Watagalou

• Kosta Giitsidis, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2016

It was a stormy night in the year 2092. Henry was twelve at the time. He lived on a farm with his family and an unidentified space object.
It was New Year’s Eve and Henry’s family were setting off fireworks when a UFO went racing by in the sky, followed by another one that got hit by the fireworks. The second UFO fell to the ground and smashed around three kilometres away from them.
Henry and his family thought it was an asteroid and went to bed. Henry followed but when his family fell asleep, he searched for a torch to see and a paintbrush to brush away any dust and snuck out for a hike to the UNMO (unidentified not moving object).
It was 2:00am and after an hour of blind walking, Henry finally reached the object and it wasn’t an asteroid, it was a spaceship. It was very tempting for Henry not to explore it but he never knew he was about to regret it. He found an unlocked door and entered the ship. In the ship, he found nothing but a taped box, a steel cage and a gigantic control pad (probably to control the ship and shoot lasers). Firstly, Henry ran to the box and opened it. Inside was an emerald green, gigantic, stinky, weird looking bug who stared right into Henry’s yes and happily said, “Watagalou,” repeatedly. Then, it stopped, so Henry said, “Watagalou,” and that’s when the danger started.
The alien looking bug started to scream and for some reason Henry thought it was hungry. He didn’t have any food other than a chocolate bar he didn’t want to give away, but he had to get the bug to be quiet, before someone else heard it. Henry ripped open the chocolate bar and gave it to the bug he eventually called Watagalou.
For a couple of seconds, Watagalou stopped screaming and inspected the chocolate bar. Then, it picked the chocolate up and gobbled it down. When Watagalou swallowed it, he turned into a gremlin, crocodile and fish looking thing. It then started growing, like a flower seed turning into a flower within seconds. When it was the size of a car, it stopped growing. Then it started chasing Henry. So Henry ran. Henry ran towards home to call the RSPCA, or, his Dad.
When Henry arrived home, Watagalou was nowhere to be seen. Although Henry still told his Dad about his situation. His Dad was just about to say, “You’re dreaming,” when Watagalou smashed through the roof. Still screaming, Watagalou rolled towards Henry and his Dad who ran towards the kitchen. While running, Henry’s Dad asked Henry what he fed that thing and Henry said, “chocolate.” Then Henry’s Dad said, “Seriously?” and then told Henry to give him a cucumber. So as they were now in the kitchen, he did.
When Henry threw the cucumber at Watagalou, it just froze and gobbled it down. When it had finished, it didn’t shrink, it grew and grew until the kitchen wasn’t a kitchen anymore. Watagalou was just about to move again, but didn’t because Henry had just thrown a jalapeno chilli in front of it. Watagalou also gobbled down the chilli but instead of enlarging or shrinking, it exploded! And that was the end of Watagalou. Or was it?