Day 244: The Dragon Monster Car

The Dragon Monster Car
by
Matt Zurbo

 

Sometimes Halley fond life frustrating.
“I want to stand out from the crowd,” she said to Dad.
(Girl in middle of main street. Nobody paying her any attention. Girl is with Dad, who is dressed in white coat, like a scientist.)

One day she was playing in her dad’s garage, when her hand accidentally slipped!
(Girl, cheeky grin, pushing leaver of time machine with her finger.)
Zoink!

And Halley, and her Dad’s car, got teleported back in time!
(Girl, goggle-eyed, looking at reader. Her and cute, very little car with solar panels and scientific bits and pieces, and little time machine on a trolly, pop up, in a medieval village.)
“Yeah! I’ll be the coolest kid in the medieval yard!” she said.

“An alien!” the villagers cried!
(Girl driving car in fright. Villages chasing her with flaming torches. Stable boy watching.)
Woh!

Haley was very upset!
(Car hidden under hay in stable. Girl crying.)
“What did you expect?” the stable boy whispered.

“Yeah,” said some of the farm kids. “See it from our point of view.”
“To us it looks like a headless dragon!”

“Or a bull!”

“And it has no horses pulling it!”
“Black magic!”
(Kids super animated, mimicking what they are describing.)

“It roars! And honks!”
(Kids startled, as one of them squeezes the car’s old school air horn.)

“And has weird night flame!”
“Wahhhh! Two suns!” the stable boy cried.
“They’re headlights!” Halley insisted.
(Stable boy caught in headlights like a rabbit. Other kids running away.)

Halley didn’t know what to do, so the kids tried to help hide her.
(Girl looking at her clothes. She is now dressed like a medieval farm hand.)

But Halley was no good at getting up at 4am.
(Exhausted while other kids work in sideways rain in dark.)

She couldn’t tie knots,
(Other kids rigging a water system from river to veggies. Girl useless.)

or birth a calf,
(Stable boy birthing calf, while girl puts finger to mouth, cheeks ballooning as if about to throw up.)

and didn’t know how to skin and tan rabbit hide!
(Other kids tanning rabbit hide, girl with head in bucket, throwing up.)

She couldn’t even use the stars to navigate!
(Sitting in boat at night, scratching her head, while others map stars, or pull in nets.)

“Useless!” the medieval kids protested.
To them Halley was not too bright!
(Girl slumped, depressed.)
“But I’m from the future, I thought they’d worship me…” Halley mumbled to herself.

Then, one day when the kids were playing hide and seek…
(Kids, including girl, hiding in the car, still partly under straw. One of them tripping the auto lock.)

“Wah! We’re in the belly of the beast!” they wailed.
(Four of them trapped in car with Halley, car alarm and lights going off. Kids horrified.)

“Relax,” said Halley, and put on the car stereo.
(Girl smiling, kids look gobsmacked/baffled.)

Halley was a medieval hit!
(All the kids in the stable dancing. Girl dancing on roof of car. Doors open, music playing.)

“The beast is talking to us!” the villagers cheered.
“What an amazing voice!”
(Car being drawn by a horse, villagers all dancing. King, being carried on a throne, smiling, clicking fingers.)

Then… YOIK!
(Dad appears in flash of light, with time machine. Dad obviously a geek scientist.)
“Dad!?” gasped Halley.

“Don’t you realise what happens when you mess with time!?”
(Dad taking Halley and car back through time. Halley waving goodbye to friends too busy dancing to notice, other than stable boy, who is confused but waving back.)

“Oh!”
(Back in today, on main street, everybody is dancing. Garbage is full, traffic gridlocked while police and garbos dance. Nothing is getting done.)

“Sorry, Dad!”
(Halley and Dad doing garbage while garbos dance.)

The End