Gershwin and the portal to Monster Truck Land

Once upon a time, there was a dark, dark room, and Gershwin lived in that dark, dark room. Every night, the monster trucks came to life.

These weren’t just any monster trucks. These were Hot Wheels monster trucks, and the reason they came to life was because a portal opened into Monster Truck Land in the corner of Gershwin’s bedroom. Gershwin didn’t know this because he was always fast asleep, like a good, good boy.

But one day, Grave Digger accidentally tripped over one of Gershwin’s other toys. Grave Digger stood very, very still. He didn’t move a muscle because he was worried that he might wake Gershwin. When Gershwin didn’t wake, he went back into the portal to Monster Truck Land.

Very soon, Five Alarm did the same thing. He tripped over the toy, but he wasn’t quick enough to silence himself, and his alarm went off. “Woo! Woo!”

Gershwin sat up with a start. He looked over in the corner and saw the orange and blue swirling portal to Monster Truck Land. “What on earth is that?”

The remaining monster trucks in his room, the ones that hadn’t gone through the portal yet, just looked at him and stared. Then Tiger Shark, Gershwin’s favourite, said, “You know what? Let’s show Gershwin Monster Truck Land.”

Tiger Shark went up to the bed. “Hello, Gershwin. We’ve been keeping this secret a very long time. There is a portal to Monster Truck Land in the corner of your room, and since you’re awake, we think it’s only right that you accompany us into Monster Truck Land and see where we live.”

Gershwin, being the adventurer that he was, was really excited about this, and of course he said, “Yeah!” He jumped out of bed as quickly as possible, and Tiger Shark let him hop into the passenger seat.

Tiger Shark flew as fast as he could through the portal. The blue and orange swirls covered Gershwin and enveloped him, and he felt himself getting sucked through the portal with Tiger Shark. Gershwin was a little bit nervous, but he was also really excited to see where some of his best cars and his best toys lived.

Very soon, Gershwin got through to the other side, and what he saw shocked him. He thought he was going to see sand and deserts, but actually there was concrete. There were buildings, and in the distance he could see ramps.

Gershwin looked around. He could see a ginormous tent and the biggest doll’s house he’d ever seen. He saw tracks, cars and little people. Well, he thought they were little people, but they were the same size as him.

Then Gershwin realised that not only had he gone through a portal into Monster Truck Land, he’d actually shrunk down to the size of his toys. All the toys from his bedroom had come along into Monster Truck Land with him. All the little toys and little Lego figures were walking around.

Tiger Shark gave Gershwin a tour of the city. While he drove around, he waved to all his other toys. He saw the doll’s house that he’d loved and the garages that he’d been playing with for years. Very soon they came to a small, little house. At least, Gershwin thought it was small, but in this land it was ginormous. It was pink and colourful, and Gershwin really liked it.

Tiger Shark opened the door. “This is where you shall live when you come to Monster Truck Land.”

Gershwin was blown away. He went into his new house and noticed there was no furniture. In fact, it was completely empty. There were no stairs and no rooms. It was just one huge blank area.

Tiger Shark shouted, “All you need to do is think, and it will come to life.”

Gershwin thought to himself, “I think I need some stairs.” All of a sudden, in the corner of the room, a set of stairs appeared, leading upstairs.

Gershwin kept thinking. “I need a kitchen. I need a living room. I need a dining room.” All those things magically moved around and appeared. The floor changed, the ceiling changed, everything changed, until he got the perfect configuration that he wanted.

Gershwin walked all around the house. He tried to view the room from every angle, and for that he needed to walk over the walls. In this land, he could walk all the way around the walls and windows and up onto the ceiling, so he was standing upside down like a bat. He viewed everything, and he was happy.

The only thing missing was a garage. As he thought that, a garage sprang up right outside the front. Inside it, he saw his favourite Hot Wheels fast car, the blue sports car.

Gershwin went down, jumped into the garage and got into the car. He sped off, following very closely behind Tiger Shark. Very soon he got to the ramps he’d seen in the distance. He saw Grave Digger, Bone Shaker, Gangster, Bigfoot and all his other favourite monster trucks. They were going down the ramps as fast as possible, jumping off the end, flying through the air and landing on another ramp. Some were rolling over cars and squishing them underfoot.

“Is this what you do every night?” Gershwin asked Tiger Shark.

“Yeah. This is what we like to do. This is our fun.”

“It looks really fun. I think I’d like to go in one of the cars.”

So he jumped into Tiger Shark, and Tiger Shark took him for a trip. He jumped off ramps, crashed over cars, did wheelies and fronties, and revved the engine really loudly. At one point, the driver of Tiger Shark even let Gershwin drive, and Gershwin really enjoyed that.

But soon the sun started to go down. Gershwin was confused. “Why is the sun going down? I thought it was night-time. It was night-time back in the real world. Why is the sun only just going down?”

Tiger Shark said, “In our land, when the sun is down, it’s daytime in yours, and vice versa. That’s why everybody is rushing back to the portal as fast as possible. It’s almost morning in your land.”

Gershwin jumped quickly back into Tiger Shark. They rushed back as quickly as possible as the sun slowly started to set. In the distance, there were beautiful colours in the sky: pinks and oranges and blues.

Very soon, they got back. Tiger Shark jumped through the portal as quickly as possible, just as it started to close. They made it through just as it snapped shut behind them.

Tiger Shark let Gershwin out. Gershwin returned to his normal size, and Tiger Shark handed him a present. When Gershwin opened the wrapping, inside was a Monster Trucks card.

“That card will open the portal whenever you want to come back to Monster Truck Land.”

“Oh, thank you very much, Tiger Shark,” said Gershwin. “I’m going to put this in a very safe place.”

Gershwin looked all around his bedroom and thought the best place was right behind his tent. He went behind it and hid the card in a little crack in the wall, so he could easily find it any time in the future.

Gershwin jumped back into bed, just as the birdsong started to play. He swung his legs out of bed again and said, “Well, I’m going to have a story to tell at school today.”

And that was the story of Gershwin in Hot Wheels Land.

The end.