Dreams 4

Why do you prefer fiction,
Grandad?

Why, my dear?
Well, who wouldn’t,
When you can do this…

And Grandad levitated off his rocking chair,
By the sheer force of his imagination,

You know, back in my day,
I used to use this little trick,
To avoid paying for train tickets!

When the ticket man comes along…
You just bloomin’ well take off!
Literally;

That’s…amazing,
Grandad!
I didn’t know you could do that!

You can imagine anything, if you really try!
How about this—

And Grandad conjured up a mini solar system,
Right in the middle of the living room,

Can you name all of the planets?

Um,
Mercury, Venus, Earth…
What’s that tiny one there?
That’s not a planet, Grandad,

Watch closely, my dear…!

A dark splinter of a world spiralled its way inward,
It flew close to the Sun,
Before coming back around…

Oh no, Grandad…
It’s going to hit the—

The Earth’s atmosphere reacted violently to the intrusion,
A luminous golden ball of light erupted into space,
And as the Earth shuddered and rang with a globe-encircling rupture,
Dust, ash and water vapour clouded the stratosphere;

Grandaaaad,
Why did you do that?
All the people will be dead!

Don’t worry, little one,
There were no people down there,
For I just wanted to show you…
The demise of the dinosaurs,

I just showed you what happened,
At the end of the Cretaceous;

And that was all in my imagination!
Now do you see?

What’s that big planet doing way out there,
Grandad?
It doesn’t look right…

🌪