Red Blood Cells to the Rescue! by Anya

Note: Another fine story from the Winter Writers Workshop. Excellent, Anya!

Red Blood Cells to the Rescue
by Anya Chan

There was a 9-year-old girl named Molly. She was a very humorous girl and she loved to study the body. Unfortunately, one day she was riding on her bike and she was on a hill. She tried to slow down but her brakes just wouldn’t cooperate! The next day, she ended up in the HOSPITAL! (I put “hospital” in all caps because even though Molly loved the human body…she HATED HOSPITALS!

She saw her mom talking to her doctor and soon she wished she hadn’t opened her eyes at all! Because as soon as her mom saw that she was awake, she ran over and hugged her until she passed OUT!

She woke up in a big confuzzle! (A word which here means puzzled and confused all mixed or morfed together!) At first, she didn’t know where she was but very soon she found out and the answer was intimidating! She was in someone’s own BODY! She realized that she had shrunk immensely. Everything around her was gigantic!

Her mom was probably freaking out at this point! She walked around and then remembered that her health teacher said that whenever you are in a bad situation you should NOT panic! So she didn’t panic. She stayed completely CALM. (Although she DID think she would DIE!) She saw a little elevator just the right size for her. Even though she thought that it was very unusual to have a small elevator in someone’s body. But since she was adventurous, she went in it.

Once she got in, she pressed the button that said “Brain.” The elevator zoomed up, she looked out of its little window, and Molly got an amazing view of all the body parts. It was like a roller coaster!

Finally, she saw where she was. She was traveling in between the left and right side of the brain! Molly looked around and saw different thoughts going by like “3X21=63” and intricate words.

Molly took a walk in the brain and saw all the nerves and nervous system. She saw something that was very surprising. It was another person in this weird body! She was so happy she thought she would faint! She walked closer and realized it was her teacher Mrs. Collen.

“Mrs. Collen!” Molly cried.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s me.”

“How did you get in here?” Molly asked.

“Just the way you did, with the elevator!” Mrs. Collen said.

“I mean, how did you get into this person’s body?”

“Oh, I can’t answer THAT. I don’t know how I got into this body,” Mrs. Collen said. “Now it’s time to learn about the brain.”

“OK,” Molly said. “I’ve always been interested in the brain.”

“Ask any question you like,” Mrs. Collen said.

“Why are we so tiny?” Molly asked.

“Not those kinds of questions,” she said.

“Oh, fine. What is this sponge next to us?”

“That, my dear is the brain, which you should have known. It helps you blink, do your math, and do all kinds of other stuff.”

Molly looked ahead of her and saw a TANGLE of nerves and it looked like they were fighting each other. She heard something crunch beneath her feet. There was a BIG hole. And she saw a nerve. He foot got stuck and she started SCREAMING! Instead, of panicking, Mrs. Collen said, “Oh, goody. Another adventure!”

With that, Mrs. Collen pushed Molly in and jumped in after herself! Molly closed her eyes and felt curves and turns. She opened her eyes and saw little things that looked like Life Savers, the candy. Mrs. Collen saw what she was looking at and said the Life Savers were actually brain cells.

“They’re also called neurons and they transmit signals to and from the brain,” Mrs. Collen said.

Molly felt a little tingle behind her and screamed because she saw a dendritic cell wrapping its tentacles around her. Mrs. Collen tried to save her, but another dendritic cell came and attacked Mrs. Collen, too!

Now what have we gotten into, Molly thought to herself. The dendritic cell was drowning her in the brain’s blood, but also asking her, “Who are you?”

But Molly knew dendritic cells can’t talk. As she fought to keep from going under, she felt some kind of smooth material. She grabbed onto it and it kept her afloat. A red blood cell
was acting like a life preserver! It was saving her life! Mrs. Collen had one, too. They floated along together to the cerebellum. They hopped off there. Molly wiped the sweat off her forehead and Mrs. Collen said, “What a trip!”

You might think Molly was crazy, but she was beginning to like this trip!

“Where are we again?” Molly asked.

“The cerebellum. It helps you think, eat, sleep, and many other simple things,” Mrs. Collen said.

We walked around the cerebellum at the back of the brain. Molly thought about all the things she could tell her friends when she got out of the brain. If she ever got out.