An Unexpected Landing
(This is a story by Georgia Tidbury. Over the last number of months we have worked together to create an outline, start the story, and move it along a little. Actually, my involvement has been pretty minimal. This is all Georgia’s work, and it is great!)
Faith, Hope, and Charity have not always gotten along. They have their differences, and this is normal. But what is not normal is the fact that Faith, Hope, and Charity are hurtling through the atmosphere of a strange planet, about to crash their ship!
If they are so survive their ordeal, they are going to have to try and work together. Can they? Can Faith, Hope and Charity find what it takes to reconcile and save each other?
Let’s find out.
ERROR ALERT ERROR ALERT TURBO-PACKS MISSING, screamed a tinny voice over the speakers.
The ship rocked from side to side.
“What is going on?” screamed Faith.
“Meteor strike!” Charity shouted back, trying to be heard over the alarms.
“What do we do?” said Faith, turning to Hope.
“I don’t know…,” she muttered. “I think it’s a malfunction…”
“What are we going to do?” Charity shouted.
“I don’t know!” Hope shouted back.
“Well, maybe if you read the manual you WOULD know,” said Charity, “instead of just THINKING!”
“Stop it you two, we’re going to crash!” shouted Faith.
“Like you’re helping!” Hope shouted back
Outside the windows, a planet was spinning around and around, as the ship got closer and closer. Hope and Charity were running all over, trying to secure things and figure out what
to do.
I wish they would stop panicking and follow crash landing procedure, thought Faith
gloomily.
The ship lurched again as they entered the planet’s atmosphere.
They all screamed.
BOOM!!!!!!!!!! Silence filled the air…
Now you could hear nothing, no one.
*****
CLUNK went the door of the spaceship. A few moments later, Faith, Hope and Charity stepped out. They didn’t look any different after they crashed. They did not act any different since they crashed.
After being startled and dazed for a few moments, Charity started shouting at Hope again.
“We wouldn’t have crashed if it wasn’t for you! If only you read the manual! One job and you can’t even do that! We would be flying back to Bezoo if you had read THE MANUAL!” screamed Charity, her red skin turning yellow with absolute rage.
“I didn’t have one job. I had four because SOMEBODY was too lazy to do their own,” screamed Hope back. She went on for a few minutes until Faith could bear it no longer.
She soundly shouted at the top of her voice: “STOP IT YOU TWO, WE HAVE CRASHED! WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE OUR CRASH DOESN’T MATTER! NOW ALL WE CAN CHANGE IS WHAT’S GOING TO HELP US GET OUT!”
The two looked at her, startled; she didn’t normally go for shouting. Hope gave her a glare. Charity, with a smug look on her face, said: “Got any better ideas, then?”
“Yes, for a fact I do. First, let’s find somewhere shady; then we can think about what to do. It must be at least 100 degrees!”
After walking for a few hours they found an old burrow (or so they presumed). They walked into it. They could only just fit though the entrance but the tunnel became taller as they walked.
“I wish we were home at planet Bezoo, at least this place feels a bit like….”
“AHHHHH!!!!”
They all screamed as something about their size jumped out at them. Faith tried speaking to it but then it started to growl and spit. Before they knew it, they were being chased by about 30 of these strange characters. Leaving the burrow, the creatures (which we know as Meerkats) went on chasing them for what felt like a very long time, before they disappeared.
“What a great idea, Faith,” said Hope sarcastically.
“We won’t be trying that again,” said Charity. She looked gloomy and sad.
Faith approached her: “You miss home, don’t you?” She gave her a hug.
Charity immediately pulled away: “I’m not home sick; why would I be? Anyway, this place is kind of ok…”
But she didn’t sound so sure.
*****
As they walked – trying to find somewhere cool – they started bickering again, even Faith. And before they knew it, it was dark. They were okay at seeing in the dark but normally – on planet Bezoo – they had lantern. After a while they found a tree. They climbed up it. It had been a long day and Hope and Charity fell asleep holding each other’s hands. This was quite unusual; normally, they couldn’t stand each other. Faith was the only one awake; she stayed up half the night thinking and thinking about what to do.
The next morning they woke up with a jump. They heard something heading towards them. They were scared they thought it might be those creatures again coming back to chase them. But when they looked down to the ground they saw something that looked like an old half-broken spaceship, with a weird round thing on it. They got scared and climbed further up the tree. Hope was good at one thing, at least; she could understand all the languages she heard (though she could not speak them). And she happily translated. Here is what they heard:
“And here we have… actually, what are those? They look like some animal we have never ever seen before.”
The man got out of his car and exclaimed: “MY GOLLY GRACIOUS GRANNY! There’s never been anything of the sort.”
He turned to an old lady in the small crowd that formed behind him. “What would you call it, Madam Granny?”
“Number 1, young man,” she said, waving her walking stick. “I’m only 209 years old.”
“And Number 2, I’m not your granny and you should leave these poor creatures alone.” She stormed off, still waving her walking stick in the air.
He turned to his colleague and – in a hushed voice – said: “Get the nets.” He looked nervous and glanced at the old woman, now just a spot in the distance.
“GO ON THEN! DO IT!”
His colleague looked utterly scared, for a moment. Then he ran off. Soon, like the old woman, he was just a dot.
“Fine, then,” said to the tour guide. “I’ll do it myself.” And with that he grabbed the net and started to climb the tree.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Faith, Hope and Charity, all at once.
At first everyone seemed a bit startled. People started shouting for them to stop, while others engaged the tour guide.
Then for Hope, Charity and Faith, everything went black…….
*****
It must have been at least two hours later when Hope woke. She rubbed her eyes….
“AHHH!!” She got the fright of her life to see around ten weird aliens, armed with weapons and flashing lights. Her scream woke Faith and Charity up. They all got such a fright and ran into a barrier.
“Why can’t we get out?” asked Charity in a high pitched, nervous voice.
“I don’t know,” said Faith in return.
“I think its glass, which some aliens use. Like wood, but you can see through it,” exclaimed Hope quickly. “It’s quite delicate and if you throw a stone at it hard enough it’ll break!”
They searched the floor for a stone or rock and only found one. It was tiny, about the size of a medium-sized sweet. Faith who was the strongest, threw the rock at the glass. The glass broke and started to crumble.
“RUN!” screamed Charity.
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” they started running, while the aliens (people) behind them started to scream their heads off. Then, a familiar sound came to their heads. Red lights started to flash and the main lights went off.
“Look! There’s the door!” screamed Faith, trying to be heard over the commotion.
They ran out. They ran and ran till the building they had been in was only a tiny speck in the distance.
“We haven’t eaten anything in days,” whined Hope
“No, weeks!” said Charity gloomily.
“No, months!”
“Years!”
“Decades!”
“Centuries!”
“The whole of time!”
“No need to exaggerate, you two, we have hardly been here 24 sruoh.” (an aliens version of hours).
“Maybe we could sneak back to the spaceship and get some blazzo (food) and zanboo (a weird type of alien water),” said Hope desperately.
“No, it would waaaaaay to risky,” replied Faith gloomy.
Faith, Hope and Charity didn’t notice the old lady – who had ran away earlier – approach them. “Hello little fellows, do you want a home?” she said in a croaky voice.
As quick as a whip the three aliens turned around.
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, RUN FOR THEM!” screamed Charity.
They ran and ran.
“Rude!” said the little old lady, following them.
When Faith and Charity were far enough away they took a breather…and it was only then they noticed someone was missing!
“Where’s Hope?” asked Charity casually. “Oh come on now, Hope, stop hiding, it’s really not a good joke!”
“Hope…”
“She’s just messing with you. Let’s now go look for her and give her a good telling off, eh?” said Faith with a mischievous smirk (it was the first time she was having fun in this new weird place. Hope often does random and unexpected games of hide and seeks with her friends). They looked around. There was just one shrub, a very small one in the distance.
“OH NO LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE CHARITY! IF YOU AND HOPE WERE NOT ALWAYS SQUABBLING MAYBE JUST MAYBE SHE WOULDN’T HAVE RUN OFF! BUT I’M NOT SURPRISED SHE RAN OFF THOUGH! YOU CAN BE SO MEAN SOMETIMES!” screamed Faith in her ear.
Charity thought that was the last of it but then she heard one last question from Faith.
“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST GET ALONG?!”
“Well…,” Charity began. “It all started way back when me and Hope were in the same class. She was always a popular girl and would bully me rotten because I didn’t have the latest space ships or the trending toys. And when I signed up for this expedition around the Milky Way to find out more about it, it was to get confidence. And I was planning…,” she paused and looked up at Faith, who was now looking and feeling very guilty for shouting at her.
“You were planning what she?” whispered.
“I was planning to confront her but then I was chosen for the job and so was Hope and I just felt so angry. So I thought I should give her some of her own medicine.”
She burst into tears of juice( yes, aliens cry juice!)
Faith and Charity had been so indulged in listening and speaking that they didn’t notice Hope and the little old lady come up behind them!
“Oh, Charity I’m… I’m… I’m so sorry. I only did it because I’m so stupid when it comes to academics and you were always great. I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to do what I did!” Hope said, hugging Charity tight.
For a few moments, Charity just stood there hugging her back. Then she pulled, away holding out her hand and asked: “Friends?”
Charity gave her a look as if to say NO WAY but then she laughed and said: ”Friends! You looked so scared and worried though!”
“And I’m sorry I’ve been so crabby lately, too,” said Faith in a small voice.
“It’s o,k we are not all perfect but we are friends!” said Charity. “Oh yes, I completely forgot. Why did you run away from the little old lady? She was offering for us to stay with her. Are we going to?”
“I don’t see why not!” said Charity in an excited voice. “Yeah, why not!?”
And so they were off.
They never went back to Blazzo to finish the Mission because they liked Planet Earth much more! The little old lady’s name was Vivian. She lived on a sunny beach, though Charity, Hope, and Faith started going an emerald colour, brought on mostly because of the heat. So then they all moved to a little cottage in the Alps and the little old lady, Faith, Hope, Charity and the little old lady’s pet pig were the happiest family ever. Faith, Hope and Charity even learned to speak English!
*****
100 years later:
ERROR ALERT ERROR ALERT TURBO-PACKS MISSING screamed a tinny voice over the speakers.
The ship rocked from side to side.
“What is going on?” screamed Happiness.
“Meteor strike!” Peace shouted back, trying to be heard over the alarms.
“What do we do?” said Happiness, turning to Joy.
“I don’t know…,” she muttered. “I think it’s a malfunction…”
“What are we going to do?” Peace shouted.
“I don’t know!” Joy shouted back.
“Well, maybe if you read the manual you WOULD know,” said Happiness, “instead of just THINKING!”
“Stop it you two, we’re going to crash!” shouted Peace. Just ike Faith, Hope, and Charity the Great!
They went silent. Thinking of the Aliens who paved the way for them, who risked their lives and never came back.
If only they knew that Faith, Hope, and Charity were still alive living in the Alps, old but pretty much alive, though the little old lady and her pet pig had died long, long ago (and they think of them EVERY single day!)
BOOM! And the adventure starts again…