Underworld

• Dalita Bedroosi, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

Underworld
By Dalita Bedroosi

Have you ever been stuck in a whirlpool and sucked into a strange world? Well, I have a story for you. It was the summer school holidays of 2021 and I was looking forward to our family trip to Fiji. After finishing off the school year and enduring the long and gloomy winter, I had packed my bags weeks in advance and was ready for the tropical sun.

Landing in Suva Airport, the heat of Fiji hit my face like a wall of heaters. My mum and dad instantly broke out in a sweat and my brothers started complaining, but I didn’t mind the heat, I was glad to be out of the winter chills. Fiji was beautiful and the people were very friendly and nice, they welcomed us with flower leis.

Days one and two were spent splashing around in the pool, while my parents lay on their towels and relaxed. It was day three that changed my world completely.

We had booked a boat cruise and planned to go scuba diving. My brothers and I had not been scuba diving before so were excited at the idea of seeing colourful fish and coral. My parents had experienced scuba diving so they led our adventure in the deep blue sea.

As we dove deeper and further away from our boat, I noticed the waters getting colder and darker. I was getting scared however I trusted my parents to keep us all safe. As we passed the reef, the sea became much colder and darker and before I knew it, I started swirling around to what I could describe as a whirlpool. I had never been inside a washing machine, and I can say that I now know what it must feel like. The more I moved my arms and legs the faster the whirling water felt.
I lost sight of my family and was quite scared. After a few minutes of spinning around faster and faster, I felt myself being sucked in the middle of the whirlpool vortex and felt a hard thud as I fell onto dry land. Yes, I said dry land, under the sea. Within seconds I felt thud number two, three, four and my dad’s double thud as he landed really hard on his back.

It was an impressive sight, although not a place I had ever seen before. I could see beautiful mountains, but they were pink and tall beautiful trees, but they were purple. The sky was bright green, the river was yellow and the sun was, yes you guessed it, blue. As I tried to get up, I saw what looked like an orange and purple striped dog with wings fly over and gave me a slick on my cheek.

I knew right there and then, I was going to like this new strange land.