~In The Year 2050~

• Shelby Ting
• Short Story
• 2022

Lola Styles and Nate Einstein were playing in Willetton Reserve when a man with an orange cloak and elf shoes called their names. For a second, Nate thought it was his dad , who he hadn’t seen for over 8 years. This was because Nate’s parents were divorced and his mother had just gotten married to Eddie Ballstein, a basketball player. Eddie was known throughout the world and he had many fans and trophies. Nate enjoyed Eddie, but, he wished his original parents were back together, although, his father never came back with the milk. Nate thought back to all those happy moments he shared with his father. His father always took Lola and him to places around Australia, such as, Uluru, the Sydney opera house and the Great Barrier Reef. Lola’s family has always been organised, but loud. When Lola told Nate about the time Lola’s neighbours had called the gouvernment and both the government and the police knocked on their door, strawberry milk had shot out of his nose like a rocket ship.

Both Lola and Nate were intruded by the man they nicknamed Orange Elf.
“Come with me,” Orange Elf beckoned them into his shiny, orange, floating electric car. They immediately hopped in and buckled their seat belt. Inside the car, the reflection of the iPads gleamed in the sunlight that shone through the windows. The blue seats sparkled and the windows looked as if there was nothing there. Orange Elf turned the keys and the motor sang out loud. On both iPad screens, YouTube opened up and both children started to scroll through the options.

When both videos ended, the vehicle screeched to a halt. The doors opened and the seatbelts clicked automatically. Orange Elf stepped out, stretched and yawned. Lola and Nate looked at their destination. They were at every child’s dream location: The childrens’ play house. It may not sound exciting, but, you would want to visit it every day, every hour. This was because, inside, there was a candy store, a waterpark, an arcade, even a swimming pool! It was everything a child could imagine! Nate stared with amazement. He had never been here before, although his best friend Lola has. Lola came here during the school holidays last year, when he was in Hawaii. But, both Lola and Nate thought it was weird, that a random stranger brought them there. They both turned around to thank him but when they turned around, he wasn’t there!

Both Lola and Nate knew children weren’t allowed to enter without an adult, so, they set out to find the Orange Elf. They searched here and there, and everywhere! But they still couldn’t find him!
“Nate! Look at this!” Lola found some elf shoe shaped footprints! They followed the footprints until, they reached a traffic jam. The rest of the footprints were under the cars and the children were completely lost!

“Darling, is that you?” A familiar posh voice called out. Lola looked around to see an old lady with pink and purple hair, pulled neatly in a bun.
“Grandma Ashley!” Lola realised who it was and ran over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug. Grandma Ashley brought them to her cottage across from willetton park, where both Nate and Lola’s families greeted them with worried expressions. Then what happened next surprised everyone. A purple car floated onto the driveway, and out came, Nate’s father! Nate’s father held up a milk carton and panted “ I have the milk!”