The Secret Garden

• Sannhi Chung, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2018

After Monica’s death, the days were dull and gloomy for her brother James. Until one day, James thought it over and wanted to start again. This time he needed a new queen for the Secret Garden. There was only one person in the whole world which was fit to be the queen of the Secret Garden and that was Jame’s younger sister, Anna. Jame asked Anna if she would like to be the new queen of the Secret Garden. She had a confused look on her face. Jame took her hand and lead her to the Secret Garden.

Their journey to the Secret Garden had some obstacles that they faced such as crossing the creek on a log. Forcing Anna to grab onto Jame’s shirt tightly as they crossed the creek. On the other side, there were surrounded by towering trees and patches of green lush grass. It was soft as a marshmallow, if you were to lay down, you would fall to sleep instantly.

The bird welcomed Anna as she set foot on the Secret Garden. She was pleased with the breathtaking view and looked speechless at the sunset. The sky was covered in warm colours of vibrant orange, neon yellow and rich red. She could hear the crickets singing in the distance. She turned around to Jame and saw beyond something sparkling in the tree.

It was some sort of object which had an interesting shape. Jame had also noticed it too high up in the tree. Curiosity got to both of them as Jame climbed the tree to grab the mysterious object.

Suddenly, there was a strange white light that glowed from the object. They were no longer in the Secret Garden but in a whole new different world. Clouds covered the sky. It was a dark and gloomy and there were mysterious unknown creatures. There were dead trees and shrubs which surrounded them which gave them a chill down their spine. They could see strange creatures moving steadily in the distance. They could hear loud horrific screams coming from behind them. They both too afraid to look behind tried to figure out a way to get out of this unfamiliar world. Jame tried to remember how they got transported to this world. He figured that maybe that the strange object, he was holding could be the solution to get back to the Secret Garden. He looked carefully and there on the object he found a strange button which was probably pressed when he grabbed the object.

He pressed it and after a few seconds, a blinding light sparked from the object. There they noticed their surroundings had changed and were back in the Secret Garden. Jame and Anna agreed to never tamper with the strange object again as Jame placed it back where it belonged, high up in the treetops.