Grounded (short story)

Ben Finch has just been grounded for accidentally sending his football into Mrs. Townsend's window, preventing him form going on the daytrip that his parents had planned. Once Caroline and Michael have left, Ben tells his father, Clive to go to his shed. Clive then gets a message from Caroline saying "No telly".

Later, Ben hears of the follow up message saying "And that includes video games", leaving him even more bored. After doing a little bit of reading, Ben decides to go outside and play with his football some more, thinking that his mother is daft to ban television instead of his football. He considers asking Clive to come out and play with him, but he doesn't think that it would be his type of thing as he is more interested in looking on the internet for information about the Doctor. Clive emerges from the shed and tells Ben that Terry Palmer (A man who Ben considers "the nuttiest of Dad's nutters") is coming over to their house.

After arriving, Mr. Palmer is given a black coffee by Clive (But not without warning him that the water needs to be fresh to avoid the risk of parasites). Mr. Palmer tells Clive that the reason he decided to pay him a visit is because he wishes to see his shed. Once Clive and Mr. Palmer are in the shed, Ben decided to listen in on what they're saying. When he hears his father say "aliens", he cries out "Oh, give over!", thus attracting their attention. Clive decides to think of something for them both to do for the afternoon, but Terry tells Clive that he's the man for the job. After Ben complains that he's bored, Clive agrees to do something with him and convinces both Ben and Mr. Palmer to not mention their activity to Caroline.

The trio drive off in Mr. Palmer's old car which Ben remarks is like something out of a museum, much to Clive's embarrassment. They soon arrive at the rec where Mr. Palmer opens up the car boot and lifts out a wide variety of kit. Ben grudgingly follows his father and Mr. Palmer around the rec that they would come to almost every day after school. They soon stop and eat potted beef sandwiches by the duck pond while Mr. Palmer continues working his contraptions, then walks off to a large tree. Clive pushes one of the tree's branches aside, only for something to rush out and knock both him and Mr. Palmer down. The trio then begin to pursue the creature.

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