Kids' Book Club

All the boys in my class thought Mum was cool because she loved Warcraft Fantasy, the computer game.

When she came to collect me from school, the other kids rushed up to her begging for tips. “How do you defeat the Monster Dwarf?” “How do you escape the Void of No Return?” “How do you slay the Unslayable Dragon?”

And Mum would stay an extra 20 minutes telling them they couldn’t defeat the Monster Dwarf until they had earned an extra two lives and that they could only escape the Void of No Return if they could find the path through the Living Woods past the Unslayable Dragon, who could be slain only with a silver sword.

Maybe the whole Warcraft thing wouldn’t have been so bad if Mum had been a good cook. But Mum was forever burning our dinners. Other mums baked yummy cakes. Mum never, NEVER baked.

One evening, I came downstairs to find Mum tapping away on the computer, unmindful of the smoke from the kitchen.

“Mum!” I yelled. “Something’s burning!”

But she couldn’t hear me above the screeching of the Unslayable Dragon.

“MUM!”

I pulled out the plug.

“Jack!” Mum was furious. “Don’t be horrible!“

I was horrible? She’d just burned dinner!

“YOU’RE horrible,” I shouted.

“Jack,” Mum looked shocked. “Don’t talk to me like that.”

“But you are!” I was so angry. “All you do is play that game!”

Mum’s nostrils twitched as she smelled the smoke for the first time. “Oh no!” She rushed to the kitchen.

I fled, slamming my bedroom door hard.

But it wasn’t long before I was sorry I’d shouted at Mum.  She was just having fun, wasn’t she? What was wrong with that?

I went down to the study. 

Mum wasn’t there. But the computer was plugged in again. On the screen, I could see the Unslayable Dragon strutting back and forth like a rooster.

I was about to leave when I heard a cry.

“Help!”

Mum?

“Help me, somebody! Please!”

I stared at the screen. A jet of fire roared out of the Unslayable Dragon’s mouth. When the flames cleared, I saw a tiny cage swinging high above the dragon’s head. Someone inside the cage waved frantically.

“Jack! Help!”

I rubbed my eyes. It was Mum!

How had Mum ended up in the computer?

I sat down.

The tiny cage swung violently. “Please, Jack, slay the dragon and save me!”

As if it heard, the dragon turned and a jet of flame thundered from its mouth, just missing the cage.

“What should I do?” I yelled.

“Grab the sword!” she cried.

But how was I to grab the sword stabbed into the trunk of the tree? I pressed a random keyboard button.

A boy appeared on the screen.

“HURRY, JACK!” Mum screamed. The dragon opened its mouth again.

I pressed the arrow keys and the boy began to run. But how could I make him take the sword?

“Help!” Mum’s voice was weaker. “Oh Jack, help me.”

I pressed ENTER. The boy grabbed the sword.

The dragon cocked its head, a cloud of black smoke guttering from its mouth. Mum coughed. “Hurry,” she gasped.

I made the boy run towards the dragon, the sword pointed straight at its heart. It opened its mouth to release another jet of flame. Too late. The sword sank into its chest, sparks flying everywhere. The dragon writhed.

There was an electronic buzzing and with a white flash, the dragon was gone.

And then Mum filled the screen, smiling proudly. “You did it, Jack. My brave boy.” She held her arms open and I groped for the arrow keys to make the boy run into her arms.

Except I missed.

Instead of the arrow keys, I pressed DELETE.

FIZZ. The screen turned black.

“Jack?” a hand shook my shoulder. “Jack! What’s the matter with you? Are you all right?”

It was Mum, with an anxious look on her face which for some reason was streaked with white. I hugged her tight and clouds of white puffed around us. “Oh Mum, I thought I deleted you!”

As she hugged me back, I felt something greasy on my face.

“Yuck, what’s this?”

Mum looked embarrassed. “It’s butter.”

“I’m sorry, Jack,” she said. “I’ve been so obsessed with that game, I didn’t realise that you were feeling left out.”

“And I’m sorry I said you were horrible,” I said. “I didn’t mean it.”

But Mum shook her head. “Well I’ve decided not to be so neglectful. If I can play a computer game, I can bake a cake.”

“I kind of played just now. It was fun. Maybe we could play together.”

Mum laughed. But then I sniffed. The delicious smell had turned into an acrid odour.

Mum clapped a hand on her forehead and ran to the kitchen. “The cake!”

I giggled, glad that everything was back to normal. Then I heard something.

“Jack!” Mum? There was a blinking light in the middle of the screen.

“Help me, Jack!”

THE END