Last term Room 4 studied the New Zealand Author Jack Lasenby.  He is the master of "Tall Tales" and the class enjoyed his work, especially his story "Shrinking".  A group decided to take this story (where a wireless turned back time) and put it into the 21st century.  The stories were bound and sent to Jack who lives in Wellington.  The story below is written by Caitlin Alexander.

Shrinking

As soon as the car stopped, Jeremy made a vociferous noise and disembarked at speed, causing me to jump.  

Mum explained the rules carefully, "This could take a while to sort out the whole house, so be patient."  The wrinkle lines were strong on her head so we knew she needed us to behave.  "Can we try and find the wireless?"  I kicked Jeremy under the table causing him to make an ear splitting noise.  "Huh!"  Mum jumped up and strode out of the room. 

As a staunch supporter of not following the rules we headed to the old coal shed in search of the wireless.  

We plugged it in.  The air jumped!  Sound blasted out of the small speakers on the wireless.  "Locals are outraged as prices for trips to the moon furiously rise due to increased demand."    Mum popped her head round the corner her wrinkles seemed darker.  "Five minutes until lunch."  She held up five fingers. There seemed to be more wrinkles than normal, the creases cutting into her hand like sharp knives.  

I plugged it back in.  "The first person to die travelling to the moon has been identified."  A sound came from the hallway like wood hitting the concrete floor.  A wrinkled body peered around the corner.  I gasped!  It was an image just like my mum but this individual was 70!  It was my mum !  A croaky, aged voice came out of her mouth.  "Righto Kiddos dinner is served in the main dining room."  Gosh, Mum's even talking like she's 30 years older.  Jeremy and I locked eyes.  Jeremy tiptoed out of the gloomy shed and returned minutes later with an axe.  "Hoyya!"  He smashed the wireless to many pieces.  

As we entered the kitchen we were relieved to see the normal mum, not extra wrinkles and definitely no stick!