Young Writers Society

“Nancy approached the trash can.” Beety said dramatically. He used two fingers to represent Nancy and moved them towards the nearest kindergartener.

“That’s boring!” The little girl whined and kicked Beety’s fingers away with her foot.

The storyteller sighed and replied, “Well it’s going to be boring if you interrupt me. Anyway, Nancy approached the trash can. It was shaking like a wet dog and making loud clanging noises like you hear in a kitchen.” The children laughed at this.

“Was it possessed by a ghost?” Tommy, the wannabe ghost-hunter, asked.

Beety shook his head. “No! When Nancy reached the trash can, she opened the lid and-” He paused for effect and watched the little ones squirm with anticipation. “And she saw an alien!” Everyone, including Beety, held their hands to their mouths and gasped.

A chorus of questions began. “How did an alien get in a trash can?” “Was he green and slimy?” “Did he eat Nancy?” “Was the alien possessed by a ghost?” “Did he come from space?”

Beety held up his hand and the kindergarteners turned silent. “I shall now answer all your questions, if you’ll allow me to finish.” They nodded and Beety continued, “The alien shook Nancy’s hand and seemed pleased to meet her. He told Nancy that the trash can was actually a spaceship.”

“How can a bin be a spaceship?” The whiny girl asked.

“It’s not actually a trash can, it’s just disguised as one. Anyway, his ship had crashed in Nancy’s backyard. The alien was indeed green, but soft instead of slimy. He didn’t eat Nancy and was actually quite kind, he also explained that he was scared of ghosts.” Tommy erupted in giggles and Beety went on, “The alien had come from a planet in space, where he had been ordered to go to earth and bring back a poppy seed.”

All the children erupted in laughter at that moment, and one boy held up his bread roll which was sprinkled with little black poppy seeds.

“Yes!” Beety pointed to the roll. “That’s exactly what the alien needed. Nancy told the alien that she could easily run into the pantry and get some poppy seeds. So she did, but when she came back, the poor green alien was being chased around by her cat!” Beety stood up and started chasing the little kids, much to their delight.

“The alien ran around the backyard in circles, until he got too tired and had to stop.” Beety let the children reach him, then stopped running and sat back down. “The cat caught up to him and started licking the alien!”

At once all the kindergarteners began licking Beety and he had to wrestle the little daleks to make them stop.

“When the cat went inside, Nancy handed the poppy seeds to the alien. Then he went into the trash can, which was its spaceship, and pulled out a big red button. The alien said thank you, pressed the button and then disappeared.”

“Into thin air?” Tommy asked.

“Yes.” Beety nodded and explained, “You see, the big red button was actually an emergency teleporter, so the alien just pressed it and got teleported back home.”

“But why didn’t he just do that in the first place?” The whiny girl folded her arms, obviously not believing the story.

“I told you before.” Beety pointed to the boy with the bread roll. “He needed a poppy seed!”