Shwangland/1

In a small city far away from here - over oceans and seas and mountains - lived Bruce. Bruce and his friends were among the laziest teens you could ever meet - Bruce was the laziest. The mere act of getting out of bed to get ready for school was too much work for Bruce. He always sleeps on the bus on the way to school (and missed his stop on more than one accaision) and sleeps all the way back.

Bruce's friends were no different. 'Rat' was as lazy, though he usually take his school work seriously. 'Drew only cared about things to put in his stomach, and it was a miracle that he was not obese. His other friends were more hardworking, Joel was the hardworker while Shri was the accident prone one. I mentioned Bruce's friends because they were the ones with him on that strange day.

Like any other day in school, the five friends decided to do what they usually do: Go into the Library and sleep. It was the perfect excuse: the teachers think they were in the library studying. For that specific reason, the Library was renamed by the friends to 'Limery.' (In this faraway land, the word 'lime' does not means a rather sour tasting fruit, but it is rather a verb, which means 'to hang out' or 'to chill', the word 'limery' is a joining of the words 'lime' and 'library.')

Unlike most conventional libraries, this one was very small; but like all libraries, the librarian was very strict. Therefore, as a routine and to prevent themselves from being caught, the five friends usually pile all the books from the fiction section unto the table, making a pile high enough to ensure that the librarian does not see them when they take their naps. This plot has worked in the past, with the exception of two occaisions. Thankfully, on these occaisions, only 'Drew was caught - perhaps owing to his large size.

Reguardless of the size of the pile of books, however, the five friends usually take a large book and open it infront of their faces, so it would appear to passerbys that they are indeed stydying. On this particular occaision, Bruce chose from the huge pile a book called 'Shwangland.' (The pronounciation of this word is shh-wang-land.) And, as usual, he opens the book and went to sleep.

A sleep, some say, can be rated on the types of dreams you have: the worst types of sleeps give you nightmares whereas the best types of sleeps are dreamless. Bruce loved sleeping so much because most of his naps are dreamless; this was not going to be one of those times.

Bruce woke, but he was no longer in the library, he was in another room, one very similar to a library. Across from him were numerous tables, each with piles of pillow, and to Bruce's amazement, students sleeping! 'This was a good dream,' Bruce thought at first. Everyone were sleeping, with the exception of the few comming in the door of the room and the person who looked a lot like the librarian. The only difference with this librarian was that she was going to the shelves and picking up pillows to give to each student, instead of books. Bruce obviously knew he was dreaming, but he was liking this dreamworld more and more every second, and so decided to take a tour.

He left the library, and as he turned around, he noticed the signed hanging above the door of the room he just left: 'Limery.' 'Well...' Bruce thought to himself, 'I guess we this just keeps getting better.'

However, the corridors of the school were empty. He decided to visit his classroom, and sure enough he found his friends in there. There were no teachers in the class and all his friends were playing cricket. (Cricket is a game of 11 players on each team, where the objective is to score as many runs as possible while restricting your opponents from doing the same.) Surely this seems like fun - cricket in the classroom. But as Bruce looked around, he saw that all the windows were broken (what else do you expect from playing sports indoors?) The garbage bin at the rear of the class, wait a minute, the entire classroom seemed to be a bin. Paper, foodboxes, plastics, and unused books littered the floor. The smell suddenly overwhelmed Bruce and he ran out of the room.

In the hallway he met a weird looking man, his fact was unshven and his beard touched the ground (his beard was not that long as the man himself was very short.) The man had his hands as though they had been hancuffed, although the handcuffs were not made of metal, but of doughnuts. 'Hello Bruce.' The weird man said.

'What is this place?' Bruce asked. 'And who are you?'

'Firstly, I am the Do-good-er.' The man answered. 'For my many noble deeds i have been locked away. My only hope of freedom is to convince you to stay in this world.'

'You don't have to convince me,' Bruce said. 'I already love it. This place is lovely, what is it called?'

'This world is known as Shwangland. It connects to your world through the limery, the only place where there is such a massive storage of imagination.' (come to think of it, Wiki Novelas is just such a place.) The Do-good-er said.

'And what do I have to do to stay in this world?' Bruce asked.

'Nothing.' Answered the Do-good-er. 'This place is built on laziness. You just need to remain here for an entire day and you will never be able to leave. If you choose to leave after one day, you will be locked away as I was.'

And so it was that Bruce decided to stay in the weird world called Shwangland. Do-good-er folled Bruce around as a precaution, for this was his ticket out of prison. It reached noon, and Bruce was beginning to feel hungry. He visited what was usually the school cafeteria. But surprise, there was no one there, and no food on display. Bruce was wondering why his dreamworld was without food, for next to sleeping, eating was Bruce's next best hobby.

'Unfortunately, when everyone is lazy,' the Do-good-er explained, 'there is no one to cook the food.'

This sadenned Bruce a lot. 'And when was the last time you had any food?' Bruce asked the Do-good-er.

'The last time I made these doughnuts.' The Do-good-er replied, pointing to the doughnuts on his wrists. 'They put them on me to remind me of the wrong i've done.'

The remaining of the day was the same. There was nothing to do, and no where to go. the bus drivers had all stopped working, as did all the garbage-men, teachers, and cooks; and pretty soon not only the school but the entire city was beginning to look and smell like an unwelcoming place.

But what pushed Bruce to the limit was the lack of food. He had never gone this long without food (it was now nearing sunset.) He looked at the Do-good-er's doughnuts and started chewing away at them. At that moment, a few furry-looking creatures came and took both Bruce and the Do-good-er away. The next thing Bruce knew was that he was in a prison cell, the Do-good-er was his cell mate. Bruce tried to escape, which was simple enough since the bars were all about 5 feet apart, but it was no good because the furry-looking things just captured him and put him back into the cell.

'How long has it been since i've been here?' Bruce asked.

'Nearly 18 hours.' The Do-good-er replied. 'You should've never tried to eat my doughnuts, it was a ploy, they have you in here on the charge of trying to set me free.'

'I need to get home.' Bruce said, listening to his stomach. 'Can you help me?'

'Sure.' The Do-good-er replied. 'But you must promise me one thing; promise that you would never allow your world to become like ours.'

Bruce promised. Then the Do-good-er stepped out of his cell, and when the furry-looking things came for him, he simply broke off the remainder of his doughnut-cuffs and started to feed the furry-looking things.

'Run!' the Do-good-er screamed. 'And remember what you promised. Never be lazy!'

Bruce ran as hard as he could, back to the library and as he was running he suddenly awoke. He looked around, he was back in his own library, his friends all around him - awake. Behind him was the headmistress of the school, looking down on him with the evil eyes Bruce had only heard of in stories.

That evening in detention, Bruce described his dream to all his friends.

'So.' Joel said. 'What do you decide to do now? I'm sure that you now vouch to no longer being lazy and to work hard at whatever you do?'

Bruce thought about the nasty, smelly classroom, the broken windows, the furry-looking creatures and above all else, the absence of food. He shivered at the thought of what being lazy can lead to. He then opened his mouth and spoke words that he never thought he'd say (especially after such an encounter) 'Nope! I'll still be lazy!'

Sure enough, to this day, Bruce is one of the laziest persons around. After all, all the weird experience with the Do-good-er and the furry-looking things were just a dream.