ELLA AND THE WELL

 

Ella and the well

No one knows how many thousands of years old this well really is. Many animals have fallen into this trap and never been seen again.

Ancient human ancestors have also fallen prey to this pit and they have been lost forever. It’s too deep for any hope of rescue.

Most humans and animals have learned how to avoid these tragedies. The elders have taught the young. If you fall into this trap you won’t ever get out.

The well is directly in the path of elephant herds on the way to the water-holes.

A herd of elephants were out on a course to find water and a youngster, being green, fell into the hole.

It was curiosity that led this youngster into trouble. She wanted to know what the fuss was all about and got too close to the edge and fell.

The herd waited as long as they could but some days passed by and there was no sign of getting help for her. The herd went on without her. The young elephant’s mother was distraught, but urgently needed water, as she was becoming dehydrated, and so she moved on with the herd.

The baby was stuck and could not move and she just cried out, loudly, hoping her mother would help her, or teach her what to do. The baby was getting hungry and thirsty.

Some photographers were out taking photos for a television series. The elephant herd was of particular interest. They wanted to know how far they travelled to the precious water-holes and how long it would take them to reach it. They also wanted to know if they used the same water pools each time. It would be of a good deal of interest to the public.

They came to the edge of the pit and heard the baby’s cries. One of the young photographers almost lost his own footing.

He had heard the baby elephant’s cries and went to investigate.

It was just good blessings that they had a great team at base camp who could help.

They had to make a plan of what was needed to rescue this animal. They knew that the gap down there was deep and very narrow.

“We’ll need a digger,” Josh said.

Base camp was notified and several companies were contacted and finally managed to get someone willing to come and take part.

The photographers explained why they needed it.

Those at camp then contacted the firm that was willing to help, and ordered the tools.

The voice on the end of the phone said, “I know where you are and I know what I need to bring besides the digger. That well is well-known for incidents like this. I will be with them in about two hours, quicker if I can. I will bring a tub of water with me, as the animal will be very thirsty.”

“Oh great, and the animal isn’t the only one who needs a drink, I’m parched,” Patrick said, relieved to hear there was water coming.

The TV crew had brought water with them but had hit a large bump on the track and lost the barrel and most of the water.

The crew waited anxiously for the digger. Looking over to the left, Josh shouted, “Oh great! Here they are now, and it looks like he has brought a team with him.”

Geo, the head of the rescue team, also brought food, sandwiches, and fruit. The TV crew ate and drank and got ready for a real live television rescue. The viewers would love this. as long as the baby elephant was saved, but be wailing if the baby died.

It was baking hot and the rescue was making the team thirsty and very tired. Tempers were flaring and drinks of water were taken regularly.

At last they managed to free the baby and she was more than ready for her drink.

Josh looked up and said to the team that had rescued the animal, “I don’t suppose you know where the water hole is that the herd drink from, do you?”

“I certainly do, Sir, and it’s about 11 and a half kilometres from here.” Geo was happy to help.

“Uh oh, what are you thinking now, Josh?”

“Well, after all the hard work of rescue how about reuniting this baby with her mother?”

Geo looked up and added, “It’s not too far, we could load the baby up on the truck and take her there.”

The rescue team were happy that they were going to be on television and make some cash.

They became emotional as the mother was delighted to be reunited with her baby. They watched and felt emotional when the mother and her baby ran towards each other. They took many pictures as she took mother’s milk. The team felt good to think that they had helped to make this a good outcome for all.

They named the baby Ella and the work they had done was extremely popular on the well known television programme.

The television crew still seek information about Ella, and they celebrated when she had her first young one.

These days Ella is teaching her young about the deep well, and to avoid it.

Josephine Smith

STORIES FROM RORY No.1a

It's amazing how different the stories can be, inspired by the same set of images!

 THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT

Jim was daydreaming in his armchair, planning his next magician program for a Save the Children charity event, when… Well, he must have dozed off…

… that is what he believed had happened afterwards. It couldn't have been anything else, as suddenly the room lit up and a huge jag of lightning filled the sky. This was followed by a loud crack of thunder and the heavens opened as a torrent of rain, or hailstones perhaps, rattled down so that he couldn't see anything except stair rods sliding down the window glass. Thunderstorms worried him and worst of all flooding, it had happened before, but never like this. His mind went straight to the cellar.

Their terrace was built on a hill and his house stood back from the next one further down the hill, so that a whirlpool always collected on his side of the walls of next door's front garden and gushed down the cellar grate in his pavement and siphoned straight into his deep cellar. There the sluice in the middle of the flagstones carried it away… it had happened before. But a cloudburst like this..?

So, here he found himself at the top of the cellar steps and there was a cataract pouring in through the missing glass in the cellar window and the level was rising frighteningly.

How he had managed to find himself up to the waist in the rising tide, he had no idea – he was slipping on green slime – and the current was dragging him off his feet towards the centre of this underground room where the sluice was now choked up with leaves and weeds, blown in from outside. Well, there had never seemed to be a free spot in his time-table and the whole storeplace needed clearing. But now there was a mixture of freezing hail and a torrent of water pouring in.

With a loud groan an over-loaded shelf slid sideways down the cellar wall and his boxes of fancy dress slid sickeningly into the whirlpool in the centre of the room. Water was sucking the trousers off his legs now, and still cascading in through the grating at street level above. Another crack of thunder and the heavens opened again as he was swept off his feet.

More and more colourful plastic tricks-of-the-trade bounced down, including a ragbag of clothes that he wore as a magician at children's parties. And there went his cape, and the plastic box painted to resemble a pyramid, and where his assistant stepped inside to be cut into two, yet again, and re-appear... remade!

His cloak was bobbing, filled with air, and now swimming towards him. His own arms were waving and threshing, as they grappled with the debris that had already blocked up the sluice and the more he frantically tore with his bare hands the more things slithered off the tottering shelves, and his past literally floated before his eyes. By now the water was up to his chest and the cellar steps were blocked by bobbing rubble. He was by now frantic.

He knew his end was approaching. In despair he dragged his arms up through the heavy water and put his hands together to pray, although he had never been a strong believer. He was more into the magic stuff, like waving his wand that was floating some yards away. Than something dropped down off the shelf and hit him on the back of the head and all went black.

Then, it seemed as if he was looking above water level and a shape seemed to be rising up out of the water and floating into some sort of shape. It was amorphous and holding out its flapping arms to him. Was it asking him to join in some dance with it? It was then that Jim noticed it had something like wings about its head. He reached forward to grasp the extended hands and he felt as if he were being lifted and flying and, as he looked down, the water was gurgling back down the drain and the last runnels sucking back down the grating, like someone slurping tea.

He himself was now sitting on the cellar steps and the cellar floor was dry and the magic stuff was all back on the shelves. But, there, out of the corner of his eye something seemed to be moving. It surely couldn't be his dark cloak slithering back into the box? No… it was some dead leaves sliding down, outside his moist spectacles. Even for a magician, that would have taken some swallowing.

He got up gingerly and found he could walk, and his clothes had dried as if they had never been wet. So strange. It must have been a dream. But his head was aching and, when he felt, there was a large bump on it. He couldn't remember what had happened after that. In fact he wasn't quite sure what had happened before, for that matter.

He looked across the cellar, to take his bearings. There, on the shelves, now back on the wall, there was something hanging over the side of the ragbag box.

He went over to investigate and there was a very large feathery thing sticking on to his magician's cloak. He couldn't remember ever having done an act of magic that needed wings. He never did ducks and birds and stuff. Yet, there it was, a very large bunch of feathers, almost like a couple of small ruffled, wings. It felt a bit damp. This was all very rummy really. Well, he supposed it was all grist to the mill. The wings would come in for something, perhaps his next charity event? He was always in great demand and it was all voluntary, of course.

Then, his eye fell on the pyramid he often used at the front for advertising his shows. It read “JIM THE JOKER – for Children's Charities. Enjoy, and... Do come again.” But he didn't remember having painted that bit underneath, which read:

“One good turn deserves another!” – and the paint felt a bit wet…

Edna Leach 15.02.21

edited 21.02 21

The Ankh Key and the golden dragon

Tomorrow my family and I would leave Egypt, and so we wandered around the large market for gifts to take back for ourselves and friends. It had been a well-deserved break for Nancy my wife and Josh our son.

“Ah, that’s what I want,” I said to Nancy. “That Ankh Key on the shelf, I have always wanted one. They fascinate me. And this is for me, no one else.”

I also bought a rainbow coloured pyramid. It looked like a prism that I’d had as a child.

Josh our son bought an abacus, which he seemed to be drawn to. We did spend rather a lot of money. Well loaded-up, we returned to our Hotel. When we got back to our rooms, we unpacked and admired the items that we’d bought.

I noticed something out of the ordinary, especially for Egypt. We asked each other who had purchased this glittering item.

No one owned up to purchasing the golden dragon. On inspecting the beautiful dragon we then noticed another curiosity on the bottom of it. Confused at what it could be, we decided it was probably a rose compass. We stood back, shaking our heads in disbelief.

How strange, and we queried how did we ever become the dragon’s owners?

We had an early start in the morning and needed to be at the airport in plenty of time, so we went to bed early. I was restless and kept waking up at odd times through the night.

The image of the dragon was interrupting my sleep. Why would any of us purchase a dragon, and why the rose compass?

Paying our bill at the Hotel desk, we caught a cab to the airport. Our luggage was taken and put on the belt ready to be put on the plane.

We had a game of Ludo while we waited and Josh threw the dice. It landed on six so he began the game, which he also won.

He turned his attention to the abacus which kept him occupied until boarding the plane.

On the plane for Britain it wasn’t long before we were up in the air and heading home. I got up to go to the loo. I had to wait as someone was already in there.

Finally it was vacant, what a relief.

I sat there and noticed a news paper. Well, blow me down, a picture of the dragon we had become the proud owners of glared back at me! I couldn’t believe it was a picture of the same dragon and it was right there on the front page. I read the article. It also had the rose compass on the bottom. I took the paper back and showed it to Nancy my wife.

A strange happening was reported about the dragon, and an Ankh key was also mentioned.

A person that had previously owned the key and the dragon was glad to be shot of these articles as they were receiving too much bad luck. It seems they could not get a decent night’s sleep through having nightmares about these two objects. Something about an ancient Egyptian tomb was reported, connecting the dire dreams with the two items which we were in possession of.

This news worried me a lot, as I believe in curses and dark happenings relating to ancient tombs.

I felt very anxious and I said to Nancy, “I’ll be glad when we get off this flight.”

“Now you are frightening me, Michael, as I also believe in these bad things.”

Nancy had hardly uttered these words when the flight got very bumpy and uncomfortable. There was a loud clap of thunder followed by others and the lightening was very intense. It was terrifying and people thought we would crash.

In the Pilots’ cabin, Brian and Liam were frantic as they could not control the plane. It just turned and twisted, dropped down and just as suddenly came back up. The storm was horrific and the pilots could not see where they were heading. Brian shouted to Liam, “Oh God, this is damn dangerous as we can’t see other aircraft heading for us. I can’t say where the hell we are, or where we are going.”

The passengers were panicking and the air hostesses were doing their best to stop the anxiety but failing. The Hostesses were gritting their own teeth and praying that this would end happily.

One person across from us was sleeping peacefully. He never budged an inch. I wondered if he was dead. Before I could check on him he coughed. Still he never woke up. I thought, Lucky blighter he’s well out of it.

The weather did not relent and we continued being tossed around. Children were screaming and huddling into their parents; adults had rosary beads and prayed. I was praying and Nancy tearfully hugged Josh.

I will never know how long we were in the grips of this storm. It seemed like we were caught in this nightmare for years. We came down to earth with a heck of a crash.

Some people had minor injuries, some a bit more severe. Passengers’ luggage was strewn around.

I checked Nancy and Josh, and although they were in shock, they were safe and sound.

Folk began to alight from the plane and met with another shock. They were in the middle of the desert. We had landed in the Valley of the Kings, to be precise.

After the shock had subsided, people were checking their luggage. I checked ours, and most of our belongings seemed to be intact.

Gleaming in the hot sun, the dragon caught my eye, and right beside it was the Ankh Key.

I picked them both up and got what felt like an electric shock. A bright light was guiding me.

I was being steered across the sand. Folk were making comments about me wandering around.

“He must still be in shock,” they said. This alarmed Nancy and Josh, and they followed me.

I had no control as to where I was being guided. The electricity from the light I believed came from the dragon and the Ankh key. With no will of my own, the light drew me to an old tomb and guided me through the door. It turned me towards a wall. I studied the wall and right down at the bottom, out of sight of prying eyes, I noticed what was a keyhole. I placed the Ankh into it and it opened. I was then guided down a very long passage and down a flight of ancient steps. It stopped at another doorway. This door was well rusted and I examined it to see how I could open it. I struggled to find a way to open it. I found another keyhole well hidden, and I placed the Ankh key in it to open it – only to find myself looking at treasures beyond belief! Blinking my eyes, I walked around the room.

Nancy and Josh had caught up with me. Great sighs sounded behind me when they saw what was in the tomb.

A sarcophagus rested there, on the stone table. It was magnificent. I studied the walls and then some of what I think was toys. It was then Josh spotted the tiny coffin just behind the larger coffin.

Among the toys was a golden dragon, and this brought a tear to my eye. I looked at the dragon in my hand, but it was no longer there.

Beside the ancient child deity was the golden dragon. I was just holding the Ankh key.

I realised that this is what the storm and everything that had happened to us all on that plane was all about. “Oh, so you belonged to this child,” I thought. The hieroglyphics on the wall told me the story and this made me weep openly.

A young Princess had lost her child. It happened when the young Prince, who was the child’s father, had knocked him down in an accident, while racing in a chariot. His Princess died of a broken heart for the loss of her son. The writings said he never forgave himself, as he loved the Princess, and was delighted when she bore him a son. The child was only five when he was killed. It said also that he never loved another, although he had many wives.

Other passengers were trickling into the tomb and I asked them to leave. I was afraid about people taking treasures for themselves.

The authorities were called to report the crash. They began to take stock of this Tomb and its treasure. It made good reading in the news papers.

Nancy and I will never have to work again, as this discovery made us wealthy. The wealth I really loved was to know I had taken a favourite toy back to a child who had lost it when he’d died.

I begged authorities to leave the dragon with the child.

It took weeks before they managed to remove the plane. On examination it was choked up with sand and they said that it had crashed during a sand storm. I thought differently.

People that had been on the awful flight with us still contact us to ask how we are and to talk endlessly on the phone about the remarkable story and the treasure I had discovered.

It’s all still a mystery, but I have always loved a good mystery, and I believe what I believe.

Josephine Smith

This is another story inspired by Rory's Story Cubes - the selection you can see pictured below:

A CASE OF TWO BOWS

 

A case of two bows

Helen was a cleaning lady and worked for all sorts of people.

“It keeps me fit,” she would tell folk. “I sometimes work way up in flats that are sky scrapers. It’s not too bad when the lifts are working. However a lot more exercise when the lifts break down. I do get out of breath when I have to get to the top of the sky scraper and the cleaning stuff gets a bit awkward.”

“I don’t know how you manage!” her friend Ann declared.

“Well, it’s a case of needs must.” Helen thought about this statement and sort of questioned how she did manage?

“I must go, or I will be late, and I am on top floor today,” Helen commented, looking at her watch.

Helen let herself in and got busy. Over by the window she glanced out and took a deep breath. There was a double rainbow, snow-white clouds sat beside it, and they were so still. The vivid colours of the bow and the pure whiteness of the clouds were a sight to remember. Wish I had brought my camera, the awe-struck woman thought.

Helen came back to earth when she heard a buzzing coming from behind her. It was a bumble bee and it headed for the light in the window. Helen let the bee out, which took a bit longer than she thought. Hurrying to get finished she looked out of the window again.

Now it was snowing, and quite hard. As she left the building she saw the bird footprints and a cat’s paw prints. There were no feathers. Good, so the cat had lost his opportunity, Joan thought. This pleased her. It was then she noticed a tiny blue flower; a grape hyacinth was in bloom. Great, spring is on its way, she thought with a sudden excitement. Joan felt joyful.

She headed to the next job which was a semi-detached house. Primroses were out in bloom and the pansies looked so cheerful with their tiny little faces.

Helen felt something brush past her ear. It startled her and then she felt angry.

A small boy had let fly an arrow and it had just missed her. “You should not be playing bows and arrows where people are, as you could hurt someone.”

The boy’s mother came out and screamed at her, “Don’t shout at my kid like that or I’ll smack your face!”

“Come ahead and try it,”Helen calmly answered back.

Then Helen saw the scarab beetle tattooed on the mother’s arm. This beetle always gave Helen the creeps, as she thought it to be a menace. Typical, she thought. No brains, not the child’s fault, but hers.

Josephine Smith

Another story inspired by Rory's Story Cubes: the rainbow, the arrow, the high-rise building, footprints, a scarab beetle, an ordinary house, the flower and the bee... Fascinating, to see how the same images produce different ideas in different people!

NOT MY FIRST CHOICE

 

NOT MY FIRST CHOICE

 

It wasn’t my first choice but when Donna explained about the super-speed lift and the fact that it was going so cheap I didn’t need that much persuading.

I missed the animals of course, especially the sheep.  And the dogs.  As Donna agreed, it wouldn’t have been fair to take them away from the life they were used to and plant them in such an alien environment.  And the couple who took them over from us promised to look after them and seemed to know about the kind of things they  would appreciate.

It was difficult at first, so many people, all strangers, milling about the city.  Hard to get used to having to step out of people’s way all the time to avoid bumping into them.

Then the noise.  No birdsong, no friendly greetings from neighbours, no wind even, it seemed.  Just the relentless grinding sounds of the traffic.

Donna seemed  to adapt to our new lives surprisingly quickly,  think we’d get used to it. The convenience of shops and cinemas delighted her.    I knew I never would adapt.

Still we’d made our choice and were making good money.

So what should we have done when that solitary bee found its way inside our open window?

We took it  to the park of course and when it flew off to join the other bees we looked at each other.

Which is why, tomorrow, we’re visiting the estate agent.

Anne Hill

Rory's Story Cubes stimulated this... the high-rise building and the bee...

 

 

 

NOT THE FIRST TIME

 

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Not the first time it’s happened of course.

When hundreds – if not thousands  - of people are crammed into a skyscraper like the Penrose building and alcohol takes its Saturday night toll  - you expect something to happen.  We just hadn’t thought it would be Alex though.  He was always so careful, always warning us about the fragility of the wire that we wanted to climb through, just a few inches above the seemingly so solid wall.

 

If only Jonny hadn’t been so daredevil you said.  But we all knew he’d come a cropper one day.  If it had only been some  other self-appointed rescuer.   It was really astonishing that it hadn’t happened more often.  Alex’s oft repeated warning had had an effect obviously.

By the time we got down there the ambulance crew were assembled already but too late of course.  We watched  in stunned silence as his body was reassembled and carried away.

And the following morning there was only the single footprint to remind us, the drooping flower where no flower had ever previously been seen, and that strange, cloudy rainbow whose tears, like our own,  could be observed gently watering the dismal scene.

Anne Hill

This, too, is a product of Rory's Story Cubes: a high-rise building, a flower, a footprint, a rainbow with a cloud.

ILLUSION

 

ILLUSION

It was Jimmy’s big treat – a visit to the Town Theater, to see the Magician. He always looked forward to it, had ever since he was taken for the first time at the age of eight, and even now he was thirty it was still the brightest spot of the year.

But this time it looked as though there might be a problem – his Pa had had a phone-call from the Base where he worked, where they monitored things. Jimmy was never sure what monitored meant – he’d been board monitor in school, which meant he wiped it clean, and made sure Miss Mahoney always had something to write with – His Pa told his Ma that they’d found some unusual signals, some traces that they couldn’t explain – Jimmy had asked if his Pa had to go in to clear them up, and his Pa had smiled and nodded. And his Ma had said that Jimmy needn’t worry, they’d still go to the Theater.

“What about Pa’s ticket?” Jimmy had asked. “Can we take it along, and see if someone else wants to go, who doesn’t have a ticket?”

They got there early – Ma didn’t like driving on her own, and always set off earlier than needed – and they even saw the Great Marvo having a cigarette outside the stage-door. Jimmy ran up, and asked him for his autograph, and Marvo smiled and signed his autograph-book with a big flourish.

“Are you a real Magician?” asked Jimmy.

The Great Marvo stood for a moment, thinking. “Mostly,” he said, “I’m an illusionist – but sometimes, if I’m lucky, and the stars are right, I can do real magic. But we can’t stand here talking, Jimmy, I have a show to give, and the people will be getting impatient.” He dropped his cigarette on the asphalt, ground it out with his foot, and went back inside.

“How did he know my name, Ma?” asked Jimmy. “Was that real Magic?”

“You told him. When you asked for his autograph, he wanted to know who he had to make it out to.”

“Oh yeah – let’s go in.”

But they didn’t – not right away – because Jimmy saw a man in a big coat, collar up, hat pulled down, so you couldn’t see his face, just hovering on the square outside the theater, near the fountain.

“You want a ticket, mister?” he said, running up to him – and the man took what was offered to him, looking at it, as if he didn’t quite understand. But Jimmy grabbed his arm, and steered him towards the foyer, and Jimmy’s Ma didn’t interfere, because she liked it when people treated Jimmy well.

The man sat on the aisle. He didn’t take off his coat or his hat – but that was OK, the theater wasn’t full, everybody could see, nobody complained.

Because he was sitting on the aisle, where Jimmy’s Pa would have sat, who always sat where he could get out quickly, in case the Base needed him urgently, it was only natural that the Great Marvo should pick him for the Vanishing Trick that was, as always, the climax of the show.

And of course the audience, small as it was, used to the show that they’d enjoyed these many years, still responded with enthusiastic applause to the sight of the empty cabinet.

If they’d been able to hear what the Great Marvo said to the occupant of the cabinet, then they might have applauded even louder. But they didn’t – and to tell the truth, it was unlikely they would have known what he was saying, because the Great Marvo was a Navaho, and was speaking in his own language – though more for his own benefit than because he expected to be understood.

“I never believed the tales my grandmother told, that her grandmother told her, and her grandmother before her, about the creatures who came from the stars. But she taught me what to do, and because I loved her and wanted to please her, I remembered. I remembered the signs by which I could recognise you. I remembered what I had to do to change you. And I still remember. I never had a chance before. I never believed. I thought I was only an illusionist. Now I know better.”

That was what he was still muttering under his breath, as he advanced to take a bow, with his right hand, Jimmy noticed, clenched across his chest. But when he took his third and final bow, the hand burst open, violently, unexpectedly, and Jimmy, who was sharp at these things, saw something fly out of it, and carry on flying towards the back of the auditorium, where he lost sight of it.

The audience was dispersing.

“Where d’you think that man went?” Jimmy asked his Ma, looking at the still empty seat beside him.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, putting her scarf on. “He probably had things to do.”

They walked across the square, on their way back to the car. As they passed the fountain, Jimmy spotted something struggling in the pool, under the spray. He was sharp at seeing things like that. Before his Ma could stop him, he fished it out, held it in his hand and looked at it under the street-light. A big black beetle walked around on his flattened palm, shaking the water from its legs and carapace. It turned and looked up at him, and gestured with its antennae. Then it rose with a whirr and flew away into the darkness, towards the desert.

When they got home, Jimmy’s Pa was already there. The Base was a lot closer to their house than the town was.

“What about the alert, Ted?” asked Jimmy’s Ma, as she took her scarf off.

“An unusual signal, right enough, as if something was coming in,” said Jimmy’s Pa, “but while I was there we saw the same thing again, as if whatever had come in was going away again, which didn’t make any sense. So we just wrote it off as illusion.”

He turned to his son, and helped him out of his jacket.

“Was it a good show?” he asked.

“It was magic!” said Jimmy.

Riverside Writers on Zoom, inspired by Rory’s Story Cubes, 10.53 to 11.30, 18.i.2021

Here are six of the nine story cubes thrown to produce stories on that morning... You can see the alien, the beetle, the theatre, the magician, the arrow for the Native American, and the fountain on the square.

FLASH FICTION

 Today, we wrote Flash Fiction to a Formula, on the spot, in 20 minutes!

This is the FORMULA:

I woke up early, because…

I looked out of the window and saw…

Suddenly/ Then I realised…

This is what I wrote, and I hope that the other participants will let me have their stories...

TWO OUT OF THREE

I woke up early, because it was my birthday, and I expected there to be presents all over the floor. If you’ve been given three wishes by a little bearded man whose life you’ve saved by fishing him out of a drain, then…

But when I got out of bed, I didn’t tread on anything, except my trousers and the arm of the Action Man I had last Christmas, which I kicked out of the way. Maybe the little bearded man was deaf. “I want a GIANT present!” I shouted. Then I heard a noise outside.

I looked out of the window, and saw… a large area of dull green moleskin cloth where the sky should be! Then I heard a voice, so loud it made the house shake!

“LET ME IN! I’M YOUR PRESENT!”

Then I realised you have to be very careful when you make wishes… especially when you think your giant present will have smashed your dad’s greenhouse.

Everything was the way it had been when I woke up. I knew, because I trod on the Action Man’s arm as I went back to bed, and it hurt. (But I wasn’t wasting my last wish on that!)