Home Sweet Home

The helicopter landed at the airbase a few miles from Paul’s village. Jim and Jam found him a lift home, although neither could agree on what they had seen.

Paul opened the garden gate.

Jumpy sat on his floating platform. Ginger completed what might have been his ten-millionth circuit of the pond. Muggy and Moggy watched from the Cats’ Cradle.

Everything was exactly where he had left it.

He hid the crystal sphere beneath the stairs and covered it with the PoncoJacket. Then he entered the kitchen.

His mother was peeling potatoes. His father was reading the football results.

“Had a good jog?” his mother asked.

Paul looked at the clock. It was twelve fifteen. He had left at nine fifteen.

Three hours.

It had felt like weeks.

“It was interesting,” he said.

“Interesting jogging?” his father asked. “That’s a first.”

Paul sat at the table. He noticed the tiny things he usually ignored: steam curling from the kettle, rain tapping the window, the newspaper rustling when his father turned a page.

“Nice cup of tea?” his mother asked.

“Yes, please.”

After lunch, Paul returned to the pond. Jumpy’s raft was turning in circles because the propeller had bent.

Normally Paul would have abandoned it and invented something new.

Instead, he took the motor apart, straightened the shaft and adjusted the rudder. Jumpy sailed across the pond in a perfect line.

“Not bad,” Paul said.

The frog croaked.

“I agree. It could still use a roof.”

From inside the house came a faint hum.

Paul ran to the cupboard beneath the stairs.

The crystal sphere was glowing through the PoncoJacket. Seven colours pulsed around a white centre.

(opens a larger, uncropped view)

Words appeared inside:

GO-GO-POLE RETURN BUTTON TEST COMPLETE.

RESULT: UNEXPECTED.

ASSISTANCE MAY BE REQUIRED.

Paul grinned.

He was not bored.

He had too much to do.

The End

Some lively words from the story are collected in Words Are Fun.