Ladies prison

One of our projects at school last term was to create a diorama of a new style of prison.

We had to create a title based on what our prison system offered and think of ways to reform

them and then make the diorama.

I wanted to create a prison for women only and it is based on using positive influence.

Some of the things I listed were; bright colours, a pet for companionship and responsibility, a bookshelf with titles that are appropriate to help the prisoners find the good inside themselves, learning a new trade and skills so when they leave they can go and work some place and be able to start a new life and think positively about life and themselves.

Chapter 10: In Outer Space.

Martin was so shocked he jumped a metre high in the air-, which was gone.

He was now floating around, having broken through the atmosphere.

Martin acted quickly; he used his arms to sort of swim through, well, nothingness.

He hurriedly put the rockets on autopilot, put himself inside another white outline of a square he had found, which took you to the kitchen, and pulled the lever that was labelled ‘KITCHEN’.

He then went through that strange sensation again, and floated into the kitchen to have a spoon hit his spacesuit.

Everything was floating: plates, pans, cups, bowls, drops of water, a fridge, a microwave, a-

“ROSE AND CAI!!!!!!!!” Martin screamed, because, floating motionless in the nothingness were Rose and Cai, who was bleeding.

Martin grabbed both Rose and Cai by their wrists and dragged them to the control room, opened the storage cupboard, and pulled out oxygen masks

(Which lasted 24 hours) and put one on each of his friends.

The two siblings still had their eyes closed, so Martin checked them both for a pulse; luckily, they both had one.

It took them a while to come round, but they did.

“Er-my-knee…” mumbled Cai; he was obviously in great pain: his knee was

Bleeding quite badly, and that same leg was floating in an odd angle.

“Mmm?” came the voice of Rose, she had waken up.

“Oh Rose, what happened to Cai- I thought I heard you go out the door?”

Asked Martin curiously.

“Well, what happened was, that when we where heading out the door, a butcher’s knife fell off the shelf and- and landed on his knee.

Then he fainted, but only for ten seconds, when he woke up the rocket’s started and then he shouted for help, and soon after we, we, both fainted.”

She said in a concerned voice.

“Yeah, and it hurt too.” Came a loud voice from behind Rose and Martin, who both started.

The two turned around, and saw Cai, upside down in the nothingness, who had obviously listening to every word Rose had said.

“Are you OK Cai?” asked Martin, with a tone of panic in his voice.

“I’m alright. It’s just that my knee hurts a little-“ Rose gave him a don’t-lie-because-we-know-that’s-not-true look’s.

“and I’m really cold.” Said Cai, shivering.

“You two better get a space suit on; space is cold.” Said Martin knowledgeably.

So Martin swam over to the storage cupboard, pulled out what looked like fifty bed sheet’s, and gave one space suit to Cai (“I’m actually wearing it?”) and the other to Rose.

Then he floated back to the cupboard and pulled out two thin booklets.

“Here,” he grunted, shoving an emerald green booklet into each of his friends hands. “you’ll need them, ‘took me an hour and a half to get into mine on solid ground, but in air…” his voice trailed off.

******

It took his two BFFAE’s two and a half hour’s to get their suits on, and Martin couldn’t imagine how much difficulty they were going through.

But the two came out in their space suits looking utterly bewildered.

“Get ready for the hyper-jump; it’ll take us all the way to Charon.

The space suits will give us some protection, but we will be going at high speed for at least five minutes.” Said Martin casually, not knowing that he had made Rose extremely nervous.

Martin pressed a purple button and a cool, female voice sounded through the spaceship: “Hyper jump proceeding in 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…0”

At that moment, a high pitched whooshing noise boomed in the children’s ears, and in a few second, the ship was flying through space, as though it was being chased by a very fast crocodile with razor sharp teeth.

The three were thrown back sharply against the wall, and waited for five minutes in the frightening air of a hyper jump.

Chapter 9: Goodbye.

The next day snailed by. Literacy melted into Maths, Maths leaked into Science, Science dawdled into recess, and so on.

Rose was worried, or rather positively petrified, that something would go wrong at 11:30 that night, whereas Cai was so excited, that he dropped anything he was holding whenever the words ‘Rocket’, ‘spaceship’ or anything to do with space was mentioned.

As soon as the 3:00 bell rung that afternoon, as usual, there was a lot of hustle-bustle to get out the door.

Cai and Rose walked home in an eerie silence; they didn’t visit Martin as they usually did, as today was not a usual day.

Because today, their only friend would be going away to a far-off moon, and they didn’t know if they would ever see him again.

They felt like an icy-cold dagger was slowly sinking into the depths of their hearts, like they were trapped in the ocean, disappearing in its fierce, blue waves, like the sky was turning in the wrong direction, and endless tears of grief were falling into the pale-grey nothingness of despair and hopelessness.

***

As soon as they got home, the two siblings raced up to their rooms, and set both of their alarm clocks to 11:00, as it would be best to get there early for a proper good-bye ceremony.

***

It was not an easy sleep, but at last, the alarm clocks rang, and they both stopped them quickly, so their mother wouldn’t wake.

They both sneaked silently out of the house, with no trouble at all, and walked down the footpath to Martin’s house.

They knocked on the door, and heard footsteps in the hose, then the door opened, and they saw a scared looking Martin in a-

“Space-suit! That’s really awe-stuck- can I just touch it Martin?” Cai said haphazardly.

Martin laughed, so did Rose. “Yes, you can touch it Cai!” said Martin in a

Giggly voice.

So Cai reached out his forefinger, brushed the hard material, and drew it back quickly, grinning.

“Awesome.” He said in awe. The three then walked to the kitchen when Rose said

“Now, um, we better get, er, moving.”

“Oh, um, yeah, well, I-I’ve worked out how to fly it and everything, so um, er, we should probably get going with our, er, um, goodbyes.” Said Martin in his small, shy voice.

“Right then, I have brought you something to, er, remember us by.” Said Cai in a strong and firm voice, and he pulled out a small rock with golden writing engraved into it: Cai & Martin & Rose r BFFAE’s.

“What does BFFAE stand for, Cai?” asked Martin curiously.

“Best Friends Forever And Ever.” Cai said importantly.

“Well, er, I brought something for you too, Martin.” Rose said casually, and she rummaged in her enormous coat pocket for something, and than pulled out a small sphere, with lots of floating balls, that looked strangely like plants, and there was lots of glitter, that looked like stars, a large, yellow ball was in the middle, and Cai was guessing it was the sun, and the back-round was painted black to make it look like the solar system in a glass ball.

“Wow, I mean whoa, I mean- oh thanks, Rose!” Martin said excitedly.

“I thought it might be just as good as a map of the solar system- just a bit more decorative and interesting.” Said Rose proudly.

“Thanks Guy’s, I really appreciate it, I really do, and everything that you’ve done for me. I mean, I’ll be able to see my family again because of you two, and, oh- I just can’t thank you enough.” Said Martin dramatically.

All of a sudden, Rose burst into tears, and Cai tried to comfort his sister with lots of “We’ll see him again someday.”s and “It’s alright.”s.

Finally, it was time for the big lift off.

The friends did one more final group hug with lots of “Goodbye”s.

So Martin went down the secret toilet to the control room, and waited until he heard the front door close, then started the rocket boosters.

It was a trifle uncomfortable in his spacesuit, but Martin could take it.

‘I’m going to see my family, for the first time since I crash landed on earth.’

It was a perfect lift-off, in Martins opinion.

In a few hours, he would hyper jump back to Charon, where his family would be waiting, or would they? He thought to himself nervously.

He was just about to break through the earth’s atmosphere, when-

“HELP, HELP!” came an urgent voice.

Chapter 8: The way out

All three of them drew breath; it was amazing!

It was the control room they had been looking for, there were knobs and dials and levers and charts and radars and signals and screens and buttons.

All of a sudden, Rose whispered, “We must be underground.”

“Don’t worry about that, this is awesome! Martin can study all this overnight and while we are at school tomorrow, and then, after school, we can come to see you off!” Cai exclaimed.

“How exactly do we get out of here though?” Rose said quietly.

“Ummmm, I er, umm, don’t, er, really know.” Said Martin, clearly with a mixture of fright, and nervousness.

An awkward, and eerie silence followed, until Cai couldn’t stand it, and just had to speak, “Well, lets have a look around and umm, give a shout if you find something.”

And that’s what they did, it was the exact same thing they had done looking for the control room, and Rose was on the verge of tears.

She felt like they were just doing the same thing over and over again for no reason at all, and that they were getting nowhere whatsoever.

“Guys, I think there’s something over here,” Martin said slowly, pointing to a lever that was labelled ‘OUT’.

Rose and Cai scurried over to him. “I think we have to stand inside the white line.” Martin said, examining the white outline of a square.

So the three friends stepped inside, and Cai, who was nearest to the lever, pulled it.

A strange sensation, like being sucked up a thin, slimy straw, smothered itself into the three friends.

All they could see was blackness, then they saw lilac streaked with crimson and pink; they were flying through the cool, afternoon air.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” was what the three children screamed.

They were gathering speed, faster and faster towards- a soccer field.

They screamed again, and shortly after that, they landed in a bush, a very large one, which was lucky.

But their luck ran out quickly as they saw who was on the field: Billy Crocker and his group of cronies.

“O-oh.” Said Cai in an undertone.

“So the Bustenburg’s have found a little friend, where did you find him, in a bin?” Billy said in his usual sneering voice.

His cronies laughed loudly.

“No, actually we found him in that house you say is haunted.” Said Cai fiercely.

Rose kicked him.

“Oi, what did you do that for!” Cai said angrily.

“Yeah right, Bustenburg. Don’t think you’re so cool all the time, because everyone knows I rule.” jeered Billy.

“Bet you couldn’t go into that house, or aren’t you going in there ‘coz you’re the chicken, eh Croc-face?” Cai sneered.

“Don’t – call – me – CHICKEN!” Billy screamed angrily, his face turning scarlet.

“Keep your fat mouth shut then.” Said Cai triumphantly, and with that, he turned on his heel, beckoned for the others to follow him, and headed to Martins place, with a cheeky grin on his face.

“You really shouldn’t have done that, Cai, how stupid of you!” Rose said angrily to Cai when they were at Martins house.

“Who cares Rose? Hey, listen Martin; tomorrow I think we should do the lift off at 11:30, so no one sees, eh? Rose and I will sneak out of bed to see you off, it’ll be awesome, and I’ve never seen a rocket blast off before! You go to the control room tonight, work a few things out, and, er, see you tomorrow!” said Cai over-excitedly, and then dragged Rose out the door.

chapter 7

Finding the Control room.

When school was finished that day, Rose and Cai went to Martin’s house as plain usual, but this time, Rose had an extremely important question to ask.

“You know, I really think we should start trying to get Martin back to Charon, all me and Cai are doing is coming to your house and cleaning, even though it’s clean enough, and no offence, but it’s boring!” Rose blurted out.

“Come off it, Rose, it’s not like we only have twenty minutes ‘till the planet blows up. Just give it a rest, will you?” said Cai.

“Well, er, actually, I think Rose is right, we’re really just mucking around here, but I do know some info to get us on the job.” Said Martin awkwardly.

Cai, looking slightly putout, said “Why didn’t you tell us this ‘info’ before then?”

Martin, blushing, said shyly, “I was having too much fun with you guys, and I, I forgot.”

“Just spit it out, then!” said Rose eagerly.

Martin took a deep breath, and then blurted, “Well, I do know that there is a secret control room somewhere in the house, we just have to look, I’ve never tried to look, the house was too much of a mess!”

“What are we waiting for? Start looking!” Rose exclaimed.

So that’s what they did, they searched until 7:30, looking behind furniture, behind bed heads, inside drawers and in showers.

But they didn’t make a break-through until the next day.

“HEY, GUYS, I THINK I FOUND SOMETHING!” was the yell that rung through the house, calling from the bathroom on the third floor.

Rose came running from the top floor, while Martin came sprinting from the second floor.

Rose asked triumphantly, “What did you find, Cai?”

Cai, in fact, was looking down a rather large toilet. “Oh, Cai, you’ve found nothing, that’s been out of order for as long as I can remember.” Said Martin, sounding rather disappointed.

But Rose, seeming to have read Cai’s mind, said excitedly “It looks big enough for a person to slide down!”

And then, as though she was waiting for someone to object, she paused for a few moments, and then asked, “I think Cai should go down first, because he found it. Cai, you will go down to see if everything’s OK, and call up to us if it’s safe, right?” she looked quite pleased with herself, as though she had thought up a fool-proof plan, that was bound to work.

Cai was standing over the edge of the empty toilet, and started to protest “But I-“ Cai didn’t get to finish his argument, as Rose had pushed him down the ‘out of order’ toilet.

Martin and Rose heard the pipes rattling, and bumping under Cai’s weight for at least two minutes before they stopped abruptly.

“Come down, come down, guy’s, there’s a huge metal door, oh, I think it needs a code. You two go look around the house for a significant number, or something, we just have to find that code!” came a quite pleased voice echoing through the toilet.

“I think I know a significant number, wait here!” Martin said excitedly to Rose. So Martin ran to the top floor, no, the attic.

Rose wondered what was behind the large door that Cai had found for a few minutes, before Martin came back with an old number plate for a car, reading: vt7bcx5n.

“Well, it’s worth a shot. Come on, Cai’s waiting for us, I’ll go first, you come down straight after, right?” Rose said bravely, and with that, she quickly said “See you down there!” and jumped down the toilet, and Martin copied.

It was a very funny sensation, sliding down the toilet.

It was as though a very slimy monster was squishing them into the hard, cement pipe.

Martin was holding the number plate as though it was a big chunk of gold, while Rose was being careful not to tumble forwards.

At last, Rose landed in a heap at Cai’s feet, and Martin followed.

All of them were in a small, (about five steps from one side to the other) dim, claustrophobic room, with a miniature oak door at the end, big enough for the three to crawl through. “Quick, give me the- a number plate?” said Cai, clearly disbelieving that a number plate would be the correct code. But, he took the plate from Martin’s hands, and darted a few steps to the oak door to try and break the code.

It took Cai about fifteen minutes to type in the code, when finally Cai tried to turn the shiny, brass handle and said, “See, I knew it wouldn’t work.”

And no sooner had he said those words; they heard a strange clicking noise.

Rose, looking very curious, turned the door handle.

Chapters 5 & 6

The School Fair.

The next day, school went slowly and steadily, and when the bell rang to go home, there was a lot of pressure to get out the door.

“OW! You trod on my foot!” said Billy angrily.

“Me first, me first!” screamed Angelina.

“Get out of my way!” exclaimed Clare.

“Don’t push!” shouted Anthony.

“See you at the fair!” chanted Mary.

“You too, Mary!” giggled Sophie.

“What’s the rush?” grunted Jamie.

“Come on, Rose, Martin will be waiting!” said Cai hurriedly over the entire hubbub.

“I’m coming Cai, just getting my books!” replied Rose.

“GET OFF MY FOOT!”

******

“We’ll walk there.” Said Rose to Martin, when he asked how they were going to get there. “The schools just a few blocks away.”

“OK, I’ll get my shoes on.” Said Martin happily, and he ran upstairs to get them.

He came back down with his so-called ‘shoes.’

They were something of an insult to forty-five year old sneakers.

They were a very dirty pair of silver trainers, the laces were light brown, the soles were ripped, and there was something green on them, like moss.

“Are these the only pair you have?” asked Rose, very curious where these had come from, and also wondered when he last wore them.

“Yes.” Said Martin, unsure of what to say next.

“We’ll pass by our house and you can borrow some of mine.”

Cai said kindly.

After they had got some shoes for Martin, they made their way to the fair.

When they got there, Martin gasped; it was amazing!

There really were foods games and toys and rides and more.

They did just about everything.

First they got some fairy-floss, (Rose, pink, Cai, yellow, and Martin, blue)

Second, they went on the Ferris wheel, (Martin loved it) third, they got some nachos, (extra, extra, extra, extra cheese for Martin)

Forth, they went on the ghost train, (Rose screamed countless times, whereas the two boys laughed until their eyes watered)

Fifth, they got lucky dips, (lots of lollies, toys and junk) and lastly they got show bags. (All of them got ‘alien mysteries’)

It was a lovely walk home, getting lots of cool new stuff, and lots to talk about.

When they got to Martin’s house, they tipped all of their stuff onto the floor, and had a good look, and an important conversation.

“That was great, I loved the Ferris wheel, and the fairy-floss!” said Martin happily.

“Yeah, it was.” Cai said dreamily.

“Guy’s, don’t you think we looked a bit suspicious, going to the fair with Martin, when they all think we don’t have any friends?” Rose said

“Oh, Rose, you worry too much, anyway, you were the one that went off that night, I distinctly remember these words;”

And after Cai said that, he adopted a high-pitched voice that sounded very little like Rose: “Oh, they will be so jealous that I have a pen-pal from Queensland!”

Rose blushed, and said “Well I care for Martin, and I don’t want people coming to his house in the middle of the night wanting to arrest him for being an alien, do you Cai?”

Cai scowled and shook his head.

“I’m just watching out for our friend, because I’m not sure if you have noticed, Cai, but he is our only one.” And with that, she stormed out the door, slamming it as she went. Cai just shrugged, muttered “Drama Queen,” said goodbye to Martin, and followed his sister to his house.

Dinner with Mother.

The day after that, as soon as the two siblings came home from school, and were about to head out the door to see Martin, Mother summoned them to the living room for a short talk.

“Hello Children, I just wanted to ask, I mean I hardly even see you very often now that you have this friend, who is it?”

“His name is Martin, and he lives in a house further down the road.

We met him at the playground one day, and he told us his parents died when he was three.

He lives by himself, so when we go down there every afternoon, he is usually cooking his own dinner.” Rose said hurriedly; she desperately wanted to see Martin.

“Oh, the poor thing,” said Mother sounding very sorry for Martin.

“Ok, well you go see him, tell him to pack his things, and he can stay over tonight, how does that sound?”

“Brilliant!” Cai and Rose said in unison.

It would be an excellent opportunity: Martin had not seen their house yet, and it would be so fun!

The two raced to Martin and told him the good news.

He was delighted!

He packed his things, and flew to his friend’s house with them.

Mother was waiting for them at the front door.

“Hello, Martin! Welcome to our house!” Mother said kindly.

“Come in, come in!” Then she ushered them inside.

“I do hope you enjoy your stay. For dinner, it’s a baked meal!”

Mother said, as if a baked meal was more than anyone could ever ask for.

She led them into the dining room, and asked them to take a seat.

The meal was delicious; the potatoes crispy and flavour-some, the chicken whole and tasty and the vegetables nice and juicy.

After dinner was desert: raspberries, cream, caster sugar, ice-cream and chocolate pudding. (Which was damp with chocolate sauce, mmmmmmm!)

Once the last spoon-full of ice cream was swallowed, it was time for bed.

Mother put out the portable foldout bed for Martin, and en-laid it with cushions, said goodnight, and let them watch

‘Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix’ in peace.

“That was an excellent movie, but I didn’t like the part when Sirius got killed, that was sad.” Said Martin, once the credits started rolling.

“I’m t-t-tired, let’s g-g-go to bed now.” Said Rose, with lots of stifled yawns.

“Yeah, goodnight everyone!” said Cai sleepily.

**************

“Hm? Wassup? Wass goi’n on?” This is how everyone awoke the next morning, having stayed up late.

“Come on sleepy-heads! Come and get your pancakes!” Mother called.

So they all got dressed and had some delicious pancakes with maple syrup.

Then Martin went home, as Rose and Cai had to go to school that day.

Chapter 3 & 4

If you need to start from the beginning here are chapters 1 & 2

Martin the Martian

A pale faced, sunken eyed, tall, skinny boy, wearing baggy shorts and a faded Billabong t-shirt, was looking absolutely alarmed at the sight of Rose screaming.

“Rose, shut up!” said Cai sternly. “This is Martin.”

Rose stopped screaming.

“You know him?” Rose said, amazed, pointing at the boy.

“Please Rose, let him explain, you have to believe everything he say’s.” Cai pleaded.

Rose, dumbfounded, let out a sigh and she motioned with her hand as if to say ‘Very well, then.’

Cai smiled, and looked at the boy, who seemed to have been taken aback by all of this fuss, but anyway, he started talking in a shy, sad, and lonely voice.

“My name is Martin, and I am ten, Cai has said that you are Rose, and you are eleven?” He asked.

Rose had an intake of breath, and then nodded.

“You may think that I am lying about what I am about to say, but that is understandable, and I assure you that I am not lying, however much you may think so. I am an alien, who takes human form, and you are in my space ship, disguised as a human house, which crash-landed here ten years ago, three months after I was born, and I must get back to Charon, Pluto’s moon, and my home.

I have been trying to make this rocket fit to live in, and repair the thrusters ever since I was three, I need your help to get me back to Charon, back to my family, and you are the only people who come to this house, the only human’s who know me, and the only people I trust.”

Martin looked very scared, as if Rose and Cai were about to shout out

‘NO WAY ARE WE HELPING YOU!’

But they did not.

All that happened after that, well, Rose had adopted an

I-don’t-like-the-sound-of-that-and-I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-heard look,

And Cai was fiddling with his belt (he had already heard this information and was not surprised in the least.) and seemed expressionless.

All of a sudden, Rose said in a soft, whispered voice “We will help you Martin.”

Cai was startled; he had expected Rose to say, “Sorry Martin, but it would inter-fere with our school work.”

Seeing the look on Cai’s face, Rose said, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be away from home for so long without any friends.”

Martin smiled, and for the first time since Rose had been here, he realised she was quite pretty; she had long strawberry-blonde hair, brilliant green eyes, long black eye-lashes, she was quite tall, and she had snowy white skin, that reminded him of an alien-tale about an ali-princess.

“So, um, how about we start tomorrow by cleaning up this dirty house?”

Martin said shyly.

“Great idea, we can get to know each other more!” Cai said cheerfully

“Yeah, well, um, er, see you tomorrow then, Martin!” said Rose kindly,

And then the two siblings walked home happily, awaiting the coming day.

The Clean up.

Rose and Cai slept peacefully that night, knowing that they had a friend, yes, the first friend they had had since moving to Maple street, which was three years ago, and the thought that they would no longer care about Billy and his friends bullying them, because they both knew now that they were not going to be so lonely.

And who knows, maybe having an alien friend could be awesome!

So, anyway, the two went to Martin’s house to clean up, as they said they would.

The night they met Martin, they told their Mother they had met a new friend, and were going to his house tomorrow, after school was finished, to find some old stuff for the school fair, which was coming up.

“What’s a fair?” Martin asked curiously.

“Oh you’d love it Martin!” said Rose excitedly. “There’s food, and games and toys, and rides-Hey! How about you come with us, were are going alone, as Mother has a dinner party, we could say you are a pen pal from-hmmmm, how about Queensland! Everyone would be so jealous, because Queensland is on the mainland, and Tasmania is where most people in our class have pen pals, and it’s where we live isn’t it?” Rose stopped for a breath, and Cai whispered to Martin, “Girls talk too much, don’t they?”

Martin laughed.

“Thanks for all these old fair things, Martin!” Rose said after she caught her breath.

“You are very welcome, think of it as an early reward for taking me to the fair.” Said Martin cheerfully.

After that, the siblings visited Martin every night, each time bringing him different luxury foods.

One night, Martin was nibbling on a triple choc-chip muffin, When Cai said “Excited about the fair tomorrow night, Martin?”

“Very, we never have fair’s on Charon.” Said Martin eagerly.

“We will want to be sure we get some fairy-floss too.” Cai said, and he saw the puzzled look on Martin’s face, he added “Oh, it’s a really nice food that looks like a cloud, but it tastes like candy, and you can get it in blue, pink or yellow.”

“Neat! I’ll get blue!” Martin exclaimed excitedly.

They finished cleaning out the room that Martin chose to be his bedroom, and Martin even said that, once the house was fully cleaned and fit to live in, they could both choose a room of their very own, as the house had five bathrooms, three kitchens, two drawing rooms, two sitting rooms, and five small bedrooms. (each bedroom had one bed, one set of draws, and a

Walk-in wardrobe)

After that, Cai and Rose walked home, and rested for the following day.