The Headdress

NORTH AMERICA

As I watch my father being crowned chief, he turns towards me and says, “Soon you will be in my position. This will be a new life. For both of us.” I smile and watch the headdress being placed on my father's head...

ENGLAND

My granddad saw his father being crowned chief. How I wish I could have seen it. As I finish my cheese and tomato sandwich, my friend Emma calls me over for a run around the playground. Our school is on the edge of a forest the size of a city. There's a hole in the metal wire fence and I always squeeze through it every lunchtime. So I slacked behind Emma so she wouldn't see I was gone.

I crawl through the hole, my clothes and hair snagging on the ends of some stray pieces of wire. The reason I do this is to see my ten-year-old sister. My sister who never went to school. The only reason she didn't go to school was because...well...she has a short temper and can get very wild. She doesn't like to be around anyone but me. Sometimes she could even get angry at me for no reason... As I approached her, she was up in a tree writing something on the branch. “Ceri. I brought you food,” I said as I pulled out the remains of my cheese and tomato sandwich. “Give it here. I'm starving,” She said. I sighed. “Jana. I'm hungry. Please... Ugh fine.” She obviously wanted me to climb up there and give it to her. No way. She jumped down from the oak tree. Her black hair was always unkempt and filled with leaves. She always wore a stripy blue and black t-shirt with long sleeves, patchy joggers and a cream coloured jumper.

I loosened my stripy green and white tie as she ran up to me, snatched the bag from me and ate the remains of the sandwich like a ravenous wolf. “You look like you haven't eaten food in days,” I chuckled. “Jana. There's something I need to show you,” Ceri said, taking me by the wrist and leading me to a cave. It was hidden by mountains of shrubbery. It felt like someone or something wanted an object or even a person hidden that didn't want to be found. Ceri uncovered the curtain of leaves and I helped her, feeling emotions of anxiousness and excitement. I then realised that this cave was a tunnel with paintings on the walls. They looked like...Hunters.

The sun shone bright into my eyes. I squinted to find myself in a clearing. There was a rock in the middle. “Look,” Ceri said. I bent down to have a closer look at the object on the rock. It was an American headdress. Thin strips of woven cotton fell to the floor; attached to the cotton were massive feathers. A few had snapped in half and there were gaps. I thought the feathers were meant to look clean and crisp. But their white colour had grown to a dull grey, like the sky when it's raining or the sound of thunder. I blinked with astonishment. My grandfather's face appeared in my head. Shake it off, I thought. Granddad had passed away a year ago. 

“Ceri. You remember granddad, don't you?” I asked, feeling a bit ill. “Yes...why?” I explained to my sister that the headdress she found had been passed down for generations. “I...I'm sorry...I didn't notice...” She trailed off. Ceri opened her mouth but no words came out as a car came crashing through the forest. A man in a suit stepped out of the driver's seat who was followed by another man. “You two. Stop right there. Give me that headdress,” one of the men said. “No. YOU stop. This is ours. You don't understand...” Ceri protested but was cut off by the man's chilling laugh that sent shivers down my spine. I was in a state of shock that meant I couldn't speak. “I think you will find that this belongs to a museum,” he said. I gasped in terror. The other man produced a box at the first man's command. He picked up the headdress and examined. At this point, Ceri lunged for him. Kicking and screaming, I did all that I could to hold her back. “Let me go! Let me GO!” she protested. “There's nothing we can do.” I said quite calmly. Ceri decided to talk back. “There is!”

“There isn't!” I said, my voice rising in tone. But by that point, the car had disappeared into the distance. Ceri screamed once more. The pain was extremely high in my ears. In pain, I let go of Ceri and fell face first into the mud and leaves. With one final sob, Ceri ran off into the forest. I never saw her ever again.

It had been over two years since she disappeared. I realised that she might be lost without me. She was only ten after all... As I now walk into the Pitt Rivers museum, when I see the headdress, it makes me think of my sister. Tears always prick my eyes. She was such a cheery person (at the best of times). When I’m sad, I walk. This time I walked for miles. We'll find each other soon Ceri. Then I remembered that she was writing something on the branch of the tree she was sitting on that lunchtime.

I ran back to the tree and climbed up (with difficulty). There was a “C” in a feather shape. It was in her handwriting (thank goodness). Then I knew where she had gone. The headdress.

 

By Ruby Belcher