A Clever Use of Bins (2/2) By Frankie Lassut

(1/2), (2/2).

'One more thing Jean. I've just glanced at the outside temperature, and it looks as though it's pretty warm outside, so you might want to go to the wardrobe and get out your dinner dress and those new shoes you bought not so long back? And then sit at the dressing table and apply some make up, whatever. If you open the trapdoor and climb down the ladders into the bin underneath, you'll find everything in there. I've even fitted a nice plush bit of carpet. Over and out' 'Roger Colin. Will do. Over and out.' And she went and dolled herself up.

The 'green' rocket was then slowly enveloped by the clouds. Everyone on the ground clapped and cheered as the flashing red torch (which also had an ordinary torch, a radio, and a fluorescent light! And for only £4.99, from MFI ... now, a collector's item!) which Colin had fitted on the bottom, disappeared into the cumulus nimbus (or was it Cirrus? I'm not good on clouds unfortunately).

One hour later it was dark and the rocket climbed from the layer of clouds. The moon was full and the stars winkily twinkled; in other words, it was a beautiful night. Colin switched the handlebar screen to outside temperature again, and it was, as he had guessed, surprisingly warm for the height they were at. He and Jean could get away with not wearing coats and gloves. He then switched to the outside camera which was on a motor, and could be manipulated using his handlebar joystick.

The top of the crane was there, and hanging cleverly from the end by a thick steel cable which was fitted to a huge bracket, was a huge fibreglass moon. He now had to move the rocket sideways as well as hold it in position. So, still pedalling furiously, he removed the broomstick from his crossbar, reached over to the opposite east side of the rocket, and opened the large sliding door (he'd used a shower curtain rail to achieve this).

He opened a cupboard and removed, with stick, three large office fans, which he'd wired to a lorry battery. He expertly manoeuvred them to the open door, and turned them on. This gave him the propulsion to drive the rocket sideways, until he was positioned over the fibreglass moon. He then turned the office fans off, eased off on the pedalling, and landed gently and perfectly right by the side of the Sea of Tranquillity (the Mare Tranquillitatis ... Latin).

(It gets better ... try www.lunarregistry.com) He relaxed. The water, sandwiches and spuds had gone and he was soaking wet and a stone or two lighter, but he had made it. He climbed from the bike, opened the trapdoor, and went into the downsteps bin and showered (a rather makeshift bucket affair), changed into his tux, and then, using the communications system:

'Hello Jean, are you ready? Over and out' 'Roger Colin, over and out.' 'See you outside in five mins then. Over and out' 'My God!' she thought, as she climbed from the bin, she was on the moon! She climbed down the handles with as much dignity as she could manage (which was a mucho lotto) and Joined Colin at the base of the rocket.

'This is beautiful Colin.' 'Ask and it is given' was his reply. He led her onto the fibreglass Sea of Tranquillity, where a candle lit dinner table awaited them. 'How did you manage to afford all this?' She asked. 'Oh, I've been toying round on the stock market for ages,' he said. 'I paid a group of local school kids to build the moon as an art project. They wore protective gear of course, with it being fibreglass.' She was flabbergasted. Mind you, it was very good, and it was nice sitting on the moon, lit by the actual moon. It was lovely and warm too. They were cooked and served dinner by a famous TV chef who was glad to get away from the earth and all of his problems for a while.

When they had finished eating and drinking the lovely wine, he uncovered two quite large telescopes. 'What are they for?' she asked. 'I believe it's spring on Jupiter and Mars' he replied. She checked both planets through the eyeglasses ... and it was! He then did another reveal; it was a karaoke machine complete with microphone.

'Your opportunity, Jean, to 'sing amongst those stars'. She sang 'Somewhere over the Rainbow', and then realised that she was actually there, with a pot of gold; someone who loved her. They then danced and kissed a bit, on and under the moon of love. At 2am, it was starting to get a little chilly, so Colin signalled to the crane driver to lower them back to the earth ... where ... They lived happily ever after ... of course.

Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and mars In other words, hold my hand In other words, baby kiss me Fill my heart with song Let me sing for ever more You are all I long for All I worship and adore In other words, please be true In other words, I love you.

Copyright © Frankie Lassut 2010

Fiction - Career Opportunities A Joe Geraghty story
	I was sat on an amplifier in the band's rehearsal room on Wincolmlee, secreted away on Bankside, a decaying industrial area of Hull. In front of me was the city's hottest band, Witham, presumably named after the area on the edge of the city centre. Talk about a lack of imagination. From the way they were lounging around the room, I assumed I Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Hand that Rocked the Cradle By Lin Whitehouse

	Hearing his mother's footsteps, the boy climbed out his bedroom window. They were both angry. He wanted to run away but it was a long drop and he might hurt himself. She shouted when she saw him, sitting on the tiled roof, suddenly scared and remembering a time she had climbed out of a similar window. He hugged his knees not wanting to look at her; she could not look away Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Resurrection By Leah Scarpati

	Conscious again. The rhythmical drip-drip of condensation echoed around the cave. Kate couldn't see her hand in front of her face, were her eyes even open? The fall had shattered her torch as well as her ankle; as the pain continued to bite, panic rose. She couldn't feel her toes. Hours of calling for help had been swallowed by the chasm of darkness, Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Latter-Day Luddite Saves the Day By Laura Fry

	The police were on a coffee break, at a loss. Despite all the technology, the wanted man had got the better of them. They didn't notice the young woman at the opposite table with an old-fashioned tape recorder, on her way to teach a friend's child German. She had found the man who had just left the café somewhat suspicious and pressed record. This latter-day Luddite was able to tell Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Lost Property By Manuro

	My dreadful husband died at an elephant hospice. To this day, whenever I see a sick elephant I feel a rush of overwhelming joy! I changed my name in 1979 and never foresaw the problems this would entail - car insurance, washing machine hire purchase agreements. Women are named through male lineage: we disappear over time, our identity the property of others. Read more...

Fiction - Two Sides of the Same Tattoo Needle. By Leah Scarpati
	Well I can certainly say I've learned my lesson! Mummy had always warned me about expressing myself through body art, tattoos, piercings and such like; but the more she told me not to, the more determined I became to disobey her. "It's just not what people like us do dahhling," she purred in-between a long drag of a cigarette and a sip of her dry martini. "Just because Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Beginnings and Endings By Lin Whitehouse

	It's a hypothetical question, what if - my father hadn't died in June - I hadn't known about my husband's girlfriend - I hadn't looked up when I did? I was caught in a web and struggled to avoid his gaze, felt myself flush. I drowned in his smiling eyes. Could he see my outer sorrow, sense the inner excitement I concealed? It's funny, funerals signify an end, but I felt something was Read more...

Fiction - Hangover By Leah Scarpati
	The day ended as it had begun - disastrously. From the minute she opened one sticky mascara eye, then the other and the hangover woodpecker began to tap-tap-tap at her head; she knew the day was a right off. Her head hurt so much she could she feel her hair growing, her tongue was dry like an arid river bed and was fixed to the top of her mouth; Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Say No More By Joe Hakim

	I'm on my way to the shops. I don't see him until I nearly step on his head. I look down at the man on the floor, and notice he's on a bike - crotch on seat, feet on pedals, hands on handlebar. Like he's been zapped by a super-villain's freeze ray and toppled over. I look around to make sure it isn't some kind of prank. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," he replies. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - A Depressive and a Botched Suicide By Laura Fry

	And once again boats sail down the Danube, but you; don't worry about me any more, I'm like leaves, the wind blows me away, wolves die alone... The mourners read the translation of the deceased's beloved Croatian song. The male voice booms from the CD through Hull Crematorium, bringing additional shivers to the late autumn Yorkshire morning. The European flag Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Fun and Games By Shep

	It was easier than he thought. Several swings of the bat and his problem had disappeared like the last drag of his cigarette. He looked at the windows adjacent to where he stood; half expecting to see the neighbours looking on with horror and disgust, but there was not a face in sight. He smiled to himself and walked down the garden path back to his front door. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Conversation In A Small Room By Manuro

	'I went to the shops And bought a new toffee Hammer. The old one got Damaged during the 'incident' With those burglars. You remember, waking up with Some Burberry-capped thug in Read more...

Fiction - Beyond An Accidental Shoreline By Christopher Skolik
	Dennison had covered some disturbing assignments in his time; Neo-psychopathology and its preoccupations concerning future psychological abnormality. Contagious mental illness and media psychosis, the way suicide or spree killing spread thru lines of communication. Mutant-criminology and the adaptation of deviancy in our strange new psychological landscape. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Pain in Vain no Gain By Joan Moffat.

	Sweat trickled down my face, droplets formed on my nose. Sharp pains tore at my back muscles. Leaning over, as I struggled, constricted my breathing and squeezed my stomach into cramp. Red flashes floated before my eyes. I was about to faint. I began to weep. Why had I got myself into such a stupid situation? I was the victim of my own vanity. I struggled more. Read more...

Fiction - Faster Than the Speed of Silence By Leah Scarpati
	The phone's ringing again - the second time today. Its shrill chime echoes around the house, reverberating through the hall and into my warm little cocoon of a living room. It makes me nervous. It's like a foreign body, stealthily making its way through the house, looking for me- preparing to bump me off, to throw something at me when I least expect it. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - A is not only for Apple By Lin Whitehouse

	Is this what it feels like to sit on death row, morbidly freefalling through the past? I keep averting my eyes from the clock face but the minute magnet holds me hostage. Had I done enough to be reprieved? Another hour swallows my resolve not to panic, in God's name how long does it take to open an envelope? Perhaps the results aren't what we predicted. Read more...

Fiction - Everyone Loves The Big Girl By Leah Scarpati
	The lights go back on and there are cheers, claps and wolf whistles as I take my final bow. That plank of a DJ ruined the end of my performance by cutting Shania off short instead of fading her out like I told him to. Thankfully I don't think anyone noticed. I'm sweating like a pack horse, but at least I've given it my all. Large Lady Kiss-a-grams are getting a good reputation and I reckon it's all down to me. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Unkindest Cut By Manuro

	Phil's partner in hell-raising had convinced him that it would be a 'good idea' to spend all of his gig money on pork chops. They had met during the summer at an all-night Clown Skills and Raw Food workshop in Worksop, where the ability to see through walls and predict future events had proved, at the very least, useful. Unable to control his bohemian life, Phil took solace Read more...

Fiction - Later. Still. By Christopher Skolik
	Maybe human beings get through life by focusing their attention down to the smallest details, those soap opera comings and goings that make up the flickering magic lantern show of day to day existence, the little things that make life worth living, the details that stand between us and the chasm. Read more...

Fiction - The Hunch-Back (in the style of The Hitman by T.C. Boyle) By Katherine Horrex
	By the age of nine the Hunch-Back is aware that he has no place. He questions the existence of everything he sees and it is not until he grows shady from first stubble and hard with distracting pubescent bulk that he gains any sense of purpose, or raison d'etre if you will, for he is half French. It is his mother to which the French in him must be attributed, Read more...

Fiction - The Terminal Brothel By Christopher Skolik
	Gales crashed onto the housing estate. Grey sky like fractured mountains. In the passenger seat Dennison read through the paper, as Snaith drives. As some story or headline caught Snaith's attention he would ask Dennison to read it in full. The council estate was a maze of similarity -a dizzying optical illusion where homes, roads, and people all Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Kundalini By Andrea Longstaff

	She was homeless and walking the streets. Her mind was unhinged but full of new found awareness. A realisation that she was now free in the true sense of the word. Her life always did have a surreal texture to it but after a night of no sleep and helping the stranger who had dropped his pens. He looked into her glazed eyes, "I hope you get a good nights sleep tonight" Read more...

Fiction - The Artist By The Silver Fox
	Pencil in hand, he stands immobile. His eyes are locked onto the pristine expanse before him as though searching for some secret buried within the paper itself; an image that his pencil will simply be highlighting rather than creating. Above and beyond his eye line, the graphite point gleams dully in the harsh light that cascades down onto the easel. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Crackers By Pete Texas

	I was 12 ½ when my dog ate my rabbit He chewed on its head like a malnourished Gannet So I traded Ben for an Arini Parrot Put her in the hutch with the lettuce and carrot I was sure with the straw to build Polly a nest So when she fell asleep she'd have somewhere to rest Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Flat By The Silver Fox

	He emerged from the oven to see the landlord eyeing him as though enquiring as to what he'd expected to find in there. He adopted a knowing expression - as though saying that he hadn't found it and was disappointed. "Seventy a week?" "That covers your water rates," came the expansive reply. He nodded, fearing that further conversation would bring Read more...

Fiction - Independent By Katherine Horrex Photos by Darren Rogers
	The room was pulsing with white noise and euphoria. Giles was positioned behind the sound booth, stupefied by the scene on stage: five Burberry clad men thrashing manically at their instruments, their sixties feather cuts flicking through the damp air. A final power chord growled through the Marshall stack, reverberating triumphantly and the lead Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - The Prescription By The Silver Fox

	The pen flashed across the pad like a magic wand. Jeff watched, appropriately spellbound. The prescription was pushed across the desk with neither comment nor eye contact. "Not much of a bedside manner." "This isn't a bedside." Pain sent a stinging retort flying to Jeff's lips; need bit it back. "Not funny," he mumbled, leaving. After an agonising moonwalk Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Kids Like That By The Silver Fox

	The abuse, though muted by the noise of the engine, was clear and vile in the thick afternoon air. It poured onto the bowed head of the smaller boy; rank as his sweat and tears. He pressed down upon the accelerator and the car shot forward, elongating the bully's last insult into a thin scream. He was out onto the hot road before the broken bundle had rolled off of the bonnet. Read more...

Fiction - 100 Words Competition - Who's The Daddy? By Catherine Horlax

	I heard footfalls; hollow thuds echoing down the corridor, and drew my knees up so my boots wouldn't be visible. He'd said he'd be there. A tap gushed. I noticed the door was inscribed with idiocy, and calmed myself with the fact that 'Lisa Hyde stuffs mashed potato up her cunt'. At least I'd kept my word - I'd said I'd be there too. I laughed because, barring crying, Read more...

Fiction - 3 Phones, 300 Words By Joe Hakim
	She smiled as she handed him the bottle. He took it from her and poured himself a glass. 'So what do you think?' she asked.   'I'm not that bothered,' he replied. He was pretty drunk by now and he attempted to think of something to say, but the silence remained stagnant. She took a gulp from her glass, Read more...

Fiction - Lessons Learnt By Nick Quantrill
	DS Richard Coleman pulled into the lay-by and headed towards the flashing blue lights. An hour later it would have been someone else's problem. But it wasn't. An articulated lorry had been isolated from the other vehicles, cones placed around it, linked together by barrier tape. A mobile generator providing power to the small floodlights Read more...