Uh oh. I knew this was a bad idea. My mum is always telling me to look before I leap. I tend to have these crazy ideas, I try to make them realities and I always end up in a pickle. Now I’m stuck in the past because I came up with this idea that I could build a time-machine.

Since no one has made a time-machine before, I didn’t have instructions. I made a time machine with 3 buttons, a few levers, 6 metal sheets, an old chair, and a pack of gum. It wasn’t perfect, nor as I had imagined but it would hopefully do.

The next day I gulped down breakfast quicker than a cheetah and bolted to the time-machine. Mum warned me to be careful. I should have listened, but I was too excited to test it.

I set the machine to the year 8000 BCE and pressed the “away we go” button. And . . . ZAP! Images of the past, present and future started swirling around me. Then one image expanded and I was sucked in.

I stepped out of the time-machine, and I was surrounded by cavemen. Suddenly we heard a roar and they ran. I turned around and saw… a T-Rex! It looked hungry, I ran to my time-machine but the T-Rex followed.

I made it inside but the T-Rex was right behind me and it smashed down the door. Then through my panic, I had a brainwave. The T-Rex was hungry so I gave it the gum that was holding the walls of my time-machine together. That satisfied it and made it go away but I had just sacrificed my only chance of getting home.

So now, I’m stuck here in 8000 BCE.

He could see the kids bustling around the stage, and grown-ups trying to keep them in their seats. Everyone was ready to watch the magic show. Hayliure Zan peeked nervously from behind the curtain, gathered courage and walked onto the carnival stage.

For his first trick, he tried to pull a bird out of a handkerchief. Unfortunately, the bird slipped out of his hand, flew right into an old man’s popcorn and flapped away chirping loudly.

The audience booed.

Hayliure quickly tried another trick. He began pulling a rope from his mouth, but everyone could see that he had been biting it. He tripped on his own rope and fell into the drum at the back.

The whole crowd laughed their heads off.

A man shouted, “HAYLIURE ZAN? MORE LIKE FAILURE MAN!”

Soon the audience was laughing and throwing tomatoes. Hayliure left the carnival licking off the tomato paste and feeling like a loser.

That night, he thought about what had happened. Something seemed strange. When his tricks went wrong, people found it funny.

The next day, Hayliure returned to the carnival stage and tried again. His bird escaped and landed on his head. The audience roared with laughter. Then his rope became tangled around him, and he fell over. The crowd laughed even harder.

From then on, he performed his terrible magic as comedy. Soon he became famous, and crowds came from everywhere to watch THE FAILURE MAN.

In the end, Hayliure laughed his way to success, all because of the day when everything went wrong.

He realised mistakes have a magic of their own. Sometimes they can show you what you cannot see yourself.

So DO NOT be afraid of losing. Who knows? Hidden inside failure, there may be a win waiting for you.

“Bella!” Mum shouted, “Come inside!” It was a dark, gloomy afternoon, but I was playing outside because there was nothing to do inside “Fine”, I grumbled, dragging my feet behind me. When I got inside, Mum told me that there were cyclone warnings all over the radio. We’ve had multiple false alarms. I thought this was one too, but then I remembered the grey sky in summer, the clouds hiding the sun.

Mum got me inside the bathroom, where dad already was. Mum left for a minute or two and came back with blankets and a mattress. “To cover us in case the roof falls”, she told me. Mum has been through a cyclone before. She was hiding in the bathtub when it blew away with her in it. I’ve seen her scars. Then, all hell broke loose. A loud bang came from the neighbours house. Then, I heard a noise come from the room next to us. It sounded like glass smashing. Dad pulled me into a hug. “Hold on”, he whispered. Then I looked up to see the roof coming down at full speed. I screamed and ducked under the mattress. But it wasn’t enough. Everything went dark.

When I woke up, I didn’t recognise where I was, but then I realised I was in my back garden! I was in dad’s arms and he was carrying me to the car. The drive to the hospital was long and silent except for my mum moaning. At the hospital, the doctors put antibiotic cream on my wounds. They said they would keep mum for a few more nights. In the waiting room, a woman sitting across from me saw me in dad’s old shirt and dad’s ripped shorts and handed dad twenty dollars. I looked up at him, he had tears glistening in his eyes. “Hold on.” I whispered.

Once there lived a man with a very long moustache.
He was teased a lot and was very, very sad.

He thought his moustache was a curse and was really, really bad.
Every day, all the mean words made him very, very mad.

The harder he tried to chop off the big, long hair.
The louder the bullying grew, making it harder to bear.

His moustache looked like a thick, black, flowy river.
But it felt really warm and didn’t make people shiver.

They called it a broom, which should be used to sweep the floors.
They called it a filthy scarf fit for the ugliest of all ugly trolls.

For a long time, he shut his ears, trying hard to ignore.
But the voices became louder, and he couldn’t anymore.

He decided to go where no one could find him.
He decided to be where no one could bother him.

He used his giant moustache and lassoed it all the way to the moon
Went to live where no one would see him, at least not very soon.

Then one day, grown-ups learned to fly to intergalactic spaces.
Leaving the kids on Earth who looked up, wiping tears off their faces.

Moochi Man decided to do what no one had ever done to him: be kind.
He sent down his moustache for all the kids to hang onto and climb.

When they saw the man with the moustache, they felt so, so sorry.
They promised to be kinder, and the Moochi Man never had to worry.

So if you choose to help someone who looks different from the rest,
Moochee Man might invite you to the moon and let you be his guest.

Glossary: Moochee = Moustache
Moochee comes from the word “Mooch”, which in Hindi langauge means
moustache.

The splash of crashing waves
Sand crunching between toes
Book pages turning
Umbrellas flying past.

Surf boards clashing
Birds squeaking for food
Loud music blares
All a symphony in sand.

Dropped ice cream cones
Shrieks of disappointment
Although out of tune
with the occasional tear

It’s still the symphony for me.