John's Supertacular Journey Through Time's Back Pages

Creative writing project by students from FH Miller Junior, led by Book Creator Ambassador Mira Campbell.

Miller Students Creative Writing

Parchment

I was in London now. Smoke came from a train station nearby.&nbsp; Jim said, “Wow, am I dreaming?” He pinched himself. “Ow! So is this all real or am I wearing virtual reality goggles in my sleep? Am I in the past? Am I not really myself? What do I have to do?”&nbsp; “I really don’t know how the book works but we have to find the emergency portal. We know that it’s been activated and we've completed step one.”&nbsp; Smoke coming from the train station turned green for just a second, long enough for me to notice. The pedestrians didn’t know anything was wrong.

Where we were standing, we could see the emergency portal right below us. I looked around. No bridges went into it and there was no cloud floor. Jim suddenly jumped and I screamed, as a floor of clouds appeared for a split second. Jim bounced into the emergency portal. I stared in horror as the emergency portal started to fade and the clouds began to evaporate. A white glow appeared and Jim stepped out holding the book. We both jumped in!&nbsp;&nbsp;

John’s Supertacular Journey Through Time’s Back Pages

John is a traveller through time. He is trapped in 2021 with just one hour remaining before he fades from reality. Will he be able to get back home? Dun-da-DUNNNN. Only time will tell. Explore a cloud maze, fly on a train, and travel through the pages of history in this original adventure from Imre Falconer.

I took the book and said, “How is this book going to stop us from learning history when there are so many books that we’ve already read in class? Why can’t we just read this one in class too?”&nbsp; T.I.B.S. said “ this book is special. It’s a time travel book. It will take you back to the 21st century, but never drop it while you're using it. It will activate an emergency portal, but it will only last for one hour and the emergency portal teleports you somewhere.”&nbsp; “I hope I will never have to use the emergency portal,” I said.

While I was walking up the finely polished stairs of the palace, I passed by the portraits of my ancestors and a dark oak door came into sight. I entered my room. Right now the walls, floor and ceiling were projecting to make it look like I was in the middle of the sky. When I closed the door, it projected the sky too. So I was pretty scared. I switched the setting to project a submarine in the middle of the ocean and I opened the book. A white glow surrounded me and it startled me so I dropped the book. 

I felt a hundred centuries passing backwards as I stretched through time.

“Emergency portal has been activated. One hour timer starting now. Say clink to open timer.”&nbsp;

I heard a robotic voice say, I was on a normal street on the sidewalk. A sign above me read Rogers Road.&nbsp; I said clink and my timer showed that I had 59 minutes and 30 seconds. I hoped that it would say some clue to where the emergency portal was, but I was out of luck. I looked around and thought the portal must be close.

I said clink and saw that there was twenty-five minutes left.&nbsp; “Why did you say clink?” Jim asked.&nbsp; ”I said clink because it’s how I check my time. I have twenty-five minutes left before I fade from reality.” So, there was not enough time to wait half an hour. Jim just ducked below the rope into the train station.&nbsp; “Why are you going in?” I asked. Jim replied, “I read a book talking about these trains in London, saying that they were never broken but people thought they were so the train station was closed for six hours.”

“We’ve got to go ride that train in the train station!” I said. It was the green again. We ran over to the train station but as my luck was going, there was a sign that read—Train Out of Service. It wouldn’t be ready for half an hour.

Words spun around us as we went a hundred centuries forward in time. We landed in the castle courtyard and I lived happily from that day. Jim was an amazing friend. In that magical book, I had travelled through time to a changed world, a world where cars didn’t fly and the sky was blue, a world that I visited many times, with many more adventures.

This audio book was recorded by the author. It was edited with Garage Band. You can listen to the whole story by clicking the speaker icon below. You can also listen page-by page as you read the book with the author! Imi's narration of his imaginative world will delight audiences of all ages!

“Oh, but we don’t know how to drive a train,” I said.&nbsp;“With all this magic happening, I don’t think we will need to drive it. I think it will just drive itself.”&nbsp; Jim opened the train car door and stepped in. I followed him through as it closed behind me and the train rushed out of the station. We entered a maze of clouds. I stepped out onto the clouds and they held me. I was very surprised. I thought I would plummet to my death and there would be no more John.

Jim followed me. I tried pushing my hands through the wall. Solid. I was not going to beat this maze with cheating.&nbsp; I saw a green light coming from the middle of the maze, so I went down the hall of clouds on the left and Jim went down on the right. As I was walking down the left path, I saw that ahead it split into two more paths. As I reached the fork, I went right and found a dead end. I backed up and then tried left, but that was a dead end too. I hoped Jim was having better luck.

Green! That was it. I had to buy them, but I saw an exorbitant price. They were seventeen dollars. Well that’s horrible because I had zero dollars.” But surprisingly, when I reached into my pocket I found a bill for a hundred dollars.&nbsp; “Wow,” said Jim, “how did you get a hundred dollars?” We were just kids, remember.“I don’t know,” I said. “I must have gotten it when I was teleported here.” “Wow! You’re really into this game.”He still thought I was just pretending, but I knew he would learn the truth when I found the emergency portal.

To get my ideas down faster, I recorded my voice dictating my story

Sound Recording of NEW Story Ideas (noting the story climax)

Initial Sketch: Bird's Eye View of Cloud Maze

Initial Sketch: Close-up of Emergency Portal

Then I looked above me. The sky wasn’t green like it was supposed to be. It was blue. I had heard in T.I.B.S.’ history lessons that the sky was blue here but one green cloud passed by the intersection of Rogers and Dufferin Street. It was hovering above a flower shop. I knew the portal must be by that cloud. I walked down the street until I saw a sign:

This Intersection Is Closed.&nbsp; Please take a detour around it.&nbsp; All shops are closed on this intersection too.&nbsp; We will be open tomorrow.

Oh no, I thought. I had never heard of a skysection being closed.

I backtracked and found Jim, but his hallway was a dead end too. My mind started to worry, but then a bridge of clouds appeared.

It was a need-maze! In a need-maze, whenever you need it, a bridge of clouds will appear and guide you through the maze.

Cloud Bridge of Need Over Emergency Portal

Usually the air machines would come and blow all the bad air away and the problem was fixed, but there was no air machine here and this intersection was on the ground. I saw a huge construction machine grinding. The crane lowered a piece of road and a worker said, “Oh good, we’re done early,” as they began to pack up.

When they were done packing up, a kid around my age came up to me, “Hi, I’m Jim. What are you doing here?”

“Hi, I’m John,” I said. I thought it would be weird to tell Jim the truth, but I did anyways. After I was done, Jim said, “That’s an awesome game you created.” “But it’s not a game. I have to go over to that flower shop to find a hidden portal.” “Okay, good, let’s keep playing.” I just went along with Jim’s misunderstanding. As we walked into the flower shop, I saw a sign saying:

John’s Supertacular Journey Through Time’s Back Pages

Today I was studying with my robotic teacher T.I.B.S. and he said he had a very special surprise for me. I wouldn't have to learn history with him again. I had learned barely any history, but he did tell me about a world where they don’t have teleporting stations. I wondered how hard it would be to get around when they didn’t even have an upside down section. In my castle courtyard, T.I.B.S. pulled out a secret cupboard hidden in the stone wall. Sitting in it was a normal book with a green cover. It read, History of the 21st Century.&nbsp;

I took down the flowers from the shelf, but nothing happened. I went to the counter and handed a hundred dollars to the cashier. She handed him a fifty dollar bill, a twenty, a ten and three loonies.

Instantly, when I received the change the world began to fade. A rushing feeling came over me as I sped through the green tunnel, white blurs zooming past me. I felt that we were going even further back in time.

“Emergency portal step one complete. You have thirty minutes remaining.”

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