When the World Changed

Scarlet was twelve. Every Sunday morning, she would walk to the corner shop to buy her mother a newspaper. Whilst she was there, she would buy herself a small gift with the pocket money she received from doing chores.

That night in bed, Scarlet had a fascinating dream about robots and insects in a band. She pondered over this dream when she woke up the next morning. There was something strange about it, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Scarlet put on her t-shirt, jeans and hoodie then meandered her way down the stairs for breakfast.

Still thinking about last nights dream, Scarlet picked up her pocket money and sighed as she slammed the door behind her.

Pinching herself to see if it was true, Scarlet rubbed her eyes as an owl with a satchel swooped down to the nearby post box. It took out all the letters and flew back off the way it had come.

Walking down the road, Scarlet was still in shock as she lay her eyes on an even more disturbing sight. A Yorkshire terrier walking on its hind legs and wearing boots as yellow as the sun was chatting to her next door neighbor. Scarlet's neighbor seemed to be fine about the whole issue, so she carried on her way.

Scarlet turned the corner on to Lemon Lane, and came to the corner shop. As she opened the door, the faint sound of the bells hanging above the door rang in her ears. She picked up a newspaper and a packet of chocolate buttons and plodded over to the till.

Scarlet's eye's widened as she noticed, there standing behind the till, was a robot. "Can I help you?" The robot said in his mechanical voice. Warily, Scarlet passed over her basket and gave the robot her money before running out of the shop.

As Scarlet turned back on to her road, she tripped over something and fell to her hands and knees. She peered down to see what on earth she had tripped over. To her surprise, it was a tiny brass band of ants. So Scarlet stayed and listened to one of their magical songs before carrying on her way home.

When Scarlet walked past the local cafe, she spotted something extraordinary out of the corner of her eye. There was a humungous mouse sitting opposite a tortoiseshell cat. They were chatting away and munching some tea and cakes. They looked extremely happy, but Scarlet was puzzled because the cat she had at home usually chased mice.

Finally, Scarlet burst through the front door of her house pleased to be home.

That night, Scarlet was lying awake in bed when she heard a noise outside her window. She got up to have a look. It turned out only to be the cats from next door fighting so Scarlet got back into bed, twitched her whiskers and fell asleep.