The Fridge
September 23rd, 2005 at 06:32pm
I thought I might release another one of my dreams. This one happened a few years ago and I recently developed it into a short story called The Fridge. It is probably filled with factual inaccuracies and strange events, but it is interesting none the less. So I now present for your reading pleasure…The Fridge…enjoy!
The Fridge
In the year 2197, people had discovered the joys of living in household appliances; families often lived in larger appliances such as ovens and washing machines. Two families lived in a dual-occupancy upside-down fridge/freezer in a suburb designed specifically for kitchen appliances, needless to say, the suburb was called Kitchen.
It was a hot summer day in Kitchen, but in the fridge, where Perry, Sylvia & Samuel lived, it was a very nice temperature, in fact, people had adapted to the normal temperatures of their appliances so well, that even ovens seemed just right to their occupants. It was breakfast time so Samuel walked in to the dining room of the fridge and sat down at the table.
“I had a strange dream last night.” Said Samuel as he reached for his cup of tea.
“Did you, what was it about?” Asked Sylvia
“Oh, it had a person named Todd who kept storming out saying that he couldn’t tolerate it anymore!” Explained Samuel
“Tolerate what?” Sylvia enquired
“I don’t know, he just kept storming out saying that, it was very strange.” Replied Samuel
“You’re not wrong about that.” Said Perry with a chuckle as he walked in to the dining room from the kitchen.
Just then, the power went out.
“I expect it will turn on again shortly.” Said Perry.
But by midday, the power hadn’t turned on again, and it was starting to get a bit hot in the fridge, so Perry, Sylvia & Samuel decided to visit their downstairs neighbours in the freezer.
The downstairs neighbours, Bob & Sally, were sitting on their ice lounge as a method of keeping cool.
“It will melt eventually you know.” Said Sally to Bob
“I know, but it is easy to rebuild, it’s just ice after all.” Explained Bob
“Ding Dong” The doorbell rang
“So that’s where those batteries went!” Exclaimed Bob as he got up to open the door.
Bob went to the door and greeted Perry, Sylvia & Samuel
“What brings you here?” He asked
“The heat.” Replied Perry
“Ah, fair enough.” Said Bob, waving them into the freezer frantically, “You better come in quickly, before all the cold air escapes from here too.” He continued.
Sally got out a pack of cards and everyone sat around the table for a while playing spades. However, the heat was starting to take over the freezer, and it was making everyone quite uncomfortable.
“That’s it!” Exclaimed Samuel “We’ll go through the electric system and find the fault.” he said.
“Good idea!” everyone replied.
“We’ll need to find the freezer plans then.” Sally explained.
Everyone started searching for the freezer plans, 20 minutes later Bob found them and Sylvia examined them for a few minutes and then went to get a pencil.
“Bob, get your chainsaw, Perry, get a mallet.” Sylvia said quickly before hurrying out of the room. When she returned she drew a large circle on the wall, which Bob then cut out with his chainsaw and Perry knocked out with a rubber mallet. Through the hole in the wall was a large dark tunnel.
“There, that is the power cord.” Said Sylvia pointing to the rather large hole.
“We’ll need torches.” Replied Sally
They all went to get torches and five minutes later were ready to go through.
The tunnel was long, dark and bendy with what looked like lights on the ceiling. The group walked along the tunnel as it wound its way around. After about 10 minutes, they reached the first power point, a man was sitting in a booth under a large switch, the group could see that the switch was turned on, but no power seemed to be reaching it.
“The power is out.” Said the booth attendant.
“We know.” Replied Perry, “Any idea what’s wrong?” he asked
“Apparently, the new generator at the snowy mountains hydro electric system has stopped, nobody around to fix it, seeing as it is a public holiday.” Was the reply from the booth attendant.
“I see, we’ll have to fix it then.” Said Samuel
“Good idea” replied Sylvia
The group continued walking through the tunnel.
“Thankyou.” They called out to the booth attendant.
“You’re welcome.” he called back.
The group continued to walk for a while; it was about 2 pm when they decided to stop for lunch. During this time the power came back on, the tunnel was filled with a bright white illumination and a humming noise. Suddenly, a huge blue shape came flying down one side of the tunnel.
“What’s that?” Sally asked.
“That is the electric train.” explained Samuel, “You simply jump on the track and you get swept to your destination in a few moments.”
All of a sudden, the power went out again, the tunnel was as dark as before, the humming stopped, and the trains stopped coming.
“Of course, it only works when the power is on.” Samuel continued.
After lunch they kept walking and at about 4 pm they reached the snowy mountains, they looked around for a little while.
“The turbine is stuck, I’ll go and unclog it.” Said Bob
“The main breaker has tripped as well, I’ll get ready to turn it back on.” Said Perry
Sally followed Bob, whilst Samuel and Sylvia followed Perry.
Bob and Sally unclogged the turbine, climbed back up to ground level, and called out to Perry. Perry was just starting to turn the switch on when Bob slipped. Bob, screaming, was falling into the turbine, Sally screamed out for help and everyone rushed over to help bob out, but before they could reach him, the switch slipped and turned on. The water came rushing through, ready to sweep Bob away. Bob was on the turbine as it started to spin, when it came around to the top Perry managed to grad Bob’s arm, but the water was to strong.
“I’ll go and turn the power off.” Shouted Samuel, although nobody quite heard him properly over the noise of the water.
Bob was slipping, he was only holding on by one hand, and was still slipping, four fingers, three, two. Just then, Samuel reached the switch and started to push it to the off position, but Bob was quickly running out of time, one finger, then, he lost contact all together, Perry managed to grab Bob’s shirt, but time was running out, the shirt was slipping, Bob fell. Just then, Samuel got the switch in to the off position, the water stopped, bob kept falling, the turbine kept spinning, but Bob fell through the turbine and landed safely on the ground beneath. He then climbed up the ladder on the wall and was greeted by everyone else. Everyone was relieved that Bob was OK and walked over to the switch and turned it back on.
They then caught the next electric train to the dual occupancy upside-down fridge/freezer where the temperature had returned to normal, and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a slice of well-deserved cake.
The End
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Samuel's Dreams
