Bubble Trouble

September 21, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 12 Comments

Photo: © Al Forbes 2014

Mike’s grainy camera-phone footage, with voice-over, became an viral Internet sensation. He briefly made it into the tabloids, before disappearing into oblivion – being known variously as ‘Space Cadet’ or ‘Michael Bubble’, depending on the publication.

All because one day he noticed a little bubble floating outside his window. Nobody ever disputed that. But from then on, the story took on a life of its own.

Mike claimed that he had received an audio broadcast from the bubble, actually a spaceship from Pleiades (a star cluster in the Taurus constellation). Unfortunately for Mike, most thought his story was pure bull.

The Pleiadians, as Mike called them, apparently came in peace and were happy to learn about our culture, and share their advanced technology for the betterment of humanity.

It was when Mike filmed himself trying to turn a bus lane into an extra-terrestrial landing strip, that things started to get out of hand. Poor Mike didn’t help his cause by not being able to explain why a bubble needed a landing strip. He was given a Mental Health assessment, which he scraped through, by the skin of his teeth.

After a couple of weeks, the story was quickly forgotten. And Mike literally dropped off the face of the earth.

He’d secretly joined the Pleiadians when they left of our solar system, in search of a more deserving culture.

This story was prompted by two challenges:

1) Sunday Photo Fiction, September 21st 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

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To view other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog.

2) Pixel Prose Challenge, hosted by Amanda Lakey at www.Uniqueartchic.com

To view the other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog.

Good Bye-ee

September 14, 2014September 16, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 15 Comments

Photo: © Al Forbes 2014

As the train slowly gathered speed from the platform, our friends and families disappeared from view. It was then we finally realised that our journey to the British front line trenches in Belgium had begun. Like many of us, I was carrying a photo of a family member close to my heart. To remind me what this expedition was all about.

The excited babble before we pulled away quickly fell into silence, each one of us lost in our own private thoughts. A small group started singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”, but it soon fizzled out. This was more a time for reflection. None of us really knew what to expect. Even though we’d all seen photos and some jerky movie footage from the front. We knew that brave lads giving the thumbs up, before going over-the-top, wasn’t the whole story. Not even close.

As we pulled into other stations, more groups joined the train. The noise level rose as we greeted our new comrades. But as the platforms disappeared from view, the mood always dipped. It was as if we were all playing some great game, for the benefit of those we were leaving behind. Some of them would never understand what we were doing. Some said we should stay well out of it, that it wasn’t our war.

But if not for us, then who did those men die for? Many never got the send-off they deserved. I take out the the small photo of my Granddad, taken just weeks before he was killed in Mons, a hundred years ago. Doesn’t he deserve a few days of my time to take a Battlefield Tour in 2014, and place flowers on his grave? I look at the diverse group of people on this train, and I’m proud that they feel the same way I do.

For the first time, I’m using one story to enter two challenges. The first challenge is inspired by a specific photo, while the other has a completely open theme. Feel free to visit both!

1) Sunday Photo Fiction, September 14th 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

Click the logo for more details.

To view other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog!

2) Pixel Prose Challenge, September 14th 2014, hosted by Amanda Lakey at www.UniqueArt Chic.com.

Click the logo for more details.

To view other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog.

Staring Into Space: Sunday Photo Fiction

September 7, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 11 Comments

Photo: © Al Forbes 2014

Back in the day, Station Master Mike Harris used to find that running his branch line was so much fun, it wasn’t like work at all. He always had a spring in his step as he climbed the stairs to his control room. Under his arm was a pack-up lunch and a thermos flask of sweet, milky tea to last him for the shift.

People said he had the railways in his blood. His dad had been Station Master before him, and he’d helped Mike get established in the early days.

But Mike was keen to do things his own way. He realised that for his railway to survive, he had to integrate with other services. He had made improvements and efficiencies, and the little branch line developed into a thriving community transport hub. He had overseen the construction of a connected bus station, and even the road links had been improved.

All that seems long ago now. The branch line lies deserted and mothballed. No one comes here any more. Mike no longer climbs those stairs. It seems like he’s retired from a life on the railways.

After his dad bought him that telescope, Mike lost interest in his model train set in the attic. Now, like many twelve year olds, he spends much of his time just staring into space.

This story was prompted by Sunday Photo Fiction, September 7th 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

Click the logo for more details.

To view the other entries in this challenge, click the blue frog.

Got My Name in the Papers

August 31, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 11 Comments

Photo: © Al Forbes 2014

They had originally asked me to speak at his funeral. I politely declined to attend, saying it would be too emotional for me.

I would have liked to have been there, to be part of the shared grieving process. After all, he’d been my mentor and was such an inspiration for me. If only I’d been able to reach the heights of his success and popularity.

He died on his birthday – a real Shakespearean tragedy, you might say. As a Knight of the West End theatre, I think he would have appreciated the irony.

I often imagine him opening his gift. The Newton’s Cradle he’d always wanted. Like the big kid he was, he probably would have pulled on one of the metal balls straight away, closing the mercury switch that detonated the explosive device.

I knew he would never read the goodbye note I attached to it, telling him how much I really hated his ‘niceness’. How behind my smile, I was just waiting for a chance to pay him back for his mystifying success. And now it was my turn for the limelight after waiting for so long. But I just wanted that note to be there with him, when he went ‘out’. Exit, stage left.

The real irony is, that they managed to identify my signature from two fragments of paper.

During the trial, I got the biggest headlines of my career. But what use is it to me now, stuck on the Inside. I call it rough justice.

I hear they’ve done a wonderful obituary for him on BBC1. Life just isn’t fair.

This story is written for Sunday Photo Fiction: August 31, 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

For more details, click the logo.

To view other entries in this challenge, click on the blue frog.

Star Jar Jinx

August 26, 2014August 26, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 6 Comments

“Police has asked me to say a few words.

Before I do, I don’t see why I’m taking blame for it. It’s really all our Derek’s fault.

Derek has never been brightest star in galaxy. He knows it. Even Sheila, his Mam knows it, but she won’t hear a word against him. Because, what he lacks in brains, she says, he makes up for in ‘good-natured enthusiasm’.

Fair dues, Derek would do a favour for anybody. He always does as he’s told, and was hardest working Class V Junior Technician on starship Prometheus. They said so. But I doubt he’ll keep his job after this.

I mean, when you’re told to flush a baby Alien creature out of airlock, surely there must be a good reason for it. But no! Too much for him to bear, the soft lad. Now he’s really done it this time.

He secretly brings that creature back home in a glass bottle that wasn’t fit for purpose. I thought it was one of those lava lamps at first. More fool me!

Then Sheila starts screaming! Ahhhhh, she says, Ahhhhhhh! It starts moving and wriggling, it does. Quick as a flash I’ve took it to bathroom and flushed it down WC. I thought that was the end of it. But then Derek finds out and says we have to tell somebody.

Now they’re calling it an environmental hazard. Apparently, if you live anywhere near Mansfield, you’ve got to be very careful when you, you know, go!

So if you’ve got one of these Alien things in your plumbing. Don’t try to tackle it yourself, leave it to the experts. Let Coppers handle it. Thank you!”

This story was prompted by Sunday Photo Fiction, August 24th 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

For more details, click the logo.

To read the other stories in this challenge, click the Blue Frog!