BBA & HBWC Administrator
Andrea Reece
30 Winton Avenue, London, N11 2AT
Tel: 0208 889 1292
Mob: 07807 893369
Email: branford.boase@gmail.com
Press Enquiries
Andrea Reece
Tel: 07807 893369 | Email: branford.boase@gmail.com
Dad’s gone out for the night and I’m alone at home for the first time. I should be doing homework, but I’ve got the television on, staring out the window into the garden. The moon paints the swaying oak tree silver, a cat stalks mice from its branches. There are fireworks crackling up on the hill; green, red, purple.
It happens all at once. The television stalls, paused on the newsreader. The oak stops swaying, the cat is frozen mid-pounce. A firework hangs in the sky. I stand up, search about, feel my heart race. I look out the window, and I spot it, beyond the bushes.
Something is moving in the garden.
Dad’s gone out for the night and I’m alone at home for the first time. I should be doing homework, but I’ve got the television on, staring out the window into the garden. The moon paints the swaying oak tree silver, a cat stalks mice from its branches. There’s fireworks crackling up on the hill; green, red, purple. It happens all at once. The television stalls, paused on the newsreader. The oak stops swaying, the cat is frozen mid-pounce. A firework hangs in the sky. I stand up, search about, feel my heart race. I look out the window, and I spot it, beyond the bushes. Something is moving in the garden. It appears to be a faint blue glow.
Immediately, my brain comes with theories as to what it is. Firstly though, I tell myself it was silly to be scared of the noise, trying to calm myself down. It could be anything. A squirrel. A bird. A rat. But then I glance back at the frozen newsreader, the firework hanging in the air, and the cat suspended in the air mid pounce. No animal could do that. In fact, no human could. Was it a dream? I pinch myself as hard as I can, still looking at the garden. I winced. This was not a dream. I start to panic. I can feel my legs starting to wobble, yet I am standing as still as a statue. I find my breath uncontrollably fast and shaky. Right now, I am very scared. Having watched a lot of horror movies, I don’t like how my own situation matched those who usually get jumped by a monster. Dad did tell me to call him, but I am not sure if my legs could even move without collapsing. Besides, if the thing in the bush was not very friendly, then there would no point calling dad. By the time he would come back, it could possibly be too late. I realise that if I have any chance of being safe, I have to do this on my own.
Now for a plan of action. I can’t just stay here, or the thing in the bush might decide that this game of who can stay as still as a statue is getting boring. Slowly, I slide my feet across the kitchen floor. I realise I am hyperaware of everything. I am looking for the slightest of movements and listening to the slightest of noises. But finally, I feel the familiar marble counter of the kitchen. My hand searches the counter, until I touch something that is metal. I hold its handle. It felt like a knife. The perfect weapon. Feeling more confident, I now tiptoe to the French door, my nose a few inches away from it. I gently open it and put on the slippers Infront of me. As I step out into the garden, I am hit with the scent of all the flowers Dad insists we keep. It is quite refreshing, and paired with the still, black sky, almost makes me forget how there is possibly a creature a few metres away from me. Unfortunately, I snap out of it, and the butterflies in my stomach return. I then hear a noise I thought I would never hear. A distorted robotic noise. It sounds a bit frustrated. I then hear it pressing against something to make a metal ring. My curiosity gets the better of me, and I find myself now closer to the bush than I liked. I put my ear against the bush, so it doesn’t touch it and listen. And then, the bushes shake around, and something emerges.
“Human do not be alarmed, and do not scream-,” began the figure. Unfortunately, I am alarmed, and I do want to scream. So, I do. I scream at the top of my lungs. It’s very high pitched, the type of sound a 6-year-old makes when they see a spider. I also take my knife and stab it against the figure as hard as I can. It makes a “cling” sound. And I realise a few things. Firstly, in front of me is a robot just a few centimetres taller than myself. It has some device in his hands. Its eyes give of a faint blue glow. So that’s what the blue glow I saw was. It has a thick metal body, and a mouth that looks like a cars grill. I also realise that the “knife” I thought I was holding was in fact a spoon. I was so focused on the garden; I didn’t realise I bought a spoon against a robot. So, there I am. I am guessing that this robot is sent by an alien civilisation to inspect humans, and also invade Earth. I am once again quite scared. It seems like my life was at its end. It was quite uneventful, but all I can think of is how I will miss everyone. Then the robot speaks. He breaks away from his sophisticated form of speaking and sounds rather annoyed.
“What? How are you- How are you still moving?”. He presses a button on his device. Nothing happens. He angrily spams it, but nothing.
“What do you mean?”, I ask, once again curious even when I’m pretty sure I was about to die to a robot from an alien civilisation.
“Well. When I press this button, everything is supposed to freeze. But here you are, moving.”
“Can you please elaborate”, I say cautiously. I knew how stupid I was being. My best chance of survival was to run. But I was too curious. Besides, if I was to die, I might as well know why this robot was here.
“I was given orders to freeze Earth to troubleshoot it. There’s been an error”, he says as if it was the most obvious thing In the world.
“What?”
“I was given orders to freeze Earth -”.
“ Ok…. But how do you troubleshoot… A planet?”
“Oh right. Humans don’t know do you?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind that. Go to sleep or something. ”
“But I’ll tell everyone about this”, I say immediately realising I gave the robot a reason to kill me.
“This has happened before. But when someone tried to tell others, they called him crazy”, replied to the robot, calmly looking at the device.
“So, you come out at night, when no one knows. Like the BFG?”
“Like the- Oh wait. Let me just…”, says the robot as he types something on his device. He then mumbles something.
“Children’s novel… Famous writer Roald…Sohpie… Friendly Giant…”. He looks up from his device.
“Yes. I am like the BFG.”