A Field Trip To Dubai

The wind blew Mindy’s hair as she opened the train window. It was a sunny day but still windy from the storm yesterday. Mindy sat alone in the train compartment, enjoying the picturesque scenery.

Her class was going for a field trip to Dubai for 5 days. This was also a part of an assignment, where they had to write an article about the history and culture of Dubai; describing their visit and what they learnt. They were supposed to carry their laptops with them to write about each day so they could combine it to form an article worth 40% of their grade.

Mindy glanced at her wristwatch and calculated the time left to reach Dubai. There was still about 2 hours left. She was just about to doze off when there was a knock on the compartment door. Mindy looked up and saw two girls standing. They were wearing the same uniform that Mindy was and looked extremely alike. Mindy recognized them as the twins from her class: Carly and Katherine.

“Can we come in?” asked Carly. “Everywhere else is full. Also we were getting bored of each other’s company.” Of course they were. They were always bickering and fighting among each other. They were nicknamed ‘The Bickering Twins’ by their class. Mindy didn’t usually talk to them. She usually stayed with her best friend Sara but Sara was in quarantine so she could not attend the field trip. Mindy didn’t particularly fancy the twins because of the constant arguments between them but she could do with some company.

“Sure! Come in,” Mindy said shifting her bags to make space for them. The twins entered and sat opposite Mindy. “You must know us. I am Carly and this is Katherine,” Carly grinned.

“I can speak for myself thank you,” scowled Katherine. Carly smirked and Mindy, who was feeling hostility in the air, quickly said, “A pleasure to meet you. My name is Mindy.” The twins smiled and they shook hands. Mindy warmed up to them and realized that they were not so bad when they were not arguing.

The three of them chattered happily together as if they had known each other for years. They soon reached Dubai and their teacher, Miss Potts, quickly rounded them up and counted the heads. She then took them to the hotel where they were to stay. Since it was late, there was no plan scheduled until the next day.

The children ran across the reception, tired and weary from their journey and they just wanted to sleep. Miss Potts patiently replied to all of their questions, “Not there Hilda, you must keep your bags over there. Mary, no, you cannot have a room to yourself. Speaking of rooms…” Miss Potts removed a sheet of paper from her bag and pasted it to the wall. “These are the rooms allotted for everyone along with your roommates. There will be 3 people in each room. Now hurry up and off to bed,” she smiled at all the children huddled in the lobby. It was huge but it looked very small with all the girls crowded in it.

“Hey Mindy! Guess what! We have the same room!” Carly and Katherine exclaimed happily together. Mindy grinned and rushed to read the paper Miss Potts had stuck. “We have room number 405. Let’s go. I can’t wait to sleep,” she dragged her bag towards the lift, the twins at her heels. She took the key from Miss Potts and went up to the fourth floor.

She opened the door of their room and entered. There were three small beds arranged at one corner of the room. There was a bedside table against each bed and a separate table to keep their computers on. Mindy kept her bag against wall and the twins kept each of their bags alongside hers. “This room is good,” Katherine said. Carly nodded, agreeing with Katherine for once.

Too tired to open her bag and take out her things, Mindy quickly undressed and took the bed near the window. Carly and Katherine did the same thing and closed the lights. All of them slept soundly.

The next day, Miss Potts woke them up and told them to get dressed and come down for breakfast. They quickly got ready and ate a scrumptious breakfast. Miss Potts then explained them the day’s agenda and all the girls headed out to visit the Museum.

They all had a wonderful day seeing the various artifacts and learning more about the history and culture of Dubai. They returned tired but happy; itching to write the day’s experience on their computers. They quickly ate dinner and headed up to their rooms.

Mindy quickly took her bag, excited to enter the experience they had had that day when she gave a cry, “My computer! It’s gone!” She hurriedly took out the contents of her bag searching it, but it was a fruitless attempt. She was puzzled and confused as to where it was. It was really expensive!

“We’ll help you find it. We’ll tell Miss Potts tomorrow. For now you should go to sleep,” Carly said. Mindy shook her head,” No. We will tell Miss Potts now.” Carly and Katherine tried to talk her out of it but it didn’t work. Mindy was adamant. She went out of the room to find Miss Potts.

She found her in her room, about to go to bed. Mindy quickly explained what had happened. “What did it look like?” Miss Potts asked.

“It was an Apple computer, white in color, with Mindy written across it in capital letters,” Mindy replied. Miss Potts nodded. “I promise I will try to find it. But for now, you should go to bed,” Miss Potts said kindly. Mindy nodded and headed to her room.

When she opened the door, she saw the twins bickering together. “Give me this! I will take care of it!” screamed Carly.

“No! I will!” Katherine snatched a bag out of Carly’s hand. Mindy recognized it as one of the twins’ bags. They were fighting over it. Mindy walked across the room, towards them and said, “What’s wrong?”

The twins turned around and saw her. Katherine quickly hid the bag behind her bag. “Nothing,” she said. Mindy eyed them suspiciously and walked behind Katherine to take the bag. “What’s inside this?” she asked trying to open it.

“Nothing,” Katherine said again. Mindy raised her eyebrows skeptically and tilted the now open bag on to the bed. She saw a pair of socks plop on the bed. She frowned. “Why are you fighting over a pair of…?” she couldn’t finish her sentence. She stared in horror and shock at what came out of the bag next.

An Apple Computer, white in color, with MINDY written across it.

 

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The Secret Door

 

There were two friends sitting on a bench in a park full of children who were yelling with joy and playing  happily. The older girl, whose name was Anne, kicked her legs as if she was bored. Mary looked at her menacingly and nudged her to stop doing it. It was a bright and sunny day, with birds singing merrily. Anne and Mary were bored. They always went to the park when they were bored. They knew the park like the back of their hands.

Suddenly, Anne pointed in the direction of the see-saw. “Have you seen that door before?” she questioned Mary. Mary looked towards where she was pointing and stretched her neck. “Where?” she said, “I can’t see it.” Anne went toward the see-saw and threw back some ivy. Astonishingly there was a wooden door. it was rotten and many termites who had found it, had chewed the wood.

Mary sprang up, and went to examine it. “We haven’t seen this door before, have we?” she looked at Anne and Anne shook her head. “No, definitely not. We have examined every portion of this park and not discovered anything like this. Lets go inside and see.” and before Mary could stop her, she swung the door and hopped inside.  Mary followed her meekly.

They were speechless when they entered the other side of the door. It was totally dark and the only source of light was a huge glow worm. Its light wasn’t very bright but it was enough for the two girls to see the place around them.

Their feet stood on soft grass. There were flowers around them and a small pond a little bit further. But something was wrong. There was no sun, no birds, no insects (except the glow worm) and absolutely no sign of life. Anne touched the glow worm and discovered that it was artificial.

“Where are we?” Mary whispered. She suddenly jumped as she heard Anne scream on the top of her voice. There right in front of them were two men. They wore a suit of armor and one of them had a huge beard with beady brown eyes. The other man had an equally huge mustache and small blue eyes. The huge beard man jumped on Mary while the other one did the same thing on Anne. They tied their hands with ropes and pushed hem forward. Mary and Anne were puzzled. Who were these people and where were they taking them? “Who are you?” Anne asked. “Be quiet and just move,” the bearded man said.

They soon reached a huge palace where there were many guards. The palace was beautiful and glittered even without the sun. they were pushed inside and taken into the dungeons. They were then searched and locked in the only prison that was there.  Inside was one more fugitive. A very kind looking lady. She sat over there with a worried look on her face when Anne and Mary entered. The blue eyed man had removed the ropes and they were massaging their wrists, when thy realized they had company.

The looked curiously at the lady and the lady at them. Finally, Mary broke the silence by asking, “who are you and what is this place?” The lady spoke and said she wanted to know the same about them so Anne explained what had happened and the lady nodded. She then started to tell her story.

” You are in the land of Elm. I am the queen of this land. I ruled my subjects happily when one day a lady came asking for food. She was cloaked. I welcomed her inside and asked my maid to get a basket of fruits for her. The woman suddenly took out a bottle of a deep dark liquid. I have excelled in the art of  magic and immediately realized that it was a a potion that helped to capture anything the owner desired. It takes years to make it. Before i could even say something she spilled it on the floor and we were all captured. This woman was none other than the enemy we have feared for quite some time. She is a witch who wanted to capture this land and make it hers. Now she has done so.”

Anne and Mary looked at each other. Then Anne asked, “how can we destroy this witch. There must be something.” The queen nodded. “If light falls on her then she will turn into ashes. But she is always cloaked to prevent that and now she has taken the sun away. Light is the only thing she is afraid of.”

“That is really good because I have a torch that is easily bright enough to destroy the witch.” Mary smiled happily. “I just need to know where is the room where the witch sits.” The queen pointed above and said, “right above this prison. There is an escape route but as I am chained I am not able to escape. The witch doesn’t know about it. This tile on the roof. It looks just like the other tiles but if you will see, there is a lever on the side. Pull it and it will open right behind the throne on which the witch sits.”

Anne nodded approvingly. She climbed on the seat on which the queen was sitting. Fortunately she was tall enough to pull the lever. The tile opened just as the queen had said. Anne climbed in and Mary did the same. They were in a room that had very little light but they could see the head of the witch. She was sitting on the throne and the girls were just behind. Their hearts in their mouths, they bent low so they would not be visible. Mary took out a pen from her pocket. the guards had not taken it as they didn’t know that it was a penlight. Mary sprang up and immediately shone the light on the witch’s head. She screamed and became  pile of ashes along with all her other soldiers. She controlled them so without her they were not there too.

Anne and Mary rushed into the dungeons and freed the queen. She then freed her subjects and brought daylight again. The land of Elm looked really different now. It was bright and joyful. Birds came to sing and insects sat on the grass chirping. “Thank you very much. What would you like to have as a reward?” the queen asked them. “We would like to return home please,” Mary answered. And so Mary and Anne were returned home. As they walked towards Anne’s house, Mary said,” We should return sometime there.” Anne agreed. It was truly a fun place to be in.