Mota

“Where is it?!” exclaimed my brother Robert, “I can’t find it!”
“What is the last thing you did with it?” I, Amanda Welsh, asked him. My little brother was looking for his teddy bear, but this was not just any teddy bear, it was the teddy bear that our ancestors passed down for generations. That teddy bear has a powerful gem in it!
“I remember now!” he replied, “I left it… oh no!”
“What?”
“Mr. Live took it away from me as a punishment!”
“What?! Robert, how could you let this happen?!”
Robert started crying as he said “I didn’t know I was being bad, I just…” His frown turned slowly into a smile. “Let’s sneak in!”
“What?! That’s stealing!” I exclaimed.
“No, it’s our own property, he’s the one who’s stealing!” he added.
“True…Okay, but just a quick in-and-out and that will be it.” I answered.
“Okay, we will go in the middle of the night. No one will suspect a thing!” he told me, “Good?”
“Good” I answered him.

It was the middle of the night, and everything was dark, I crept out of bed and entered my brother’s room. He sat, waiting for me.
“Are you ready?” he asked me.
“I think so.” I answered.
“Okay, let’s go!”
We put on our night coats, and snuck out the window, suspecting that our parents would hear us open the front door. Robert and I slithered down the street, getting inch by puny inch, closer to the school. When we finally reached the school I asked Robert “Which grade are you in again?”
“You should know Amy, you’re my big sister!” He waited for a response; there was none, “I’m in kindergarten!”
“Oh, thanks” I whispered back to him.
We snuck down the hallways, thinking that people we here, even though they really weren’t. We entered Robert’s classroom, which was strangely unlocked, as were the whole school. I searched the room as Robert and I split up. I looked on one side of the room near the teacher’s desk, Robert on the other. I saw his name tag “Oliver Live” I said to myself. There was also one of those expensive ceramic heads on Mr. Live’s desk. I couldn’t find anything leading to where the toy was. Robert and I switched places. I looked around for awhile, but still didn’t find the bear.
THUMP!
I turned around, to find Robert on the floor. He must have tripped, because he broke the ceramic head on Mr. Live’s desk.
“Robert what did you-” I yelled at him, but I stopped because I was amazed that the floor that once separated us was now opening into a giant abyss.
“What the?” I thought to myself.
“Do you think it could be in there?” Robert suggested.
“Well, it won’t hurt to check.”
We both peered into the black hole, when suddenly, a burst of wind pushed us into the trench.
“AAAHHHHHHHHH!!” we both screamed. For some reason, I felt as if myself, and the tunnel I was falling through, just kept getting smaller, and smaller, when finally, Plunk! Robert and I plunged into a bed. Facing up, I saw a hole close above us.
“Oh, great” said Robert, “what the heck just happened!?”
“I have no idea!” I answered.
I got up, we were in a bedroom.
“I’m gonna’ go look around.” I told him.
“Okay, I think I’ll stay here.” replied Robert.
I left the room, and wandered around the house. The whole place was empty! The only furniture in the whole house were a small table and cupboards in the kitchen, a bed and mirror in the bedroom, and an old T.V. and beat-up couch in the living room. And the television was on the floor!
“This is weird!” I thought to myself. I walked down the hallway to the bedroom. “Robert, this place must be abandoned or something.” I informed him. When I left, this time Robert came with me. I opened the front door; it was bright and sunny outside. A warm, summer breeze brushed across my face.
“Well, I don’t think we’ll need these anymore.” I said as I took off my night coat. I threw it into the house, as I stepped outside. I walked down the walkway, past the front lawn. Across the street there was a girl about my age, and her mother, washing their car. The girl had short, blonde hair, and so did her mom, who looked about 30 years old. The woman glanced up at me smiling, and said “Oh, you must be the new neighbors!” Her voice was warm, gentle, and inviting. “We are the Johnsons. I am Mary Johnson, and this is my daughter, Bridget Johnson.” Her daughter smiled and waved at me.
“Oh, hi, and yes, we are the new neighbors.” I answered them without thinking. Robert sat on the porch of the house, waiting for me to do something. I looked up at the sky; it was the middle of the day. I glanced back at my brother, still waiting on the porch.
The strange woman spoke again, saying “Are you kids excited about school starting back up tomorrow? It’s been a long summer, huh?” Her daughter was waiting for an answer.
“Yeah” I replied, not knowing what she was talking about. School started months ago, and it was the middle of winter. “Excuse me ma’am?”
“Yes?” the woman replied.
“Our family has only been here so long, I forgot the name of the town that we’re in!” I answered.
“Oh, I’m sorry dear, we’re in Mota.”
“Mota?” I asked, “Mota, where?”
“What do you mean ‘Mota, where?’ It’s just Mota, that’s all.”
“Whoa, that’s weird!” I thought to myself. “Thank you, ma’am!” I said to the lady as I walked inside. “C’mon, Robert” I whispered as he stood up. We entered the house again.
“What do we do now?” Robert asked me, sadly.
“I don’t know yet” I answered, “but we need to go to school, the neighbors will be suspicious if we don’t!”
“Aww,” Robert whined, “I hate school!”
We went to the kitchen and searched all the cupboards. I found $3, and Robert found a box of Cheerios®, probably stale. We looked around the house some more; I found 43¢ in the couch, and an empty soda can on the television. We went back into the bedroom. There was a mysterious closet next to the door-frame.
“That wasn’t there before?” I thought to myself. I opened it up. The smell of dust and old books filled the air as the doors opened. I coughed and swatted the dust away so I could see. In the closet were a rack of new summer style clothes, mysteriously my and Robert’s sizes, $50, and… Robert’s teddy bear!
“Robert come look!” I yelled!
Robert came strolling into the room. When he looked at the closet he said “Hey I don’t remember that being there?”
“Yes” I answered, “but look what I found!” I raised the bear so he could see it in my hands.
“My bear!” he yelled, grabbing it out of my hands. “I missed you so much!” he said to the toy as he lovingly rubbed it on his cheek. He coughed. “Ew, it smells like old books!”
“Yeah, I know.” I replied.
I gave Robert his new summer clothes and said “Here you might need this.” We put on our new clothes, and went outside. We headed down the street, towards the town. I had the money in my pocket “Fifty three dollars and forty three cents” I said to myself, “spend it wisely.” We walked along the sidewalk for awhile until we came upon a busy intersection.
We looked up and saw tall buildings, reaching above the clouds. “Wow!” Robert interjected to himself, gazing at the huge buildings.
“We need to find the school that we’re going to before we go to the market.” I told Robert.
“Fine” he groaned.
We wondered around the city for about an hour.
“We’re never going to find it!” Robert complained
“Shhh!” I scolded
Everyone in the big city seemed to ignore us. We kept walking down the sidewalk. The smell of cigarette smoke was everywhere! We finally approached someone who paid some attention to us, and old, homeless woman, in tattered clothes, and matted dirty red hair. She sat on an old, dirty rug with her dirty backpack next to her. She looked depressed, but she looked up at us and said kindly “You two look lost. Are you okay?”
“We’re fine ma’am” I answered, “but could you possibly know where the school is?”
“Actually, yes!” answered the lady, “It’s across the street and down the block” She pointed with her finger.
“Thank you, kind woman!” I said as my brother and I left the woman with a grin on her face.
We tried to cross the street, but all the cars just zoomed past. The taxis were a yellow blur, mixed in with the brown and gray slush around them, which were the other cars. The crosswalk took forever. We must have waited at least five minutes before the white walking man sign blinked for us to go. Suddenly all the cars stopped at the blink of an eye. “Jeeze” I thought to myself.
We walked along the sidewalk to the end of the block. There stood the school at the end of a cul de sac. There was a big fence surrounding the school, and a huge metal gate to enter the lawn outside of the school. I looked through the huge gate. There was a big cement sign on the lawn that said: Brinchester Private School.
“Aw great” I said sarcastically to Robert, “It’s a private school!”
“What’s a private school?” he asked.
A private school is where you have to pay a lot of money to get in.” I answered, “And they make you wear school uniforms!”
Robert frowned. “Well we have to go here tomorrow,” I said. We went to the market and bought a bunch of food and backpacks for tomorrow, then we headed back to our temporary home and went to sleep for the night.
I opened my eyes, hoping this whole incident was a dream. “Ahh!” I screamed as I woke up. We were still in the old abandoned house. “Dammit!” I thought to myself, I really didn’t want to be here.
I startled my brother. “What? What happened? Ahh!” he also screamed when he opened his eyes.
I got up and opened the magical closet again. This time I was surprised to find uniforms for me and Robert. “Hey, look what I found!” I said as I showed Robert the uniforms.
“Ugh!” he groaned as he purposely fell backwards onto the bed. We got dressed in he school clothes and headed outside. The neighbors across the street were about to leave.
“Excuse me? Mrs. Johnson?” I asked.
“What dear?” she replied.
“Could you give us a ride to school, please?”
“Of course, Amy,” said Mrs. Johnson as she unlocked the car door. Robert and I brought our empty backpacks and stepped into the back of the car. Everyone clicked their seatbelts in unison.”Click.” The air-conditioning blasted my hair back. It felt good after being in the heat. The car started in motion, heading for the new school.
We arrived at Brinchester Private School. Bridget, Robert and I got out of the car.
“Thank you Mrs. Johnson!” I said as I closed the car door. The bog metal gate was open. Boys and girls were all talking among each other in groups, standing on the grass.
“So Bridget,” I asked, “Do you have any friends here?”
“Oh, yeah, I have lots of friends!” she replied, “Let’s go talk to them.”
We started towards where Bridget was going, when the bell rang.
All of the kids swarmed the doorways. I walked up the stairs to the main entrance. There was a woman with a clipboard.
“Name please?” she groaned.
“Amanda Welsh” I replied. The woman flipped through pages.
“Room 18,” she replied, “Locker 265.”
“Thank you” I said. I walked through the crowded hallways, all the way to my locker. The combination was on the back of the lock. I opened the locker. There was a note on the back of the door. It said: If you want to go back home, search the under water cave for the first gem. “The underwater cave?” I thought to myself, “The first gem? What do they mean?” I wondered about this the shole school day. When we got out of school, I asked Bridget “Hey, do you know anything about an underwater cave?”
“Actually, yes I do.’ She replied, “There’s one down by Karogan Harbor.”
“Oh really? Thanks!”
I pulled Robert away from the rest of the crowd. “Robert.” I said, “we need to but some scuba gear and go down to Karogan Harbor.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because that’s where the underwater cave is!”
“You got that note too?!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, now quiet down and let’s go!”
We bought some scuba gear at a swim shop near the harbor. We walked up to an old dude with a pipe and a sailor hat on, who sort of looked like Popeye.
“Excuse me sir?” I asked him.
“What do you want?” he yelled at me.
“Would you happen to know where the underwater cave is?”
“Oh, do you mean Karogan cave?”
“Yes, that’s the one” I said.
“Yeah, sure, I know where it is. Heck, I could give you a ride out there is you want?!”
“Sure, thanks!” I said. “Just let us put our wet suits on, we’ll be right back!”
We got dressed in a changing room and walked back up to “Captain Popeye.”
“Just be careful,” he said “it is said that Captain Karoga still haunts that very cave.”
“Oh yeah, thanks, you decide to tell us now” I thought to myself. We got on his boat and sailed to the cave.
When we got there, Robert and I put on our scuba masks and oxygen tanks.
“OK,” said Captain Popeye, “It should be right below us.”
“Thank you sir!” I told him through my mask. Robert and I jumped in the water together. The water got colder and colder as we sunk in to the harbor. I saw a dark hole in the wall of the harbor. I tried to talk to my brother, but all that came out were bubbles, and pointing my finger toward it. I guess he understood, because he nodded and started swimming into the darkness.
Lucky for me, I had an underwater flashlight connected to my mask. Robert didn’t. I turned the light on, as we swam into the cave. After about 50 meters into the cave, the ground started sloping up. It kept sloping until it became land. We stepped onto the rocky shore. It was hot, dark and damp in here. Water dripped through the ceiling.
“Amy,” my brother asked sacredly, “is it true what the old man said about Captain Karoga?”
“I hope not.” I answered him. I searched around the room with my flashlight; there was a column with a small blue gem in it. Over the column, engraved in the wall of the cave said: FOR YOUR LAST GEM, FIND OUT THE LONGEST WORD IN THE WORLD. I walked up to the column. Written into the column read: BEWARE! ONLY THE REALTIVES OF THE WELSH FAMILY TREE MAY TAKE THE PRECIOUS GEMS.
“Awesome!” I thought to myself. I carefully lifted the gem from its resting place. The gem glowed with a blue light in the palm of my hand. This gem lit up the whole room.

“C’mon, Robby!” I yelled as we both dove into the water. We swam up to Captain Popeye’s boat. We climbed on board. “Full speed ahead!” I yelled. The Captain smiled at me with dirty teeth as the boat glided across the waves. He let us off at the dock.”
“Hmm,” I thought to myself, “the longest word in the world?”
“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed “The longest word in the world; it’s smiles!”
“What? That’s only five letters!” Robert complained.
“It’s six.” I said “But that’s not the point. It’s because there’s a ‘mile’ between the first and last letters!”
“Oh” said Robert.
“Quick Robert, what makes you smile the most?” I asked.
“Uh…… ice cream?” he answered.
“Okay, then we’ll check the ice cream parlor.” I suggested.
We walked to the most popular ice cream parlor in town, “The Rocky Road”. We entered the store and I walked up to the cashier. “Hey, uh, have you seen any gems around lately?” I asked.
He looked around like a crossing guard, making sure there were no cars around, checking to make sure no one could hear what he was about to say. “What’s the password?”
“Welsh family tree?” I guessed.
“Okay, follow me.” said the cashier
He led us to the back of the store, into one of those giant freezers. He shut the door, and opened a mint chocolate chip ice cream carton. The lid came off slowly.
“Take this, and be careful with it!” said the cashier. This gem was bright green. Once again, when in the palm of my hand, the gem glowed.
“Place the gems in to eye sockets of you teddy bear when you get home. Oh, and one more thing; watch out for Evil Revilo, he might try and steal these.”
“Okay? Thanks!” I said to the cashier.
We ran home. It was almost sunset. We ran into the bedroom, next to that mirror. Robert and I put the two gems into the bear’s eye sockets.
Flash!
A blinding burst of white light came out of the bear’s stomach as it popped open. There was a big red gem inside the bear, a ruby. It was much more beautiful than all of the others. Suddenly, the bear flew out of our hands, and was being pulled into the mirror, like a magnet and block of iron. We expected it to stop and hit the mirror, but it passed right through!
“Well,” I said to Robert, “I guess that’s the way home.” Now, instead of a reflection, the mirror showed the hallway of our house. We stepped through the mirror-portal. I was in a tunnel of rainbow colors, a bright light ahead. This time I felt myself growing larger and larger. I merged through the white light, and we were home, safe again. It was the same time we left home, the exact second. Our parents were still asleep. I was just happy to be home!