May 1, 2004

I was in my room doing my Geography homework. After half an hour I felt sleepy and my eyelids began to droop and soon I fell asleep right there on my study table.

When I woke up my finger, quite accidentally, touched the planet Mars on the chart and then something weird happened. My room began to whirl. I screamed but no sound came out. When it all stopped I remember being in a strange looking room.

Everything there seemed to be made of iron. Even the fire’s colour was strange. It was brown. Suddenly a strange-looking man came forward. I almost jumped in amazement at his sight. He was wearing really weird-looking clothes. “Who are you?” He asked me.

I was too astonished to reply. He then held me by the arm and led me to another room. This room wasn’t as strange-looking as the first. A red carpet covered the floor, and a chair placed near the fireplace. A woman was sitting on this chair. She was not as strange-looking as the man. In fact, she seemed like a life-sized doll. She had curly golden hair and black eyes.

When she saw me she smiled and greeted me kindly and told me that her name was Zeralda, and that I was on the planet Mars. You can imagine my astonishment when I heard this. At first I thought she was joking but then I thought of all the strange looking things I had seen and knew she was right.

“But how can I be there?” I asked her.

She explained that I owned a chart belonging to her great grandfather. He was a scientist and one day he decided to go to the planet Earth. As the Earth’s temperature was not normal for him, her grandfather had invented a gadget which could protect him from it. He had taken the chart with him but he was rather careless and had, unfortunately, forgotten the gadget. When he came to the Earth he died. His body was taken back by his son who came to look for him. He had taken the gadget along and took his father’s body away.

The chart, however, had been left behind and a shopkeeper found it. “Then you must have bought it,” she said, “and while you were doing your homework your finger touched the planet.”

I was quite amazed at her story but I asked her. “If I don’t have the chart now, how can I go back?” She then took out a chain which she was wearing and handed it to me and said, “when you touch its locket you will return.”

I, however, had no wish to return at that moment, for I felt that I had discovered something amazing. So Zeralda who was the queen of the kingdom took me out for some sight-seeing. I found out that the kingdom was small and all the houses were made of iron. We then went to the great library. Here the books were strange looking too.

I came across many novels such as The wide world and various Shakespearean plays including Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Othello, Macbeth and so on. Of course I was surprised to see them.

Zeralda told me that when her grandfather i.e. her great grandfather’s son came to Earth he had seen the books and had discovered how they were made and what was written in them. Soon it was time to go home. I bid Zeralda farewell and touched the locket.

Suddenly I woke up to find myself in my room! Maybe it was a dream. But when I saw the necklace I realized that it wasn’t a dream after all.

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