Next Door: Following the Party Line
by Sue Rowbotham
Henry’s Mum read the Civil Defence handbook in horror, her face white as death. ‘Advising the Householder on Protection Against Nuclear Attack'. She glanced across at Henry building Meccano models by the fire.
Henry and his best friend Alex from next door had never seen a UFO, but they kept watching and listening, just in case. “Stop it”, Mum shouted when he had picked up the telephone receiver yet again. “Don’t listen in on the party line”, but Henry had heard alien voices.
The handbook had red and black drawings of a family sitting cosily around their radio, but the stark titles read ‘What to Do Immediately After Attack’ and ‘Life under Fall-out
Conditions’. Mum had not worried about the far-off Cuban Crisis last year, but this was
frighteningly close.
Next day, Henry heard two new voices on the line. ‘Sasha. Supper’s ready’, a woman called. ‘Spasibo, Mama’, Alex replied.
Sue, who learned her story-telling skills at her father's knee, has published three books of historican non-fiction, and a pre-school picture book, but has always yearned to let her imagination roam wild and free in fictional stories.
This story was shortlisted in the January 25 Monthly Micro Competition.