An Old Mans Dream

2023 Annual Literary Contest

1st Place
Kid Stories

William Wang
Rocky View County, AB

Once upon a time, an old man part of NASA went to Pluto. On the surface of Pluto, he departed to find the ice volcanoes but he saw two Wendigos first, so he took his baseball bat and whacked them silly. Then he found water on Pluto, he took his microscope and saw some prehistoric bacteria, like Archaea and some Noctiluca. He then saw two Cryovolcanoes , Wright Mons and Piccard Mons. He was curious of what was in the core of volcanoes, so he dug and found ice, water and stone. He took a sample of the mixture of water and ice, and studied the volcanoes.

Ice volcanoes on the Pluto, AKA Cryovolcanoes, erupt the same way as modern day shield volcanoes on earth do, because it resembles a warrior’s shield lying flat on the ground after the shield volcanoes erupt. Ice volcanoes still exist but you can only find them on Pluto because it’s about -400 degrees Fahrenheit. There are only two Cryovolcanoes in the Milky Way but there might be more in other galaxies and universes. Ice volcanoes contain liquid nitrogen, and are covered with a layer of ice to make their ice blast.

Earth’s volcanoes sit atop reservoirs of lava, ice volcanoes sit atop reservoirs of ocean. Volcanoes=warmth, oceans=water, if you add them together you get warm water, and warm water normally equals life, so the old man thinks there is life on Pluto.

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It was said the Cryovolcanoes erupt because the water and ice slowly buildup and erupt after they become temporarily dormant. So there might be bacteria under the volcanoes. Wright Mons is 3 miles tall and 10 miles wide, and Piccard Mons is 4 miles tall and 150 miles wide. When the water and ice harden, it gives the volcanoes smooth look. Scientists don’t know what’s heating it up.

After studying, the old man realized that Pluto was an ice age of Earth. The old man kept exploring Pluto, he sensed danger, saw a sober toothed tiger and wooly mammoths, and he saw a bear like creature stalking him. The creature pounced but not on him. It had pounced on a cave man but the bear had jumped right through him!

Was the old man an illusion or was the land an illusion? Well either way, the animals could not see him, and they phased through him. He knew he should not be here, but he couldn’t resist and he fell asleep.

Ten million years later, the old man woke up, the ice age was gone and he saw humanity. He was very surprised.

When he went back to Earth, robots had taken over, they were eating McDonald’s. In his house instead of his parents he saw robots!

NASA was also being operated by robots, he thought. And when he went there, sure enough NASA was being operated by robots.

Then he woke up with a start! It was all a dream.