Avika

There once was a young girl. Her name was Riley. She was about the age six. She had always wanted to travel around the world in seconds. Her dream was to build a machine that could do it. So she studied a lot. Across the street was an abandoned mansion, no one ever dared to go there. They said there were ghosts there. But Riley didn’t think so. She wanted to venture in there. Riley’s parents were extremely busy. They didn’t even feed her food, put her to bed or drive her to school. She had to do that all by herself. Except for the driving the car part. She walked to school. 

And she was only six! Sometimes she pondered if they still loved her. But after a few minutes she would just think they were extremely busy. One of the reasons she wanted to travel the world is because she never went anywhere in her whole entire life except for school and home.  So she was determined to achieve her dream. No exceptions. Her dad was a mechanic. He was a computer engineer. He was a scientist. When Riley’s parents were sleeping she would go to her dad’s office(the guest room) and look over his papers and research. She was extremely smart. She could understand everything more than her dad could. 

One day Riley was venturing in the mansion. She was going up the stairs when her foot stepped on something. To her amazement it was a teleportation device! She thought to herself, Mother and father aren’t going to realize I’m gone.  And it’s my dream. Perhaps it will be ok if I just go for a little bit. Then suddenly the device glowed. It said “Welcome Riley. Now you can travel wherever you want. I am your travel buddy. If you have any questions, ask me. I will answer them.” Riley’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe it. It was talking. It knew her name! After a few seconds Riley opened her mouth. “What if my parents notice me gone?” she couldn’t believe she asked that question.

“Oh, Riley. You really think they will notice you gone. They won’t. They are busy. But even if they weren’t busy, they would still not notice you gone. No time will pass when you go,” it said again. “Now tell me Riley dear, where do you wish to go?” Riley thought for a moment. “Netherlands,” she finally said. In seconds she was surrounded by tulips. They were everywhere. “Welcome to the Netherlands,” The device said. It was so beautiful. There were so many colors everywhere. Then the device teleported her again. This time instead of tulips there were canals. The water was sparkling. She could see her reflection in the water. There were beautiful buildings everywhere. A soft breeze blew by. 

“Where will we stay,” Riley asks. “We will go back to your house and continue our journey tomorrow,” The device said. But then they decided they would take a nap in the tulips. Riley dreamed of a forest with no pollution. She dreamed of kind people making friends with her. She imagined being on hills and mountains. She dreamed of being in a meadow. She dreamed of seeing a pond with water lilies. She dreamed of being there in that destination tomorrow. She couldn’t wait for another adventure.