Undo Like New

• Helen Chew, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2008

I don’t know how it happened and why, but I wish it never had. It all started when I was three. I remember. I was playing with my cat, Mollie, in our backyard when suddenly, an orange tree, my mother’s favourite one, just fell down. Just like that. I blinked. If I had played any nearer to the orange tree, it would have fallen on me. I closed my eyes and screamed. When I opened them, I was gob-smacked. The orange tree was where it was before. There was no sign of any evidence that the tree had fallen down. That only made me scream even more. When I opened my eyes again, I saw an amazing sight. I looked at the old, rotten, dead apple tree that Dad had planted there five years ago............... I think. It was now abundant with golden, red, shiny apples galore. “Mummy! Mummy!” I yelled. Mum came running, her face all pale. I started to cry. “Mummy’s faverit owange twee nearwy fell on me. Then I scweamed and Mummy’s twee got up and started gwowing agwain. Then I scweamed agwain and Daddy’s appwle twee gwew and had lots of appwles on it.” I sobbed. Mum’s face turned even more pale. Without a word, she picked me up and carried me towards the house. Mollie followed behind.

Then there was another time. It was when I was five. My older sister, Gloria, had bought me a huge king-size bar of Toblerone. I pulled off a block and fumbled with it but still dropped it. I screamed as I dropped it. When I opened my eyes, the block of chocolate was where it was before. It was as if I hadn’t pulled it off and dropped it at all. I quickly called my mother again. Once again, her face was pale as she rushed to my side.

Then there was last time. I was twelve. Gloria and I had a fight. It ended up with her spilling paint on my best outfit. I screamed and there was absolutely no speck of paint on my outfit at all. I ran to my mother and told her about it. Again, she went pale. That was two years ago. Now, Mum has just told me the truth. I sit on my seat, trying to take it all in. Special power. I couldn’t believe my ears. “Only every youngest female in every second generation gets it.” explained Mum. “That means Grandma has it too? And you and Gloria don’t have it?” I burst out. “Yes.” Mum sighed. “I know, it’s not fair.” sighed Gloria as she played with my hair. “Not fair?!!! You think it’s not fair for you? Well, it’s even more unfair for me! I have been given this horrible power for 14 years and none of you have even told me! Do you know how shocking it is?” I jumped up. “ But you can undo what’s been done,” whispered Gloria, “It’s so cool. You’re lucky, I don’t get to have the power.” “But it’s bad! What if I undo good things that have happened?” I asked. “Hannah, get real! The power only works if you scream. Do you scream when something good happens?” said Gloria. “Yes! Screams of joy, silly!” I snapped. Mum cleared her voice and we were silent. “Girls! Stop your bickering! Both of you are partially correct and wrong. Yes, the power does only work when Hannah screams and yes, you can scream for joy but, I’m sorry Hannah, but you can only undo bad things.” said Mum. “You must do good things to help the world. You must undo all the wrongs.” stated Mum. I walked towards my room, thinking about what Mum had just said. She had seemed so serious. And what did she mean?

I was walking home one day and I passed a shop. It was the new pet shop that had opened yesterday. I walked past the window and saw a most beautiful sight. In a cage, there was a most adorable kitten. I rushed into the shop. “Excuse me, how much is that kitten on display?” I asked. “The ginger one? Oh, that’s five hundred dollars.” said the shopkeeper. Five hundred bucks?! I would never be able to afford that! In my life savings at the Bankwest bank, I only had one hundred and fifty-six dollars compared to five hundred! “No!!!” I screamed. “Sorry, I meant one hundred and fifty dollars. It’s the first one here so you get a discount.” said the shopkeeper. Ooops. I didn’t mean to scream. “Um, could you reserve it for me, I need to get the money from my bank account.” I said. “Why not just write a check?” asked the shopkeeper. “Oh, my bank account is in Bankwest bank and that’s a children’s bank so they don’t give out cheque books.” I said. “Sure thing.” replied the shopkeeper.

First thing in the morning, I jumped onto my bike and cycled to the shopping centre. I rushed to the Bankwest bank. I took one step into the bank and screamed. Mainly because the queue was tremendously long. “Hello dear, what would you like to do?” asked the teller. Ooops. I didn’t mean to scream. “Um, I’d like to withdraw one hundred and fifty dollars from my bank account.” I said. After the teller had given me the money, she said, “Need to buy something, do you?” “Yeah, I’m going to buy a kitten.” I said. “That’s nice.” she smiled. I hopped onto my bike again and cycled as quickly as I could to the pet shop. I rushed into there. To my horror, I saw another girl paying for the kitten that I had wanted. “No!!!” I screamed. “Actually, could I buy that puppy over there?” asked the girl. Ooops. I didn’t mean to scream. “Yes!” I cried as I paid for the kitten. I popped her into the basket on my bike and cycled home. I burst into the house. “Mum, Dad, Gloria! Guess what I bought!” I yelled. “What???” asked Gloria. “Everyone, let me introduce you to……………Matilda!” I exclaimed, revealing the kitten. It stared at them with its adorable eyes and purred. “Oh, it’s sooooo cute!” squealed Gloria. I beamed.

“Hannah, Hannah!” I heard a voice. I opened my eyes. And just about screamed. “Shhhhh!!! It’s me, Matilda! Your pet cat!” whispered the voice. “Matilda? You can talk? Hey! Where are you? And what’s Gloria doing here as well?” I asked. “I’m Matilda.” said Gloria. “I can shape shift.” She said as she took a bite of Gloria’s old bicycle. I gasped. “And eat metal.” Matilda shape shifted back to herself. “It has long been told that the prophecy shall be fulfilled. I am meant to be your companion. Together, we will save the world by getting rid of Bruiser. He is actually a robot dog controlled by aliens from Jupiter.” stated Matilda. I gasped again. Matilda leaned up to my ear. “I’ve got a plan…………………………………”

Now to save the world. I have no idea if it will work or not. But we have to kill Bruiser. The only problem is, Bruiser is my best friend’s dog. Can I trust Matilda? Maybe it’s a shape shifting alien trying to ruin my life. But what harm could it be to kill Bruiser? He’s only a dog. But Olivia would kill me if she found out. She loves her dog too much. How on earth would I kill Bruiser without Olivia finding out? Then an idea struck me. If Matilda could shape shift, why not just let her kill Bruiser? She could shape shift into a random boy and kill Bruiser! Go Hannah! I praised myself for thinking of such a great idea.

No, no, no!!! Matilda had just told me a flaw in my plan – she was afraid of dogs! I bashed my head onto the desk. I was getting nowhere! What was I going to do??? I sat on my bed and thought about it. I think my brain nearly exploded. I was wasting time and it was running out. I looked at my laptop. And the internet connection wire. Internet? I jumped up and quickly pressed the power button. My heart was beating at one hundred kilometres per hour as I waited for the Google homepage to load. I typed in ‘dog fears’. A link called, ‘What are dogs afraid of? New Yorker George Franklin tells all…’ was on the top of the page. I clicked it. I skimmed through the writing. There was nothing about what I was looking for at all! I was about to give up until I saw a newspaper article titled, ‘Stray Dogs’. “A lot of dogcatchers have mistaken at least one hundred and fifty-seven dogs to be stray. Residents of New York have been warned. Put a collar on your dog! Read more about it on page 3………” it said. Yes! This was exactly what I wanted!

After school, I rushed to Olivia’s house. Bruiser greeted me with a bark at her gate. “You don’t full me!” I thought. “Come here, Bruiser. I need to see your collar.” I cooed as Bruiser obediently obeyed. I tugged at his collar and to my surprise, it came off easily. I took out my walkie-talkie. “Matilda! Matilda! Are you there?” I whispered. ‘Check, Hannah! Yes!” I heard her voice. “Part A accomplished!” I said. “Ok, see you at home.” she said. Quick as a flash, I ran home. I burst through the door and ran to my room. “Ok Matilda, here’s the plan. You walk past Bruiser and make taunting noises. He will then chase you. You run around Olivia’s house once, around our house once, through your cat flap, out through the backdoor and – Oh!” I gasped in surprise as Matilda shape shifted into Gloria and took out a knife. A grin spreads across her face. She plunges towards me with the knife and I shut my eyes. CRASH!!! I open my eyes. “Would you girls like some milk or cookies?” asked Mum. “Ok, I’ll have a cookie.” said Gloria. Mum hands Gloria a cookie and…………KAPOW!!! With one punch, Gloria is knocked out. I gape at Mum. She takes out a tranquiller and injects Gloria. “There. Now there will be plenty of time to tell the story.” said Mum. “What?” I asked. “I am a double agent working for the SS which is the Secret Sleuths. I pretend to work for another bad person. The pet shop that opened last time was just a disguise. The shopkeeper is an evil man who sells special pets that can shape shift, talk and eat metal. The pets then kill their owners and shape shift into them to ruin other peoples’ lives. You did have a real older sister called Gloria. She too had bought that ginger cat. But the cat killed her. And she’s setting out to kill you. Olivia was also killed by Bruiser a week ago. Bruiser shape shifted into Olivia and is trying to ruin your life as well. You were interacting with Bruiser all along. Matilda is all just a fake Gloria. I thought she ran away and came back again but I suspected something years ago. Then I found out all this a month ago. We have to stop that evil man in the shop.” explained Mum. Suddenly, someone burst into the room, loaded with ten bazookas, five knifes and a pair of boxing gloves. It was the evil shopkeeper. “Prepare to die!” he screamed. He pulled the triggers of the bazookas, aimed them at Mum and let fly. That’s when I screamed.

I opened my eyes. Huh? There was no evil shopkeeper. Gloria, well, Matilda was nowhere to be seen. “Hannah! You did it! You saved us!” yelled Mum and Gloria as they both gave me hug. This time, it was the real Gloria. “I predicted that when you screamed, this would never have happened.” said Mum. “What? What wouldn’t have happened?” I asked. “That evil man being born. He is actually a mad scientist. He created those ‘pets’. He was planning for world domination all the way but you saved us.” explained Mum. I smile. Maybe I don’t regret having this special power at all. Maybe it was to be.

THE END