The Boy with the Bicycle Bell

        There was once a boy who had a magical bell on his bicycle. Every time he rang it, he'd be whisked away into a strange land of excitement and adventure. One day, he returned home late from a particularly exciting adventure in the strange land, and realised that the library shut in fifteen minutes.
        "If I don't get my books back today, I'll be fined!" he thought. So he jumped on his bicycle with the magical bell and set off.
        On the way, he had to stop at some traffic lights that had turned red. "Oh no!" he thought, "I'll be late!"
        Just as the lights were about to change, a little girl walked by. "You're ever so famous," she said. "Please may I have your autograph?"
        So the boy with the bicycle bell had to write his name in her autograph book, but by the time he'd done so the lights were back at red. "If I hurry, I might still make it," he said to himself as he waited.
        A little further along the road, a man leaped out and took a photograph. The boy with the bicycle bell was completely surprised, and the bright flash from the camera stopped his eyes from working for a few moments so he couldn't see where he was going. He ran into a litter bin.
        "Thanks!" said the photographer. "I work for a newspaper, and this picture will look splendid next to the story of your latest adventure!"
        The boy with the bicycle bell stood up, straightened the handlebar on his bicycle, and sped off. "If I really really hurry, I may still get there before they close!" he hoped.
        Suddenly, an old lady walked out in front of him! How she got to be old with an attitude to road safety like that, the boy with the bicycle bell didn't know, but he was going to hit her if she didn't spot him! He reached for his bicycle bell, then realised that ringing it would whisk him off to the strange land where spoons dance and the sky is striped.
        "Look out!" he shouted.
        "Eh?" said the old lady, moments before the boy with the bicycle bell knocked her over.
        By the time he'd finished explaining everything to the policeman, the library had been shut half an hour.

So

Don't trust anything magical unless it has an "off" switch.

Illustration by Roy Bartle
Image size: approx. 34K.