By Joanna Wong
"Wake up, Emma! We are going to the flower garden! You're not gonna miss it, are you?" Mom shouted from the kitchen.
"Wait! What?" Emma jumped out of bed, yawning. "We are going to the flower garden?"
"Yeah, now would you tone down your voice," muttered Hugo, sleepily. He had spent the whole night working on his science project.
Emma glided towards him, mocking, "Ok, fine! Your Highness!"
"Come back here, young lady!" Hugo shouted back.
Meanwhile, their elder brother, John was already waiting for them. "What took you so long?" asked John.
"Well, you should ask Hugo," answered Emma.
"What? I didn't do anything,” Hugo protested.
"Well, Mr Perfect, you took my flower dress and dyed it blue!" she scowled.
"He dyed it? Haaahahaa!" Instead of defending his little sister, John started laughing.
Emma found it a little funny. They laughed all the way out of the house, where Mom and Dad were waiting.
"Kids, what took you so long? Hop in!" Mom instructed.
"Well, Hugo dyed my summer dress," she said, as she controlled her laughter.
After they arrived at the flower garden, they caught a glimpse of a beautiful scenery.
“Wow!” exclaimed Emma as a beautiful butterfly flew towards her and landed on the tip of her nose.
“Where is this, Dad?” asked Hugo, curiously. He had never seen such a beautiful scenery before.
“It’s Mukatta Village, they have the most beautiful flower garden here,” replied his Dad.
John was still mesmerised by the scenery when suddenly….
“Come on, Bro! You’re not gonna stand there all alone, are you?” shouted Emma.
“Coming!” her brother shouted back.
They sat down on a comfy little mat in the middle of the flower garden, and began to talk as they ate.
“So, Hugo, how’s your Science project?” asked Dad, out of curiosity. Dad knew that Hugo had been working very hard on an important invention of his.
“It’s done! I just need to test it,” answered Hugo.
“What is it, actually?” Emma interjected.
Hugo whispered something into his sister’s ear.
“Ok, so you’re gonna test or shall I help you?” she asked, hoping to be invited along to test the invention.
“Don’t be silly! Me, of course!’ Hugo replied, sarcastically.
“Can John and I join, please?” she asked, excitedly.
“Oh ok…… sure!” Hugo thought for a while, not so happy with the idea.
“Yeah!’ Emma burst out with joy. Then, she paused a moment. “Can we invite some other people to join us? Who knows what could go wrong?”
“Oh ok ……only six people can enter….” Hugo replied.
Emma quickly made a phone call.
“When do you want to test it?” asked John.
“Tonight!” Hugo assured again.
Suddenly, there came an excited shriek. "Eeeeeeekkkkkk, what do we get to do again?"
It came from Emma’s phone. Emma had just broken the news to her best friend.
"I am going over to your house now," said the loud spoken voice over the phone.
They were on their way back when they spotted from a distance a familiar car outside their home.
"Wow, I didn’t expect her to be as fast as lighting," joked Emma. Everyone burst into a laughter.
In a few minutes, they reached home. Of course, that girl was already there.
Coming out of the car, she greeted the Hudsons, “Hi Aunt, hi Uncle, hi John, hi Hugo!” Then, she turned her eyes towards Emma.
“Katie!” Emma greeted her best friend. Both Katie and Emma sat next to each other at Darlington Private School. Because of the summer holidays, they had not met each other for several weeks now.
“Come in, girls,” Mom invited. “You don’t want your skin to get sunburnt.”
They giggled, as they walked into Emma’s room, chatting all the way.
“When can I see Hugo’s invention?” she asked, desperately.
“He said he needed to do some final checks before we test it,” explained Emma. “We are also waiting for Matthew and his sister, Monica. After calling you, I phoned them, too. They are excited to join the fun tonight!”
The girls chatted till they heard the door bell, ‘ding dong!’
“Matthew and Monica are here,” Mom told them.
Emma rushed downstairs just to find Monica alone. “Where’s Matthew?” Emma asked.
“He’s with your brothers,” Monica replied, half-heartedly.
“Why don’t you come and talk with us?” Katie suggested.
“I suppose I would, since it’s boring down here,” she said.
After a few minutes, the girls had gotten along pretty well. They were inseparable.
After dinner, the teens went up to Hugo’s room to try his new invention. Inscribed on it was the word in bold letters, “PORTAL.” There was excitement in the air.
“Wow!”
“Oh my goodness!”
“Is that even real?”
The teens were so surprised and excited with Hugo’s latest invention. They were ready to go on the time machine.
They grabbed their backpack and hopped into the portal. They typed into the portal a secret code which Hugo had set to travel to the city of Rome in the 19th century.
The portal gave a loud buzzing sound. For reasons unknown to them – not even Hugo knew why -- the portal had travelled in time back to the 16th century!
When they stepped out of the portal, they were in the old city of Rome in the year 1531. They were standing in the midst of the buzzling streets of old Rome.
But, then suddenly, ‘Boom!’ The portal burst into a thousand pieces and the pieces were strewn all over the world. All they had from the portal was a note,
Dear Time Travelers,
A thousand pieces scattered around are yours to be found.
Find the missing pieces to find your way back home.
Your first clue will be near a place full of water fountains. It’s a tourist spot in the 20th century.
THE PORTAL.
This is Chapter One of Joanna's book, "Into the Past..." The book has yet to be written. All the bset to your endeavour, Joanna!