Rum N Raisin 3 - the Cat Who Fell To Earth

Raisin liked to make her bed upon a shelf up high She said she likes the feeling that she’s almost in the sky One day she fell and bonked her head and Rum could only stare And wondered why a cat would land with four feet in the air Raisin groaned a little, then got up and tried to talk Her words came out as wobbly as the wobble in her walk Rum said, “Take it easy, look at me, what do you see?” Raisin slurred, “I see your eyes… since when did you have three?” Rum said “You have bumped your head, your vision must be blurred, Which might explain the fact that everything you say is slurred.” Raisin said, “I recollect my head went rat-a-tat, Before my world went very dark upon this mat-mat-mat.” Rum looked at his sister and said, “What’s a mat-mat-mat, You’re sounding like you might be ill; the vet can deal with that.” Raisin grinned and stammered, “It looks like a mat to me But where you just see one of them, it seems that I see three.” Rum looked up and said, “You fell from all the way up there.” And then he saw a sight that gave him quite an awful scare His sister, Raisin, who was sat there on her favourite mat Was up there sound asleep just like a soundly sleeping cat He looked back at what stood before him practicing cat talk And found a creature with three eyes; each one was on a stalk It’s head was wide, it’s skin was green, it breathed out clouds of steam Then Raisin jumped down from her shelf, “Does someone need to scream?” First Rum stared at Raisin and then at the beast in green Which reached inside his wrinkled pouch to find a digi-screen He typed a nonsense message but he quickly dealt with that He typed again and then the screen said, “Language: English Cat.” The alien spoke silently but as he touched his screen His translator translated and its voice was quite serene, “I’m here to invite man to visit us upon the moon, You are the first men I have met, and we should travel soon.” Raisin said, “We are not men.” Then Rum kicked Raisin’s shin And then he told the alien, “We’re men, beneath this skin. So take us on your voyage to explore your world and then… Just be sure to bring the two us back home again.” The alien’s three eyeballs eyed the furry humans there He used his screen to speak the words he felt he should declare, “My people watch your spacemen as they bounce around up there, But in their suits they're taller, so forgive us if we stare.” He reached inside his pouch and said, “You won’t be needing suits, Take these pills so you can breath… you won’t even need boots.” The eager kittens took the pills. Rum said, “Do we leave soon.” The green man clicked his fingers and they ‘POPPED’ onto the moon * Raisin said, “I don’t know how you’ve faked this stupid plot?” And then she saw a blue globe in the night and said, “You what?” The digi-screen said, “This is very real; I kid you not, We’ve come at night because by day the dust is very hot!” Suddenly the alien looked very, very scared Raisin said, “What’s wrong?” (She tried to sound as though she cared) The alien tapped on his screen which spoke, “I saw a mouse.” Rum just laughed and said, “We have a mouse beneath our house, “I can’t believe that there are little mouses on the moon, But fear not: Rum and I will rid you of this mouse real soon.” They slowly bounced toward the hole at which the green man stared The digi-screen said, “You’re so brave, for no-one else has dared.” The alien stood back and watched his friends track down that mouse And Raisin yelled, “Mice don’t make holes this massive in our house.” Then Rum and Raisin fled and Rum cried, “Monster on the loose!” The alien’s screen bellowed, “Oops; I think I mistyped ‘Moose’!” About four hours later Rum and Raisin both returned And Rum advised the alien what each of them had learned “We ran into the sunny side; be sure you never dare because there’s creatures there that surely don’t live anywhere. “Mice and mooses on the moon, we almost comprehend But there’s things on the light side that could drive you round the bend. We saw a duck with seven feet and arms instead of wings A ‘Wobble blob’ that does no more than ripple when it sings. “A rock that’s like a rock… that cock-a-doodles - what a shock A thing that looked like it was just a head wearing a sock Our astronauts that come here don’t see things that creep or crawl Yet it could take all our nine lives to itemise them all. “With all this weird stuff going on, why would you come to Earth When right here on your moon you have such jollity and mirth There must be something that our world has got that yours has not.” And Raisin said, “My brother’s right, so kindly tell us what.” The alien tapped, “You were not supposed to search our moon, But I did make a promise that I’d take you home real soon. Before I keep my promise I must make this last appeal Please tell me that upon your Earth… the platypus is real.” Raisin said, “Although the platypus is rather cute, His existence upon the Earth is way beyond refute. We cannot prove his whereabouts for he is secretive And so we cannot tell you where the platypus might live.” The alien gazed at his screen and tapped it once or twice It spoke, “Please keep us secret; if you could, that would be quite nice.” Rum said, “Humans can’t speak ‘cat’, we mostly speak to mice And we don’t have a cat-to-human translation device.” * Then Rum said, “I’ve gone hazy, like I’m spinning round and round, I feel as though I’m looking down from high above the ground.” Then everything grew darker as the moon drifted away And then he sensed a blue light of a bright new summer day Rum blinked away the sleepy dust, then stretched to end his sleep His dream was long forgotten; not one image did he keep His favourite cuddly toy, a platypus, was by the door A bright green cushion from a chair had fallen on the floor Raisin grinned and made a guess at what Rum might have dreamed For once he’d told her that his dreams were often spaceman themed Raisin felt quite smug because she knew her brother well Until the bright green cushion said, “Make sure he doesn’t tell!”