Category A (12-14 years) Name: Aahana Dudani Title: Guilty? Place: Highly Commended The man stumbles into the square, pale and thin. The guard follows, eyeing him closely. Suddenly, the man breaks into a sprint, trying to escape the horrid glares from the crowd. The guard gets a hold of him and locks the handcuffs around his thin wrists, before thrusting him onto a raised podium beside the judge’s chair. The man lifts his head, his eyes searching the crowd, as if he is looking for someone. Someone who knows the truth, someone who can change his fate, someone who can save his life. His gaze falls on the girl, and he locks eyes with her, just for a moment. She knows why he is looking at her as well as he does. All of a sudden, the crowd starts to murmur and the judge raises his hand to signal for quiet. The murmuring subdues, and everyone gazes expectantly at him. The judge slowly rises from his seat, and shuffles towards the front of the square. He outlines the crime that the man supposedly committed. He then indicates to the guard to execute the man. The guard orders the man to lie down on a piece of thick wood, raised up into the air by four heavy metal poles. After tightening his tie and brushing the dust off his navy blue uniform, he smugly wraps his fingers around the wooden handle of the object that many haven’t taken their eyes off since the beginning. “No!” she screams, just as the guard lifts the cold-looking axe above the man’s neck, “Don’t do that to him!” One hundred and seventy pairs of unblinking eyes turn to the girl. An awkward silence follows. Some look shocked that she has challenged the judge’s verdict; others look merely surprised. The atmosphere is tense – anything could happen now. The judge clears his throat and the crowd returns their gaze to the man, with blank looks on their faces. But the girl’s mind is racing. She doesn’t know whether she should stay quiet and let an innocent man die, or step forward and say what she knows, saving the man but killing someone else. The guard gives the girl a cold glare, and lifts the axe even higher. The girl is petrified. Should she admit what she knows? Or should she keep quiet? The guard brings the axe down, until a soft ‘squelch’ is heard, and then the axe makes contact with the wood. The crowd is silent. Some can’t take their eyes off the dead person. Others feel sick at the sight of him; they look away. The crowd slowly begins to filter out, one by one. But the girl doesn’t leave; she thinks about what just happened. She could have told the truth, she could have changed his fate; she could have saved his life. But she didn’t. The man didn’t deserve this. He didn’t stumble upon a bomb. He didn’t accidently set it off. He didn’t kill ninety people. She did.
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