- Vol. 09
- Chapter 12
To Boldly Go…..
I am not a people person. Only our dog understands. Her fur is often wet with my tears. I remember one Christmas my uncle saying to my mum that I lived in a fantasy world, but what did he know? Just because Father Christmas (who my oldest brother says doesn’t exist) brought him socks and hankies each year. Uncle Peter is a boring man at the best of times, even though he drives a fast car and brings a different woman to Christmas dinner every year.
I have two brothers and two sisters older than me. Jenny is already working. We have nothing in common. It’s like I am invisible most of the time in our house in my hand-me-down clothes and tangly curls. But I have my other world. The world of books and TV programmes.
Mum often buys our clothes from charity shops, and while she flicks through the rails and bargain bin, I scour the toys for my heroes. Anything to do with Doctor Who I worry mum to buy me. I already have a lovely Tardis. I wish I was small enough to get inside it, because it’s bigger inside than outside. I could then travel to these other worlds.
I have a collection of ET, Star Wars and Star Trek characters on the windowsill, but as I have to share a bedroom with one of my sisters, she often moves them to sit her dolls there. We constantly battle over the space, and I wish I could be abducted by aliens. They can’t possibly be as bad as my sisters and brothers.
I renamed our dog Wookie, from Star Wars. My brothers fell on the floor laughing. One day they hid all my toys. I screamed the house down and mum chased the boys outside with a tea towel. I got my toys back, yet my brothers continued to smirk at the dinner table that night.
I never thought it would be uncle Peter who’d become my hero. I guess I’ll have to take back all I said about him being boring now. He came with tickets for a special exhibition that I’d love, he said. He was right. Suddenly I am here in a world so familiar to me, I immediately feel at home.
To Boldly Go…..
Planets spin, shining in dark spaces, Luke Skywalker roams around saying hello to people. Cameras flash, but I just want to touch the star ships, handle the controls. I rise my hand from uncle Peter’s and push through everyone to the Star Ship Enterprise. Could I? While no one is looking, I walk up the ramp and into the ship. It’s dark and I don’t know where the Bridge is, but I’ll just stay here until the crew comes. I hear my name over the tannoy. They are calling me! ‘I’m here,’ I shout, and the excitement builds as I think of the worlds I will visit.