Molly and Anaru’s Great Massey Adventure: Chapter 1
Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...
Molly's eyes gazed at the clock on her living room wall. Her mind drifted and she found herself thinking about what she would have been doing on a normal Tuesday morning. Most likely she would have been sitting at her desk, in her classroom at Lincoln Heights Primary and either listening to her teacher's voice or daydreaming - much like she was at that very moment.
Her large, fluffy ginger cat, Hercules, jumped onto Molly's lap - startling her and breaking the invisible chain between her eyes and the clock's face. She shooed him away and stood up.
New Zealand had been on lockdown for just over two weeks and for Molly, the novelty of spending every waking moment in her house was wearing thin. She understood how important it was to keep safe and stick to her bubble - but with her parents preoccupied with trying to do their day jobs from a home office, a lazy cat that she couldn't even take for a walk and a bright sunny day just begging to be spent outdoors - well, sometimes Molly longed to float away somewhere like an actual bubble.
'I wonder what Anaru is doing...' Molly pondered idly and found her feet wandering down to the fence in her back yard, hoping to see him mucking around on the other side. Molly and Anaru had known each other since they were in nappies. They were both 10, went to the same school and lived next door to each other - classmates, neighbours and friends.
As Molly started down the short path at the side of her house she felt a slight sense of unease creep down her spine. A weird, low humming noise started to fill the air as she approached the gate leading into her back yard and when she looked up she stopped in her tracks and uttered a small gasp.
Anaru was out in his yard... and he wasn't the only thing out there...
What looked like an enormous hole was hovering vertically in the air between Molly and Anaru's yards. The middle of the hole looked like a dark tunnel and the edges shimmered and sparkled with a shiny glow. The hole was at least four times bigger than Molly's trampoline and looked like it had carved a slice out of their fence.
"Are you seeing this?!" a voice called out.
Molly looked over to see Anaru gesturing wildly at the portal. "You can see this too, right??" he asked frantically.
"What is it?" Molly replied, perplexed by what she was seeing.
"I think it's a portal! I came out here to find my rugby ball and it was just hovering there!" Anaru yelled. "We gotta go in and see what it is!"
"No way!" Molly yelled back in disbelief. "We have no idea what it is!"
"Oh come on! How often do you find a mysterious portal in your own backyard?" Anaru asked.
Molly looked at him, then at the portal, then back at Anaru, who now had a look of fierce determination plastered on his face.
"I've made up my mind," he said firmly. "I'm going in."
"No! Wait!" Molly called out desperately.
But her protest made no difference - Anaru was already striding toward the shimmering, pulsating portal - and he didn't show any sign of stopping…
