麻豆社

by Ella, aged 9

Boredom surrounded Emily while she sat in her room staring at the ceiling trying to escape her annoying little sister, Mary, who was always getting her into trouble. As she looked up at the ceiling noticing the crumbling moulding she wondered about the first family to have lived in that house. Who were they? Did they have servants? Did their children ever fight? Were little sisters annoying in Georgian times too? They certainly were now!

She wondered if in a future era whoever lived in the house would be curious about her family’s history. Like lightning, an idea popped into her head: ‘I’m going to bury a time capsule in the garden to give them clues about our family!’ Leaping downstairs, Emily pulled on her winter boots, ran into the garage and grabbed a metal box. She put in an MP3 player with her family’s favourite music, newspapers, magazines, toys and a wooden carving of a camel that her Granddad had made for her 6th birthday. She headed for the garden, dragging her spade along with her, huffing and puffing on her way. Quickly, she started digging a hole on the ground when something rusty poked out. She was so captivated by it never crossed her mind that it might have been dangerous.

Mum called Emily for tea. ‘Coming!’ she shouted excitedly. She ran indoors and sat down, squirming and nervous. She slurped her tea and avoided even gazing at Mary, because this could mean BIG trouble. What should she do? Should she tell her mother or should she relish her discovery by herself for now?

After a rather forced tea she held her breath and walked back out towards this big odd-looking metal object. She jumped in and the door slammed behind her. The olive paint on it was flaking and little bits of dirt coated the tinged copper. There was a dashboard with six buttons that read: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Romans, Tudors, Georgians and Victorians. Her fingers landed on the ‘GEORGIANS’ button as she hoped to find out more about the house she lived in (besides, she remembered from history class that Georgians wore magnificent dresses and funny big white wigs that were very grand, which looked good fun to wear). Before Emily could even blink she was transported back in time draped in a majestic dress and a scorching tall wig. ‘Awww, how on earth did they get around in this outfit all day long?’ sighed Emily as the weight of the dress dragged her down.

She peeked through the dusty window and saw a family of four playing a card game after dinner. Suddenly, the two sisters got up and looked like they were having an argument. She got closer and heard they were accusing each other of cheating and both stormed out of the room slamming doors and ignoring their parents’ pleas to calm down. And just like that Emily realised that times hadn’t really changed much at all!