Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 282

The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Renaissance College HK, Koh, Si En Charis – 11
A
ll of a sudden, I realized that I didn’t know where I was. I looked around. It was late afternoon. There were
historical looking buildings, which was strange but interesting simultaneously. There were cars of many colors, but
not the type of cars that you are used to seeing on the road; they were, just like the buildings, a vintage style. There
were ladies dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, and when I saw this, I knew that I was in China. But why did
everything look so unusual? It looked like the pictures of China that you would see in your history textbook. I saw a
foreign lady walking by and decided to talk to her. “Hello, my name is April,” I said as politely as I could. “Would you
please be so kind as to tell me what country we are in and what the year is?”
The lady looked at me as if I was crazy but replied me anyway.
“Shanghai, 1930,” she mumbled, before hurrying off.
I just stood there in shock. After a few moments, I carefully processed my situation in my head. I was stuck in the past, 1930,
Shanghai, in the middle of nowhere. I needed to find my way out of that place, out of that time. Plan A: Simple. Just ask
for help.
I looked around to find someone to help me I couldn’t see any one that looked like any help. All the people who I had
tried to ask just ignored me; they were all too busy fussing over things and rushing about to give me any help at all.
The sun was now hanging low above my head. If I wanted to get home before dark, I would have to get going. And fast.
The first step was to at least know how to do it.
I walked around for a little while longer, desperate to find someone that was helpful. Eventually, after walking randomly
around for ages, I happened to see someone that could help. It was a tall, foreign man, who was just strolling about. I
wondered why there was so many foreign people in Shanghai, even in the 1930s. This guy was quite fierce looking, but
my situation was despite enough to go up to him anyway. I was going to ask him for help when he mumbled, “Time
machine is near the Bund. Time machine is near the Bund.”
Huh? Things here were just getting weirder and weirder. I mean, there’s a TIME MACHINE? I had always thought that
couldn’t even exist. And even if it does, how does he know that it’s near the Bund or that it even exists? And how does he
know that that is what I need. That’s Strange. Very Strange. However, I still settled on following him.