Molly and Anaru's Great Massey Adventure: Chapter 10
Yesterday’s Poll Results
Should Molly and Anaru tell people about their adventures?
Yes! It’s an amazing story! 67%
No! Who is gonna believe them? 33%
Chapter 10
Weeks passed, and Aotearoa moved out of the Level Four Lockdown phase, into Level Three for a while.
Molly and Anaru kept to their bubbles throughout and spent a long time thinking and reflecting on their wild ride backwards and forwards through time. They both kept their eyes peeled, but never saw another portal.
On the final day of school before the Lockdown started, their teacher had asked the class to keep a “Level Four Journal” and record their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Both Molly and Anaru had since filled their notebooks with lines of handwritten text about their portal-hopping journey.
Eventually, their school was given the all-clear to reopen and the duo was free to rejoin their friends, classmates and teachers at Lincoln Heights. On the first day back, the teacher asked if anyone would like to share anything from their journal, and both Molly and Anaru jumped at the chance.
Standing at the front of the classroom though, with the eyeballs of all their classmates fixed on them, Molly wondered if describing their grand adventure to everyone was such a flash idea after all.
She looked over at Anaru standing beside her. In an instant he picked up that she was feeling nervous and gave her a grin and a slight shrug as if to say “well, we’re here now. Lets do this.”
Molly took a deep breath, then launched into the start of the story.
“So, one day I was bored, sitting in my lounge and decided to go and see if Anaru was in his back yard…” she began.
Over the next few minutes, the class was entranced by Molly and Anaru’s lively retelling of their adventures.
“And then,” Anaru continued “after Molly found the shovel and tried to dig gum out of that hard ground, I noticed a portal opening up in the side of a tree - then one opened up in the ground! And then --”
“Okay! Thank you both,” the teacher interrupted.
Molly glanced at Anaru - their teacher didn’t believe them!
“Well,” the teacher said, standing up “that was uh… quite a tale, Molly, Anaru. I got an email the other day about a creative writing competition that I think you’d be interested in.”
“This really happened!” Anaru started, thinking of a way that he could prove it.
Suddenly, a lightbulb sparked in Molly’s brain - she fished around in her pocket. “Look!” she told her teacher, holding her hand out. “It’s from the past - we both got one!”
The teacher reached over and plucked the smooth, round object from Molly’s hand. It was the one penny coin that Anaru had given her.
“Huh,” their teacher uttered. “You know, my mum showed me one of these coins when I was a kid. She said they stopped making these about fifty years ago.”
The teacher looked at Molly and Anaru.
“My mum actually grew up around here.” their teacher mused, gazing off into the distance.
“Her parents - my grandparents - owned an orchard along Triangle Road,” the teacher chuckled. “My grandpa, he always used to accuse the neighbourhood kids of trying to steal his apples - he would get so mad…”
Anaru shot a look at Molly, they were both trying not to burst out with laughter.
“Just wait ‘til you hear how we got these coins…” Anaru said with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
