Story Time

A day in Candyland

I am going to tell you a story which you will find very hard to believe. This incident did not happen to me, but I really wish it had, because it would have been really fun.

I had a friend named Eliza, who was much older than me. She was the lucky one who had this experience, although she says she hadn't enjoyed it.

It all started six years ago when Eliza was in her final year in a university in America. She was studying about space, planets, stars and related things. She was so good in her studies, that she got the chance to go to NASA, and, after a while, because she was so good, she got the chance to go in a spacecraft with five other people.

Eliza's colleagues were very jealous of her because she was always the smartest and now, she had been selected as the leader of the group. So the five got together and made an evil plan. When the voyage started, the plan was put to action. Halfway through the voyage, one of them told Eliza that there is a problem with the door of the spacecraft and told her to go and fix it as she was the smartest. When Eliza was beside the door, another colleague pushed her hard and she fell out of the spacecraft.

Poor Eliza! There she was, floating in space, like a leaf caught in the wind. She was floating for about 5-10 minutes when she saw something that excited her very much. It was a planet! She started to float towards it and somehow managed to land on it. It was a little colder than the Earth. Eliza started to explore the planet; since it was so small, it took less than an hour for her to walk around it.

Then, she heard a noise behind her and quickly turned around to see what it was. She saw an amazing sight. It was a toffee! The toffee spoke to her in a different language. She listened to the toffee, open-mouthed. Then another extraordinary thing happened! An ice-cream came near the toffee. It talked in English which pleased Eliza, because now she could communicate with these creatures. The ice-cream said, "Welcome to Candyland. My name is Icy. I am sorry if Frizzy scared you."

"Oh! It is OK. I'm Eliza from the planet Earth. According to what I have learnt, I think this planet is named 2X335 Y. And by the way, how did you know English?" asked Eliza.

"Oh! It's a long story. I'm the leader of this planet and I know every language. One day, I went to your planet by magic. Oh, my! wasn't it hot? I nearly melted, but I came back in time. Well, let's go in," said Icy.

"In?" wondered Eliza "We live inside the ground," replied Icy.

They reached a flight of steps and went down. Inside, there were lots of sweets such as toffees, ice-cream and chocolates. "Icy, I'm very hungry and tired. Do you have anything to eat?" asked Eliza. "Eat? oh, yes! I know that you creatures eat things. Please don't eat us! But you can sleep for now if you are tired.

"While you are asleep, I will create some food for you, and when you wake up, you will have something to eat," said Icy and showed her a bedroom. It was made of sweets.

She fell fast asleep. When she woke up, she saw that she was on the ground. She looked for the bed, but it was not there. Then she realised that she had eaten the bed in her extreme hunger.

Eliza went to meet Icy. "Hello, you don't have to make any food, Icy, because I ate your bed; I'm very sorry," said Eliza."Oh! It's OK. I can always create another one," said Icy.

"Can you send me back to Earth today?" asked Eliza.

"Of course, I can. I have a naughty magic wand. Come here," said Icy and took her to the centre of the room where everyone's attention became focused on them. "I'll say the magic rhyme," said Icy, and took out his wand. "Everybody stand aside."

"Candy dandy day,

Send her to Earth today!

(pointing at Eliza)

Dandy candy day,

Then I'll pat you more

today!"

(pointing to the wand)

Everybody suddenly started laughing loudly. Icy too laughed. Eliza wondered why.

Then she saw herself. The naughty wand had turned her into an ice-cream.

"Let me try again," said Icy and said the magic rhyme again and said this too, "If you will not obey, I'll punish you today!"

The wand got scared and decided to work properly. Then Eliza found herself back on Earth.Eliza's friends say that it must have been a dream, but Eliza says that it actually happened. I don't know what to think. What do you think?

Sent by Dulmini Kavindya De Silva, Grade 8 - Nelum, Sirimavo Bandaranaike Balika Vidyalaya, Colombo 7.