Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2021 finalist, George Liu! George finished 3rd grade this past school year. The story he wrote is called “Ninja Potato” Enjoy!
Ninja Potato
by George Liu
I was looking out the window one morning, about to eat an apple, when I saw a huge, gray, oval-shaped thing fall from the sky.
A voice soon followed, “HELP! WE’RE CRASHING!”
Then a loud BANG! thundered. I thought it was a meteoroid or a comet, but they probably didn’t talk, so I went outside to investigate this strange occurrence. What could be happening so early in the morning? I found a large spacecraft with shattered glass completely destroyed in my backyard, right on top of Mom’s treasured flowerbed!
“What’s happening! What is this?!” I shouted in disbelief.
Then I saw a strange figure limping out from the spacecraft with an “Ouch!” every few steps. I couldn’t believe I was face-to-face with an actual space creature!
After a few moments of terrified silence, I finally managed to squeak out, “Uhm, who…a-are..uh…you?”
The alien was just as nervous as I was, “I-I am Grew f-from uh Planet G-Goob. M-My spacecraft was uhm…s-struck by a m-meteoroid. C-Can you fix i-it?” The alien asked uneasily.
Sighing with relief, I managed to answer, “I might be able to fix it. Here, have an apple first.” I handed Grew the apple.
He said excitedly, “R-really?! You can fix it?!” He took a tentative bite of the apple and an expression of surprise appeared on his face. Grew said, “This thing called A-PO tastes really good!” He finished the whole apple in seconds! Grew then tossed the apple core onto the grass.
The rest of the day I tried my best at fixing the spacecraft. It was as difficult as building a whole city in one day. I finally placed the glittering glass shield on top of the spacecraft.
“You fixed it!” Grew happily said. “Thank you so much! How can I repay you?” Before I could say anything, Grew quickly said, “I have to leave, but I have a gift for you.” He handed a bottle to me.
I was about to ask questions when Grew hopped on his spacecraft and flew up to the clouds, then said, “Bye!”
I stared at the spacecraft and then the bottle, it said, “Quick Grow For Plants.” The bottle cap popped up, and a little bit of the water dripped onto the apple core the alien ate.
“Oh-no!” I thought.
The next morning I woke up like usual until I saw the window. Outside was a huge, gigantic, apple tree. I rubbed my eyes as if my mind was pranking me.
I said, “Is that… an a-apple t-tree?!”
With so many apples, the first thing I thought of was making apple juice, apple pie, apple sauce, etc. Then, I remembered the day before, I accidentally poured the special water on the apple core so it grows super fast. I was really happy the alien gave me the bottle because I get to eat apple desserts every day. A few days later, I was surprised and mad to see the squirrels eating my apples. This is a problem I need to solve.
A few weeks later…
“Oh-no!” my mom cried.
I ran up to her and said, “What happened?!”
She placed a potato on the table and said, “This potato sprouted, we can’t eat it anymore. We should throw it away.”
I suddenly got an idea and excitedly said, “I want to plant it!”
That afternoon, I dug a hole in the backyard, then placed the sprouted potato into the hole. I watered it every day. I waited and waited, it never grows.
One day, I remembered a few weeks ago, I got a bottle from an alien called Grew. I found the bottle on my shelf. I decided to make the potato grow faster, so I poured the rest of the liquid on the potato. Boom! then I surprisingly heard a voice coming from the potato.
“Who woke me up! I wanna sleep!”
Then I looked at the back of the bottle,effectng: Pour too much causes an unexpected effect. Be careful! Oh no! I didn’t see the warning! Now the potato is alive, he moves and talks. The potato has two French fries crossed on his back, potato chip darts in his toolbelt, and a flying hash brown cushion that he sits on. He looks just like a… NINJA!
The potato came out from the hole and said, “I am Ninja Potato. You gave me my life, I can give you three wishes.”
Before I can say anything, my stomach growled, “Can you make some food for my empty tummy?”
Ninja Potato immediately made potato chips appear. I was stunned. He grinned and said, “One wish completed!”
I took a bite from Ninja Potato’s chips and said, “Wow, this is delicious. It’s so worth it! Let’s think about my second wish.”
“Yep,” he said. “Hey look! What’s that?” Ninja Potato asked and pointed to the corner of my backyard. I turned to his direction and saw the fresh apples on my apple tree, being eaten by squirrels one by one.
I quickly asked, “Ninja Potato, Can you help keep them away from my tree?”
Ninja Potato confidently said, “Not a problem!”
He threw one of the potato darts from his toolbelt, it flew up and hit the squirrel in the mouth. The squirrel swallowed the dart with excitement. The squirrel raced down the apple tree, rushing to gather his family. Ninja Potato thought he saved the apple tree, but soon, a whole squirrel family came over.
The tallest squirrel said, “Where’s the yummy potato chips you mentioned?!”
The stubby squirrel asked, “Yeah! I want to eat it!”
The squirrels each asked about the potato. Ninja Potato couldn’t help but throw more darts and French fry sticks until the squirrels are finally full and left. Looks like they are not interested in apples anymore!
Well, that’s another way to save the apple tree! I thanked Ninja Potato for all the help.
He proudly said, “Two down, one to go!”
I thought about the question, then asked, “Can you make more Ninja Potatoes?”
Then he said, “Yeah, but you have to plant me back underground. Then, we can have more potatoes!”
When I heard this, I said, “But I would miss you. Can you stay with me?”
Ninja Potato grinned, “I’d love that!”
“Wish completed!”
Ever since that day, Ninja Potato was always my NINJA!
The End
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