CHAPTER 1
The Game
Hi my name is Adam; I live in New York,
New York . My brother’s name is Aaron.
We’re twins; both of us are nineteen years
old. It was a nice Sunday night. My brother
and I were waiting for our friend John to call
and tell us what time we were going to meet
at the New York Nets vs. New York Knicks
basketball game. I was slouched on the
couch bored out of my mind.
“Has he called yet?” I asked Aaron.
“No,” he answered.
“Ugh,” I slumped back down into the
couch. Why is it taking so long? I thought.
We’ve been waiting forev….
Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling.
“I’ve got it!” I yelled. I ran as fast as I
could to the phone.
Donk! The telephone went because I
hit it so hard. I picked it up.
“Ya,”
“Hey, Adam,” John said enthusiastically.
“Hey,” I answered back. “So when are we meeting?”
“Oh , well it starts at eight o’clock and it’s at the Nets stadium.”
“Okay,” I replied. I had been waiting forever to go to this game. “I’ll tell Aaron and we’ll
meet you outside of the stadium at seven forty-five.”
“Alright, see ya.”
“See ya,” Dink! I hung up the phone.
“Aaron,” I called
“Uh-huh,” he said but he wasn't really paying attention because he was working on his car.
It seemed liked that was all he ever did.
“AARON,” I called a little louder.
“What?” he said as he glared at me from up underneath the car.
“It was John. He said the game is at eight o’clock at the Nets stadium. I told him that we’d
meet him at seven forty-five”
“Well,” he said looking at his watch, “We’d better get going.”
“YES!” I yelled so loud that the people downstairs knocked on the… floor… ceiling… I
don’t know I guess it depends on how you look at it.
“ I’ll get my stuff.”
“Alright, but hurry up,” Aaron said as he was picking up his jacket.
I ran to my room and picked up my hat, jacket, Nets shirt and packed some food for halftime
“Lets go!” Aaron called. “We’re gonna be late!”
“Coming…,” I grabbed by wallet and bag and headed out the door.
As we arrived at the stadium, we saw John right outside the doors, looking impatient.
As soon as he saw us he said, “Your late.”
“Glad to see you, too,” Aaron answered.
“Sorry, it’s just we’re not gonna get seats if we don’t hurry.”
“Alright,” I said. I didn’t really care as long as we were able to see the game. We tried to
walk inside, but it was hard because there were people everywhere. We were squished but
we finally made it to the entrance.
“Tickets,” the security guard asked. John handed him the tickets, and we went inside.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming. Cheerleaders were cheering for the Nets.
Immature boys were whistling from the stands.
“Lets see,” John said. He looked at the tickets.
“We’re in seats 29a, 30a, and 31a,” he paused and looked around. “Right over there.”
We took our seats. Just then a large roar of cheering erupted from the opposite stands. I
looked to our left. The New York Knicks were coming out of their tunnel. The commentator
was saying their names as they came out. Then another roar of cheering as the New York
Nets were coming out of their tunnels on the right. They started practicing. I thought that
the New York Nets, my team, had a pretty good chance of winning. We were really good at
shooting, but the Knicks were better at defense.
Fweeeeh, fweeeeh! The ref blew his whistle
“Teams choose your player to jump,” The ref projected in a loud voice. The teams
huddled up and chose their player. The ref threw up the ball.
“Yeah!” everyone yelled including me. We had won the ball.
A player passed the ball to another player, then the other player dribbled a
little, then he passed it to another player who shot…
“YES!” we all yelled; the Nets had scored.
So it went on like this, pass, dribble, steal, pass, pass, dribble, shoot, miss,
pass, dribble, pass, foul, pass, shoot, score, pass. All the way until half time. At
the end of the half the score was 36-24. The Nets were up.
“I’ll get the sna…,” I was cut off by a man talking in a microphone in the
middle of the court.
“Hey, hey welcome; glad you could all come,” he said in a commercially
voice.
“Today we have a great contest going on. That’s right folks, for just a dollar
you can buy a ticket to enter into a drawing for a free trip AFRICA. Now, how
about that?”
Aaron and I exchanged glances. John was too amazed to take his eyes off
of the man. Aaron and I both knew that John had always wanted to go to Africa
since he was a kid.
“To…to…Af..Afri…,” just then the man cut John off just like he had done to
me. “So here’s how it works.”
“Guys, guys, shush I’ve gotta here this,” John said anxiously.
“You buy however many tickets you want during the second half of the
game,” the announcer continued, “and give them to me. Then I am going to put
them in this basket right here.” He held up a large basket for everyone to see.
“I’ll draw one name after the game is over, and if your name gets drawn, then
you get a free trip to AFRICA!”
“Wow,” John muttered. “You guys gonna buy any tickets,” he asked.
I shrugged, “Well, sure.”
Aaron was a little more hesitant. “I don’t know about this; it seems like your
chances would be pretty slim,” Aaron commented.
John gave him a pleading look.
“Alright, fine,” he gave in.
“Yes,” John stated with a sigh of relief.
We all grabbed our money and each of us bought one ticket. We went down
and gave our tickets to the announcer.
“Thank you,” he said, and we walked back to our seats and waited.
The game continued shortly after we returned to our seats, but after we put
those tickets in that basket, our minds were really no longer on the game.
Finally, the game came to an end. The Nets won the game but we really didn’t
care at this point.
“Okay, the moment you have all been waiting for. I am gonna draw a name
and see who wins this trip to AFRICA! Oh, and one more thing I forgot to
mention earlier. The winner of this trip also receives two companion tickets to
invite two friends to take on the journey.”
We all looked at each other and could not believe what we just
heard.
“Drum roll, please.”
The crowd began, “Drum, drum, drum, drum, drum, drum, drum,
drum, drum, drum…” and we all joined in.
“ANNND…The name Iiiiis…,” he ruffled through the papers purposefully taking a
long time.
John could barely stay seated he was so excited. I’ll have to admit that I was
pretty excited too.
Suddenly, the announcer stopped, slowly pulled out a name and read it letter by
letter.
“J….”
Aaron and I sat down. “It’s not us,” I told Aaron, but then I looked at John. He was
getting that hopeful look in his eyes.
“O….”
John inhaled quietly, still looking hopeful.
“H….”
John was really so excited at this point that he was practically jumping up and
down in his chair.
“N…John Parks.”
“Yes!” John screamed and then fainted.
“John, JOHN,” Aaron yelled while shaking him and laughing at the same time.
“Would John Parks please come up and get your ticket?” asked the announcer in
the microphone.
“ Uh, well he kind of got really excited and fainted so, you’ve got to come and give
it to him,” I called out.
He came up looking very annoyed, “Well, give this to
him when he comes to his senses because I’m not
staying around just for him to wake up; I’m way to hungry
for that”.
“Alright, I’ll give it to him,” I replied distracted by all
that was happening around me.
John woke up about the time we arrived back at my
house.
“What happened?” John asked drearily when he woke
up.
“Dude, you won!” Aaron answered.
“Really, WOW!”
“Ya, pretty awesome, huh,” I told him.
“So, who are you taking with you?” Aaron asked.
“Well, the answer is pretty obvious, right?”
“Uh…no,” I replied dumbly.
“Not really,” Aaron added.
“Well, duh, it’s you guys!” John explained laughing
hysterically.
“Really?” I asked surprisingly, While Aaron just sat
there eyes wide open
“Yup…so let’s go pack up our stuff, guys. We’re
heading to Africa!”
CHAPTER 2
Africa
We boarded the eight o’clock flight to Africa. John and I were seated
beside each other. Aaron was right in front of us.
“Welcome to African Airways, your best friends,” announced a way to
happy woman’s voice through an intercom.
“Ya, my best friends who I have only seen one other time in my life” I
stated. John started laughing. Aaron just glanced back at me and smiled.
We flew for twenty-four hours, but it seemed like an eternity. I was bored out
of my skull and had just begun thinking how in the world I was going to make
it any longer when out of the intercom rang that woman who had the way to
happy voice but this time not quite so enthusiastic,
“We are now in South Africa. Thank you for flying with us and we hope
you choose to fly African Airways again.”
“Finally,” I looked out the window and saw the landscape. From up here
it looked like the airport was a little facility made out of legos.
We started to lose altitude and then we landed. The fasten your seatbelts
sign turned off and we stood up to leave.
“Ah, it feels so good to stretch,” John said dreamily.
“I swear, the only reason I fell asleep last night was out of pure exhaustion
because I was too excited to sleep before the trip. I fell asleep in an absolutely
horrible position,” I complained rubbing my neck.
“And if anyone mentions ‘flight food’ again I am going to puke; that lasagna
was revolting,” Aaron explained.
“I know how you guys feel. I hated the long flight, too, but at least we got
here,” John said trying to end the conversation on a happy note.
“Well I’d still like to get some rest,” I said.
“Well’ you’ll get some sleep at the hotel” Aaron told me We entered the
customs line so we could exit the airport.
“Passports please” asked the man in the booth. We handed him our
passports. He looked at them for a minute and then said thank you. We left to
catch a taxi so we could go to our hotel. It was weird how different every thing
was there in Africa. I mean sure I’d been to other places in the US but that was
just something else. We caught a taxi and stepped in. While the man was driving
we asked him some questions about South Africa. He answered most of them but
some he didn’t know the answer to. Then we arrived at the hotel. It was pretty
cool. Well it wasn’t a five star hotel, but it was cool. It had one of those covered
entryways so if it was raining you wouldn’t get wet and you could get in faster if
you were in a car.
A huge fountain was in the middle of a circular road with grass and bushes
right beside it. We went inside. Me and John sat in the lobby while
Aaron checked us into the hotel.
“It's pretty big.” John observed
“Yup, did you see the fountain outside, pretty cool huh?”
“Ya.” Just then Aaron came over with the room key
“We’re on floor twenty-seven in room ninety-three.”
“Alright,” me and John said at the same time. We entered the elevator. It had
those glass walls and a carpeted floors. All of the elevator was cool except for
the music. It was playing “Staying Alive”
“Uuhhggg” I groaned
“What is it? Elevator sick?” John asked
“No it’s jus…” I thought for a moment “Elevator sick?” Aaron and John started
laughing.
“No.” I repeated more sternly, “It’s this dumb elevator music.” Then they
started cracking up “Ding!” We exited the elevator. John and Aaron were still
laughing a little and wiping tears from there eyes. We walked down the hallway
then took a left to enter the room. We changed into our clothes to sleep in. I was
so tired from the trip that as soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep. The
next morning I woke up to an empty room. Aaron and John were probably
already eating breakfast. They most likely woke up early because we were
going to go on a safari.
We would meet our guides in the parking lot. I started getting what I
would need for the journey into my backpack: cell phone, wallet, book on wild
animals, binoculars, watch, art kit in case we stopped long enough for me to
sketch something . I happen to be pretty good at painting and drawing so I was
hoping to have a chance to do some.
After gathering everything I thought I would need, I went downstairs to
hopefully join John and Aaron for breakfast. John and Aaron were already there
as I suspected and were arguing about something. John was shrugging his
shoulders and talking with his voice raised a little, but quiet enough as to not draw
attention. Aaron kept pointing at his watch and putting it right in front of his face,
talking with the same tone as John’s.
“Hey guys,” I said as I walked in.
“But he’s…,” they both looked at me.
“Hey! We were about to go and wake you up,” John said excitedly.
“Yea, sleeping beauty; better eat breakfast so we can go,” added Aaron.
“Ha-ha,” I mockingly laughed. Aaron gave me that just-do-it look, “Alright,
alright. I’m going.” I went to the buffet and grabbed a waffle, some bacon, an egg,
and a glass of milk. I sat back down to eat.
John just stared at my plate with his eyes wide. “You’re going to eat all that?”
“Yea, like Aaron said that plane food was horrible! I didn’t eat any of it, so I am
starved!” I explained and started eating my food.
We left fifteen minutes later, but little did I know at that point that we were
not coming back for a long time.
Chapter 3
Lost
We saw our guides in the parking lot just as we had planned.
“Hello,” the older man said, “Welcome to Africa.”
“Hi,” Aaron greeted him. “What is your name?”
“Oh-ho, my name’s Akalele and my partner here is Joseph.” He motioned to
another boy who just nodded his head. Akalele looked like he was in his thirties
and well built. He also seemed to be about six feet tall and looked like he could run
a ten miles and still go on tirelessly. He had a charcoal black beard and the same
color of hair and icy blue eyes.
Joseph looked nineteen years old. He also looked built and stern. He seemed
about five feet in height so that Aaron and him were shoulder to shoulder. He had
brown hair and a wispy start of a beard and green eyes.
“My name is Aaron; this is my brother Adam and our friend John.”
We all shook hands.
“Okay, ready to go on a safari?” Akalele asked
“Yup,” we all answered. We entered the jeep; Akalele hit the gas, and we were
on our way. We drove for a while talking about our history, what we like, and how it
is in Africa. All of us except for Joseph; he didn’t really talk much he just listened.
In about thirty minutes we started to see less buildings and more grass. Fifteen
minutes later we arrived out in the wild.
“Hey, hey look! A koala!” John shouted with excitement
“Your right!” Akalele said surprised. Joseph only stared at it.
“Pretty cool, huh?” I asked him.
“Yup,” he answered. That was the first time I had heard him talk. He had a low
voice.
We kept going, saw some lions, and then suddenly we hit a bump.
“Whoah, what was that?” I asked
“Oh, just a rock,” he told us. “Nothing
to worry about.”
We kept on driving and saw some
cheetahs, an elephant, which we drove away
from as soon we saw it because we were about
to be stomped on by his huge feet, some
hyenas, and a family of meerkats. We were
just talking, having a good time, taking lots of
pictures when we heard plub-plub-plub suddenly stopped moving
“Do you see something?” John asked.
“No,” Alkalele answere; he kept pressing the acceleration, “It’s not moving!”
He went around to check the engine then looked under the jeep, “Uh-oh,” he
shouted.
“What is it?” Aaron asked.
“Uhhh… weeeelll… the gas tank got ripped open.”
“What?” We all asked.
“Well… when we hit the rock back there, the gas tank must have cut open.”
“WHAT?” We asked again.
“Not to worry; I’ll take a look around, and we’ll be heading back in no time.”
Akalele walked away from the jeep a little and took a look around. After about five
minutes he came back.
“I don’t really remember this place so…”
“We’re lost,” Aaron stated
“Well…,” Akalele started to protest
“We’re lost,” Aaron repeated
“Uh… yes we’re lost,” Akalele admitted
“AAARRRHHHG,” Aaron yelled, “How can we be lost; you guys are supposed to
be our guides?”
While Aaron kept lecturing Akalele and Joseph, John and I just sat there stunned.
Lost. I had never been lost before. Well, there was this one time in Wal-Mart as a
kid, but that was nothing compared to South Africa!
Instead of yelling, however, John and I tried to think of something to do to get us
out of this mess.
John suddenly sat up straight, “I’ve got an idea.” He stood up and walked over to
Aaron, Akalele, and Joseph.
“But we’ve…,” Aaron was still yelling.
“Guys, guys,” John had to yes over Aaron’s shouting. Everyone quieted
down so John could continue. “I’ve got an idea.” We kept listening. “If we can
follow the oil that leaked back to that big rock we hit, then all we have to do is
choose the right way back to the hotel.”
We all thought for a while.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Alkalele stated.
“Let’s try it,” everyone nodded in agreement.
“First, we have to find the oil,” John told us.
We all looked around for it.
“FOUND IT!” Aaron called out from a distance away.
“Nice job,” Joseph told him.
We hopped right on the trail and followed it for about thirty minutes.
Alkalele suddenly called out from up ahead, “Darn it!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a double road.”
“That’s alright. You can just tell us the way to go and we will be home. You
can remember, can’t you?”
“Easier said than done,” Alkalele replied, “I forget which way to go.”
“That’s two times in one day. He must be getting old or something,” Aaron
whispered in my ear.
“Let’s go this way,” Alkalele decided and started walking to the left.
“But what if it is the wrong way?” Aaron asked worried.
“Then we will either die or we’ll have a great story to tell our grandchildren.”
STAY TUNED FOR THE SEQUEL…
Lost In Africa Part II