Arnold the Ghost and the Evaporating Volcano

by Nia Madden

BOOM!

That was the sound of Eggplant Island's largest volcano erupting. “Natasha watch out! Lava's flowing like a raging river downstream said Ana before mysteriously disappearing through the earth like in the game the floor is lava. Argh! I screamed as I took a massive leap into the water and held my breath for what felt like forever.

As I surfaced, I watched my home melt like butter. Eggplant Island is a little village sitting on a tiny bit of land in the middle of lake Whakatipu. It is a beautiful and admirable place where everybody knows everybody. Here there are 4 schools. I go to the Eggplant Island intermediate school.

MEANWHILE…

RING! RING! “Hello, Natasha speaking”.

Hello! I am Bruce and I am from Queenstown lakes district news network. I am calling to alert you that you have to save us all! There is 1 person left on Eggplant Island who is going to help you defeat Arnold the ghost. Arnold the ghost is the one that causes all of the world's natural disasters including this one. He has come to attack lake Whakatipu and Queenstown lakes district next. You and your new mystery friend are going to come and save us and destroy Arnold the ghost. And don’t worry, of course there's a prize.” SLAM!

That was Bruce hanging up. I better get to work, Natasha muttered to herself. Where on earth could this mystery person be? It shouldn’t be that hard. After all, Eggplant Island is a tiny village. With that, Natasha set off and went to find this mystery person. She checked through all the corridors of every school. Through all the shops and malls. And through all the sports centres. The only other place to check was the movie theatre. When Natasha looked in cinema 1, there was nobody. But when she looked through cinema 2, she found a little girl, only about the age of seven, huddling up on the big blue bean bag. “It’s OK, you can come down from there now.” Who are you? The little girl said. I'm Natasha, and you are? “I’m Celia”. After that Natasha explained everything to Celia and they started kayaking through lake Whakatipu heading to Queenstown. Natasha learned a lot about Celia through the journey. Celia said that she is from Queenstown but moved to Eggplant Island when she was 5. That's why Natasha put Celia in the front of the kayak because she knows where she’s going. Argh! Screamed Celia. There's a whirlpool starting to come up. Good spotting, I said, start paddling really fast south. So that's what Celia did and they luckily managed to dodge the whirlpool. That was lucky Celia said to Natasha. It was, I said. Look! I can see the shore line exclaimed Celia. Wow, that’s great. We better get there quickly because I can already see Arnold. So, Celia started paddling at super speed and a few seconds later they were at the shore line. They dropped the kayak on the rocky sand and started sprinting to the park where they saw Arnold the ghost starting an earthquake. “Stop right there”! Shouted Natasha. “What do you think you're doing”? I can explain, you see there is Donald the ghost who rules ghost land and he gets me to create all the natural disasters. Because I have the power for the creation. Oh, so you’re saying that you’re just a baby ghost, Celia asked. Yes, I am so please don't hurt me. We won't, but you have to change some things first, said Natasha. I will do whatever you would like me to. Good, because there is a long list of things. You will firstly not create any more natural disasters no matter what Donald says. Next you will give a big apology to the whole universe for all the bad things you have done. And last but not least you will bring back all the people that your natural disasters have killed and say sorry to them to. OK said Arnold. I will give you a call when all those things are done. Meanwhile you guys get back to your lovely village and start getting all the lava out of the buildings. Deal, Celia said.

1 HOUR LATER

RING! RING! Hello, Natasha said. Hello, I have got all those things on the list done and if you look around, Eggplant Island will be all back to normal again. Natasha said thank you to Arnold and high fived Celia.

Natasha and Celia returned to Eggplant Island as heroes and were awarded a lifetime supply of chocolate coated eggplants and the satisfaction of knowing they saved the people and a place they love.

— Highly commended, Tamariki category, Anna-Marie Chin Architects Writing Competition 2023.

Nia Madden is in Year 5 at Shotover Primary School and wrote in response to the following prompt: "You are the last surviving person in your town after a natural disaster. Or so you think, until you receive a radio message from the other end of the country."