New Tales of the Gobi Desert
St. Margaret’s Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School,
Gillian Sero Del Mundo, 13
I
t was the year 2025, and I remembered being stuck in a terribly boring Geography lesson.
There was nothing interesting to look forward to. I kept staring at the clock, waiting for the
bell to ring.
“Okay, class!” the teacher said. “For your holiday homework, I would like you all to work
on a project relating to the deserts of the world! You can only choose one and I will put you in
groups of three.”
She called out some names, and later on, she called out my name along with my two
other classmates.
“Johnny, Matthew and Elisa, please move to the table over there.” The teacher said.
The three of us gathered together, and started discussing.
“Okay, so any ideas?” Matthew asked.
“Gobi Desert.” Elisa said. “I want to focus on the Gobi Desert.”
She put her encyclopedia on the table and showed us a photo of the desert. The text at the
bottom said: ‘The Gobi Desert is actually cold, with frost and occasionally snows on its dunes.
It is known as the world’s fifth largest desert, and Asia’s largest. It covers part of northern and
northwestern China, and the south of Mongolia.
Since Matthew and I didn’t come up with any ideas, we just agreed to go along with it.
“Now, I have a plan on how we could ace this project,” Matthew said, taking out his
notebook. He opened it to a page with sketches and mind maps. “I propose a plan where we go
back in time.” He pointed to one of his sketches, which seems to be a time machine. Elisa and I
exchanged looks.
“Does it work?” we both asked, and he nodded with a smile on his face.
“I tested it multiple times. And here’s the good thing. Once we travel back in time, the time in
the present will stop!”
“Why don’t we just keep it safe, and research on the computer?” I groaned.
“Oh come on! Why don’t we have some adventure? Please?” Matthew said desperately.
I looked at Elisa who looked pretty convinced.
“Fine.” I said nonchalantly. Matthew clapped in delight.
“Okay then! Let’s go to my house after school!”
After four more tedious lessons we were on our way to Matthew’s house. He lives pretty near
the school, so it didn’t take that long.
“Wait for me in the garage.” he said, running up to the front door.
We went to the garage where we found a gigantic portal-like machine. A few minutes later,
Matthew came in and gave each of us a hiking bag. Then he opened up the laptop connected to
the machine.
“Elisa, may I take a look at the encyclopedia?” he said, and she handed it over.
He flipped to a page, and typed in codes and other data to the laptop. The machine flickered
and then lit up luminously. Matthew smiled and gestured us to jump in. Elisa and I looked at each
other nervously, but then Matthew pushed us all into the machine. And at a blink of an eye, we
