Margaret Maggot Is Lost In New York

• Oliver Manning, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2015

Once upon a time, somewhere on Earth
there was a maggot. Her name was Margaret.
Margaret was on her afternoon stroll when
she was spotted by Maria Magpie. Maria was
looking for food when she spotted Margaret.
She thought “what a nice tasty maggot for my afternoon snack” so she swooped down, scooped up Margaret in her beak and flew off.

Margaret was so scared she hid under Maria’s tongue. “Stop that would you” shouted Maria,
because she found it really uncomfortable having a maggot wriggling around under her tongue. She spat Margaret out when flying over the city of New York, well close to New York. She was actually flying over the Statue of Liberty, on an island next to New York. “Aaargh” cried Margaret as she fell onto the Statue of Liberty’s crown, slipped off and fell to the ground. “That was lucky” she said as she slid onto a ferry heading to New York.

Margaret slid up the street wondering where to explore next and if there were any other maggots around. Instead she found a nice sewer pipe to
rest in for the night. When she woke up, she found Lucinda Lady Bird and Stinger Scorpion looking angrily at her because she had been sleeping in their hideout. Lucinda tried to eat her and Stinger tried to sting her with his pokey
tail. Margaret slid away down the pipe and they chased her until they could no longer see her.

Margaret knew her way around New York’s sewers because at home she used a map of the sewers as her blanket. She knew that there was an exit above her and that there was a ladder next to her, so she slowly started to climb. It is very hard to a climb human sized ladder when you are a maggot, but she knew how to so she climbed
cautiously up to the top, slid under the plate and onto the road away from Lucinda and Stinger.

The streets of New York are very busy during the day but Margaret didn’t care, she just slid under
the cars avoiding the wheels until she reached the
edge of the road. Margaret was happy until she saw Lucinda and Stinger looking very angrily at her. They chased her down the street to the ferry that takes people across the harbour to New Jersey.

She slid onto the ferry, crossing the massive harbour to the fabulous city, while passing by the famous Statue of Liberty. Stinger and Lucinda took the bus thinking that it would be a whole lot faster but that didn’t work. The bus broke down and they had to wait an hour!

Meanwhile, Margaret got off the ferry at the Statue, stole some paper from the gift shop and then thinking she’d trick them, got on a ferry going back in the opposite direction. When she got back, she climbed the Empire State building, built a paper plane, slid on board and flew away. THE END!