The Magic Ring

• Joseph Wood, Grade 4, Holy Spirit Primary School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

John always accepts a dare, but this time he might change his mind. His friend Benjamin dared him to climb through the trapdoor in his shed, which was forbidden by his parents. He didn’t want to look like a baby, so he climbed in. When he was there, very strange things started to happen. He saw an interesting looking ring with a purple gem on it and then suddenly a ghost appeared. The ghost told him, “You have been granted special powers, this ring controls them. If it gets in the wrong hands, they can control your powers.” John was worried, surprised and excited at the same time.
The next day John went to school. James the school bully, walked up to him and said, “What you got there? A ring. Oh look everyone John got married!” So James pulled the ring off John’s hand and put it on himself. He started thinking about beating John up, so John felt he was being punched and kicked without James even touching him. James said, as John was twitching across the floor, “Look at John, he wants his ring back!” He started to try and grab the ring off James’s hand so James gave it to his sister Emily. She put the ring on and started thinking of girl things, so John started doing girl things. Then Emily gave it back to John.
Now John had to keep the ring safe with him because he knows what is going to happen. Suddenly Anthony, who was James’s friend, grabbed the ring and started thinking of anti-gravity. John started floating into space. As this was happening, Benjamin got to school and saw John floating in the air, so he grabbed the ring off Anthony’s hand and thought of a parachute. Anthony grabbed the ring and thought of anti-gravity again, so he stopped floating down. They fought over the ring for about thirty minutes and then finally John got down. Benjamin told John, “Hide the ring somewhere forever, so that nobody will be tricked like you, and nobody can control your powers.”