Concours Virginia WOOLF

L’ élève de spécialité anglaise, Léo Coquin TG03 , a brillé lors du concours Virginia WOOLF , concours régional d’ écriture d’ une nouvelle en anglais (maximum 6 pages) et a terminé sur le podium à la 3ème place.

Vous pouvez lire sa nouvelle ci-dessous :

ERIN RHEW
Tir na hÓige
I stared out into the darkness. Somewhere, just outside of my eyeline, Anu lurked. I could feel him
out there, beckoning. But I stayed inside, my feet planted in obstinance.
I’d known him my whole life, and yet, lately, he’d been different—angrier and restless. In all our
years together, I’d only ever known him as sweet and gentle, so this change disturbed me. My
stomach gnawed from both anxiety and hunger.
“Come to the table, Annie,” my mother called. “Stop staring out of the window.”
“Why does she do that all the time?” I heard my father whisper to my mother, though he might have
well have been using his full voice for all the good it did. “There’s nothing out there.”
Nothing out there. The story of my life. When I’d first met Anu, my parents had brushed it off as an
imaginary friend—a typical development of childhood. But as I grew and insisted on the actuality of
Anu, they’d become more concerned. Had even sent me off for a temporary stay at a psych ward.
But Anu had accompanied me there too, providing friendship and familiarity in a strange place.
My “resting time,” as my parents called it, hadn’t caused Anu to disappear. In fact, the trip had
taught me two important things. 1) Only Anu truly cared about me 2) Never talk to anyone about
him.
I turned to head back toward the table. The farther away I walked, the harder Anu’s spirit pulled at
my own. He wanted me to come outside with him, and I wanted to go outside with him. But I
couldn’t. I couldn’t blow our cover again, and we both knew it.
At the dinner table the ambiance was tense, I didn’t feel like eating not with Anu outside. My
parents could tell something was bothering me as we ate in silence but I couldn’t explain without
exposing Anu’s existence again and having my parents think I’m insane.
They didn’t like me using the word insane in the psych ward but every time they looked at me I
could almost read the word reflecting in their eyes; « She still believes in imaginary friends? This girl
must be insane ». I didn’t care though, I knew that Anu was real even if no one else could see him.
My dad stared up from his plate as if waiting for me to say something but I had nothing to say.
« So, how was your day? » He asked hoping to lighten the mood a bit. I shrugged, looking up at him
and putting on my best ‘the day was okay’ face.
« It was fine. » I simply answered hoping to cut the conversation short so I could quickly leave the
dinner table and figure out what to do about Anu waiting for me outside.
My father glanced at my mother in defeat and shrugged looking back at his plate and obviously
giving up on continuing the conversation. It made me a little sad to see how my parents watched
me worryingly when I didn’t talk to them but sometimes I was just too tired to do so.
When I finally finished my plate I stood up from my chair in a hurry which immediately drew my
parents ‘ attention back to me.
« Where are you going so quickly? » My mother asked me with an eyebrow raised, her way of
showing suspicion.
Thankfully, I already had come up with an excuse to go to my room so quickly, « I have a history test
tomorrow morning, I have to go and study. »
It seemed to be a satisfying enough explanation because they both gave a nod and I headed into
the corridor to my room walking past the old crusty wallpaper plastered all over and old family
photos that felt like they were glaring at me in the dark.
When I got to my room I almost threw myself onto my bed, hurting my nose slightly as I hit the
pillow. I turned around with a deep breath followed by a sigh and stared at the ceiling. I knew my
only real option was to sneak out and see what Anu wanted but I had to prepare myself
psychologically first.
After a minute of staring into what felt like the abyss I got up from my bed in a little jump and
headed towards my dresser out of which I pulled a dark brown hoodie with the drawing of a white
polar bear on it that was wearing a dark blue cap with ‘Please be patient with me I have autism’
written in white at the top of it. I quickly pulled it over my head and then grabbed a lighter brown
jacket that I added on top of the hoodie just to make sure I wouldn’t be too cold.
Afterwards, I headed to my door, taking a peak outside to check that my parents were focused on
their usual 9pm TV show. I could slightly see the light of the TV out of the living- room door,
confirming that they were in fact probably staring at the screen as if hypnotized by it.
I slipped out of my room into the corridor and headed towards the door. I knew I couldn’t pass it to
get out because it was incredibly creaky and there was no way my parents wouldn’t hear. So
instead, I just grabbed my runners and headed back silently into my room. Luckily, we lived on the
first floor and my window led me right outside. The drop from my window to the floor was so small I
would barely sprain an ankle if I didn’t land right.
I struggled a little before managing to let the window panes loose from each other. I grabbed the
windowsill and pulled myself up and over it, doing it in one smooth movement.
Just like that, I was outside. The cold wind brought chills up my spine. I couldn’t leave yet though,
first I had to close my window as best as I could. I grabbed the locking handle, pulling it to the side
so that when I slammed my window it would fall over and lock the window from the inside.
When I was done with that I turned around. Anu was standing there, on the edge of the forest,
waving me over. I hesitated, the warm light coming from my room still shining on the side of my
face with a promise of rest and warmth, but I could feel Anu’s eyes burning into my back as he
waited for me to walk over.
In the end I made up my mind and headed towards Anu. “What are you doing?” I said in a
whispered yell furrowing my brows to show clearly my frustration with him.
Anu smiled, “Sorry, but I have to show you something!” before I could even answer he walked into
the deep forest. I didn’t know whether I should follow him or not but he turned around and called
me over again, “Come on!” and I stepped into the forest.
With uncertainty I joined Anu, the ambiance was oppressing but Anu walked as if it were broad
daylight not bothered at all by how the trees were endlessly stretching into the sky or the fact that
there seemed to be a flock of crows following us in the tree tops.
We walked on and on, the darkness engulfed us further and further and I started to worry about if I
could even find my way back home. Anu looked as if he knew exactly where he was going. It was
also at that moment I noticed the light coming from him, I’d never seen him glow before.
“How are you doing that?” I asked curiously while keeping my eyes locked on the ground so I
wouldn’t stumble over a loose branch that had fallen.
“I dunno I just kind of do it, it’s like flexing a muscle” He answered so simply it almost made it seem
like it was obvious.
“I’ve just never seen you do that before,” I said, feeling a bit sad that he hadn’t shown me that ever
before “which is surprising since I’ve known you all my life.”
Anu shrugged “Never had the need to.”
I had been so focused on this new discovery that without realizing my eyes had left the ground to
look up at Anu and inevitably my foot caught in a tree root and I fell over. I was even more
surprised as I found myself tumbling down a hill that I am fairly sure wasn’t charted on any map of
Ireland.
When I finally stopped going down, I rolled over on my back and my eyes squinted as they were hit
with broad daylight. I was lying in a clearing that was split in two by a path made of yellow bricks
which reminded me of the Wizard of Oz. I stood up, a bit dazed from the dozens of rolls I had just
done and checked myself for injuries only to notice I didn’t even have a scratch.
My eyes searched for Anu but he was nowhere to be found, I looked back in front of me and there
he was, standing with a proud smile. I let out a small screech of surprise, caught off-guard by his
sudden appearance, and stood up quickly.
“How did you get here so fast?” I grumbled at him as I dusted myself off and fixed my hair (as well
as I could)
Anu just shrugged again with a mischievous smirk. He walked towards the road and waved me
over. “Come on! We’re almost there.”
I started thinking that going outside had been a bad idea but now I had no real choice. I joined Anu
onto the bricked path and stared at the horizon. Far in the distance I could see a tree as big as the
Empire State Building. It stood there, proud and strong, branches reaching out all around. It
reminded me of Crann Bethadh, the tree of life.
Around it, I could make out what looked like an old town straight out of my school history book. It
was beautiful while also a little off putting. Something about some unknown medieval town, built
around a huge oak in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, felt extremely strange.
As we approached the town Anu stopped and took a step to face me.
“Annie, this place you created with your mind. At first, it was was a single young tree that you and
your father planted together deep in the forest. Then, as you grew, it grew,” He gestured towards
the tree, “it looks a lot different now that we are closer to it.”
The tree that seemed so healthy and powerful previously now appeared weak and tired, the more I
stared the more familiar it seemed to me.
“You’re different from the norm this world has put you in,” Anu continued without giving me a
moment to process what he was saying. “You’re not a simple human, you’re a divergence, an
evolution. Your mind can create things with such a power it can bring realms to life. This village,
those people that live here, me, we’re all real.”
I struggled to understand what he was saying. I had heard of humans that were different, that had
abilities that were dangerous. They were often talked about on TV, a lot of politicians said they
should be eliminated because they wanted to erase the human race but activists said that all they
wanted was to be able to live normal lives without being bothered.
I had never really paid that much attention to that topic mainly because I had the simple belief that
if they weren’t hurting anyone then there was no reason to treat them any differently than normal
people.
Anu’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “But, the villagers have all gotten weaker, sicker. Fear
Grota’s have started plaguing the land,” Fear Grota’s, Men of Hunger were from a Celtic Irish myth.
A sort of Undead humans that appeared mostly during times of famine.
“Why?” I finally managed to ask when Anu was catching a breath to keep talking.
“I’ll explain in a second.” Anu answered. “I, on the other hand, have been getting stronger, it’s why I
was able to pull you back into this realm. You used to visit it quite often when you were a child but
your memory has started fading, pushing away your powers. The issue is your creation depending
on your ability to remember and believe in them.”
“But if they’re real then why would they need me to believe in them?”
“Well imagination is a powerful tool. Think about it this way, those believing in them only exist if you
believe they do, don’t they?”
“I guess..”
“It works the same for this except it’s a lot more physical. As you can see, touch, smell and feel
everything here and so could anyone if they believed in your words.”
At this point, I was extremely confused. There was no way I had powers, I would have noticed
them earlier. I stared back and forth between Anu and the village. The worst was I could definitely
not talk about this to anyone or they’d think I was crazy and send me back to the psych ward but
this time I would not even be allowed to leave it again.
“So you’re saying I can create anything with my mind? That’s completely insane Anu”
“Is it really? I’ve been with you your whole life and even when everyone else told you you were just
imagining me you still knew, felt, that I was real. How do you explain that? How do you explain this
town?”
“Maybe I really am losing my mind.” I snapped back at Anu. I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to curl up
into a ball and wake up in my bed, but somewhere inside of me I knew Anu was telling the truth. I
wasn’t a normal person and I would never be one.
“Don’t say that Annie,” Anu put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “it’s okay to feel like this is too
much but I have to tell you now, you’re in the middle of a big change not only because of your
puberty but because your power is getting stronger and harder to control. I couldn’t just let you
discover it by accident.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because you were too young, and you already felt alienated enough, I didn’t want to make it
worse.”
I sighed and took a moment to observe the town. I closed my eyes and focused on it. I had the
temptation to reach out my hand out but I felt as if it could be way too much of a cliché.
I pictured it, healthier, bustling with many creatures and beings from my memory.
As I concentrated, I started hearing some noise and then they turned into what sounded like a
hubbub of laughter and shouting coming from the town square. Shortly after the sound of the
crowd appeared like distant music; I could recognise the sounds of a Bodhrán and Uilleann pipes.
When I was sure I wasn’t just imagining the noise, I opened my eyes.
In the village, the streets were filled with people. I could make them out. Some of them looked like
fairies, others were even close to humans; creatures with big furry black ears that almost looked
like some sort of big dogs standing on two legs.
All of them wore clothing straight out of a Lord of the Rings book.
I turned to Anu and stared in awe at what I had just done.
“How did I do that?” I asked as if I didn’t already know the answer.
Anu smiled at me proudly and shrugged “You tell me”!
I stood there for a moment. Finally I started to face the possibility that I wasn’t a normal human. I
wondered where my life would go from here. Would I be able to tell anyone? Would I become a
mutant rights activist? I would definitely have read to up on some of my history books and looked
for some articles and research on evolved people.
Once I finally snapped out of my thoughts, I looked up at Anu again.
“So what now?” I simply pondered.”
A bell rang and I was cut off.
I realised that I was staring at my hands during the whole story, fidgeting anxiously.
“You can tell me more after dinner.” The professor says rolling his wheelchair out of his desk and
towards the door, opening it for me. “Come on, Annie.” He says in a soft reassuring tone of voice
extending his hand towards me in an invitation to follow him.
END.