The CiTy

Hi. My name is Chris Towers and I am writing this book because I have a story to tell. Also, on behalf of the United Community, I urge all humans to use your brains and imagine more!

Ok, that is out of the way. Now let me introduce myself. I am 14 years old and I am your average teenager. I mean it. I know how hard it is to find an 'average' teenager, but I am it. I have average height, average grades and I have one 'friend'. Brenda Miles is the Miss Popular of our school. Of course, I am her friend only when she needs me or wants me to do something. Not that I do anything about it. A popular and bad some-of-the-time friend is better than no friend all of the time. And yes, I am your average wimp.

I have a brother Jordan. He is 9 years old. We fight sometimes, but we love each other very much and usually get along very well. He doesn't like to admit it, but he really looks up to his big sister. :-)

Ok you are right - no one can be as average as all that. In fact you are going to think I am downright wierd when I say this: I still fantasize about magic stories and lost worlds. I have made up whole stories which contain fantastic creatures and exotic places. I guess it is because I have a little brother. He is also very creative and imaginative. When our parents leave us alone at home, we play games in which we go to distant parts of the galaxy and free some poor enslaved creatures from some evil corporation.

Right about now, you might be thinking, "Now I know why she doesn't have any real friends".

Well, I am not made of stone and it hurts when I have no one to sit next to me during lunch hour or when I am the last to be chosen for a team or... or when I fall down and drop my things, no one helps me.

At times I feel so lonely and it gets so bad that it takes all my strength and will power to walk away from there calmly, until I reach a quiet place. There I try to go to my 'happy place' in my mind.

Let me tell you about my happy place.

Look, all this is important to my story. That is why I am writing this part down.

Right. My happy place is called the CiTy (CT for Chris Towers). Genius, huh? It is a beautiful place. It has a beautiful garden with large colourful leaves that glow at night. There is a huge forest just next to it, with big sweeping trees and thick vines. Some of them produce edible flowers. Some produce cold, juicy nuts which taste better than ice cream. There is a lake and a stream that runs through the forest. Some parts of the forest is swampy area. Here the swamp trees grow thickly and the ground is covered with thick, swirling fog. The only way you can get across is by swinging on the vines.

There are many animals also in CiTy. The Globulofish is an animal like the jellyfish. If you call to it, it will come and engulf you like an amoeba. Then you can jump into the stream and breathe underwater. The globulofish will take you wherever you want it to go underwater. Then there are the pictureflies. They are like butterflies with square wings. The wings have markings which the pictureflies can change at will. When they come together in a cluster, their wings make beautiful pictures, each picturefly contributing to a part of the picture.

The CiTy is also very technologically advanced. If I want to sit, I should just clap my hands twice and a floating chair robot will appear.. The chair robot has attachments for drink and food!. My maintenance robot maintains the lawn and keeps the path through the forest clear. In my pocket there is a silver ball with various ridges and buttons. When I press the buttons in a certain sequence, it expands into a room-sized globe with me in it. This is my control center. The control center has various dials, knobs, buttons and screens to monitor and control the whole of the CiTy, especially my fleet of robots.

I also have a special defence force consisting of specialized military robots. I have never used them yet.

This is my world. This is the CiTy, my happy place. This is the place I go to whenever I can't take it anymore and I can't talk to anyone. I hadn't shared this place even with Jordan. This was a private place meant only for me.

Notice that I use the past tense in the last two sentences. You will soon know why I wrote it like that.