Photo by: Ted Strutz
The ferry captain kneeled before 7-year old Chris. “…This ferry has special engines. They use portals to travel to distant planets! Wanna go?”
“Can I mom?” grinned Chris.
“I suppose,” groaned Sylvia, flipping through her Twitter feeds.
When they left, Graham said, “You don’t sound happy.”
“Chris lives in imaginary places too much,” grated Sylvia, flipping to Taylor Swift’s Twitter page. “He should pay attention to real things.”
*poof*
Graham blinked, stunned.
Sylvia finally looked up from her iPad. “Are you listening? I’d give the Moon for Chris to see the real world.”
Graham pointed up. “What about two moons?”
_______________________________
Written for the Friday Fictioneers: https://rochellewisoff.com/2017/10/04/13-october-2017-2/
EagleAye
Momus News 
My wife and son make the same complaint about my eight-year-old grandson. He tends toward the fantasy world a lot, but then again, his parents divorced a couple of years ago and he’s gone through a lot of changes.
As a child (and probably as an adult) I also liked my imaginary worlds, though my parents never divorced and I didn’t go through much in the way of hardship. Sometimes fantasy is just so much more interesting than real life.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Most interesting. I lived in a fantasy world a lot, and still do. I find it interesting that so many people, not inclined towards imagination, are easily sucked in by ideas that are obviously BS. As though they’re so inexperienced with fantasy they cannot see it even when bites them in the butt! Perhaps time spent fantasizing is time well spent?
LikeLike
But can they get back and will the ferry still be on time?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It depends Iain. Is the ferry government run or privately run? 😀
LikeLiked by 3 people
Oh easily. In fact with a little jiggering, they can return before they left! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that twitter ceased to work also…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, it works. Apparently the internet signal goes into the portal as well, and vice versa. So now you know how awful reality shows still come to us. 😉
LikeLike
I escaped into a fantasy world when I was a child, I assume many children do if they don’t understand (or like) the real word. Monsters are less scary then humans, I know.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s true, monsters are less scary. 😉 I think kids live in their imagination whatever their circumstance. It’s perfectly normal. Imagination is part of being human and part of why we’ve created so many amazing things.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Taylor Swift addled mom isn’t best qualified to comment on fantasy me thinks!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Me thinks too. That was the conclusion I hoped people would arrive at. I half-intended to title this, “A Study of Irony.” 😉 Thanks Varad!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not bad at all, Eric.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks much, Ted! Great pic by the way. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Eric,
I find Mom’s concern about her son’s fantasy world amusing, if not ironic. I’d wager that the boy’s fantasy world is more reality based than hers. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 4 people
I can always count on you to get the gist of what I’m saying in a story. I hoped folks would enjoy the dripping irony of this one. 😉 Thanks Rochelle! 🙂
LikeLike
Long live fantasy worlds and small children. My four year old granddaughter told me all about her two year old brother’s best friend at day care and how the three of them climb the giant tree together. I said, “But Lucy, Harry doesn’t go to day care yet.” She turned to me with her hands held apart and said, with a roll of her eyes, “I ‘tending Grandma, I ‘tending.” Well, that put me in my place didn’t it 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha! What a great story Lyn! Aren’t kids awesome? The shame about growing up is losing all that wonderful imagination. It’s like the death of the magic of life. As you might’ve noticed, I’ve tried hard to keep the magic alive in my life. 😉 Thanks Lyn!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Writers never lose their imagination (hopefully) 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
If the tweet feed is also sucked into the time portal, think of what could have happened if Mom had been reading the Tweetmaster’s tweets. The mom would have infected the alternative universe with a black plague, making it uninhabitable for people like us who are looking for an alternative universe to hide in for the next 4 years.
This is how I think when I get tired.
Great story by the way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Well you come up with some pretty cool stuff when you’re tired. 🙂 I’m also looking for an alternative dimension to live in for four years. I’ll let you know when I find one. 😉 Thanks much!
LikeLike
Mom should take a little look-see in the mirror… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right? That is, if she could only get her nose out of her iPad and Taylor Swift’s business. 😉 Thanks Dale!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love this. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to hear it. Thank you kindly! 🙂
LikeLike
Ouch! That hit below the belt! As a parent in a technological world, I do make the same mistake. You caught my attention with your piece!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehe. This is me checking myself too. I realize I need to pull away from the computer sometimes and pay attention to my daughter. She’s much cuter than computer code. 😉 Thanks for reading! 🙂
LikeLike
💐
LikeLiked by 1 person
She’s one to talk…twitter-twit that she is. Good story.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hehe. No kidding. Maybe Graham needs to throw her pad into the lake. 😉 Thanks Jelli! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Neat expression, Jelli. Kudos if you made it up yourself.😄
LikeLiked by 2 people
Spur of the moment twist… aren’t all twitters twits, after all? Sorry, I tried twitter once, moved too fast and didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Like facebook better.
LikeLiked by 2 people
No, all that twitter are not twits. Some are hummers and some are just wandering tattlers. 😉 I’m tangled enough in Goodreads — don’t need Twitter and DARE NOT attempt Facebook. Which, I gather, is a great place to promote books as well as insanity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll be checking for the two moons
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too. If I ever find two, I’ll be pinching myself. 😉
LikeLike
I love the way you leave the reveal to the last two words of the story. The two moons are sufficiently outlandish to make Sylvia look very absorbed in her gadgets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehe. Yeah, she’s so wrapped up her little twitter world she misses something incredible happening all around her. Glad you enjoyed the last second reveal. Those are my favorite kind. Thanks very much!
LikeLike
*poof*
dear me, although I felt all the fantasy, distraction, technological themes of this flash fiction, I got lost in the flash of the
*poof*
Did Sylvia enter a portal through twitter? Who poofed?
What am I not paying attention to?
Randy
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah. That’s my fault. I didn’t focus a lot on the ferry’s abilities. The ferry has engines that can take the ferry and all its passengers through portals to other worlds. So *poof* was the ferry (and everyone on it) entering a portal and traveling to a world with two moons.
LikeLike
Ah. *poof * I get it now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how you show the hypocrisy of the mother being judgemental that the boy doesn’t live in the “real” world while she’s stuck on her phone reading about celebrity “news”. It would be too funny if she tried to tell everyone later about how she went to a planet with two moons, and they all accused HER of letting her imagination go wild. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
She seriously is a hypocrite. She’s not “paying attention” to the real world enough to realize what “she’s” doing. I love you’re scenario. That would be hysterical! I think we’ll just say that’s what happened in the epilogue. 😉 Thanks much, Joy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would serve her right. Fair’s fair. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, loved it! High Sci-fi. It is good to be back and see you are still here at it.
Scott
Mine: https://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/friday-fictioneers-by-the-light-of-the-silvery-moon/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great to hear that, and great to see you back! Thank you much! 🙂
LikeLike
Maybe Mom’s the one who really lives in the fantasy world. . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you’re right. She’s the one who needs a reality check. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well done, Eric. My 3 brothers were all about 15 years older than me, so it was like growing up as an only child. I learned to entertain myself and use my imagination at an early age. I don’t see how any one could be a writer without it. Also handy for new discoveries and technology.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah. I have a similar story. My siblings were much older, so I made do with my imagination. I’m happy with all the ideas boiling in my head. I think it’s fun. It’s also handy for dreaming up kooky stories. 😉 Thanks so much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great story! As a kid, my Mum was always pushing us to explore everything – real world and fantasy (I still have her collection of mythology and fantasy books). “Two moons” puts me in mind of a TV advertisement that showed here in NZ about 20 years ago – preserved here just because, well, NZ ads tend to end up on YouTube for being good comedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaoAkoLT274
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s awesome. I come from a family of readers, so there was no end of books to read in the house. I still remember reading H.G Wells books at the age of twelve. Books supplied by my Dad. He also bought me a collection of Heinlein books. “Stranger in a Strange Land” still marks a paradigm shift in my thinking.
Haha! Loved the commercial. So funny!
Thanks Matthew!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have a ton of commercials where nobody remembers what they were selling, but hey, they were a great bit of fun. Here’s the ultimate NZ classic ever made – 1 minute 30 of ‘wildest west’ comedy berserkness from 1974. I rode on the train they used for (some of) the exteriors, a preserved steamer, the ‘Kingston Flyer’, way later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3laBRBPfQ4
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! Seems folks were fighting harder for chocolate than gold! And Granny gets it all in the end. Love it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
poof! What just happened? what? what?
LikeLiked by 2 people
My bad. I didn’t have the space to explain in detail. The ferry could use portals to travel to distant planets. The captain asked Chris if he he wanted to travel through a portal. The mother agreed, thinking it was all childish fantasy. So “poof” was the ferry passing through a portal to another planet…one with two moons. The mother, so caught up in her twitter feed, didn’t even realize the fantastic thing that just happened. Sorry for the confusion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Np. It was a good read😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another good story, Eric. Always like to pop in and see what you’re doing even if it is another wacky mad scientist scheme to gobble up the planet.😁
It seems to be confession time for day-dreamers. When I was five and Mom was at work my cousin babysat me by taking me to his job (garage) and leaving me in his car all day. We were sort poor; I guess it’s all Mom could afford for a time. I think that’s where I developed my terrific imagination and terrible habit😶 of fantasizing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aha! That seems to be a common theme among the writers. A lot of time alone means a well-developed imagination. Thanks Christine!
LikeLike