The Journey

It all started as a happy family reunion, and then turned into a life threatening disaster.

The happily reunited family of Jasmine Rice met each other at the ‘Cooking Pot’ Hotel one sunny afternoon. I, Ricky Rice, was like your typical grain of Jasmine Rice. I was short and skinny, and loved to have fun. I was having the time of my life that afternoon with my family. In one corner of the hotel, my cousins and I spent some quality time together by playing board games. We laughed and squealed. We had a food fight, and made a huge mess. By the time we ran out of food to throw, our clothes were completely stained. My reddish brown shirt was covered in ice-cream, and yellow mustard. My cousin, Jamie was in an even worse condition. She had gum in her hair! In other words, we were all a mess. As for the parents, they sat in another corner of the hotel eating and drinking while catching up on each other’s lives.

No one had expected it. All of a sudden the water rushed in. I heard the drowned cries of my family, as we were swept off of our feet. We all gasped, and tried to swim to the surface for air. Unfortunately, none of my family could swim except for me. Last summer, I had taken swimming lessons, in hope of one day becoming a lifeguard at one of the local beaches. I watched helpless and in terror, as one by one, my family sunk to the bottom of the ‘Cooking Pot’ Hotel. I felt someone grab onto my leg, and try to pull me down. I knew right away that they were just tying to get some air. “Let go!” I yelled, shaking that person off of me. As soon as he or she let go, I realized that I was getting tired of treading water. The heat of the cooking pot was starting to get to me, and I began to sweat and lose my concentration.

Then my muscles froze, and I started to sink to the bottom. Right before I was about to lose all hope of ever getting out of this mess, and living through it, the top of the hotel opened, and a giant hand reached down, grabbed the pot, and pulled us out. A lady drained the water out of the pot. I watched in despair as some of my (now dead) family members rolled out of the pot, and down the drain. I sat there with the remaining of my dead family members. Just then, a spoon came down. It scooped us up, and dropped us onto a white, cold, slippery plate. I fought my way through the heavy bodies to get some air. When I got to the surface, I observed my surroundings. I was nowhere near where I was before.

“Mom, I’m famished!” I heard someone say. “Here you go, honey.” Someone replied in the distance. Now, the plate I was on was right in front of a human boy. He had blonde hair, and a baby blue T- shirt on. From what I could see, he looked no older than ten years old. The human boy picked up a bottle that had brownish liquid in it. The bottle read: Soy Sauce. He poured it on me, and the dead bodies around me. Then I realized that the boy was holding the ‘Devil’s Fork’. I yelled as the fork came closer to me, and brought me to the ‘Tunnel of Doom’. As I went in, the tunnel closed on me. I slipped off of the fork, and rolled down the tongue. I grabbed the Uvula for dear life. Unfortunately, some saliva hit me, and loosened my grip. “Ahh!” I yelled, as I slipped and fell. Down the Esophagus I went, searching for something to grab onto. After about five seconds of running my hands down the Esophagus walls, I landed on something slimy. Immediately, I knew I was in the stomach of the human boy. I paused at the entrance, eyeing the funny looking liquid ahead of me. Another mouthful of food came down the Esophagus, and into the stomach, and pushed me into the liquid. I knew that the bubbly liquid was acid. “Ow!” I yelled, as it burned a hole in my body. I scrabbled out of the acid, and pushed myself against a stomach wall for support.

All of a sudden, there came a low grumble, and I was pushed out of the stomach, and into the slimy small intestine. I ran down the narrow passage, in search of an exit. It was extremely dark in there. Once or twice, I stepped in some bile. I howled in pain as the bile dissolved one of my arms, and an eye. After a long while of unsuccessful searching, I was pushed into the large intestine. It was so slippery! I tried to grab onto something for support. Then my hand accidentally brushed something mushy and cold. “Ew,” I mumbled to myself. I knew it must have been some food waste. Once again, I wandered through the passageway, searching for an exit. After a while, I heard a sloshing noise, and before I knew it, I was pushed down the large intestine, and then out. Then I fell and everything became white. With a plopping noise, I landed in some water. I had escaped! Well, what ever was left of me had. I was a mess! I was missing an eye, an arm, and to add to that, I had a hole in me. I was also all soggy! Gross! I looked down, and saw another hole. “Oh, great,” I mumbled, “more holes”. I looked up to see where I was. Not a very pretty sight. From what I just saw, I guessed I was in a toilet. Then, all of a sudden, I started to spin, and was sucked into the hole below me. For the longest time, I was carried through the tunnels. Finally, I emerged, and found myself in murky water. It was salty. I drifted, and then saw a really weird animal I had never seen before. It was gray, had big teeth, and huge fins! It swam up to me, opened its tooth- covered mouth, and swallowed me. “Great, not again.” I said, disappointed.

-THE END-

-By Katherine Zimmerman

Age 13