A Short Story by Marjoleine Moeijes - Heroes Dutch Comic Con
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A Short Story by Marjoleine Moeijes
Around the turn of the 51th century, there has been a heated discussion as to the true origin of
the game ROCK. PAPER. SCISSORS. Historically it was thought to have originated from the sunken
Island of Japan, though this theory has long since been debunked. The now popular believe is
that the current name is in actuality a corruption of the words Rock. Porter. Stitchers. which
points to some true events a 1000 years prior to our own.
To some the general rules of the game - in which porter envelops rock, stitcher cuts off porter
and eventually rock hits stitcher- describes the fate of the Sewing Sisters of Ipswich and their
paraportation of little Sarah. This is their story:
Up until recently Pam Bur- you make holes in the fab- space and time, then natu-
quin had lived a rather un- ric of space and time for a rally, stitchers are the ones
eventful life up in her little living. To stop her from propping them back up
apartment on Northern constantly ending up in her again.
High Street. Pam was a neighbours’ front lawns Cil Parcel was Pam’s
Porter and like any Porter and turning reality into a friend, colleague and
she had a rather obnoxious slice of fine Emmentaler housemate. And contrary
tendency to jump all over cheese, she was appointed to her more chaotic and
the place; Literally and fig- a stitcher: Cil Parcel. impatient friend, she was
uratively. She was impa- Similar to Hans tolerant and diligent in her
tient and never quite Brinker sticking his thumb work.
seemed to have grasped in a collapsing dike, if por-
the meaning of stairs. ters are people who can Like many paraportision-
Which is understandable if create holes in the fabric of ers, they ran a small busi-
ness in TransdirectionalTransport. A little plaque and her two loving, but Pam’s mouth skewed. She
sign outside their door over-energetic children sighed.
read: knocked over the afore- “I’ll get the paperwork.”
mentioned stack of papers,
that the letter was even dis- That next Thursday the
covered at all. The letter Sewing Sisters travelled to a
Burquin & Parcel read: small white conference
hall, just outside Suffolk,
Sewing Sisters of where they would be filled
Ipswich In name of Her Majesty’s in on the mysteries of the
Court and the B.P.T.A., letter.
you are hereby selected for Upon their arrival they
Paraportation for your the honour of participating were surprised to find a lot
convenience in the “Little Sarah’s Initia- of spectators around:
tive”. Newscasters, film crews,
In the face of Our Nation’s men and women in expen-
3098 A.D. gravest challenge - which sive looking suits. Sun-
due to its sensitive nature glasses. Ear radios. All
shall not be discussed waited outside. A group of
within this letter - We call pedestrians demonstrated,
It needs to be said that
upon you, brave parapor- calling slurs in the distance.
apart from the practical
tisioners, to deliver a solu- The held up signs saying:
pleasantries and privileges,
work in the field of para- tion for a dire situation.
portation coincides with an May you accept this invita- THE END OF DAYS IS NIGH
awful lot of paperwork. tion, then you are required
Ever since the Por- to accompany your signed and
ter-Incident of 3062, in agreement with an attach-
which a team of parapor- ment of the correct forms. JUDGEMENT IS UPON US.
tisioners accidentally mis- Please note that the future
placed the entire parlia- depends on your swift re- Everyone seemed to want
ment of New-Colonial- sponse. to know the secret that was
Britain, only to find them yet to be revealed.
back weeks later in the Yours truly, Pam and Cil met with
Amazonian Preserve; A re- Margret Ogony, Grand Meister Apellin,
vision and extension of the Deputy Chairman of the Head of the B.P.T.A., who
paraportation adminis- Department of Interdi- firmly shook them by the
trate, was put in place, to mensional Science. hand in front of the dozens
prevent any more politi- of flashing cameras, before
cians from going native. leading them into the
Pam turned to Cil. building and down the hall.
With the regular piles of “They can’t be serious.” They entered a brightly lit
filling forms send by the She said astonished. room and took a seat.
Bureau of Paraportation “They sound serious.” Cil With the door closed shut,
and Transdirectional Af- responded. Grand Meister Apellin’s
fairs, it was therefore no “Well what should we do?” broad confident smile wa-
wonder that at first the in- Pam asked. vered, as if the weight of his
vite to the ‘Little Sarah’s In- “I don’t think we can de- moustache suddenly be-
itiative’ went overlooked. It cline.” Cil said studying the came too much.
was only when Pam Bur- letter. “Let us speak plainly.” He
quin’s sister came to visit began the meeting, like thetrue Suffolkian business- your help to send it back in the middle of Chinese man he was. onto its correct course.” New Year. Documentation “Long story short, Ladies, “You mean time travel?” of the asteroid, now com- our world is about to come Pam and Cil voiced eagerly monly referred to as little to an end. Our colleagues in unison. Sarah, was broadcast live, at the D.I.S. have noted Grand Meister Apellin worldwide. that an asteroid is not keep- curled his brisk moustache Not since the first moon ing its predicted trajectory, and smiled. landing was there this but is in fact heading “Indeed.” He said. much anticipation around straight for Earth.” Grand the launch of a rocket. Car- Meister Apellin ignored Having a hole in the fabric rying our two parapor- the expressions on Pam of space and time isn’t as tisioners the Roque 4-9 was and Cil’s faces and contin- much of a problem as one launched successfully into ued calmly: “As you can might think. If it is far space. imagine this is cause for enough away from civilisa- At exactly 10.000 km concern and it has been de- tion it can remain un- above the Earth’s surface, cided that something has to stitched, or so says the the rocket’s main thrusters be done about it.” Guide of Paraportation. were separated and the “I take it, you want us to An unstitched hole can be- rocket was pinned to a pre- transport the asteroid else- come a problem however, cise point in space. Thus where?” Pam suggested. when it decides to tear. the real work began: “Should be doable.” Cil Whenever this happens The Sewing Sisters worked said nothing. even time itself will begin to tirelessly on creating and “Not quite.” Grand Meis- unravel. securing a hole large ter Apellin spoke. “And Bill “Porter” Brown enough for the space rock here is where it gets com- from 3274 Illinois, experi- to pass. Pam patterned a plicated, so bear with me.” enced this first hand: portal, while Cil hemmed He rummaged through a Allegedly he was said to be the edges, as to prevent the folder of files and laid the so fed-up with the opposite gap from prematurely col- papers spread out on the sex rejecting him, that after lapsing in on itself. desk in front of him. In- a night of heavy drinking Right before the asteroid’s trigued Pam and Cil bend the gap he had made in his arrival, her stitching over the thousands of scrib- careless intoxication, tore, needed to be undone. bles and scientific notes. sending him back to the This, according to the De- Grand Meister Apellin ex- year 1982. Where he was partment of Interdimen- plained: instantly deemed the most sional Science, would cre- “This data collected by our attractive person there. ate a tear accurate enough manual rockets shows that In order to protect historic to send little Sarah back the genetic make-up of the and futuristic events from onto her timeline. asteroid matches that of the being tainted by petty love After what felt like hours of Cretaceous Period exactly. affairs, the B.P.T.A. out- work, Pam and Cil hung in It is theorised that under lawed this type of transpor- the empty vacuum of the Paraportation Princi- tation as soon as it was in- space. They both watched ple, this particular rock is vented. Henceforth time breathlessly as little Sarah in fact the cause for the ex- travel was only permitted came into view. The dark tinction of the Dinosaur, on special occasions, such menace, drifted closer and 65.5 million years ago. The as The End of Days. closer to her mark. Little asteroid isn’t in the wrong did they know, the asteroid place, but rather in the As it turned out, The End was not traveling alone. wrong time and we need of Days fell on a Tuesday,
Not many people know The paraportation of little Luckily for Cil Par-
this, but asteroids have a Sarah was deemed an over- cel, little Sarah’s sister-as-
tendency to grow quite all success and the victory teroid, Penelope, had
lonely. of Pam Burquin’s and Cil turned out to be the mere
Around the 6th moon of Parcel’s efforts was cele- size of a rather large space
Jupiter little Sarah decided brated for over a month, af- rock and only casually
she had had enough and ter which everyone was bruised her cubit bone.
made herself a little sister quite over the consump-
from a rocky outcrop stick- tion of alcohol. Cil ignored her friend’s re-
ing from her surface: Pe- mark.
nelope. It was the beginning of “We’ve got another letter
Penelope turned out to be summer when Pam Bur- from the B.P.T.A.” She
a rather spoiled little space quin walked into the ceme- said. “Time waits for no
rock and she was not at all tery alone, clutching a bun- one, not unless we have
happy that two parapor- dle of sunflowers. She something to say about it.”
tisioners had decided on halted in front of a head- Pam laid down her flowers
sending her and her sister stone, her expression and sighed.
back to the age of over- clouded. “Here comes the paper-
grown lizards. As they After a moment a voice be- work.” She said.
curved around the side of hind her said: With one last look at the
the moon Penelope de- headstone, she turned and
cided quite rudely, even in “Please hurry up, some of followed her friend out.
the conduct of space rock us have jobs, you know!” A moment later they had
etiquette, to hit one of both disappeared into the
them before exiting the Pam turned. gap of space and time.
40th century in a blaze of “Since when are you the
fire. impatient one?” She asked,
looking as Cil Parcel
straightened her arm sling.
In Memoriam
Here lies Penelope, beloved sister of Little Sarah.
Crashed 1831 A.C. Crashed 65.5 Million B.C.
Kanagawa, Japan Chicxulub, Mexico
MORS CERTA, HORA INCERTA I.E. CARPE DIEMFANTASTIC STORIES COMPETITION 2020
ROCK. PORTER. STITCHERS.
A Short Story & Art by Marjoleine Moeijes
Special Thanks to my friends and family.
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