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24.7.19

CHUFFER TRAIN - a little story in a hundred words


CHUFFER TRAIN
The landing craft circled, its cameras focussed on the train below.
“A primitive form of transport,” the Commander decided, and sent Phtam to make First Contact.
Slightly wobbly on her unfamiliar legs, Phtam walked along the platform and approached the nearest figure. “Good day.”
The man didn’t even acknowledge her. She tried each person in turn with no success. A train chuffed into the station but still no-one moved, and when it left, so did Phtam.
“They’re all dead,” she reported. “Probably a virulent virus.”
The ship left hurriedly – without spotting the sign on a gate --
‘Model Village closed today’.
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Apologies to the real people - if they ARE real - on this station, but Sandra Crook's photo reminded me of a model village on the Isle of Wight which I visited recently with my granddaughter.
Thanks as ever to https://rochellewisoff.com/ for hosting Friday Fictioneers - if you care to follow the links from her blog you can read other stories prompted by Sandra's photo.
PS to Sandra - is that Corfe Castle in the background of your photo?

This is the Isle of Wight model village...









31 comments:

  1. It's amazing how easy it is not to understand things in an alien culture. I remember not being able to get out of my room in a US hotel because I didn't understand how their doorknobs worked. Well captured, Lizzie

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    1. Thanks Neil. It took me ten minutes to get into my room last time I stayed in an hotel - didn't realise I had to dip the key card into the lock and then Take It Out!

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  2. The model village at Corfe Castle is wonderful, Lizy. My nephew works on the railway and runs the engineering dept. Anyway... back to your story. A lovely twist.

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    1. Thanks, Helen,and for the photos on Facebook x

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  3. Ha, enjoyed this one Liz, lovely reveal :-)

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  4. Wimborne in Dorset has a model village which is amazing.

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    1. There are obviously more of them around than I realized.

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  5. Oh, how wonderful!

    I had never seen one until we took our gr-son to the Lego park two hours away. It was entirely made of small Legos. Unfortunately gr-son was hard to keep up with as he skipped from one ride to another. So we viewed about 1/4 of it.

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  6. Dear Liz,

    The ending had me laughing out loud. How confusing for poor Phtam. Good one.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. Thanks Rochelle - this was another swifty!

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  7. That brought a smile to my face.

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  8. That's brilliant. Looking at the picture again it could indeed be a model railway!

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    1. I had to study it closely, but the figures are too perfect to be fakes 😎

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  9. The people in the model village photos really do appear real in the image. I wonder what kind of virus leaves people in statue-like death states? I don't blame the aliens for taking off.

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  10. it could be that the aliens don't know how to read. :)

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  11. Liz, this is a perfect example of real life translating to good fiction. I enjoyed the shift of perspective in your story.

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  12. Very funny. And what silly aliens - fancy not reading the sign.

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    1. Jumping to conclusions is not very scientific.

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  13. A very entertaining tale about misunderstandings between one species and another. =)

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  14. An interesting and well-written story, Liz. The ending twist was great. :) --- Suzanne

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