Of Adventures There Should Only Be One

• Bronwen Kirk, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

Liquí was a boy that loved adventure. He had explored the school bag a thousand times, finding the same things each time. He had memorised his way around. However, if he was to put a foot outside the bag he would be completely lost. One day, though, he did.
It was the middle of the day, and the sun was shining through the cracks in the windows, an ideal day for exploring. Down the steps, Liquí could feel the coke inside him, sloshing about, creating a constant tingling sensation. Through the grass, or a forest as Liquí might want to call it, he was escaping.
Soon he found himself in the middle of a busy road. Cars were everywhere, beeping their horns, and before he knew what had hit him, Liquí was flying through the air (He soon came to the conclusion that in mid step, he had been hit by a car and sent flying). The coke inside him was FREEZING it was so cold up there. He passed 5 aeroplanes during this airborne period. Next he was falling, down, down, down. With a splash he found he had landed himself in the ocean…
A week later, Liquí was washed ashore, soaked to the bone. Although he had been in the water for a whole week he was still VERY dehydrated. He was now an empty coke can (his insides floating in the sea). With little energy inside him, Liquí set of in search of food. He came across a huge road sign with some funny symbols upon it that looked rather like this:

WELCOME TO PARAKIE- DRIVE CAREFULLY

He had no idea what they meant, so, thinking nothing of it, Liquí moved on, trudging along the footpath to the top of the hill. At the top, Liquí noticed a rather large building. He thought it looked rather intriguing so he decided he would go and take a look.
From just outside the entrance, he could hear the occasional massive eruption of noise. He entered the building to find out what was making this mysterious noise.
Inside, there was a big track with some strange curving lines painted upon it. There were many seats but unfortunately, many of them were taken by these tall live things that were the cause of that noise he had heard earlier. Liquí sat down on the steps near some drink bottles. Before he could say hello, he fainted from dehydration.
When he came back to consciousness, Liquí found he was once again filled with some sort of liquid but what type, he could not put his finger on (but he was definite it was not coke as it did not have the same constant tingling sensation). When he opened his eyes, he noticed that he was surrounded by the drink bottles he had seen earlier. Later, Liquí discovered that their names were Veronica, Tani, Farley, Susan, Peter, and Drexel and before he knew it, they were all best friends.
Regretfully, a few hours later, Liquí knew that he had to go. So he thanked them (again) for the refreshments, and said goodbye.
Soon he was back out on the street, pondering over which way to turn. The rain was pelting down on the veranda roof. A crack of thunder awoke Liquí from his dream. He decided that that he would take a nap whilst rolling down to the bottom of the hill. It was almost dark so this seemed the appropriate thing to do. He lay down and started rolling. Before he was aware of what was happening (or the liquid falling out of him) he was fast asleep.
He dreamed that he was once again flying through the air, this time he hit the ground, not the water, with a thud. Everything was black, the dream had ended and soon Liquí came back to reality.
When Liquí was awake enough to know where he was, he found that he was located in the bottom of a recycling bin. He had no idea how he got there but one thing he knew for sure, he had to get out of there. Unfortunately, he was very unsuccessful in this act. Five minutes later, the truck had arrived.
He was taken to the treatment plant where he was cleaned and sorted, ready for reprocessing. He then went through a re-melt process, and was turned into molten aluminum. Soon he was a large block, called an ingot, joined with 1.6 million other cans. He was then sent to a mill where he was rolled flat, to be given greater flexibility and strength. He was then re-shaped and filled, this time with Fanta, all ready to be transported to the supermarket.
So there he sat, lonely and cold, waiting for someone to come and buy him. He couldn’t jump down from the shelf as he was too high up. So he was stuck there, thinking over his previous life.
A few minutes late, a family dressed in neat clothes, came and picked him off the shelf and laid him carefully in the trolley as if he was a living organism (which of course he was).
Finally, Liquí’s journey had come to an end and he was back in another school bag which was much neater and didn’t have a rat invasion like the last one.
So after this long adventure, he decided that he would sleep the rest of his life away and as he had always thought, an adventurous life is a good life!