Last summer my parents, my aunt and uncle took a holiday together. My cousin Heera and I spent a lot of time on our mountain bikes in nearby hills. One day, just as the sky had become rather dark, a little old lady suddenly appeared.
She was very strangely dressed. Heera said later that she was wearing the kind of clothes that our mutual great-grandmother was wearing in old family photographs and he was right. She was wearing a long black dress with a brooch at the neck. Round her shoulders was a black shawl, while on her head was a strange looking black bonnet tied under her chin. On her feet were little boots with pointed toes.
Heera and I agreed later that we had both found the little old lady spooky at first, but we had told ourselves that it was silly to be scared of an old lady. What harm could she possibly do us?
She began to talk to us, but she was speaking very rapidly in an unknown language. We did not understand her. Then she began to mime. She pointed at us and then pointed down the hill. Then she pointed at the sky. Heera and I realized that she was urging us to go back down the hill before it began to rain.
We set off at once and it was fortunate that we did so. There was a terrible storm that day. Heera and I were relieved that we reached safely to our home before the storm started.
Dad told us later that there was a legend about an old Polish lady whose son had died on the hills in a storm. The story went that she warned people to get off the hills when there was to be an exceptionally bad storm.
Was she the strange figure on the hill?
Vocabulary
Mutual—shared by two or more people
Bonnet—kind of hat
Rapidly—quickly
Urge—request
