Land of doom

• Nathan Mckeown, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2005

Land of Doom

One day Jeff was watching television when a news report came across the screen. Jeff went to get up and grab something from the fridge when out of the corner of his eye he saw the headline on the T.V. The headline said, “Michael Jordan has lost his talent”. Jeff sat back down in disbelief. The news continued and it said, “Michael Jordan in an exhibition match shot 0 from 50”. Jeff still in disbelief, said to himself, “MJ must have had an off day”. But as the news continued it said, “After this bad performance Michael Jordan has retired”. Jeff was shocked, Michael Jordan was his favourite player, he was so shocked, he couldn’t believe his eyes and ran upstairs.

After about an hour of thinking about what he just heard and saw, he came downstairs. Jeff was incredibly disappointed about MJ retiring. He turned the television back on and put it straight on the news. Jeff was checking that what he saw was really true. He was certainly correct about it, Michael Jordan was retiring. Jeff thought to himself that he couldn’t go on living without seeing MJ play. He knew he had to do something and wondered what he could do as an individual. That night he was really upset and went straight to sleep in his bed.

The next morning Jeff woke up feeling much better than the day before. He did not go to school, he was still too miserable for that. He stayed in his bed for most of the day thinking of what he could do to get MJ to play again. Hours and hours passed while Jeff lay thinking in his bed and then he shouted, “There is no possible way to get MJ playing again,” and he threw his basketball out the door.

Not long after that it struck him. He could go down to Morey’s Coffee Shop, MJ’s favourite place when he is sad. Jeff zoomed outside and grabbed his bike and set off for the shop. As Jeff entered the shop he saw MJ sitting there all alone. Jeff hurried over to him and said, “Why did you quit?”.
MJ replied, “I’ve lost my talent”.
Jeff asked, “How?”.
Again MJ replied, saying, “Well it’s a long story, but I’ll tell you. This lady I had never met before approached me and gave me a sweat band. She said that it would give me incredible basketball talent. Then the strange lady said if you lose this you will have to go to the Land of Doom to retrieve it. Then she left”. “MJ”, said Jeff, “we have to go to the Land of Doom”.
MJ agreed and said, “that’s a great idea, lets go”.

So MJ took Jeff back to the place where he met the lady. There sat the strange lady on the side of the road. MJ and Jeff rushed over to her and told her all about the lost sweat band. Then without any words she flicked her wand and MJ and Jeff were in the Land of Doom. They could see the sweat band about 100 metres away, the problem was they had to cross a fragile bridge to get to it. Jeff was keen to go across and was very careful with every step. In less than a minute he was across, he picked up the sweat band and with a shock he suddenly woke up in his bed. Jeff couldn’t believe it and said to himself, “ That was all just a dream! Thank goodness!”. He settled back into his bed and wondered whether he would sleep peacefully after a dream that seemed so real.