Lost Little Girl

Ellie fumbled in the dark. A million thoughts raced her mind. She never felt this scared in her life.

“Joey?” she called out.

  All was silent. Suddenly, she heard some shouting. It sounded faraway but it gave her hope. Ellie headed towards the direction of the shouting. A few times she would bump into something. Ellie was lost in the darkness and she didn’t know how to get back to her family.

  Suddenly, there were light- colourful lights. And music. Ellie found herself in a crowded place with lots of stalls and over some trees, there was a Ferris wheel! Ellie looked at the signboard that said, ‘The Charcoal City Carnival - open until Friday’

Ellie hesitated for a second and went forward.

  Cotton candy, buttery caramel popcorn, doughnuts, waffles, chocolate chip cookies, giant rainbow lollipops and gummy bears. Ellie stared longingly at the food.

  A kind-looking man noticed Ellie and gave her a cotton candy. Ellie thanked the man and walked on. A lady with a cart came forward with a megaphone in her hand.

“Free teddy bears!”  she announced.

  A throng of kids scrambled to the cart and grabbed one. Ellie took a green one. She meant to give it to Joey. How she wished to be with Joey right now!

  Ellie needed to get back to her home but she didn’t know-how. She spotted the Ferris wheel and thought she might see her house from the top of the Ferris wheel. And so she walked over to the long queue.

“Hold up, that’s twenty dollars,”

  A man stopped Ellie.

“You need to pay,” said the man.

  Ellie didn’t have any money. She checked her pockets but all she had was a flower and a white chess piece.

“Sorry, you can’t go on the wheel.”

  The man pushed her out of the queue and continued collecting money. Ellie was determined to get on the Ferris wheel. Once everyone had chosen their tubs, the man went around making sure the doors were firmly locked. 

  Ellie slipped into a tub when the man wasn’t looking. Luckily the tub she had chosen wasn’t occupied. The man didn’t see Ellie, thankfully, as he checked the tubs. Then, he went to a machine and yanked a lever and the Ferris wheel began to move.

  It was a long way down. Ellie trembled but she focused on finding her house. She saw many buildings but had no luck finding her house. Of course, thought Ellie. I’m so high up in the air that all the houses look like dots. How am I supposed to find my house? Soon, the ride stopped and the man came back and made sure everyone got down safely. The man didn’t open the door of Ellie’s tub as he didn’t know she was there.

“Hey!” yelled Ellie

  The man saw Ellie in the tub. He strode furiously to the tub and wrenched the door open. 

“You didn’t pay for the ride! Where are your parents?” he said looking around.

  Ellie sped past the man who barked for her to come back. Ellie ran until a man with a top hat stopped her.

“Would you like to have a ride through the tunnel of MOOD?”

“No thanks,” replied Ellie shakily.

“It’s free,” said the man with a grin.

  He led Ellie to a cart and closed the door. He pressed a button on the cart and Ellie”s cart went forward into the tunnel of MOOD.

  Ellie didn’t see much stuff in the tunnel. A few lizards, a rat and a can of paint. Ellie noticed that she was the only one in the tunnel. The ride soon ended and Ellie saw a big old rusty slide leading to somewhere she assumed would be the exit.

  She went down the slide and found herself in a dark place. A greenish smoke came out of a hole in the wall. Ellie felt dizzy and blacked out.

  Ellie woke up in the back of a truck. It was dark. She felt about and found a rope hanging from the top of the truck. She gave it a tug and a light bulb lit up. The truck bumped now and then on some rough rocks. 

  She felt the truck stop and pressed her ear to the door.

“ Hey Bradley, give me a hand,” said a voice.

“Wait Jayden, let me finish my sandwich,” said Bradley munching hurriedly.

“ This is way important than your sandwich,” said Jayden annoyed.

“Just a few bites left,” said Bradley munching fast.

  Jayden slapped the sandwich out of Bradley’s hand and it fell on the dusty ground outside the truck.

  Ellie heard a faint thump as the sandwich landed.

  Bradley aimed a punch at Jayden who dodged and undid the catch to the back doors of the truck.

  Ellie found herself looking at the man with the top hat who led her to the tunnel of MOOD. And there was another man- he had bushy eyebrows and a  nasty grin. Those guys kidnapped Ellie and now she was miles away from the carnival.

“Oops,” I thought you would be sleeping,” said Bradley (the man with the top hat) to Ellie.

“Help!” shouted Ellie. “I’m kidnapped!”

“Alas, no one to hear you,” said Jayden.

  He tossed a paper bag in the truck.

“And get some sleep,” said Bradley as Jayden shut the door.

  Ellie peered into the paper bag. She saw a sandwich. She bit into it. It was so stiff and dry. Ellie spat it out. She found a water bottle too. Someone had already drunk from it but Ellie was so thirsty, she downed it. She pulled the paper bag to her head and tried to get some sleep.

  Ellie woke up and the truck was still moving. It must be daytime, assumed Ellie. She found someone had placed a half-eaten hotdog and a refilled water bottle in the back of the truck while she was sleeping.

  Ellie pushed the paper bag away and picked up the water bottle. She noticed the water was yellowish and decided not to drink it.

  She took a few bites from the hot dog but she couldn’t swallow it. It just clogged up at the back of her mouth like mush and at last, she had to spit it out. The truck stopped and Ellie quickly lay down and pretended to sleep.

  The doors opened. Jayden looked in and frowned. Ellie held her breath and he closed the doors and went away. Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. Ellie heard footsteps and as they grew fainter, she crept closer to the door and pushed gently. It opened. A feeling of shock and excitement went through her body. She could escape!

  Ellie stepped out of the truck and placed one foot after the other. She soon broke into a run and whooped with glee. “I’m free!” she shouted. Bad mistake.

 Bradley and Jayden heard the shout and ran back to the truck immediately. They found 9it empty and saw Ellie running away. They caught up to her in less than a minute.

  All Elli’s hopes of escaping were crushed. Where was I going to go anyway? Thought Ellie miserably. Bradley made her go back into the truck and did the catch firmly.

“No food,” said Jayden.

 They continued driving and soon stopped. Ellie pressed her ear to the door once more.

“I say! You wouldn’t mind me borrowing your truck for a while would you?” said a man’s voice that sounded British.

“What,” said Bradley.

“I need to deliver a hundred and seventy-three sacks of rice to my friend and all those rice wouldn’t fit in my motorbike!”

“Errm..” said Jayden.

“Here’s a hundred dollars,” said the man waving a fat wad.

“Deal,” said Bradley and snatched the money.

  The man went to the back of the truck to start loading it with rice. Bradley and Jayden were so busy counting the money that they failed to notice that Ellie was still in the back of the truck. 

  Ellie saw a bald British man with square glasses perched on his nose carrying a sack of rice.

“Goodness!” he exclaimed. “There’s a- a girl!”

  Bradley and Jayden’s attention snapped back to Ellie. Jayden tried to think of an excuse.

“Oh yeah, umm she’s our…-”

“Help! I’m kidnapped,” cried Ellie.

“Goodness!” said the man again.

  He dropped the sack of rice on the ground and dug for his phone in his pocket.

“Help! Police!”

“Officer Dig, how can I help you?”

“Kidnappers! At the back of the airport!”

“On our way sir-”

The phone was flung down on the ground. It lay in shattered pieces.

 The British man trembled as Bradley and Jayden walked menacingly towards him. 

  “Hands in the air!”

  It was Officer Dig and a few other fellow policemen. A gun was aimed at Jayden’s head. The two kidnappers froze.

“Who is this girl?” asked Officer Dig.

“I believe she was kidnapped, sir,” said the British man.

  The policemen handcuffed Bradley and Jayden. They took them inside the police car. Ellie explained all she could about how she was kidnapped and Officer Dig sent her home immediately after.

  The police car stopped in front of Ellie’s house. Ellie could see Joey looking out of the window worriedly. As soon as he saw Ellie in the car, he let out a shriek of Joy. Ellie’s parents, grandmother and Joey ran out of the house excitedly to her.

  They hugged Ellie as hard as they could and thanked Officer Dig for bringing her home. Officer Dig explained that Ellie was kidnapped and he said if it wasn’t for the Brittish man, William, Ellie might have still been with the kidnappers.

  The family had pizza to celebrate Ellie’s returning and Joey and Elli shared some gummy bears after a game of chess.