A Relative Experience
Jamie Clarke, Group 2: Fiction, The International School of Macao
n Northampton, England, in 2012, there was a ten-year-old boy who had been born in China, but adopted
by an English family and whose name was John Chang. John had a best friend in the same class called
Michael. Every day after school, John and Michael would go to the field and play football. One day, in
class, they were given the assignment to find out how the Great Wall of China was built. “I’ve been to the
Great Wall when I was little, but I can’t remember anything about it,” said John. Then Michael suggested
that they should search in the library for a book about it, but they had no luck. They couldn’t search the
Internet, because Michael’s computer didn’t have a connection, and John’s computer was being fixed. What
were they to do?
I
The next day, their teacher said, “Don’t worry if you can’t find information, because we’re going to
Beijing!” The class cheered so loudly that the teacher had to open the window, even though it was freezing cold,
to let the sound out.
After the weekend, John had his bags all packed for their two-week camping trip to Beijing. He ran as fast
as he could to school and hopped on the bus that would take them to the airport.
After landing from a 13-hour flight, they got into another bus and went to the Great Wall. They found a
great camping spot. Michael shared a tent with John. Then they separated into groups of two and received a list
giving details of all the dynasties of China.
John and Michael started walking along the wall and after a while, they came to a large tower.
“
I don’t know why we came to this tower,” said Michael. They walked around the tower and found a black
doorway; they went in and walked down a long narrow tunnel. After a while, they saw daylight and when they
exited the tunnel they saw wooden scaffolding and people with strange clothes carrying big stones all over the
place and stacking them here and there.
“
Wait a minute, this is very strange,” said John, “This doesn’t look like 2012, I’ll go ask someone what year
it is.”
“
What dynasty is this?” he asked in Chinese. “It’s the Ming Dynasty.” the man answered. John and Michael
looked at their list. It said, Ming Dynasty: 1368 – 1644.
Then Michael understood. “That doorway must have been some sort of time portal!” He told John.
“
Do you really think so?” asked John.
“
Well, how else would we get to the year 1368?” said Michael.
“
Then let’s go for a walk and look around. After all, this is our assignment, to find out how the Great Wall
was built,” said John.
They walked around, but all they saw for miles and miles was wood, stone and hundreds of workers. After a
while they entered another large tower.
“
Wait a second,” said John. “What’s that blue glowing thing there?”
“
Where?” Michael asked.
“
It seems to be coming from that box,” said John.
They ran towards it, and saw a piece of paper on it. It said: Do not open until 2012.
“
It may be a time capsule!” said John excitedly. “Well, let’s bring it back to 2012, then we can open it!”
said Michael.
They tried looking for the tower that they had come out of, but of course, they couldn’t find it, as all the
towers looked the same. “How are we going to get back?” said Michael, frantically.
Night was falling, and they still hadn’t found the tower. Then, John had a strange feeling that somebody
was watching him. He turned around. There was a ghost behind them, but somehow he didn’t feel scared.
“
What’s the problem?” the ghost asked. “You look sad.”
“
We’re on a camping trip from England, but in the future. We can’t find the tower that brought us here,”
said John.
“
Does it have a very dark black doorway?” asked the ghost. “My name is Chang, by the way.” There was a
popping sound, and Chang disappeared. After about five minutes, he came back.
“
Follow me,” he said.
They followed Chang up the stone steps of the unfinished wall. There was the tower! “Come on, let’s go!”
said Michael. “Wait!” said John. “We’ve told Chang where we came from, but we don’t know where
he
came
from!”
“
Okay, I’ll tell you.” said Chang. “I was one of the builders of the Great Wall. Many people died building
it, and I was one of them. There are still lots of ghosts hiding inside the Great Wall, but they’re very shy. I came