KAREN LEE February 10, 2016.
I sat glumly in my chair. It was history class, the class I dislike the most. Today the history teacher, Miss Higgins remarked, Class, today is a special day for everyone. Today, I am going to distribute your test papers back to all of you! After the classmates heard that, the classroom filled with excitement and fear. After a while, the classroom went quiet again. The class remained quiet until a pupil broke the silence. Nicholas stood up and said, Miss Higgins, I m willing to bet that my marks are the highest! Yes, my dear. You are quite right but a lot of classmates got high marks too! said Miss Higgins. But someone has got a disappointingly low mark-only 20/100! Karen! everyone yelled out loudly. Cheers for the low-mark queen! joked Nicholas. The class exploded with laughter. My face turned red with anger. Nicholas is good at a lot of things but I am the opposite, so he always ridicules me. After all the classmates calmed down, Miss Higgins looked sternly at me and said, Karen, stay in the classroom after school. After being scolded by Miss Higgins, I ran home as fast as possible. When I arrived home, I saw two enormous suitcases lying on the floor. I also saw Dad talking on the phone, and his face was pale. Mum, what s going on? I asked. PAGE 1
Dad has some emergency things to take care of in another country. You need to stay with your uncle for a week. My eyes widened. I thought: WHAT? Living with HIM for A WEEK? This is the problem- my uncle is a scientist. He is a strange man. He always hides in his house doing some experiments and doesn t come out for weeks. All his neighbors think that he is a mysterious man and some would even say he is insane! I felt scared when I was walking to Uncle s house. With every step I took, the scarier and scarier my thoughts became. At last, I reached my uncle s door. I rang the doorbell. In a flash, a tall man wearing a white glossy coat burst out of the door. Welcome! said the tall man with a friendly grin. I m your uncle. Pleased to meet you. Come in. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought: he s not that scary after all. He led me through alleys and corridors, until finally we arrived in a room with strange and cute things like: talking PAGE 2
dogs, moving toys, penguins flying in the air and a lot of different things. This is your bedroom. I felt excitement in my heart. After I put down my things, he showed me around the house. Then he said, Enjoy yourself! and he sped into the middle of somewhere. Later that night, I went to the bathroom. Suddenly, I heard a sound. Creek- I looked down and I found a part of the floor could be removed! I removed that part and I carefully eased myself down. Inside the hole, I saw a long staircase! I grew more and more curious. I went down the staircase. But when I got to the middle of it I felt that something was strange. I looked behind and had a fright! A part of the staircase was gone! In a flash, I ran to the ground. Phew! I looked up and found an enormous door. I pushed the door, but it didn t open. Maybe, the door has a code! I thought. So, I said some words, but it didn t work. I tried again and again to break the code. Hello! Sawadee ka! Coni chi wa Bonjour! Unfortunately, all my words were in vain. In the end I was so tired that I slumped down on the ground, feeling defeated and exhausted. Suddenly, I thought of Ali Baba. Ah! I know the code! I shouted. Open Sesame! Then, the door opened. I went through the door. There was a dark room with some kind of a machine inside. The machine was blue in colour. One side of it was rusty, and the other side of it was shiny. Its headlights PAGE 3
flashed everywhere breaking the darkness like lightening on a dark night. Then I saw a man sitting beside it. The man raised his head and Karen! Why are you here? It was Uncle! He was shocked to see me. I told him all about why and how I got there. After telling him, he was angry. At once, I said, Uncle, I m sorry. Then his temper evaporated. That s OK. I walked around the machine. What is this? I asked. Uncle replied, This is a time machine! Hearing that it was a time machine, I felt very excited. Can I drive it to the past now? I asked. No! It s too dangerous for you to drive it! Please? No! Please? No! I begged so hard that finally he said with a sigh, All right. I ll go with you. PAGE 4
Once I was kitted out with a pair of goggles and a pair of gloves, I sat in the machine with my uncle. Now, this time machine has two sets of identical keyboards. If you don t listen to my instructions and you press the wrong button, the machine will break into two pieces and we will go the opposite way. Notice? But these words were lost on my ears. I was too busy looking outside the windows. When Uncle said, Now, press the PAST button! I pressed the FUTURE button because I didn t listen carefully enough and the machine broke into two pieces! I went to the opposite of Uncle! But it was too late. I had already gone into the future. I landed in the future. I couldn t see Uncle anywhere and fear gripped me, making me sob. Suddenly a half alien and half human was beside me. He said, Don t cry. I m Percy Pearson. Nice to meet you. Let s go and play! I dried my tears and followed him. On my way, I saw people with space suits, feather suits, popcorn suits, bursting candy suits and lots of other interesting suits. I also saw talking cars, running dolphins, aliens and a lot more. I played with Percy until suddenly the sunlight had gone. A huge monster with more than one hundred teeth came out and roared. Everyone ran away. PAGE 5
The air was filled with screams and shouts. It was a treeeating monster. It roared at the people and ate a lot of trees. Percy got a pen out and turned it into a sword. I m a treeeating monster killer. Let s fight the monster. So, I got a sharp and shiny sword from a shop window. Percy and I launched at the monster. Percy slashed the sword at the monster. I swung my sword at its arm. The monster screamed with pain. The monster wanted to scratch us with his long, sharp claws but we defended it. It was using its tail in attempt to topple Percy over. Poor Percy was hurt. I was angry that the monster hurt Percy. So, I plunged my sword into the monster s stomach. The monster gave a loud roar, and finally it fell down to the ground. Everyone cheered for me. Then a man with a speaker ran beside me and said to everyone, Bad news! The last tree has toppled over! After hearing this bad news, everyone began to cry. Someone said, The people in the past were so selfish! They are like the trees PAGE 6
eating monster. Cutting trees for their own interest! I was ashamed of myself. Why didn t I use towels instead of tissues? Suddenly, a big hurricane passed and it swept me off the floor. Karen, wake up! We re HOME! I heard a friendly voice. I opened my eyes. Uncle! I hugged him and told him about my journey. After this time machine adventure, I learnt that I should follow instructions and listen to rules carefully. I also learnt that we should protect our environment and save the trees. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2016 KAREN LEE PAGE 7