When I grow up I’m going to be an astronaut and I’m going to fly into space and around the earth and visit the moon and the planets and the stars and maybe the sun. I’m going to fly in a great big ship with my friends Johnny and Mickey and we’re going to have lots of amazing adventures and meet fairies and elves and fight dragons and monsters and demons. We’re going to fly and we’re never going to stop. We’re going to see great moons and shooting stars and deserts and forests and mountains where there are animals with four wings and sixteen eyes and five mouths. We’re going to find new friends, maybe girlfriends, because Johnny likes girls though Mickey doesn’t because he’s fat and they laugh at him, and we’re going to have sworn enemies too who we’re going to fight and defeat. We’re going to save planets from destruction and rescue princesses and kill baddies. We’re going to fly and we’re never going to die because we’re going to find a drink, an elixir, somewhere that is going to give us eternal youth, and we’re never going to work like our parents. There is going to be just me and Johnny and Mickey and anyone else who wants to join us on our adventures, even if they’re no good – because they’re no good – and can’t help us because they need permission from their mum or still wet the bed.
But I’m not going to, am I. Not at all.
I’m not going to be an astronaut and I’m not going to go to space, visit strange planets, have adventures, kill monsters, rescue princesses and live on a space ship, because I’m a blacksmith’s son and it’s 1368, and if I told anyone any of this I’d be burnt at the stake like my mother’s cousin, who was a witch, God rest her soul.
Stephen Mander is originally from Liverpool in the UK, but has lived and worked in Japan, Australia, Hungary, Slovakia, Syria. He currently lives in Vietnam.
