Stealing the Stars

Alex entered the room, the children knew they should still be asleep, but the arrival of their Uncle the night before was too exciting and the anticipation of fun and games too much to keep their eyes closed.

‘What is going on here you little ratbags.’ Uncle Alex teased the children. There was some little giggling coming from under the duvet. ‘Are there two little thieves hiding from their Uncle under there?’ Alex moved towards the bed where two small children were hiding.

‘We not thieves’ came a muffled denial and then a head popped out, ‘you are a thief’ said Sarah

‘Yea you are a thief’ confirmed her younger brother.

‘I am not’ Uncle Alex replied before jumping on the bed to wrestle the two children. After a few minutes of rough and tumble Sarah’s brother pipped up.

‘Why did you call us thieves?’

Uncle Alex pointed to the jar by the side of the bed filled up with fairy lights. ‘Look, there is the evidence’

Sarah and her brother looked at each other puzzled.

‘You two have been stealing the stars’

Instinct

The children sat on the grass and watched their dog mooch around. Sniffing the tree trunks, bushes and the corners of the strange white building that didn’t seem to house anything. Perhaps it was a storeroom in times gone by.

‘Imagine being a dog’

‘Woof’ Rebecca replied

‘Very funny, no imagine, not having to think’

‘I am pretty sure dogs think Sarah’

‘No, like just thinking now… oh smell that, oh that smells better, oh actually I think another dog is coming.’ She mimicked the nose of their dog sniffing the air. ‘Just thinking of what is in the now, what is there.’ She paused as Muji came back from around the white building carrying a stick. ‘See look, he just lives for the now.’

‘And your point being?’ Rebecca asked

‘I just wish I could live for now and not have to worry about the future or the past. I just want to hunt for sticks.’

‘Hmmmm…’ Rebecca mused. ‘That’s what all those self help, meditation apps tell you, live in the moment, but it’s not really that easy. You have lots of stuff going on, exams, Brian, Mum’s birthday, A-level choices, things as simple as what to wear to church next Sunday. Muji just has, where is my next meal coming from?’

‘But that’s my point, what if we could stop worrying about all those things and just work on instinct, you know stop questioning if one way is better or the other. How cool would that be?’

Rebecca smiled, ‘I reckon we would end up with a lot of bad decisions!’

They giggled together… ‘Like splitting up with Brian.’

‘Or buying Mum tickets for Spice Girls’. They laughed louder.

‘I think she would actually quite like the Spice Girls concert.’

‘Yea your right… See perhaps instinct is a good idea.’

Moving Sound

The beat flowed, the bodies followed, it was steady, continuous, but fluctuating. The rhythm held the dancers, kept them still for moments and then released them, allowing them to express their own interpretation of the music.

Hands united, eyes focused, pupils widened. Those that played were lost in the beat, those that danced felt the sound waves, felt the music as if it were an object hanging in the air. As they danced they moved the sounds around like a giant Rubik’s Cube, twisting and turning, spinning and falling. They played and danced till the sun had gone and returned. They smiled and laughed and the next day they thought. They sat and watched the horizon, mind stumbling to find last nights clarity.

A Trap

We were promised everything. It had never happened to me before but we walked into the room, ready for a fight and… There was no resistance, no maybe, no we will think about it, no no’s! Just yes… It was unerring.

Before we went into the meeting we had discussed what we were willing to give up and what we wanted to fight for, but when all of those things were granted, I have to admit, we were a bit weak asking for more, timid. But they granted us more anyway. We were basically promised the world, so we gave in, we just accepted that all things were going to be great and signed.

And it was not like they didn’t deliver, for the first three months we couldn’t believe it, we were given everything that they promised, all the tools we needed and all the extra resources we asked for, we were swimming in luxury.

But then it changed, however it was not them who changed things, it was us, we had been drowning in the good stuff and it was suffocating. We just didn’t have any fight, any edge, we lost our spark, our willingness to think creatively, we just expected things to be there in place and for people to get it.

We had it so we expected everyone else too as well. But that’s not how it works. Some people out there are still fighting, searching, they have the edge. We were just stuck in the honey pot with all the others who have it, or at least think they have it.

Dancing to a different tune

The Angel played and the birds danced, soaring high into the sky, up up up to the mountain tops and then, pressing their wings tightly to their bodies they plummeted back down toward the church. The Angel loved those birds and they loved her music. They would play for hours circling the spire, perching on the cross, dancing to a different tune.

Dragon Lillies

‘You go’

‘No way… you first’

‘Nope you threw it, you can go and fetch it’

‘But what if she is there…’

‘Then you better get in and out quickly’

Emily walked up to the walled garden, took one look back at her sister, let out a long sigh and scaled the wall. Davina looked on, the corners of her mouth unsure whether to bloom into a smile or wither to concern.
‘Can you see it?’ Davina called out as Emily dropped down into the garden. But she received no reply, Emily was either ignoring her or out of earshot. ‘Is the witch there?’ She called a little louder. But again there was no response, her options of ignoring and unheard changed to under a spell or dead. ‘Are you okay?’ She started to shout, but failed to finish as her subconscious mind prevented the words from leaving her mouth, afraid of drawing attention to her sister on the wrong side of the wall.

Behind the ear of the Monkey

‘What are you looking at?’ Mum asked Nathan as she tucked him into bed. Nathan didn’t reply he just wriggled a little lower and pulled the covers to his chin. ‘What did Monkey do today?’ Mum changed tact.

‘He is very old isn’t he?’ Nathan replied in reference to his pet monkey.

‘He is you are right. He used to belong to your Daddy.’

‘So he is older than Daddy?’

Mum stopped to think for a moment, ‘I think your Daddy got him when he was about 2 or 3 years old, so Daddy is a little bit older but not much.’

Nathan paused for thought. ‘Have you looked behind his ear? Look at the colour of his fur.’ Nathan pulled Monkey’s ear back to reveal soft yellow fur. ‘Did his whole face look like that once?’

‘I am not sure, you will have to ask your father that.’

‘It feels like Muji’s fur under his chin its soft and cuddly, will Muji’s face change like Monkey’s?’

‘Maybe, Muji is a puppy still and he will get older, but I think he will always stay cuddly’

‘I don’t want to get old’

Mum laughed and hugged her son, ‘I don’t want you to get old either, shall we make a promise to stay young forever?’

‘Yea like Monkey’s ears and Muji’s fur.’ Nathan turned to his mother and smiled his big smile. Mum kissed him on his forehead, tucked the duvet around him and Monkey and agreed.

‘Yes like Monkey’s ears’

Adventure Starts Early

‘It’s like fishing, you put the maggot on the hook, the fish tries to eat the maggot and gets a little surprise’

‘And then?’

‘Well, the bike is like the maggot, they will come running down the path, see the bike and then come looking for us up the hill.’

‘So we are telling them where we are, that’s stupid’

‘Well that’s what you think, but you are wrong. We will see them coming up the hill and then when they get into the boulder field we will double back and run back down the path, easy peasy.’

There was a pause as the plan settled in Joe’s mind. He nodded his head in agreement but still had questions. ‘What about the bike?’

Jacob hadn’t thought about the bike ‘ummm… the lock’s pretty solid we will come back for it later.’

‘Later.’

Crackkkk… A loud snap echoed through the forest.

‘Quick get down, they are coming.’

‘Buuuut…’

‘No buts get down.’

‘But my bike.’