Chapter 4: The Game

When Senior finally found Junior, he was resting on a big couch and looking bored. Mrs. Hyken was not working on the house.

“We’ll find a way back home if it’s the last thing we do!” he had said.

“I’ve found a way!” Junior jumped up. Senior had startled him. “Come here!” Junior followed him back into the building. Mr. DaLoiff was fuming in a corner. When he saw Senior back inside, he jumped up.

“Can I tell you...?” he began. Senior didn’t listen. Junior stopped running and looked back at him. Senior was so anxious to get home that he didn’t let Junior listen either. He grabbed him by the arm and ran to the Earth section, still malfunctioning and just static was displayed. Senior instructed Junior on what to do.

“When I say ‘go,’ you jump at the screen, and I’ll be right behind you.” Senior stood on the cylinders. It took a couple of seconds, then they spun clockwise and simultaneously moved downward until they were the same height. “GO!” screamed Senior, and Junior jumped. But instead of going through the screen, he bounced off of it and landed in front of Senior’s feet. Senior was confused. “What happened, sir? How come he didn’t go through?”

“Well, it only works if you jump through a working screen. Since this one has static, it’s not working. I’m afraid you’re stuck here.”

“NOW you tell me!” shouted Senior.

“I’m bored,” said Junior. “What can I do?”

“Do you want to play Postball?”

“What-ball?” said Senior.

“Postball!” said Mr. DaLoiff. He led them to a grassy field outside. There was a large triangular section marked off by a fence. Next to it was a floppy swing attached to the tallest branch on a high tree. The swing had a headrest, like a chair. On the swing was a bright yellow volleyball.

“How do you play?” asked Junior.

“Well, it’s very simple. You take the ball and sit on the swing. Then you kick the ball into the field. If it touches the fence, you get a point. Then you keep playing until one person gets 20 points. If you don’t kick the ball into the field, or if it doesn’t touch the fence, you don’t get a point, but you don’t lose any points, either,” explained Mr. DaLoiff.

“So, who goes first?” asked Junior.

“I think you should go first,” said Senior. Junior ran over to the swing. He grabbed the ball, and then he saw just how floppy the swing was. He hesitated a moment, and then sat down. A seat belt appeared and strapped him in, making Junior gasp in surprise. Then the swing started to swing itself. Junior felt like he was about to fall off, but the seat belt held him in. It went very high. Junior looked down at Mr. DaLoiff and Senior. They looked like ants!

“Just kick the ball,” Junior thought. He decided the easiest way to do it was to drop-kick it, so he did that. Because of the extra speed of the swing, the ball went really fast. Pretty soon it was so far away, Junior could barely see it! When it stopped, a green check mark appeared where the ball had stopped rolling. The swing started to slow down, and it stopped. Mr. DaLoiff was clapping.

“Way to go! On the very first try, too! Did you know that is one of the hardest things for us to do?”

“Uhhh, yeah?” said Junior. “Y-your turn, Dad.” Senior sat down and the seat belt strapped him in. When the swing was at its highest point, Junior could not see his father. Suddenly he saw a yellow dot emerge from the swing. It landed in the field, and a big red X appeared where the ball stopped rolling. Senior stopped swinging, and he looked disappointed.

“I’ll keep track,” said Mrs. Hyken. She wrote the score on the sidewalk using tally marks: # of rounds: 1; Junior, 1; Senior, 0.

Then it was Junior’s turn again. He sat down in the swing and drop-kicked the ball. A green check appeared. Then Senior kicked it and a red X appeared. Then Junior kicked it and another red X appeared.

By the end of the game the score was # of rounds: 26; Junior, 20; Senior, 19. Junior had beaten his own father by one point!

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter 3: Stuck

Mr. DaLoiff was frightened by the fact that Senior and Junior would never be able to return home. “Well, we might as well make them feel at home now, because they won’t be able to go back to their old home,” he said.

Mrs. Hyken sighed, but nodded. Then she went out the door. She was going to prepare a new house for them to live in.

When Senior and Junior recovered, the first thing they said was, “Where am I?”

“You’re on the planet Sprigg,” said Mr. DaLoiff. “The most advanced civilization in the Milky Way.”

Senior looked around himself.

“It looks just like Earth. What’s so advanced about it?”

“We can view life on other planets.”

“There is life on more than just one planet??” Junior asked, bewildered.


“Yes, and we can view all of them from this building.”
Senior was confused about something else. “How did we get from Earth to...uh...what did you say this planet’s name was?”

“Sprigg. Let me show you what happened.” Mr. DaLoiff guided them to another TV set. The signal for this one was good. Mr. DaLoiff moved the camera around. “So, this is what’s happening this very moment on the planet Tweeká. That little boy is asleep. But watch what happens when the camera hits his teddy bear.” Mr. DaLoiff jammed the camera into the toy bear. Immediately that same toy bear disappeared from the screen and threw itself at the people. It had come out of the screen.

“So, that’s what we did, huh? Weird. It took us longer than that to travel between two worlds.”

“Well, time runs slower in the ‘transition tunnel,’ as we call it. But it runs a lot slower when the screen is malfunctioning,” said Mr. DaLoiff.

“How do we put the bear back in his world?” interrupted Senior, not hearing the last sentence.

“Well, do you see these white things? You have to stand on them until they’re the same height.” Mr. DaLoiff demonstrated. Then he threw the bear at the screen. It went through the screen, appeared on the screen, and landed in the exact same spot.

“Does it work for all the worlds?”

“Yes, it does, in fact!”

“Well! There we go, Junior. The way back ho...Junior?”

Junior was nowhere to be seen.

“Uh, there actually is a problem, sir...” started Mr. DaLoiff.

But Senior was more worried about his son now. “Junior!! Get back here!” he shouted.

Junior had followed Mrs. Hyken out the door. She was now typing something on a computer.

Then Junior noticed a bunch of wooden boards.

“What are those for?” he asked.

“Oh, we’re making a new home for you.”

“What, you mean we can’t go back to our home on Earth?”

“Nope, unless we find some way to fix your signal. Otherwise, you’re stuck here.”

“Great,” remarked Junior.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter 2: Sucked In

Meanwhile, back on Earth, a father, Senior, and his eight-year-old son, Junior, were playing a game. They were pretending to be chased by evil people, but then they pretended they were on the edge of a very high cliff. The pretend bad guys were getting closer...and closer...and closer! The only thing they were able to do was pretend to jump off the cliff. So they jumped, but instead of hitting the ground as they suspected, they felt as if they were really falling down a big cliff! Junior looked behind him, but he could see no cliff. Senior was confused too.

“Did someone dig a hole right in front of our door? Did we fall down a trap door to a secret basement filled with gold, jewels, diamonds, and other precious stuff? Am I asleep? Did we fall down the stairs?” were some of the things running through Junior’s mind.

Then both Senior and Junior noticed as if they didn’t feel like they were outside. But on the other hand, they didn’t feel like they were inside, either. They didn’t feel like they were in outer space. They didn’t really feel like they were anywhere! Ahead of them, nothing could be seen except pitch black. Junior couldn’t see his father, so he felt as if he was alone! But Senior felt safer. He trusted that his son wouldn’t leave him anywhere.

Junior tried to call out for his dad, but no sound came out. He figured it was because he was trying to whisper. So he tried shouting, but still no sound came out.

Senior was trying to make sure that he could feel Junior next to him, so he waved his hand around, but he could feel nothing. He then began to think that Junior had left him and was exploring wherever they were, because Junior always explored unfamiliar places. To make sure that Junior wasn’t too far away, he tried calling for him, but he could not speak.

Junior then realized that he couldn’t feel his own clothes! He tried to touch his stomach. Because he could feel no clothes, he thought he would feel bare skin. But no matter how far back he reached his arm, he could not feel anything. He could not even feel his own skin! He reached his arm so far back he started turning somersaults. Eventually he figured that he was simply gone, but then he realized that if he did not exist, he could not move anything that wasn’t there!

This seemed to be some sort of neutral passageway--neither Senior nor Junior could see, smell, feel, hear, or say anything. Neither of them felt safe at all anymore. However, they also thought that they were not very far from home. They felt as if that any minute this strange feeling would go away and they would be right back in their own house, right where they left off on their game. But this lasted for what seemed to be a very long time. If Junior was existing at that moment, he would have fallen asleep.

It seemed as if Junior did fall asleep, because when he appeared to wake up, his senses were starting to work again. He could feel his clothes again. He could see his father, and his father could see him. They hugged each other, finally knowing that they would never leave each other. Junior asked his dad, “What on earth is going on?! Where are we? What on wherever-we-are is going on?!” But he immediately noticed that he was the only one who could hear his own voice, because his father had turned away after they had hugged. He waved his hand in front of Senior, and Senior looked at him angrily. Senior tried to say, “What do you want?!” Junior then motioned for Senior to read his lips. He then said, “Do you know where we are?” slowly and carefully so that his father could read his lips without thinking, “Huh?” Senior then mouthed, “I don’t know.” But Junior did not see him, because he noticed something in front of him. Senior looked in the direction Junior was looking. They saw a giant square of what looked like static. In the distance, someone could hear a “bzsxzxzxzsxsxxssszxxsxszxzxz,” which was really coming from the static.

Senior and Junior then felt something that is kind of hard to describe. They felt as if they were being pushed forward, but they could feel no hand supporting them. They felt as if the static was sucking them in like a tornado, but they felt no wind. The static was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. When they collided with it, they felt as if they were passing through a layer of sand. Then they saw a piece of glass in front of them. Beyond the glass they could see a man and a woman inside what looked like an office building. The man and the woman looked perplexed, but they did not appear to see Junior or Senior. They were not moving. Senior and Junior could not control where they were going, but neither of them wanted to break the glass, because if they did it may cut into their skin. So they tried to go the other direction, but the glass was pulling them in too! Strangely, when they hit the glass, they could feel it, but it did not cut into their skin. Then they found themselves falling toward the man and the woman, and they landed on an unusual type of carpet. They were inside the office building.

Senior and Junior were stuck on Sprigg.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter 1: The Signal

In a solar system about 10 light years away from Earth, there was a planet bursting with life. Its name was Sprigg. In many ways, it was very similar to Earth: people that looked like us, English, breathable oxygen, etc. It can be very easy to confuse Earth with Sprigg. However, there was one difference.

Sprigg had unlimited access to view life on other worlds.

If you wanted to view another world without leaving Sprigg, first you would have to go into a big building. Then you would have to get permission from the manager, Mr. DaLoiff. He would then guide you to one of many large TV screens hanging on the wall. In front of each TV screen there were two white cylinders, each a different height. The shorter one would have a blue design on it, and the other would have a red swirl. Mr. DaLoiff would then turn on the TV screen, check the signal, and you could move the invisible camera around. However, you would have to make sure the camera did not touch anything, because if it did, whatever it touched would be brought into Sprigg! The only way to bring it back was to push down on each of the white cylinders until they were equal height (some people find it easier to stand on them, putting one foot on each cylinder). You would then throw the object at the screen, and it will pass through the screen and go back into its own world. If you wanted to go into the screen yourself, you would have to jump.

Around the middle of each year, Mr. DaLoiff would open the building to the public and check the signal for each world. On that day, and that day only, you can view any of the TV screens without permission.

In the middle of one year, Mr. DaLoiff was checking the signal for each of the TV screens. He discovered something was wrong, and he announced it to the entire building over the sound system:

“Something is wrong with the signal for planet Earth.”

Several people came to the building to see what was wrong. Eventually Mr. DaLoiff figured out the people just wanted to see the static, but one person, his assistant, Mrs. Hyken, was more interested on the actual problem.

“Could you be more specific?” she asked Mr. DaLoiff. “What do you mean by ‘something is wrong?’”

“Well,” Mr. DaLoiff answered, “we cannot see anything happening on Earth. If the malfunctioning camera collides with anything, they will still be brought to this building, but they will not be able to go back.”

“How dreadful!” Mrs. Hyken cried.

“Don’t worry, I’ll see what I can do.”

“How can you do that?” Mrs. Hyken asked. “I thought you had to be on that world to fix the signal.”

“Oh, yeah. Drat! The only chance we have of fixing the signal is if someone on that world would fix the signal. But what on Sprigg are the chances of that?!” he shouted.

“About 6,602,224,175 to one.”

“Uh, it was a rhetorical question, Mrs. Hyken.”

“Oh, okay. But we can’t communicate between this world and another when the signal is broken. What are we going to do?!”

TO BE CONTINUED

The Escape From Sprigg

by Riley
cover illustration by Jeff

Check back each week for a new chapter!

Welcome to Us!

Welcome to Moe's Stories! This blog contains stories written by the author of I Want Moe Attention. We hope you will enjoy them.

Check back later for our first story, The Escape From Sprigg!