What Am I ?
written by Carmen Ho, Connie Chao, Cyrus Chao and Katherine Kou
The Accident
Bruno was a twelve-year-old boy. He was very different from others. Every day, he needed to eat ten bowls of rice. When he cried, all the glasses would break. Also, he couldn’t say a whole sentence smoothly. He could just pronounce single words. He had a talent that he could jump very far and high without running. All these strange behaviours made Bruno become unpopular among his classmates and neighbours. Bruno just lived with his mother, Jane. What about his father? Nobody knew about that. But, Bruno always wanted to know about his father. Every time Bruno asked Jane about his father, Jane would never answer him.
‘Mum…where…dad…?’ Bruno asked. ‘That’s enough! I’ve told you so many times. Don’t ask anything about your father! You got it?’ Jane was very angry and she shouted . ‘sor…sorry…’ Bruno sobbed .
One afternoon, Bruno went for a walk after lunch. When he arrived at the park, the sky was turning dark and began to thunder. Bruno was scared and he wanted to run back home. When he turned back, lightning struck him. ‘Ah…’ Bruno cried loudly. Bruno felt so faint . He soon became unconscious. When he woke up, he found himself lying on a bed. ‘Where…?’ Bruno was confused. Then, he looked around. It took him a while to realize but in a few minutes he found that he was in his bedroom. ‘Bedroom…?’ Bruno kept on asking himself. Bruno struggled out of bed and went to find his mother to ask what had happened. ‘Mum… why…?’ asked Bruno. Jane said, ‘You were hit by lightning. But don’t worry. You weren’t hurt seriously. Just take more rest.’ Bruno couldn’t believe that he hadn’t been badly injured after being hit by lightning. He didn’t know how to explain it.
Bruno’s Father
After a few days, Bruno went to school as usual. During these few days, nothing happened. So Bruno forgot what had happened to him before. Today, there was still nobody who was willing to play with him. Bruno went to the garden and sat under a big tree watching his classmates playing football.
‘Don’t be upset. It doesn’t matter if they don’t play with you.’
‘Someone… talk…?’ Bruno seemed to hear a voice saying something, but it was too soft to hear clearly.
‘I know what you are suffering. Don’t worry, everything will be all right.’
‘Voice… ghost !’ Bruno cried astonishedly.
‘No, I’m not a ghost. I’m actually your father. I’m from another planet. I couldn’t talk to you since I couldn’t find any way before. But a few days ago, you were hit by lightning. It makes you be able to hear my voice. My son, I miss you so much.’
Bruno asked doubtfully, ‘Father…? Another planet…? You…kidding!’
‘Trust me please. I’m really your father. You’re like me. We don’t belong to here. You know you are different from others, right? We have some special talents that people on the Earth don’t have. I sent you here for training so that you could contribute to our planet when you grow up. I know you have had a tough life here. You are always sad. Now, you can come back to your real home. Come with me. Then you can feel real happiness.’
When Bruno heard the word ‘happiness’, he believed his ‘father’. ‘Yes…real happiness…Dad…I trust you!’
‘Great! Good son. Tonight, I’ll take you away when you are sleeping.'
The voice was fading. Bruno was very excited. First, it was because he finally knew his father. Second, he could leave such a sad place. He could get real happiness in his real home. For a twelve-year-old boy, those were the only things that Bruno wanted. At night, Bruno went to bed very early. In his dream, there were lots of people staying with him, and he felt very happy. After he fell asleep, his ‘father’ appeared. He picked up Bruno and disappeared silently with him.
A New Home
When Bruno woke up, he saw lots of children like him standing around him. All of them had happy faces. Bruno remembered what had happened. ‘Yes, father… real home…’ Bruno talked to himself quietly. Bruno now was in a house that was as big as a palace . He looked through the windows. There were no tall buildings or cars. All he could see was a field of grass. Bruno felt so comfortable to be able to breathe the fresh air. There was a little girl.
‘Hi, my name is Judy. What’s your name?’ Judy came up to Bruno and smiled.
She was the first kid who talked to Bruno.
‘Hi… Judy… Bruno.’ Bruno was shy because he seldom talked to strangers.
‘Bruno? That’s a very interesting name. I like it!’
‘Thanks.’
‘Why can’t you say a little more? A complete sentence?’
‘Sor…sorry… I…can’t…I…’ Bruno didn’t know how to explain.
‘You can’t? I see. It doesn’t matter. Just try to tell me about yourself. I’ll listen to you no matter how slowly you speak.’ Judy understood what Bruno was thinking.
'Thanks… you… nice…’ Bruno was touched, and he sobbed .
‘Ha! Everybody says so. Here, all the children are nice. They must be very happy to play and talk with you. Come on. Let’s play together.’
Bruno stayed for almost one month. Every day, he played, ate and slept with his friends. He thought that was the happiest period in his life.
After a few days, Bruno couldn’t find his best friend, Judy. When he was looking for Judy, he discovered that there were only kids in the house. When he was wandering in the house, he saw steps leading downstairs.
‘Stairs… to where… Dad…?’ Bruno asked himself.
Bruno walked down the steps. There was a door, and it wasn’t locked. He peeked through the gap .
There were lots of big aquaria in the room, and many kids who had played with him in the last month were behind the glass. One of them was his best friend, Judy. They all looked pale .
‘What… friends… why… Judy…?’ Bruno said dreadfully.
Bruno couldn’t even believe what he saw. What did his ‘father’ do? He found a notebook on the table.
‘Book… Kit…from Canada…gene… natural…’ Bruno tried to read the words.
The book Bruno found was a record of experiments. In fact, Bruno’s ‘father’ was a scientist on this planet. His name was Dr. Kelen. He dispersed his seeds on the Earth in order to have the mixtures of human and alien for his experiments.
Bruno finally knew that his ‘father’ was only using him. He never treated him as his son, but as his 'guinea pig' . ‘Dad… bad… afraid…help Judy…’ Bruno was frightened.
Bruno found that the aquaria were for absorbing the energy from the bodies, and the energy was for Dr. Kelen to keep his human face. Then, He saw a red button.
‘S…T…O…P?... stop!...’ Bruno shouted. He thought that must be the switch for the machines.
Bruno pressed the button. The machines stopped, but he still couldn’t save Judy because all of her energy had been absorbed. Bruno was so afraid and he wanted to leave this planet. He was so sad to leave his mother. He now understood why his mother never talked about his father. It was because he was a totally evil man.
‘Dad…devil … mum…home…’ Bruno was crying.
Bruno looked around. He discovered a space machine beside the aquaria.
‘Space ma…chine…for what…?’
He went into the machine. There were a lot of buttons and screens around him. There were some words on the main screen. That was ‘Input the code of your destination.’
‘Des…destination…what…?’ Bruno was confused. He didn’t even know what a destination was.
Bruno didn’t know what he could do. He just pressed the buttons at random. It made the alarm ring.
‘BI…BI…BI…’ Bruno’s father, Dr. Kelen, heard the alarm and he rushed to the room.
‘Bruno? Why are you here? What are you doing? What do you know?’ Dr. Kelen was very angry.
‘Dad…?’ Bruno didn’t dare to look at him.
‘You know everything, don’t you?’
Bruno shouted at Dr. Kelen, ‘You…bad…devil …’
‘My friend…’ Bruno pointed to Judy.
When Bruno wanted to run away, Dr. Kelen grabbed him.
‘No!...devil !...put…me down…!’ Bruno screamed.
Although Bruno kept on resisting, he couldn’t leave because Dr. Kelen was too powerful.
‘It’s time for you to contribute!’ Dr. Kelen laughed craftily .
‘No!...No!...’ Bruno kept on beating Dr. Kelen, but Dr. Kelen didn’t seem to be hurt.
Dr. Kelen threw Bruno into an aquarium to absorb his energy. Dr. Kelen was so angry that he didn’t even notice the machines had stopped.
After Dr. Kelen left the laboratory, Bruno jumped out of the aquarium. Dr. Kelen never thought that Bruno could escape from the aquarium. After that, he went into the space machine again.
‘How…go…home…’
This time, Bruno didn’t dare to press buttons at random. He searched around and tried to find any hints for operating the machine. In fact, there was a manual on the console.
‘So…stupid…’ Bruno couldn’t help blaming himself.
He followed the guidelines . Then, a bright light appeared. It made Bruno become unconscious.
Back Home
When he woke up, he found himself lying on a bench in a park.
‘Where… Earth?... home?...’
Bruno couldn’t think of anything. He just felt pain all over his body. He saw his mother, who had a worried face, was running to him.
‘My son. My poor son. What happened?’ Jane was so worried about Bruno.
‘Sorry, Mum. I missed you.’ Bruno cried.
This was the first time that Bruno could say a whole sentence.
‘My son. My good son. I missed you so much too. You worried me. Are you hurt?’ asked Jane.
‘I experienced… a lot… but… I’m fine.’ Bruno tried to calm himself down.
‘Where did you go? What happened?’
Bruno told his mother the whole story. Jane was shocked of what she heard. Meanwhile, she was happy to know that Bruno was so brave. He was not a kid anymore. Bruno and his mother hugged each other. Although they didn’t say anything, they each knew what the other was thinking. Bruno finally knew what love was after leaving his real home—the Earth.
~~~ THE END ~~~