Loopy Summer- A short story by Nehal Agrawal

 I was strolling around in the park aimlessly, feeling the warm summer breeze against my skin. Summer breaks are the best - you no longer have to worry about homework, you can play as much as you want and have ice cones. But this afternoon was very boring because all my friends were away on family trips and I was the only one left. I was so mad at my dad for not planning one. I really wanted to go to this absolutely cool theme park that my best friend was talking about. I stomped on the grass in annoyance and suddenly the ground started to shake . Suddenly, I was falling fast into what seemed like a rainbow coloured pit that seemed to stretch endlessly. “Aaaaaaah” screaming at the top of my lungs, I closed my eyes as terror blinded me and suddenly I realized I wasn’t falling anymore - instead I was sitting in the middle of what seemed like a court of a king. I stood up and looked around and I was awestruck as I took in the grandeur of the palace and I looked around and saw real swords on the palace walls. I took one out from its mane and swirled it around “May the force be with you! Only the worthy shall win”             I wondered how I got here. As far as I could remember, I was walking on the street, and then I started falling. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming - but this wasn’t a dream. I thought, ‘But this is real, maybe I fainted or maybe mom and dad planned this surprise and brought me to this theme park. So they must be around…’

“Mom!…Dad!! okay this was pretty amazing. Thanks for arranging this. Mom? Dad?”, I cried out loud.

“Hey! you boy, what are you doing here and how did you get here?” came an authoritative voice. It belonged to a man who was dressed as a palace guard. I thought that these people must be taking the whole theme very seriously. 

“Umm…hello I think my mom and dad wanted to surprise me with this surprise theme park visit but I think I lost them.

Can you help me get back to them?”He looked at me as if I had two horns and was dressed as a goblin.

“What rubbish are you talking about boy? What theme park? Tell me what is your name? From which class do you belong?” 

“I’m Mike and I’m in 5 th grade and this is a theme park right?” I stammered.Again he looked as if I had grown two more heads. He asked “ What grade are you talking about and Mike? What kind of name is that? And again what park are you talking about?”

My mind was racing… something is wrong, my parents are not here, this man is looking at me like I’m an alien…what the hell is going on? This is no theme park.

“Where am I?”I asked out loud, fear was starting to crawl its way down my spine, and I had no idea what was going on . Flashes of what last happened to me before I got here started running through my mind. I was walking, and then it felt as if the ground opened and bam! I was here. So I looked at the ground and mustered up my best ‘please-do-this-and-I-would-be-forever-grateful-to-you’ expression and said “would you please open or explode or whatever you did before and swallow me again??”

Now after this any doubts the guard might have had about me being crazy were cleared and now I was definitely bat shit crazy to him.

So I tried again, for what difference would it make, he was going to probably arrest me anyway. “Come on open up…open up OPEN UP!!!” I thought hard, my eyes closed shut, chin tucking to my neck. But of course nothing happened. I finally looked up to him and was ready to accept my fate. The look he was giving me, oh god! If all of this wasn’t real I would have laughed so hard but unfortunately I had this feeling this is all real. Somehow I seemed to have travelled to another time. I know it made no sense, but there was no other way to explain it - the palace, the real sword, the guards, him looking at me like I’m a chimpanzee dressed in a pink frilly frock…

“Hey! You boy, I’m talking to you. I was sure you were crazy, but are you now deaf too?”shouted the guard “you know what? I’m just going to take you to his majesty and you better whip up some good explanation till then as to how you got inside the palace, else I’m afraid the consequences are gonna be severe. Oh! I’m so gonna get a better position after I tell him that I was the one who caught you” the guard smiled to himself. Is this dude serious…he’s not going to get promoted for catching some whack kid. But what if this whole place was as weird as him…oh lord! I’m going to die.

The guard dragged me along with him. As I was being dragged through a large passage, I saw other guards eyeing me, but no one questioned the guard who was dragging me. The guard dragged me through several hallways that were so beautiful with all different kinds of weapons and paintings and curtains and small flickering candles; and then into dark alleys. It was such a drastic change from the splendor I’d just seen that I thought I was once again transferred somewhere. Then he took me where there were various cells, kind of like a very old jail, except it was too dark here to be able to see anything. I wasn’t very sure the guard could see too well either because he kept bumping into bars or walls. 

“Excuse me! Is it supposed to be this dark here?” I asked.

“Shut up, you fool!” he snapped at me.

And then, BAM, he threw me into one of the cells and locked it and was on his way again. I didn’t know when he was going to come back, or if there was someone else around here. Fear was tearing me into shreds. I was all alone in some goddamn place and didn’t knew how I got here. Can you imagine a better summer day? All this shock and fear finally caught up to me and I started crying loudly. ‘What wrong did I ever do, god’, I thought, ‘that you are punishing me like this? I promise I’ll tell mom about the hidden test marks and tell dad about who broke his stereo and about all the stolen pennies. But please don’t do this to me god! Please just do your magic again and get me home!’ “Is anybody here? Please help me?” I screamed and screamed but received no answers. ‘What is this place…’ I thought in despair. I placed my head on the cell's wall and sank down. ‘Is there no way to save me…’ My head was now pounding with now and my mouth dry from all the screaming and crying. Scared out of my mind I closed my eyes

.

.

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I heard a metallic creak and footsteps approaching. I slowly opened my eyes. ‘What has happened to me?’ I thought. It seemed as if I blacked out for a second…or maybe I fell asleep…A man approached me and started dragging me again. I didn’t get these people - it was not as if I could not walk. I could see sunlight at the end of the our path…my eyes were hurting from the sudden exposure to this much light, I couldn’t open my eyes anymore. I could now see why they were dragging me all along…the next thing I saw was a rope loop, and me standing in front of it. My face outlining the loop and a man pulled my face through the loop and placed it around my neck. Another man shouted something, which, before I could comprehend, the rope started to tighten around my neck and I couldn’t breathe anymore…didn’t know a good summer day could end like this…