In Your Dreams...

By Rosie Levene, aged 9

Colin Ear-fluff sat at the rear of a red London bus travelling to his inventing workshop in Covent Garden.

‘What a relief they finally let me out of prison. All I did was promise I wouldn’t invent anything slightly dangerous again, like my machine for beautifying hair. I only got a few bald patches,’ he thought, ‘what could I invent next that is useful and only a little bit life-threatening?’

Just then he overheard two men seated in front of him chatting about their dreams. That gave Colin the idea of creating a machine to make dreams come true! Wouldn't it be amazing!

An hour later, Colin was putting the finishing touches, or rather whacks, to his invention; it was time to try it out! As soon as he pressed the button labeled ‘gow’, the machine flashed a red light and made a zapping sound. ‘I shall call it the Dream Machine - unicorns and candy-floss here we come!’ exclaimed Colin, followed by ‘Agh!’

He was still shouting ‘agh’ as he zipped through the sky and dropped rather unfortunately back into prison. Colin realised something was very wrong with his invention. ‘I put too many x-nuts in it and not nearly enough y-bolts,’ he muttered, ‘so it’s not surprising it’s not worked.’

That evening everyone’s nightmares came true as the Dream Machine stalked through the streets. Ghosts played tubas, pigs flew, and huge meat pies on legs trampled vegetarians. The troublesome invention walked past a cat called Fleazle. Fleazle was just about to tuck into his grilled prawn supper when he saw the machine. He shrugged, looked confused (as all cats do when nobody is watching) and returned to his prawns. Oh no! In his lovely blue bowl was disgusting, sloppy cat food - Fleazle’s worst nightmare!

Fleazle shot out of his cat-flap and down the street after the mischievous machine. He quickly caught up and noticed a red button marked ‘stoppe’. Fleazle realised the person who invented the machine couldn’t spell and so probably wasn’t much good at inventing either - that button could possibly do anything! He took a deep breath, rested his paw on the button and… the machine bolted along the road, with Fleazle clutching on, the tufts of fur on his cheeks blowing in the wind as the nightmarish things around him turned back to normal again.

The invention stopped outside a building marked ‘Colline-Eerfluffe-Seekret-Worcshopp’. Judging by the spelling, this must be where the trouble began. Inside there was a piece of paper covered in diagrams. Fleazle translated the instructions (they were also spelt incorrectly) and followed them in reverse to take apart the machine. As soon as the last components were dismantled, a strange, shabby-looking man in a prison uniform appeared.

'Thank you for stopping the machine.' Colin said as an angry policemen handcuffed him and dragged him away.

All was quiet in London again. Fleazle tucked into a big bowl of prawns and only one man was still experiencing his nightmare!