Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 208

Emilia’s Way Home
PLK HKTA Yuen Yuen Primary School, Wong, Charmine Lok Sum - 9
“Ring! Ring!” the alarm clock rang. Emilia, from England, got out of bed and asked her robot helper to
dress her up and help her get ready for school politely. It was very common to have robot helper in the year
of 3029. She then finished her favorite breakfast – a berry smoothie with apples. After that, she opened a
transportation portal to school. However, the portal sucked her in suddenly.
“Aahhh!!!!!!” she screamed. She landed in a place where she had never been to before. She looked around,
and she could recognize nobody. “Where am I? I should be on my way to school,” she thought to herself.
Emilia walked around, hoping to find a portal back to school, or a free jetpack to fly her home. Yet,
everywhere looked so different from her home. There was no jetpack nor portal. Finally, she found a hotel
with an English advertisment saying “Welcome to the Guangdong Universal Hotel! Please Enjoy Your
Stay!” She tried to ask her way in the hotel counter, but instead they invited her to stay overnight for free.
So she decided to stay at the hotel and to find her way home because she was tired and lost. She entered the
room and saw a calendar on the wall, and it was in the year 2021! Soon, she fell asleep on her galaxy colored
hotel bed because she was really exhausted.
She woke up at about five in the afternoon and went downstairs. There she met a boy named Alan in the
kid’s corner. She played with him in the ball pit, but forgot her main goal was to go back home!
“Where actually am I now?” asked Emilia.
“Oh, we are now in Guangzhou, which is one of the most important ports on the Pearl River after Hong
Kong. I can bring you to the famous land marks including White Cloud Mountain or Chen Ancestral
Shrine if you wish to,” said Alan.
“Yea, I really wish I could go, but I need to get back home. Do you know any portal that can send me back
to England….and the future?” Emilia disappointedly whispered.
“What portal? I just know there are trains nearby that can go to Hong Kong. Maybe you could get a
“portal” there?”, Alan replied.
The next day, after Emilia had breakfast, she was trying to get the train to Hong Kong as suggested by Alan.
While she was on her way, she saw a portal, which was different from what she had at home. She assumed
the colors were just different from the colors of the portals in England. Therefore, she went into the
strange-looking portal without hesitation.
Soon after that, she ended up in another place with another language that she didn’t understand. “Great,
now I have to find a new hotel that speaks English, I hope it will be a bit easier this time,” she sighed.
She looked around the city, it looked a little different this time. It is a metropolis. There were a lot of highrising
buildings. She liked this place, because it seemed that she could find someone who could speak
English easily.
She found a restaurant near where she landed. She ordered her favorite dim sum with pork bun and spring
rolls for lunch. But the main problem was she didn’t understand the language. She tried to search for a
google translator on her mobile phone but failed as there was no internet connection. Luckily, a kind lady
sat opposite to her during lunch, and introduced the city to her.
“Are you a tourist?” asked the lady.
“Um… kind of, I guess,” said Emilia.
“Do you like our city Shenzhen?” the lady asked curiously.
“Yea, it was really nice and wonderful! Would you mind telling me what language are you speaking?” asked
Emilia.
“Oh, we speak Cantonese, because in the area around Shenzhen, which is called the Greater Bay Area, we
all speak Cantonese and Putonghua, “she said proudly. “Do you want to learn about it?”
“Of course, but I have something more important to do,” answered Emilia. “Do you know where can I
find a jetpack?”
“What? Sorry, I beg your pardon”, said the lady.
“Forget about it,” said Emilia.
“I am not supposed to ask this question, silly me,” Emilia thought.
“We do have a big airport and you can find your “jet” back home, I guess”, the lady suggested. Without a
second thought, Emilia finished her food quickly, thanked the lady for her advice, and took a taxi to the
airport.