Central Hawke’s Bay EIT ACE creative writing course winning entry - The Screw

"I’m confused about the hoe . . ."

I hear the phone ring and my mother calling out to dad - something about a screw.

I stay in the shed and listen to them argue in hushed voices. It’s weekly now, I overhear them and it’s always the same thing.

I wish mum would just give his screw back then they’ll stop fighting and we’ll be happy again. I’m only 5 but my dad has taught me all about tools. I fetch them for him.

Dad gets upset when I accidentally lose one of the screws so I try my best to find it and give it back. Mum should just give it back.

I’m confused about the hoe though. That’s not missing.

Far out, I try to show them that it isn’t, by using it right in front of them. Waving it in the air like “Heyy, HOe!” But still, they argue about it, eh.

I search everywhere for the missing screw so the fighting and crying would stop. I don’t know why dad couldn’t just get another one. He must have been building something spectacular because he always went away to work on it.

And mum kept crying trying to find the screw. She wanted to know the name of it. I told her it has to be a wooden screw because dad always used those. She wouldn’t;t listen to me though, She kept looking for it.

It all got too much for dad and he left me. It all got too much for mum too.

My teacher says, “It’s like she has a screw loose now.”

Me, I’ve searched every inch of this property and never, ever found it.