi.

‘Make your wish, NOW!’

A short pause, and then Jake shouted, ‘Let me back!’

There was a big belching noise and Saffi felt herself being gently pushed forward and out of the tube. Jake followed, pulling himself up, helping Saffi to her feet.

‘There, was that fun, or what? I bet you never guessed I had a secret like that! You won’t tell, will you? You promised!’

‘That was really good, Jake. Can we go back again … soon?’ Saffi said excitedly; then serious again, ‘I still don’t understand secrets. Why can’t we tell anyone? Not even your Mum?’

‘If it was something bad, then we would have to tell someone, it wouldn’t be right to keep that kind of secret, but it wasn’t bad, was it? It was very, very good. If we’d visited Virus Village perhaps we would have that kind of secret, a secret to tell.’

Jake sounded as though he understood what he was saying, but Saffi was still confused.

***

‘Hungry?’ asked Jake’s Mum, as Jake and Saffi returned, laughing and chatting, to the kitchen.

Saffi remembered her wish. She would keep it secret. She didn’t think it would come true.

‘Your Mum phoned, Saffi, she says to tell you that they’ve bought you a computer. It’s being delivered tomorrow after you get home. And then Mark phoned you. I said to phone again later.’

‘Jake, Jake, my wish has come true! I wished for a computer. I wonder if it will be special like yours,’ laughed Saffi.

Jake’s Mum looked up, ‘Special?’ she asked, looking over her glasses.

Saffi, more sombre now, continued, ‘Auntie Jane?’

‘Yes, love, what’s up? Why so serious?’

‘If someone tells you something bad, something that you can't tell anyone else, …’

‘Yes. Go on love …’

‘… it can’t stay a secret can it, it’s not something you should stay silent about ... it’s one that you cannot keep, something you have to tell?’

‘Say that again, dear,’ Jake’s Mum smiled at Saffi as she spoke her thoughts again, slowly.

‘Oh, I get you now, yes, that’s right. Secrets … yes secrets are a way of keeping an honest silence about good things, for good reasons …’

The shrill ring of the phone interrupted Aunt Jane’s explanation, ‘Oh, there you go, that’ll be Mark, for you, Saffi.’

Jake had forgotten computers for the time being, he wished he’d been kinder to Saffi.

The End


©  Su Laws Baccino 2006

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Category: Children's Stories