The cold planet 

learning English by story

Thousands of miles from Earth, on the far side of the universe, is a small planet, Fliptune. It is dark and cold, far from the sun, behind a much bigger planet. Little green aliens live there. They use torches to see.

One day, a young alien, Neila, put the wrong batteries in her torch.

Suddenly, there was a dazzling beam of light. It went up into the sky, around the sun and hit planet Earth.

The light hit a boy called Billy and his dog, Splodge. Neila quickly turned the torch off, but the pair were sucked up by the light. They flew through space and landed near Neila.

‘Hello,’ said Billy. Neila waved.

‘Wow!’ said Billy. ‘Everything’s made of ice cream!’ Splodge licked his paw.

‘The ice cream never melts, and nobody eats it. It’s too cold here,’ said Neila.

‘It will in my tummy,’ thought Splodge.

Neila looked sad. ‘Can you help us?’ she said. ‘We need sunshine to make things grow.’

‘No problem,’ said Billy. ‘Can you get us home? I have an idea.’

‘Wait there!’ said Neila.

She got her torch, put the wrong batteries in again – ZOOM! Billy and Splodge were speeding back to Earth.

Billy pointed his bedroom mirror between the sun and Fliptune. The sun’s rays bounced off the mirror and up onto Neila’s planet.

Thanks to Billy, Fliptune is not cold any more. Splodge moves the mirror each day to keep the sun shining there. Now Neila and her friends sit in the sun and enjoy all that free ice cream.

#american_literature