How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy by Charles Fudgemuffin Read Free Book Online Page A

had the seeds of another prank forming in his head.  He nudged Azleev and nodded at a mother and small toddler in the next garden along from Sydney’s garden.
    “What?” Azleev shrugged.
    “I see another prank forming,” Jixyl grinned.
    All Azleev could see was a small toddler with his mother planting a seed in a plant-pot.  “How can we play a trick on them?” Azleev asked.
    “Watch and learn,” Jixyl boasted.  “Watch and learn.”
    So Jixyl and Azleev hovered about outside Sydney’s house until the toddler and mother had finished planting the seed in the plant-pot and returned inside.  “Here goes,” Jixyl remarked, to his friend.  And so he sneaked along into the adjacent garden to put the wheels in motion for his next prank…
    A few minutes later Jamie, the toddler in question, peered out of the window at the plant-pot and was surprised to see a small number of leaves already sprouting up from the soil.
    “Mam!” he shouted.  “The seed’s growing.”
    “Yeah,” his mother replied.  “In a few weeks’ time you’ll be able to see your plant growing up through the soil.”
    “No, it’s growing now,” Jamie revealed.  “I can see leaves.”
    “Don’t be so stupid,” his mother remarked.
    “I can,” Jamie insisted.  “I can see leaves.”
    His inquisitive mother strolled to the window to see for herself.  “It won’t start growing for another few…”  At this point she arrived at the window and saw for herself the leaves sprouting up from the plant-pot.  “…weeks.”
    “See!” Jamie proclaimed, proud of his rapidly growing plant.
    “Eee!  How’s it growing that quick?” his mother inquired, looking very confused.  She quickly opened the door and dashed into the garden for a closer look.  The plant-pot looked the same from close-up as it did from through the window.  Which is to say that a small number of leaves had already emerged from the soil.  “Eee!  Michael!  Come and have a look at this!” she called inside to her husband.  “Michael!  Quick!  Look at this!”
    At that point Jixyl could contain his laughter no more and burst out laughing which drew the attention of Jamie’s mother.  She looked up at Jixyl chuckling away to himself, then looked down at the plant-pot, then back at Jixyl, and quickly surmised that there was tomfoolery afoot.
    “You stupid idiots!” she shouted at Jixyl and Azleev.  Then she looked at Jamie and remarked, “Howay, we’re going back inside now.”
    “It’s a fast grower, isn’t it, mam?” Jamie remarked.
    “It hasn’t started growing yet,” Jamie’s mother explained.  “It’s just them idiots over there being idiots,” and she took his hand and marched back inside the house.
    “Ar, man.  You gave the game away there,” Azleev reproached his friend.
    “I couldn’t help it, man,” Jixyl shrugged.  “Her face was just so funny.  She completely fell for it.”  He shook his head in disbelief at her gullibility.  “Anyway, we had to let her know it was a trick at some point otherwise she wouldn’t have swore.”
    “She didn’t swear anyway!” Azleev pointed out.  “Think about it … she’s not gonna swear in front of her toddler, is she?  You should have waited until the toddler was back inside.  You’ve spoilt our run now.  We were on a potential triple letter [11] as well.”
    “You and your triple letters,” Jixyl remarked.  “You see, it’s not all about the word score for me, you know.  I’m mainly in it for the fun of playing pranks.  Besides, we’re still on for the double letter.  And we’ve still got the green scary masks and clawed gloves to come.  They’re always a definite banker.”
    “Yeah, I suppose,” Azleev shrugged.  “Are we heading somewhere more remote first, though?  We can’t do that one here.  There’s too many people about.”
    “Aye, we’ll head back to the spaceship, then,” Jixyl agreed.
    And so the two friends headed back to their