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Rated: ASR · Short Story · Contest · #1313424
A Short Story with title:"A gift that can represent Hong Kong most" What came out? Hm...
It began during a boring test of English Language.

I was sitting at my desk staring dumbly at the slow clock, watching my life tick away and ignoring my half-finished test paper when I was dragged into this mess.

Refusing to look even once more at the stupid, meaningless test, I began my "creative" experimenting on more logical, rational things...

My noble aim of the experiment was to see if I could fall asleep with my eyes open before the bell rung.

I stared at the back of the Class President concentrating on nothing, trying to free myself from the mortal realm.

I was nowhere near to slumber after half an hour but the alternative was to face the miss-spelt, carelessly made test-paper.

So I continued to cease my brain activity, trying to fall asleep somehow.

However, I was interrupted by my English teacher who seemed to have noticed my dazed look.

Asking if I were finished, she handed me a leaflet while glaring at mt half empty test.

At that time, I hard time deciding whether the leaflet in my hand or the teacher was more evil.

On one hand the teacher was definitely ploting ways to get me in detention while on the other hand the leaflet was advertising some kind of contest for students to enter.

"Enter what ?" you ask? A literature contest which had a grand prize that seemed a bit dodgy to me.

Assuming the annoying teacher STILL trying to enter me into annoying contests to 'improve my writing skills' was less evil than the leaflet in my hands, I focused on the flimsy paper.

After reading the first word, I confirmed the leaflet as greater evil.

Even if I ignored the fact that the misleading line "Free trip to England" was printed on the front page as the grand prize in huge letters while "$500 application fee, insurance, airport tax ,... not included." showed up in tiny and thin lettering in a shady column, something seemed out of place.

Scanning the rest of the text hidden in the shadows, I found the source of my discomfort.

The text informed participants that if they win the ticket to England, they would have to endure a 'trial' after the return trip (That is if they return at all), with 'trial' meaning public speech.

Further more, the 'trial' ... uh, I mean 'speech' would take place in front of five thousand pairs of eyes. (That sounded like a public execution)

That’s why, I made up my mind to not participate.

But... If that’s true, then what am I doing staring  at the contest theme "A gift that can represent Hong Kong most" on the web page of "english.mingpao.com" right now on my laptop after school?

And why am I searching the answers of the stupid quiz in the registration page on my web browser?

Come to think of it, what happened to my half finished test and the teacher's plot to get me in detention?

...You know what, I don't care anymore.

It's not like I'll win the prize anyway, so what harm will it do even if I type 500 words into that small box on the submit page of the contest website which the evil leaflet was referring to?

No harm done right?

So... with my problem cleared up, I can get started.

Any good writer would collect information before they start pounding away at their keyboard, so that's what I'll do first.

Typing "Hong Kong" into a web browser, a bunch of boring-looking links appeared before me.

Scrolling my mouse to the eleventh link (because eleven is my favorite number at the moment), I saw the Letters "MTR".

The moment the electric signals reached my brain through my slow reaction time, I thought:"That's it!"

“The unique something that could be turned into a gift that could represent Hong Kong.”

MTRs are fast, busy and low priced, Exactly like how most of people in Hong Kong (That I know of) are: Works speedily, always busy and usually underpaid.

The MTR is just like a mirror reflecting the society (That I know of), therefore is a symbolic existence in Hong Kong.(From my point of view)

So a model of a MTR train would be a perfect gift wouldn't it?

Very well, then all I need to do now is to start the story "A gift that can represent Hong Kong most" with "A model of a MTR train" as my subject.

Somehow, I get the feeling that I'll go off topic once I start typing, but I've already decided to start the story from the beginning with the sentence:

"It began during a boring test of English Language."
© Copyright 2007 Ian Choi (ianchoi at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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