Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - 2 Years Or 2 Hours

“2 Years Or 2 Hours” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2019 written by Aayushi Adhikari, Kothari International School, Noida, India.

2 Years Or 2 Hours

Once there was an eight year old boy named Rodrigo with brown, curly hair. One day he went to the mall with his parents. He asked his mother to buy him a superhero toy, but his mother refused, instead she said that she would buy a set of books for him. He got annoyed by his mother and ran away. While running he saw a man calling him. This man was overly dressed in a very colorful costume; he wore a huge colorful hat, and was shouting his name. “What is your name?” Rodrigo asked. “Crabby” the man replied. Crabby took the boy to an isolated area of the mall. He showed him a giant glittery door and asked him to open it. The door looked fantastic.

Rodrigo opened the door in excitement. It was too bright inside. The boy went in and saw what he had never seen before. A huge, new world for kids, it had candies all around, rides, and superhero toys. Children were allowed to do whatever they desired to. There was a chocolate waterfall and a roller coaster bridge. Rodrigo didn’t want to leave the place at all. In fact he wanted to stay there forever. Years passed and Rodrigo turned ten years old, for these two years he had been living in that very place. But now, he wanted to meet his parents, after all he missed them a lot. He asked Crabby to drop him to his parents. So, Crabby took Rodrigo back to the mall, to his mother. “Hello, Madam I am Crabby. I would like you to kindly pay the bill for the children’s play land. We charge only 1,000 dollars for 2 hours. I hope your son Rodrigo enjoyed a lot. We hope to see you again.’’