The Mimic Stone

            Alan’s expression quickly brightened.  He looked at the girl with glee.  She was a short girl but she looked like she meant business.  She had brownish skin with long, straight, black hair.  Her eyes looked like slits as she eyed the hat he was holding.

            “That is my hat.” she said.

            Alan handed her the hat and she stuffed it squarely onto her head.

            “I lost it when the men took me in here.” She said as a sad expression crossed her face.

            “Men?  What men?  I came in by myself.”

            “Are you crazy?!” the girl asked in shock.

            Alan didn’t know how to respond to that so he said nothing.

            “Well.” The girl continued.  “My name is Minji, and I guess you are stuck here now like the rest of us.”

            “Boy, am I going to be in trouble!” Alan exclaimed.

            “Stop calling me boy.” Minji retorted.  “I am girl!”

            “Oh, that’s just an expression!  I don’t mean you’re a boy!”

            Minji looked puzzled.  “It’s a what?”

            “It’s an expression.  It’s like something I say to show how I feel.”

            “Oh.  We don’t say that expression in Korea”

            “What’s Korea?”

            “Korea is a country, you idiot.  It’s in Asia, and it’s where I live.” She suddenly looked more serious.  “Or where I lived…”

            Just then, several tall skinny men dressed in black robes walked through the door and into the large room.  They had silver expressionless masks over their faces, making them look that much more frightening.

            “Those are the men who grabbed me and took me here.” she whispered.

            More of these men came in wheeling a large cart.  Many of the other children were lining up next to it.

            “What are they doing?” asked Alan.

            “I don’t know.” Minji said.  “I only arrived here shortly before you did, actually.”

            They noticed that the children were getting trays from the cart then finding places to sit and eat.

            “It must be food!” exclaimed Alan.

            Minji walked slowly over to the cart, and Alan hesitantly followed.  They stood over with the other children and waited to get a tray.  Suddenly, Alan felt a sharp pain as Minji nudged him hard in the ribs.

            “Shh” Minji whispered quickly.  “Look at that.”

            She pointed to a smooth silver stone that one of the men was holding.  Alan looked at the other men and noticed that some others had similar stones.  When he looked back at Minji, she had a gleam in her eye.

            “I noticed before a lot of them have those stones.”  Minji continued.  “They must be important.  Do what I say.  Scream loudly.”

            “What?” Alan replied.

            “Scream loudly now and keep screaming.” Minji repeated and then promptly stepped on his foot hard.  Alan yelped in pain and all the guards looked over at him.

            He remembered what Minji had said so he kept screaming even though his foot only hurt a little now.  Some of the guards came over.  Alan fell to the ground as if in terrible pain.

            One guard put his stone in the pocket of his robe as he bent down to check on Alan.  Minji bent down beside the man and appeared to look very concerned.

            “Are you ok?” Minji asked Alan as she put her hand into the man’s robe pocket.  She pulled out the stone and winked.

            “Um, yeah.” Alan stammered.  “I’m fine now, just be more careful where you step next time…”

            Minji slipped the stone into her pocket as the men stood up and went back to serving food.  They both hoped that the man wouldn’t look for his stone when he got up.  Thankfully, he didn’t.

            After they got their food, they were sitting in a corner of the room and opening up their trays to see what kind of food they had.  Minji took the stone from her pocket and set it beside her tray.

            “It’s very pretty” she remarked.  “I wonder what it is.”

            “I don’t know, but I’m starving.” said Alan as he lifted the lid off of his tray.  On the tray were only a couple pieces of bread and a bowl of broccoli.  Alan sighed in dismay.

            “I want a hamburger more than anything right now.” He sighed.

            Suddenly he looked on the floor and there was a hamburger!  He poked Minji and pointed at it.  She looked puzzled as he picked up the hamburger.

            “This is going to be delicious!” he exclaimed as his mouth watered.

            Alan brought the hamburger up to his mouth.  He imagined how good it was going to be as he started to take a bite.

            “Wait don’t!” Minji yelled.

            CLANK!

            The hamburger was as hard as a rock!  It tasted like a rock, too!  He dropped the burger and it clanked onto the ground.  He saw it change into the stone that Minji had taken from the man!

            They heard a loud clamber as several of the tall robed men marched into the room.  The one in front stepped forward and started speaking in a strange high-pitched voice.

            “Something has been stolen!”  He declared.  “We shall find the thief and the thief will pay dearly!  Search them all!!”

            The tall men split up and began searching all the children in the room.  They searched every pocket, every tray, and every item that each child had near them.  Alan and Minji knew exactly what they were looking for. 

            One of the guards finished searching the blond haired boy and walked straight over to them.  The mask covered even his eyes, but Alan was sure the man was glaring at him.

            “Prepare to be searched!” came the high-pitched voice from behind the mask.  “The thief will be caught!”