The Aborted Travel

Chika had a magical bed called "Bed of Dreams" designed for two which was given to him by a stranger who used it to pay him for his kind gesture.

That stranger was actually a spirit wearing a tattered dress. He was very thirsty and was begging people for a cup of water. All the people he bagged turned him down except Chika.

The bed had power to take whoever that was lying on it to whichever country of the person's choice. It had to be two persons at a go. So, Chika needed to go with any of his chosen friends. Expectedly, Chika planned to travel with his best friend, Chima.

The two friends decided to make use of the bed to travel to China at the end of their Secondary education. As the day drew near, the they started putting their acts together in readiness for their journey without telling any other person.

They would travel in the night of the day of their last paper. And so, that afternoon when they wrote the last paper which happened to be Geography, they were excited. They wished the night would come quicker than usual.

When the night finally came, the two friends laid themselves down, waiting for 12 midnight ,- the time of their departure. As directed by the stranger, they'll have to cover themselves completely with a bedspread, and shout in unison with a loud voice, "China, here we come!" With that, they'll find themselves in the next minute in China.

One other condition was that the travellers must be adults. The stranger also said that the spirit of the mysterious bed had a onetime activation. If any of its rules was violated, the bed loses its power, and simply become an ordinary bed.

Exactly at 12 midnight, the two friends shouted, "China, here we come!"

To their disappointment, they remained in the bed, but they heard a sound like a whirlwind which filled the house and went out through the window. That was a sign that the power of the mysterious bed was gone out.

The two friends were confused as to what they did wrong. The only rule they suspected was the issue of adulthood. But, they were sure they were adults, so they thought. To clear their doubt, they went to an elderly man to find out. The old man told them pointblank, they were still children, boys, not adults. "
"None of you is up to 18," he said with a tone of finality.

It was too late to remedy the situation because the mysterious bed had already lost its power.