Jack And The Magic Washing Machine

• Montague Hewitt, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2018

“Here it is!” said Jack excitedly. “Our new washing machine!” the truck pulled into their driveway and came to a halt inches from the garage door, two huge men stepped out onto the cobblestone and looked around. “Let’s not waste time we’ll get straight into it” and they both heaved the washing machine out of the back of the truck. “1, 2, 3!” said one of the men and they lifted the washing machine into the house.“Where ya wan it?” asked one of the men. “Just here please” said Jack’s mum pointing to a spot just beside the dishwasher. “Alright.” and they lifted the washing machine into place.
“Let’s try it shall we?” asked Jack’s mum. “Yeah lets!” said Jack. So she went over to the washing machine and started fumbling with the buttons. “I think that’s got it!” she said triumphantly. The whole house started to shake and Jack had a strange feeling that he was being lifted off the ground. “What’s h-happening?” he asked his mum. “D-d-don’t-know” she said. Jack turned around to look out the window and was amazed at what he saw.
Their house had been lifted off the ground well and truly, and they were at least one hundred meters off the ground. “C-come over here” said Jack in a hoarse voice. When his mum looked out the window she almost fainted with surprise. “Ahh!” She cried. Clinging on to jack for support, but jack fell over and came crashing to the floor. “Don’t push me!” said Jack who got up and looked out the window but fell over again with a mix of surprise and shock. They were in space! Jack tried to get up for the third time and he succeeded. Jack looked out the window and saw something flashing in the distance. “The international space station!” he yelled excitedly. “Look over there! How can we get over there?” he asked his mum. "Maybe we could turn it on to turbo-mode and that would blast us over there?” “Yes, you’re probably right! Jack’s mum started to fumble with the buttons on the washing machine. It started to spin, very slowly at first, but soon the were zooming through space towards the international space station.
***
“Unidentified object entering space station” said a loud, boomy voice. “I’ll get my walkie talkies so we can communicate with them” said Jack and he rushed into his room reappearing with two walkie talkies. “Scan all the channels” suggested his mum. “Yep ok” said jack. Beep, beep, beep, went Jack’s walkie talkies. “I think they’re on channel 15” said Jack.
***
“Ok” explained Jack. “I know this is gonna sound weird but we bought a new washing machine and it blasted us off into space”. “You’re lying!” came the reply. “We’re not! Come and see for yourselves ! ok! So they went to the house. “Maybe...said Jack curiously... “if we put it on tumble dry it might blast us back down”. They tried it and it worked!