Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Trip to Teletubbyland

When we came home from the movies, our teenage babysitter was crouched in front of the TV, sobbing. I knew immediately what had happened.

"Don't worry, Stephanie. This has happened before. Stay here. John and I will be right back."

I took my husband's hand and cleared my throat.

"Ahem. Po, Dipsy, Lala, Tinky, Winky. Make us both cute and dinky."

In the blink of an eye, John and I were in Teletubbyland.

"John, you go left. I'll go right. Let's meet back here in 30 minutes."

I took off towards the right. I climbed up and down one gentle rolling hill after another. No children anywhere. I came upon a hole in the ground and yelled "hello" into it. I heard a little voice say "Eh oh."

"Tinky Winky, is that you?"

"Eh oh."

"Dipsy?"

"Eh oh."

"Lala?"

"Eh oh."

"Po?"

"Po!"

Po climbed out of the hole. "Eh oh!" she said in greeting.

"Do you know where my children are?" I asked the red Teletubby.

"Eh oh!....Po!" she answered.

"My children Molly and Sam? Molly's about this tall, has curly brown hair. Sam's just a baby and has almost no hair."

Po gurgled something, but I couldn't make it out. Then she pointed a red fuzzy finger up at the sky.

I looked up and saw clouds and an unnaturally huge sun. I squinted and saw a face in the sun.

It was Sam! I held out my arms and Sam floated down, gentle as a feather into them.

"Oh my baby! I'm so glad to see you! John, I've found Sam!"

"Thank you, Po!" I shouted as I ran back towards our meeting place.

I could see John on the next hill talking to the yellow Teletubby, who was pointing at its stomach. Sam and I joined them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Lala's about to show me something on his TV thingy. I think it might be a clue as to where Molly might be."

We watched as the snow on Lala's screen focused into a clear picture. Children were playing in a playground, swinging on swings, climbing jungle gyms.

"Wait! That's Molly playing hopscotch!" John pointed. "Molly, come on out! We can go home and play hopscotch there."

"No tankew." Molly said very politely.

"Come on, Molly. Please?"

"No tankew." Molly continued jumping rope.

"We can have ice cream...." that was always John's go-to bribe when he got desperate with the kids.

"Come, daddy. Come. Me want ice cweam." John hung his head, sighed and looked at me.

"Looks like you're gonna have to go in." I concluded.

"Po, Dipsy, Lala, Tinky, Winky. Please make me double shrinky." John muttered.

I watched as he shrunk and got sucked into the screen on Lala's tummy. The grainy version of John walked over to Molly, picked her up, kissed her and muttered something inaudible.

His form expanded outwards from the screen and within a second, John and Molly were standing next to me.

"You guys ready to go home and have ice cream?" I shouted excitedly.

"Yay! Yay! Ice cweam!" Molly shouted. Sam babbled and clapped his chubby hands.

All four Teletubbies had gathered on the next hill, around a hole in the ground. They waved us over.

This part of the spell was easy. Holding Sam in my arms, I waved and said "Bye bye!" to the Teletubbies and jumped in the hole. Molly did the same thing, then John.

The Teletubbies all said "Bye bye!" in return. Then we fell through the hole and onto our living room floor.

"Wow! That was the best episode of Teletubbies ever!" Stephanie sighed.

Bye bye!

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