Fiction: Group 3
A silver doorway was opposite my bed, giving me an easy escape, but I was more interested in
other things. I walked slowly to the edge of the bubble and pushed my finger through it. Nothing
happened. I threw myself at the barrier and it bounced me back to the sandy floor.
“Please don’t do that. The bubble’s feelings get hurt if you do,” a quiet voice rang out.
I looked at the doorway. A girl around my age stood there. Her midnight blue hair swept down to
her waist. She wore a pearly pink dress that reached below her knees. Her sad eyes followed me as I walked
up to her.
“Hi, I’m Leena. Who are you?” I asked her. My mother insisted that I always introduce myself
before saying anything.
“I’m Pearl.”
Her voice was sad and cold.
“Hi, Pearl. Where are we?” I asked her.
“Under the sea,” she replied.
“Oh, umm. What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”
“You’ll understand when the time is right.”
“Um, I need to get out of here. I miss my family.” I really did. Even my brother. “Can you help?”
“No,” she said abruptly and then walked out of the bubble.
===
I followed Pearl out into a long corridor. The metallic walls of the hallway were illuminated by
bright lights. The young girl turned around and hissed at me. “It’s time.”
“In there,” she pointed at a plain white wood door. When I turned to ask Pearl what was behind
this door, she was gone.
I walked in.
===
The door opened into a white room. Everything was stark white: the walls, the carpet, the
furniture. Even the air inside had a milky quality to it.
In the back of the room there was a desk. A sign on the desk told me that it belonged to Ms. Del
Peri.
She could have passed for Pearl’s sister in her white suit with her dark hair tied up in a bun. She
was typing away on her laptop.
“Yes?” Del looked at me, as if I was just another colleague passing through.
“Pearl told me to come in here.” I said.
“Oh, you’re the new arrival, are you? I’m Ms. Peri.” She sifted through a pile of papers on her
desk.
“Miss Leena Hua, hmm?” I nodded. “Daughter of Lin Hua and Dai Hua. Seven years old. What
are you in for, human? Oh, here it is. Father was litteri-” She stopped and looked up at me. Her eyes
blazed angrily.
“Oh, very serious. I don’t understand why Jelly took
you
though. Come with me.” She got up and
walked out the door. I followed her.
She led me back to a familiar place - the bubble. I tried to follow her out again, but the silver door
shut and trapped me inside. I cried myself to sleep that night in the bubble.
===
Sometimes I had dreams.
Most were about my family.
One time it was Pearl. She would make fun of me while I glared at her fiercely.
For some reason, I get the feeling that it wasn’t a dream.
===
After what felt like a few ‘days’, but I was later to understand had been seven long years above the
water, Del Peri walked into my room, grabbed my arm, and dragged me out bed. I was only half-awake
and quite confused.
Del put me on a giant seashell that rose out of the water into the air. I smelled air, fresh air, not
stuffy bubble-air. The seashell was like a sled. It skipped on the sea, like one of the flat stones that my
brother and I used to throw into the pond.
After a while, I saw green silhouettes. Hills like huge elephants drinking at a watering hole. The
shell halted abruptly near the shore with a spray of tiny drops. The bright yellow sand was glittering in the
sun.
