EOI Carabanchel Writing Awards: "A New Life"

Dearest student Eva Miranda Scarpa, first prize winner for NI. Enjoy your reading and post your comments here!


"A New Life"


- Max, take the rubbish out!
- Ok mom, just a sec. The match is almost finished and Manchester has just scored… In five minutes we will win the Championship!!
- Max, it is very late and you have to go to bed, so take the rubbish out now.
- But mom, I will do it later…
- I have said now.
- Ok…

When I heard that conversation, I started feeling very nervous. It was the moment I had been waiting for a long time. I was about to start a new life…

I still can remember when I was born, I mean, when I was created in the factory. There were several hundred of us and everyone was anxious; in fact we only had one thing in mind: our aim was simply to become something important. Sometimes we liked to talk about what we would like to become; some of my colleagues wanted to be part of a plane or a rocket, but we were pretty sure we did not want to become a tin of tomatoes or a can of coke. That must be so sad, so boring. Definitely not, our lives had to be exciting...

However that is exactly what we are: tins, cans and so on. Before leaving the factory, we were crammed together into the cardboard boxes and were taken to different supermarkets, malls and shops by dirty, noisy and overcrowded lorries.

I hope everything to be different next time; tomorrow morning I will be picked up and been recycled, I am raring to go. Anyway I am not going to build up my hopes because I am not likely to be something different from a tin or a can. However, what I would like to become is a piece of a car to be able to travel around the country but who knows…

Hey, what is happening? Someone is picking some bags up, but he is not the dustman, who are you? Where are you taking me to? Oh, metal God! I have a very bad feeling about this. Wait a moment, there is no need to panic. Let me think… he might be an artist! Of course, one of those who like working with real things, one of those who think everything may be art. After all, I am a beautiful tin and I am almost new. Yeah, I am starting to think I am going to be part of a work of art, I am so lucky! Maybe I will be put on display in a museum where thousand of people will be looking at me and speaking about what amazing sculpture it is:

- “It is strong and revolutionary”

- “No dear, I think it represents the human being triumph: every device, machine and object is below the man”

I am looking forward to getting the artist’s studio. I am sure it will be an untidy place, full of junk which he uses to create his masterpieces: tyres, tins, plastic bags, ropes and all kind of things. Wow, it will be very exciting!

The artist has picked me up and has thrown me not very carefully into the boot of a car. The boot smells a bit musty and everything is in darkness. We have been driving for hours but, suddenly, the car has stopped which means we have arrived at the studio. It is a very strange and filthy place, not very big, with a lot of things lying on the floor. What a mess!

After staying in a dusty corner of the room for a long time, it seems that he is going to start his work. First of all, he has taken me and has made holes in my skin. Next he has filled me up with a weird mixture of powder, screws and nuts. I can not understand anything, what a strange sculpture I am going to be! But it does not matter; it will be so surprising and shocking that everybody will be impressed. One moment, I have realised I am not the only one but… what are the others doing inside a casserole? Definitively, the art world is unpredictable.

At last I think the artist has finished his work. I am inside a casserole as well, he has put the lid on it and now… the art gallery is our destiny! I am going to become a celebrity…

- Max, can you turn up the radio a bit, please? I can’t hear what they are talking about…

- Ok mom, coming!

“Breaking news. Sorry for interrupting the programme you were listening to but we have to announce a terrorist attack has just taken place in the centre of the city…”