ROCKET MAN STORIES
One night when all was quiet, Joseph was awakened from sleep by a strange, loud roaring sound, coming from outside. Joe was generally quite brave, but at this time of the night, with everything being dark and everyone asleep, he wanted his sister, Ellen to help him find out what the noise was.
So he put on his slippers and dressing gown and tiptoed into Ellen’s bedroom. She was already awake. “Did you hear that noise?” he whispered. Ellen nodded and they both opened the curtains to look onto the playing field. There, sitting on the field, was a large, silvery rocket.
“Let’s go and have a look!” insisted Ellen. Although Joe was older than his sister, he wasn’t sure that this was a good idea. But Ellen was already down the stairs and by the door, and so he followed after her.
They crept out of the house and round to the playing field. The grass was still smouldering, where the rocket flames had burnt it. There was a ladder going up the side of the rocket. As both Ellen and Joe were looking all the way to the top of the ladder, a door started to open.
Slowly and cautiously a helmeted head appeared through the door. Followed by the rest of the astronaut, because that’s what it was….an astronaut. Joe had seen photos of astronauts in one of his books, all gleaming white with a thickly padded suit. Ellen thought that the astronaut looked like it had a duvet, stuck under it’s clothes!
Ellen and Joe looked at the astronaut and the astronaut looked back. It was Ellen who broke the silence, “Can we come up?” she shouted. The astronaut nodded. “You go up first Joe, and I’ll follow you.”
Soon they were both near the top of the ladder. They could see inside the rocket and also see the astronaut more clearly. Through the glass screen, covering the face, Joe thought he could see a smile. Anyway, he hoped it was a smile!
The astronaut seemed to be beckoning them into the rocket so warily, they obeyed. Inside the walls and floor were made of silvery material that looked like metal but felt like plastic. There was a console facing the windscreen and seated in front of it was a thing that Ellen thought was a robot. She’s read about them in one of her books. Unfortunately all could remember about them, was that they were normally rather NASTY! S, with all the confidence she could summon up, she marched over to the robot and introduced herself. “My name is Ellen, and this is my brother, Joseph….but you can call him Joe.” It wasn’t really clear to Joe or Ellen, whether she was talking to the right end of the robot, as it didn’t have any eyes, mouth or the things people normally have on their heads.
The robot was shaped like a volcano firework, with two telescopic arms which it used t press buttons and switches on the console. It suddenly stopped what it was doing and the top half of it’s body glowed, giving out a warm red light. Joe was about to say he’d seen enough, when the astronaut came across. “I’d like you to meet ROBOT 2001. I just call it ‘Friendly’. And I’m 'Astro’. Would you like to come with us for a ride in the rocket?”. “Yes please!” they said together.
So they sat down in the large, reclining seats, Ellen next to Friendly, and Joe next to Astro. Friendly used its telescopic arms to fasten a wide seat belt round Ellen, whilst Astro did the same to Joe.
After Friendly and Astro had pressed some buttons on the control computer, Ellen and Joe excitedly shouted out the countdown. “Five, Four, Three, Two, One, BLASTOFF!" The loud roar from far below them told them that the rocket had ignited and they were on their way.
As Ellen looked out of the window, the world beneath them disappeared. Friendly could read the look of fear in her face. It pointed at the console. The button marked "megaspeed” was set to “on”. Astro said, “You should be able to see the planet soon.” They both looked out and could see a green and blue planet, very similar to our own Earth, growing larger as they approached. “You’d better get back in your seats, ready for the landing.” said Astro.
They felt the rocket slowing down, and then they were down. “Friendly, you go first to make sure everything’s safe.” Joe wondered how the robot was going to get down the ladders? He didn’t have to wait long to find out.
The robot seemed to float across the floor, over to the door. As the door opened, Friendly simply floated out and gently to the ground. Joe said, “What a useful robot you’ve got in Friendly!” Astro said that he was very lucky to have a robot in the 2000 Series as only two were made, ROBOT 2000 and Friendly, ROBOT 2001.
“Friendly s glowing warm red now. This shows it must be safe to go out. Come on, let’s go.” said Astro as he lead the way down the ladder.
They appeared to have landed in the middle of a field. In the distance, there was smoke rising and lights shining. “That looks like a town. Shall we go and investigate?” said Ellen, heading off in that direction, without waiting to see if the others were following. Astro, Friendly and Joe had no option but to follow behind.
As they got nearer, the town appeared to be surrounded by a large, stone wall. They stopped by the front wall, where there was a small, wooden gate. Friendly floated up to the gate and knocked with it’s telescopic arms. Nothing happened…..Friendly was about to knock again, when a voice came from above.
“You can come in, but you’d better be very quick!” and the wooden gates opened. Joe and Ellen hurried through, followed by Astro and Friendly.
Inside were lots of people wondering what these strange visitors wanted. Ellen suddenly realised how strange they must look - they still had only their dressing gowns and slippers on, and Friendly and Astro still looked strange to them!
All the town’s people talked and shouted at once. It was very difficult to understand them. “You are lucky the Dragon didn’t get you, Cara and Sim weren’t so lucky. Where could they have come from?” Astro interrupted the and said,“One at a time! Now what’s this about a dragon? And who’s this Cara and Sim then?
The crowd parted and a small boy and girl came forward. The girl said that her name was Cara and the boy, her brother was Sim. They both had very ugly scars in their faces. "We were playing over by the woods, not far from the city walls. he flame-breathing Dragon caught us and burnt our faces. ” said Cara. Astro turned to Ellen and Joe and said, “We’re going to have to find this dragon and kill it.” Joe didn’t say anything, but hoped that they wouldn’t have to kill the dragon.
The townspeople were glad to see that they were going to try and kill the dragon, but they also thought that must be slightly mad for trying! They watched the four of them, for quite a long time, walking towards the woods where the Dragon lived, before someone said that they ought to close the gate, just in case the Dragon came around!
As the four of them got nearer to the woods, a roaring sound got louder and louder. “That must be the Dragon. I hope we don’t have to kill it, Ellen.” whispered Joe. Astro asked Joe and Ellen to wait outside the woods, whilst they went inside to kill the Dragon. But Joe and Ellen wanted to see the Dragon….and they didn’t want it to be killed.
Through the trees, they could see the flames and smoke. The roaring noise grew louder and louder. The noise seemed to sound like something familiar….together Ellen and Joe realised what the the sound was..the Dragon was crying!
“I’ve got no friends! No-one can come near me. As soon as they do and I breathe on them, they’re burnt to a cinder. I’M SO LONELY!” moaned the Dragon, louder and louder.
Astro said to Friendly, “Arm the short-range missile. Get ready to fire.” “No! Stop!” screamed Ellen and Joe, “there must be something else we can do? the Dragon doesn’t mean to hurt anyone.” Astro said that there was anything else they could do.
“What can we do?” said Ellen, “I don’t know.” said Joe. Suddenly a gleam came over Ellen’s face, “I know what to do!” She shouted from behind the tree, nearest the Dragon, “ HOLD YOUR BREATH!”
The Dragon stopped crying for a moment and looked up. “HOLD YOUR BREATH! I SAID." she shouted again. A puzzled look came over the Dragon, but it obviously understood, because it took a deep breath. Ellen rushed over to the Dragon, "We’re going to put your flames out. We’ll back soon.”
“Just what are we going to do then?” asked Joe. “I’d better not tell you yet, 'cos you won’t believe me. Come on, we’ve got to get something from back at the town!” exclaimed Ellen, heading back the way they came.
The townspeople were so surprised when they saw the four of coming back, “Didn’t the Dragon get you?” they shouted from the city walls. “No, it didn’t. We’re going to put out the flames,” shouted Joe. When they were inside the town, Ellen told everyone to collect as much ice as they could, any kind of ice - ice cubes, ice lollies, ice-cream…just any ice. The ice was loaded into four wheelbarrows, one each for Joe, Ellen, Astro and Friendly, which they took back to the wood, where Dragon lived.
When they got to the woods, Joe shouted to Dragon, “Open your mouth as wide as possible. Now take the biggest breath you can and hold it as long as you can!” He had already guessed what Ellen had in mind.
Dragon inhaled for a long, long time. As soon as the flames died down, all four of them ran over to Dragon and started to load the ice into its open mouth. One wheelbarrow load. Then another. Then another. Dragon’s eyes starting to go red, with holding its breath. And finally, the last wheelbarrow full of ice, was poured into its gaping mouth. “Everybody! Quick! Behind the tree,” shouted Joe, “before Dragon breaths out. We don’t know if the flames will be out yet.”
When they were behind the trees, Ellen shouted, “Right Dragon. You can breath out now.” A loud phew and a rush of steam, came from Dragon’s mouth, but no flames or fire! Joe and Ellen were overjoyed. Ellen danced with Friendly and Joe Danced with Astro. “We’ve done it! We’ve done it!” they all sang.
All four of them went over to Dragon. “The flames have gone. I won’t frighten people away any more! Climb on my back and I’ll take you for a ride.” said smiling Dragon. Joe and Ellen climbed on Dragon’s long neck. “Let’s go back to the town and tell everyone?” whispered Ellen into Dragon’s ear.
When they road up to the town, the townspeople closed the gate. “What do you think you're doing bringing that dragon here? You were supposed to kill it?” they shouted from the top of the city walls. Joe shouted back,“ We didn’t need to kill it. We’ve just put out it’s flames. See? It’s not breathing fire now.”
Slowly the gate opened. Cara and Sim came out. When Dragon saw their disfigured faces, it started to weep, “I didn’t mean to do that. Please forgive me,” it moaned. “We forgive you,” said Cara and Sim, kissing Dragon on each cheek, “as long as we can both have a ride on your back next?”
As soon as Joe and Ellen had climbed down, Cara and Sim got onto Dragon’s back.
Astro whispered to Ellen and Joe, “ We’d better be getting back. Your Mum and Dad will be waking soon.” They climbed quickly up the ladder of the rocket. Friendly and Astro prepared for takeoff, as Ellen and Joe waived goodbye to the townspeople. As they closed the rocket door, Dragon lifted one of its massive paws and waved back at them. Dragon looked so happy, surrounded by the townspeople, with Cara and Sim on its back.
After they'd blasted off, Joe and Ellen watched through one of the windows, as their new friends became smaller and smaller, until they could no longer see them.
They landed back on the recreation ground. As she started to climb down the ladder, Ellen asked Astro, if they would see them again. “Maybe. Maybe? Goodbye for now.” Friendly whirled its arms, which probably meant goodbye too.
From their bedroom window, they watched the rocket takeoff. They watched until the rocket was a tiny dot in the sky. And then, they climbed into their beds, to dream about the next adventure with Astro and Friendly, the robot.
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