Chapter Five

by Houser Intermediate School, Conroe, Texas, USA

Place: Universe
Date: Prehistoric - 1870

Captain Pinash bent over to the little creature and in the quietest voice whispered, "Boo!"

The frightened dinosaur sped away.

"That's taken care of, " sighed Captain Pinash.

Daisy was crying by now. "I want to go home!!" she screamed.

Captain Pinash still wasn't listening. She stomped up behind him, snatched the Shrink-O-Matic from his hand, and flipped the switch. Now it was an Enlarge-O-Matic. She aimed it directly at his forehead, "If you don't want an oversized watermelon head, I suggest you get me home."

"Okay, let's get Petunia," he said as he headed back to the ship. She turned around to grab Petunia's hand , but there was no hand to grab. Petunia was gone!

Daisy was so irritated. All she wanted to do was to go home.

Proddle, Pazaz, Captain Pinash, and Daisy went to look for Petunia. They found some diamonds, phosphorus, and some sodium chloride in a cave nearby. Pazaz grabbed some for his pockets.

That cave just happened to be a den that belonged to a family of fire-breathing dinosaurs. Right in front of Daisy, and the group were four baby dinosaurs playing while their parents slept. When one baby noticed they had company, Captain froze and asked in a whisper, " Hand me the Shrink-O-Matic."

Daisy handed it to him. He fired four shots.

"Direct hits!" Daisy called reassuringly. But to her amazement the shots made the dinosaurs BIGGER not smaller!

Pazaz and Pinash glared at her in the meanist way. "Oops..." Daisy said, remembering that she didn't flip the switch back to the Shrink-O-Matic side.

Thinking quickly, Pinash flipped the switch to Shrink-O-Matic and fired eight shots to make the dinosaurs smaller. The noise woke the parents. They were furious when they saw the intruders. They began to blow fire through their giant nostrils towards Pazaz. He just barely got out of the cave.

The blaze skimmed his loaded back pocket creating an explosion. The explosion caused Pazaz to fly over Proddle's head and across the feet of Daisy and Captain Pinash.Captain Pinash

Realizing that the things they found in the cave were explosive when mixed together, Daisy's group threw some at the dinosaurs. The parents tried to stop it with their fiery breath. It made a huge explosion, knocking them unconscious. Petunia crept out from her hiding place, scared to death.

"Where were you?" asked Daisy.

"I wandered off and the next thing I knew I was in the den of fire-breathing dinosaurs!" answered Petunia.

They all ran back to the ship. Captain Pinash repaired the ship and they took off.

He put the ship on automatic pilot with Pazaz in charge so that he could go work on two inventions he had been thinking about for some time now. One new machine was necessary to spray the sodium chloride onto the unreachable Captain Slug and all of his sluggards. He came up with the idea of a lever that would heave the salt onto the slugs.

The next invention was a Nice-O-Matic. This would be a present for Daisy when they dropped her back home to take care of that mean ole Cook she was always complaining about.

The ship jerked to a stop. As the doors opened they were greeted by Captain Slug and all of his supporters. Without leaving the ship, the crew catapulted a continuous volley of salt (sodium chloride) until they were sure of victory. They closed the door and headed for Daisy's home.

When they were about to drop Daisy off, the three Ps presented her with a present. Daisy was sure that her life would be wonderful now. Who knows who else she would be able to use it on! Thinking of world peace, she hugged her new friends and started out of the ship looking a little more fat than they had remembered. They shifted the gears and started shooting off into space towards the competition area. Oh, how they wanted that Rose Cup!

The Pinkerellians peered through the windows to say one last farewell to Daisy. Imagine their surprise when they saw her carrying Petunia on her shoulders into her house!

The End

Start the story again

The Cheltenham Festival of Literature home page

© Cheltenham Festival of Literature 1999
last amended 6th October 1999