Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 423

A Whole Different World
King George V School, Wong, Adelaide - 11
Soaring mountains pierced the sky as the sun rose from its slumber. A gentle breeze filled the air, rustling the
leaves of nearby trees. The sky gradually changed color, from ultramarine to soft yellows to bright blues. A lone
figure, resting her head on the windowsill, gazed up at the floating clouds flitting through the sky. “Nessa, time
for school!” came a muffled voice from behind the clatter of pots and pans. Sighing softly, she slipped downstairs
and out the front yard. Nessa ambled through the ankle-high green grass, humming a soft tune to herself all the
way to school.
“Alright, class! Today we will recap some information on the GBA!” chirped the teacher. All the students leaned
forward eagerly on the rickety desks as their teacher began the lesson. “The GBA, also known as the Greater Bay
Area, is one of the world’s biggest regions and is made out of Hong Kong, Macau and parts of Southern China.
In the region, we have more land than Switzerland, more people than Canada and lots more job opportunities
than Australia. This keeps the region well-kept, wealthy and it’s people employed.” Their teacher added. Nessa
flipped the pages of the textbook and stared at weathered pictures of towering skyscrapers lit against a twilight
sky, soaring planes leaving trails through the sky as they cut through clouds, and dozens and dozens of buildings
packed together. There were pictures of a massive amount of people cramming into a wide street, luminous neon
signs dotted along highways, and dozens of sleek, shiny cars zooming down spiraling highways. “Wow,” she
breathed softly. “I’d give anything to go there myself.” As she whispered to herself, a spiral of black streamed out
of the book and enveloped Nessa in it, then sucking her briskly into a vortex of nothingness.
Thud! Nessa groaned and opened her eyes and sat up, her back cracking from the impact. Her head swiveled
around, trying to focus on the fuzzy purple and black and yellow colors spinning around her. Trying to stand up,
she tottered around like a baby foal taking its first steps. She collapsed again as the world spun around and around
like a speeding carousel.
“Little girl, are you lost?” came a soft, soothing, kind voice next to her.
“Huh? Where am I?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. Trying to look at the speaker, she only glimpsed a curve
of a leg and a brown shoe tip.
“Are you alright? But if you really want to know, this is Central, on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong is part of
the GBA, but you must already know that. It’s 12th February 2030,” the voice explained.
“What? This is the GBA?” Nessa yelped, pushing the hair out of her face, and whirling in shock. Whoever was
speaking was in fact, right. Soaring skyscrapers climbed into the moonlit sky while gleaming planes zoomed in
and out of them, gliding through the sky like cheetahs with wings. Streetlamps and building lights glowed from
afar like twinkling fireflies flitting through the night sky. Neon signs beamed out at the lustrous cars zipping
down the twisting highways. Dozens of little people rambled down the streets below, but her vantage point was
from so high they seemed like tiny ants. Thousands of buildings stood opposite of the azure ocean, lit against the
night sky like fireworks at midnight. The sapphire sea lapped at the shore slowly and calmly, like a cat licking at a
bowl of water. “Wow….” Nessa trailed….. “It’s even more beautiful than I ever thought it was.”
“Look closer,” replied the voice somberly.
Nessa peered closer at the city and soon noticed why the speaker sounded so sorrowful. The speeding, gleaming
cars emitted trails of smoke, and the building shot clumps of thick smog into the air out of their chimneys.
Hurtling planes tore holes of gray into a blanket of deep indigo. The streets were covered in a dense quilt of gray
fog and every person out was covering their faces as best as they could and coughed every couple seconds.
“So this is what will become of the GBA? One of the world’s busiest regions? The place with oh so many jobs
and land and people?” Nessa asked in horror, understanding how bad the situation was here in the big city.
“I’m afraid so. It’s not very clean around here and it’s constantly polluted. Many diseases arise from the terrible
impurity around here. But people like me are trying to change it and make this a beautiful place once more.
Here take my card, call me if you have questions later.” The speaker stuffed a piece of paper into her hand and
stood up to leave. “I’m late for a terribly important interview and I don’t want to keep the press waiting. You
can ask me later about the situation.”
Nessa stood up and brushed the dust off her dress, turning around to face the person who’d been so kind to her.
The speaker, a young woman who didn’t look a day over 20, stared at her in shock with incredibly familiar