Set the Record Straight
Joy Chun Leung, Group 4: Fiction, Pentecostal Lam Hon Kwong School
hese days, one thing about me has been the talk of the town. Many people have been intrigued by my
journey while others do not believe my tale. I know that it seems ridiculous, but I have to say that all I
have claimed is absolutely authentic.
Now, I’m going to tell you about my trip. Everything started because of my identity as a journalist…
***
It was a typical day, and I was about to head to my office early in the morning. Trying to get rid of the
tiredness caused by my new schedule – waking up at 5:30a.m. every morning – I washed my face and took a
really deep breath to refresh myself before leaving my apartment. I was extremely sleepy and had forgotten
where I’d put my keys, and had to go back into the house and search for them. Then, when I was going in again,
a scant light gleamed before it suddenly grew a lot brighter and stronger. I was swirled into its vortex and
passed out.
***
‘
Hey, wake up! Wake up, you skinny bag of bones!’
‘
Hello, can you hear us? Are you okay?’
Splash!
‘
Ouch! What’s going on?’ I yelled, because I was all wet!
‘
Oh! You’ve come to finally! Are you okay?’ a stranger asked.
‘
Er… Not really. ’ I put my left hand on my forehead because my head was painful. ‘Did I faint or
something? I feel like I just bumped my head hard… and…it’s sort of weird. By the way, what happened to
me?’
Another man in the room stood in front of me and said, ‘You were suddenly ejected by that,’ he pointed at
the machine and continued, ‘and you were unconscious until we splashed a bucket of water on you. What a
waste! ’
‘
Mu!’ the kind man gave him a glare, and then turned to me, ‘Sorry for his rudeness. Actually, I don’t
know where you came from, but you just suddenly appeared here, unconscious. Um…Huo has been repairing
that machine recently. Maybe your appearance is related to that. We have to ask Huo then.’
What’s going on? I just couldn’t understand…
‘
Ejected? Are you kidding? And who are you?’
‘
You don’t believe us? We aren’t kidding and it should be my question why you’re here!’ Mu shouted.
‘
Stop that, Mu.’ His friend frowned, ‘I think… she has something to do with what Huo has told us…’
‘
Hey, Huo’s back!’ Mu said.
‘
Hi guys.’
A man stepped into the room. He had a loud and clear voice, yet he looked old and tired, as if he was in
his seventies.
‘
Oh, you’ve arrived!’ His finger pointed at me as he glanced at the window. ‘It’s around midday now.
You must have just arrived here, right? ’
‘
You know me?’ I was totally shocked – how was I supposed to respond – I mean, I had absolutely no
idea who he was. ‘I mean, I don’t think I recognize you. Nor them.’ Gulping, I eyed them carefully.
He stared at me for a while, and then spoke again.
‘
Okay, I’ll explain. You were brought here because I’d ordered the time travel machine to look for you. I
hope you can do me a favour.’
‘
What favour? And wait, I’m here because of the time travel machine? What time is it now?’ I quickly
glanced at my watch. ‘Jesus! It’s 10am! My boss’s gonna kill me! Where am I? How can I get out of this
room? I just need to be in my office! ’
‘
Oh. That’s impossible,’ he whispered cunningly and said, ‘Welcome to Liaodong in 209BC! My name is
Huo and I’m your ancestor! You’re Josie, right?’
Gosh! I was totally gob smacked. I still couldn’t figure out what was happening. Flummoxed, I opened
my mouth, ‘Yeah, but how do you know that?’
‘
Oh, that’s easy.’ He pressed a button on the time travel machine and continued, ‘I also know that you
work as a journalist. I want to ask you to help bring something back to your era. ’
I slapped myself across the face and I heard myself saying, ‘Oh my God! I must be dreaming. How come
I’m imagining things? I’m still very young and I can’t be insane.’
T