The Old Man Who Tried To Take Over The World

• Isabelle Higgins, Grade 5, Kangaroo Valley Public School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

What's that noise? Should I go over there or not? I heard something coming from over near the gutter. I walked curiously to the gutter. there was that same old man I've been seeing for weeks. He is so ugly, he has a rash on his jaw and he is very crinkly with warts everywhere on his body.
What is he doing down in the gutter? He is standing there holding a rusty old box. He then asked me to take his box from his hand. I take the box hesitantly, with caution.
I opened it and a whole lot of dust smothered my face. There was a note saying, "I'm going to take charge of the world and make everyone old."
I was shocked after I read the letter. I didn't know if I should believe it or not. Anyway, I looked down at the gutter and the old man vanished. I jumped through the slimy gutter into the town sewerpipes while I was looking for how the guy dispersed quickly. I heard laughter and gathered it was from the old man. I followed the laughter sound and while I was walking I was going through slimy, squishy poo and bats were flying over me. At last I came to an underground laboratory. While I was there eaves dropping to their details of their twisted plan I had been spotted before I could do anything.
The old man had me sinking in quick sand. While I was sinking I saw the old man’s feet approaching me. Suddenly it was all dark and black. I woke up and I was held in a mysterious spell restricting my body from movement. I was in this place that was white and plain. I looked over to my right in the mirror and caught the reflection of myself. I noticed that I aged 50 years. It felt weird and funny.
Suddenly, out of no-where, the old man came smashing through the door. I was scared and said, "why are you doing this?"
He replied in an angry mood, "because there are no one that respects us and they treat us like we aren't even real."
"Well we can work out something to do," I said.
"No," said the old man. "Everyone has to be old." The old man walked out and shut the door behind him and then he came back in with a big machine, as big as an elephant, and lots of buttons and a big wire sticking up in the air. He said, "this is the machine that I'm going to make everyone old." The old man pointed the wire up in the air and hesitantly went to press the button but accidentally pressed the wrong button, the button that made everyone young (including me).
Then he shouted out and said, "NO my plan has been destroyed!" In a harsh way he said, “you can make another plan but not in Australia, in America."
The End.