Your name is Jack, you’re a 16-year-old teen visiting from Texas, USA and you’re finding yourself lying in a lounge chair overlooking the beach in Melbourne. You’re sixteen, about 6-foot-tall with dirty blond hair, and you’re skinny. After laying there for over an hour, you decide to get up and to go into the nice, warm water of the ocean before you. You wade and you swim around as your parents meet up with friends of the family and end up talking for hours on end.
You get tired of waiting for your parents, so you just decide to get out of the water and dry it off with a beach towel. Since your parents are still talking to your relatives, you decide to go for a long walk along the shore. You spot other swimmers, fishermen and tons of tourists as you make that long stroll by the shoreline until you reach a small fence. There is a wooden gate, but this gate is all broken and in disrepair. You decide to keep on walking past the gate, not noticing the “NO TRESSPASSING” sign which was blown over and which had fallen on the ground. You’re hoping to spot another side of the beach from where you’re going, you’ll find some nice rocks or seashells.
You walk along the way when you hear a man shouting at you from a house which is close to the path.
“OY!”
“Huh? What?” you wonder as you look around.
Suddenly, an old man wearing a hat and a button shirt walks up to you.
“Oy, lad! You look a bit lost, my young mate! Whatcha doin’ on me grounds, hmm?” the old man asks.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was looking for something from the beach I could take home with me. Something as a souvenir from Australia, you know?” you ask him innocently.
“Home? So where is your home, my lad? You don’t look like a bloke who is from this area!” the old man says.
“I’m from America! United States! I live in Texas!” you respond.
The man wasn’t impressed.
“Texas! Pfff…. Texas has nothing that we don’t have in the great Australian Outback, you Yank! We have critters all over the place which could kill you in a blink of an eye!” the old man roared.
“Uhh… I’m sorry for stepping inside of your property. I just wanted to find a souvenir…” you mumble sadly as you begin to turn around and leave.
“A souvenir? I’ll give you a souvenir! Something that is unique from Down Under!” the old man said as he walked into the house. “Wait here!”
A minute later he appeared, holding something small in his hand. It seemed like a small box. He placed it in your hand.
“Here, wear this around your neck and you will experience something uniquely Aussie! There will never be any doubt that you got this from Australia, my lad. It will give you an amazing experience every time you wear this, which will last for three days!” the man said.
You look at the small box and you open it. Inside is a beautiful gold necklace with a gold image of an outline of the continent of Australia, hanging from the center of the necklace.
“Oh, I can’t take this! This must cost a fortune! I can’t…”
You look up and the old man was gone.
You turn around and you walk back to the hotel room where you carefully place the box inside of your suitcase where it remains until you open the suitcase again after you arrive back home in Texas, several days later following the long flight home.
While you’re in your own bedroom again, unpacking your suitcase, you come upon the small box containing the necklace. You open the box and remove the item, admiring the fine piece of jewelry. You gently place the thing around your neck, and you fasten the small clip. You stare at your reflection in the bathroom mirror, as you see the outline of the continent of Australia hanging just below your neck.
“Wow, this is so cool!” You grin, not knowing that your body will begin a dramatic transformation very soon!