The Great Wall of China: A Travel in Time
Emma Kious, Group 3: Fiction, Zhuhai International School
simply can’t believe it. I’m 13 and I’ve been in China for 2 months but today is my first visit to THE
frickin’ Great Wall. Awesome! After hiking for hours with thousands people pushing our butts, in what
seemed like an oven, we finally took a break. As I closed my eyes, wishing I was in my air-conned
apartment, lying on my sofa with a freezing coke in one hand and the i-pad in the other, chatting with my
friends, instead of just here with my over-enthusiastic parents, everything went suddenly totally quiet.
Scary, right? I thought I fell asleep, fainted or simply... died. I opened one eye.
The only word that came to my mind at that moment was: s***. I was totally alone. The thousands of
butt pushers had disappeared and so had my parents. I hardly swallowed and grabbed my phone but I nearly had
a heart attack: no signal! Really? Are you kidding me? Suddenly, out of nowhere, an old woman appeared at my
left. Apparently, she English spoke a very little. She said “Follooooooow Meeeeeeee” in a creepy voice and
since I had no better idea or option, I did. She had me walk behind her in the burning sun for 2 hours straight.
No breaks. No food. No water. No WIFI! Great! She talked for a while about Ancient China. As we approached
a tower, she said walking forward was the answer! Okayyy!?
She disappeared. A guard was there. He said something about a riddle. That I should answer it or he’d
take my flesh from of my body. Nice dude. “What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has
a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?” So: what runs but never walks? A baby? Water? Time?
What often murmurs but never talks? The wind? A ghost? This guy in front of me? What has a bed but never
sleeps? Aha! I know this one. It’s a river. Or a vampire in the Twilight Saga? I tried the river. The guard smiled
and I was through the tower. Yay.
The Wall was different now. There were bricks on it. Strange. I thought bricks didn’t exist in Ancient
China. I kept on walking and noticed something in the distance ... carriages pulled by horses. On the Great
Wall? In what was supposed to be Ancient China? I stopped and heard a man say, “I don’t understand. It is way
betta ta have the empera trade with os. I mean, trading with very advanced Bri’ish peopl’ isn’t an oppotunity
that you get everyday right’o?” “Yes, it is most definitely unfair,” said another. I walked away, not interested.
I was so tired. I just lay down and closed my eyes. When I woke up, I was in a warm and soft pile of
hay in another of those watch towers. As I looked up, I saw a guard under a red flag with five yellow stars. Was
I time travelling or what? Ancient China, then the bricks, the carriages, now the communist flag... “Macey girl”,
I thought, “You should seriously consider seeing a psychiatrist!” The guy said: “Each morning I appear to lie at
your feet. All day I will follow no matter how fast you run. Yet I nearly perish in the midday sun. Who am I?”
Let’s see: what appears each morning at my feet? My slippers? The floor? What follows me all day no matter
how fast I run? Well, the sun, my back, my shadow? What nearly perishes in the midday sun? An ice cube? Me
in awfully hot China? Ohhh... my shadow dies in the midday sun because the light is directly above me! And in
the morning, it is there! When I run too! When I told the guy, he smiled and let me through. (Could it mean he
didn’t want to water the plants with my blood?)
I saw another tower in the distance. When I got there, the guy turned off his flat screen TV and asked
yet another riddle: “My life can be measured in hours, I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick, fat, I am
slow. Wind is my foe. Who am I?” Wow, that’s a hard one. My life can be measured in hours... That could be an
hourglass, an ice cube, a candle... I serve by being devoured. Food of course! Thin, I am quick, fat, I am slow...
a person running, a pen running out of ink? I tried the candle and it was the right answer. After he let me
through, I realized that I might be good at riddles after all.
New tower. New riddle: “Until I am measured I am not known, yet how you miss me when I have
flown. Who am I?” I heard it before. It’s Time! I’ve never been so quick at answering. When I told the guy, he
was pretty surprised. When I went through the tower, I felt my feet wobble. Then they slipped from under me. I
was waiting for my body to hit the stony ground but it didn’t. I just kept falling.
Everything around me was just blurry shades of green. Suddenly, the old woman’s face appeared
before me (either she was a ghost or I was going really nuts). I had so many questions:
“
Who are you? And why am I falling since forever? Why...”
“
Stop. You’re here to fulfill the prophecy”
“
Prophecy?”
“
It was once said that someone would come to answer the sacred riddles.”
“
The what?”
“
River, Shadow, Candle, Time are the sacred answers to the riddles.”
I