New Tales of Old Shanghai
Stewards Pooi Kei Primary School , Hung , Christopher – 11
S hanghai , a busy city with beautiful architecture .
Shanghai is flourished as a cosmopolitan and thriving commercial and financial center . But in the old days it was a different story . A long , long time ago , Shanghai was a city full of happiness .
My name is Christopher , my father is an inventor . One day he went to meet with his friend to discuss one of his projects , so I was home alone . I went into my father ’ s room ; it was full of books , papers , robots … And then I saw it - his time machine . I walked inside and pressed some buttons randomly . Suddenly , I was in a whole different place !
I arrived with quite a bang . It was the time machine , it had broken into peaces ! “ Ouch ! Where am I ?!” I yelled . ’’ Well , wow ! Am I dreaming ?!“ I shouted . Soon I found myself asking people “ Where am I ?” They would all say the same thing - Shanghai . I am in Shanghai ! I looked at their clothes and shouted again ‘ Oh my ! I am in Old Shanghai !’
Old Shanghai was a wonderful city ! Nobody was crying , nobody was angry . Everybody was merry . The old Shanghai was a happy city . After looking around , I realized something : “ How will I go back without the time machine ?! Will I stay here for the rest of my life ?”
Whilst I was thinking , I heard a sudden “ Boom !” The sound shook me up ! “ What happened ?’ A million questions exploded in my mind “ Was it a bomb ?! Could there be a war in this calm little city ?! Will I die ?! Will I survive ?! Or can I somehow save the day and be the hero of Shanghai …”
I saw a group of people surrounding someone . I walked over to find that a little girl was tied up with a ticking bomb on her body . She was very silent , but you could tell she was scared stiff . There was no time to think , my instinct said that I was there to do something ! Everyone around had no clue of what to do and just looked very nervous . I had to do something and that something had to be fast . I got out my utility knife ! I carried it with me everywhere and in that moment clearly remembered my father giving it to me while saying “ You never know when it will become handy .” At that very moment , it was very handy .
There were two wires attached to the bomb , one was blue and the other one red . I looked at the wires , then I looked at the worried faces of the people around me . “ 60 , 59 , 58 , 57 …” the clock was ticking and I had to make a decision and that decision was going to either save the girl or kill her and everyone around , including myself . That decision was fatal . “ 29 , 28 , 27 , 26 …” just before I cut the red wire assuming red usually represents positive and is often times the energy source , I noticed a very fine wire behind the two . It made me think of all those army movies I ’ d watched , where the red wire is a trap , so in the last seconds , “ 3 , 2 , 1 …”, I cut the fine wire which stopped the clock . Everyone was relieved and the girl was saved .
Although I saved the city , I couldn ’ t be happy because I couldn ’ t go back to my city , I could ’ t go back to my time . Even when everyone wanted to celebrate with me , I couldn ’ t relax and have fun , I needed and wanted to go back to my home and to my family ! But it just seemed impossible !
While I thought about my home , back in the future my father just got back home and he had noticed that there was something wrong with his time machine - it was ON …
To my surprise , a bright shining circle of light appeared in front of me and I could hear my father calling me to come home . My heart filled with joy and huge relief as I immediately realized that what I was seeing was my gate home . I said goodbye to the friendly people of Shanghai and walked into the light and within a split second , I was in my father ’ s arms . I told him everything . Luckily , he wasn ’ t angry with me . In fact , he was very proud of me , he said I was a very clever and brave boy . If I hadn ’ t used my intuition , the whole history of Old Shanghai would have been different .