with her shivering hand.
There was the “suit guy’’.
A hefty man was silently standing not far away from us. I gasped to myself wondering how
long we had been watched. Jas and I got up on our feet and walked towards it until we were face
to face.
‘Grandfather, I’m here to save you,’ He said in a low voice.
‘Excuse me? I’m only fourteen,’ I said, not expecting he would say something like that.
‘I’m sorry if I scared you at the desert in the afternoon. Seeing your frightened faces, I
thought I ought to do some explaining, I’m your future grandson from 2021. I have been sent here
to protect you from the disaster today, there’s a really strong Geomagnetic storm coming. This
storm messed up the Earth’s magnetic field. That’s why a force pulled you here. I was sent here
as your guardian angel to protect your family. Don’t worry. They’re all here in the Gobi Desert
because of the force,’ he said in a mechanical voice.
‘So why’re you here?’I asked.
‘Good question, my dear!’ he chuckled, ‘I registered to come here, I was afraid that you’d be
in danger. I’m sure there are a few more people who dress like me here. I’m actually something
like your guardian angel.’ He laughed at his own joke and turned to Jas, ‘I’m sure you’ll find your
angel soon.’ He winked with his wrinkled eyes.
‘But why are you wearing an oxygen mask?’ asked Jas who apparently still looked scared of
my “grandson”.
‘ In 2021, the air would be too polluted for humans to breathe in. Factories emitted too much
poisonous gas. Also, the place where you are now, the Gobi desert would have covered up your
hometown Jining by 2021.Due to desertification, the expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly
to human activities like deforestation, overgrazing, and depletion of water resources. That’s why
my other mission here is to remind you to protect the environment. You could help us change
the history of the world so that we won’t need to wear oxygen masks anymore in 2021.’ He said
seriously.
I looked down and shifted my feet nervously thinking about my hometown being gobbled up
by the Gobi Desert. When I looked back, he had gone.
Feeling empty, I slumped down and soon fell asleep.
The next day Jas and I reunited with our family and returned home safely with the help of
the government. Although we told them what we had seen and experienced nobody believed us.
However, we and some other people who had been stuck in the Gobi desert invented something; it
was called ‘recycling’.
Part Three
‘Good afternoon this is the evening news. Recently, Geologists are able to dig Jining out of
the Gobi desert! Jining is finally back to China after a hundred years of desertification. People are
celebrating this good news. Also, scientists have found an astonishing thing: the pollutants in the
air have decreased by half since yesterday. They still have not discovered the reason behind this,
but we are told one thing for sure that our oxygen masks can be thrown away! Now let’s move on
to our next news about President Snow ...’
He turned off the TV and walked to the window to watch everyone celebrate on the street; he
smiled and took another sip of his latte.
‘Well done! Grandfather,’ he chuckled.
