“The Difficult Child”

Waiting in the queue with Diana had been exhausting, but they would soon board the cruise ship and then their vacation could finally begin. Seven years ago, the pediatrician had told them Diana would be a “difficult” child, and wow, had she delivered.

Suddenly, Diana started spinning around, flailing her arms about like a windmill, shouting “Whoosh! Whoosh!”

“Diana,” her mother said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not Diana, I’m the TARDIS!” she yelled.

Mom sighed and turned to dad. “Have you two been watching Doctor Who?”

“No,” dad replied, much too fast. “Maybe.”

Diana stopped spinning and pointed at a lifeboat. “I wanna go to that, I wanna look inside, it’s bigger on the inside like the TARDIS!”

Dad chuckled nervously. “Is that so?”

Diana turned serious. “Yes, because if there is an accident everyone must leave the ship in that one.”

“Not just that one, sweetie,” dad said. “There are many others.”

“No, those are all broken or fake,” Diana said matter-of-factly, and told them everything she’d noticed but they missed, like rusted machinery, wooden panels hanging loose, and cracked hulls. When she was done, her parents simply stared at her, horrified.

Diana started spinning again. “Whoosh! Whoosh!”

 

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Thanks for reading!

Author’s note: For those not familiar with the TV show Doctor Who, the
TARDIS is a “fictional time machine and spacecraft… stepping inside
the ship for the first time usually results in a reaction of shocked
disbelief as they see the interior dimensions (‘It’s bigger on the
inside!’)” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS) The sound the TARDIS
makes isn’t exactly “Whoosh”, but kind of.

Written for the Sunday Photo Fiction – October 15th 2017

For more stories based on this prompt, go to the linkup

200 words.

• Flash Fiction