A New Day for Mr Benn

Mr Benn woke up. But rather than opening the curtains to reveal a beautiful morning in Festive Road, he extracted his head from a swiss cheese plant. He peeled leaf from his cheek. The dried vomit which acted as a  powerful adhesive made a cracking sound, a stinging sensation and left a red mark as it separated unwillingly from his skin.

Mr Benn pulled himself to his feet. It was morning - he'd been unconscious for at least 12 hours.

Today would be better. He'd put the shopkeeper and any thoughts about what is real or not to the back of his mind. Today would be a nice normal day. No dressing up, no adventures, just a straightforward day in Festive Road.

Usually he would peer out of the window and notice the children playing in Festive Road. This was usually where things started to go wrong. Sometimes they played at being spacemen, sometimes cowboys and indians - and this often seemed to inspire his hallucinatory 'episodes'.Yesterday they were all playing Pirates and it led to..... Well he wasn't going to think about that today. It was going to be a nice normal day.

First thing - cup of tea. A nice comforting morning cuppa to get the day off to a good start.

Mr Benn walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. No milk.
It was 9.30 am the milkman would have been.

Mr Benn walked back into the hall way and opened the front door and there were two pints of milk on the doorstep. As he stooped to pick them up he glanced up and noticed children laughing and playfully chasing other children who were dressed in black leather caps with large false moustaches.

"Odd", thought Mr Benn, "What game is this? What are they playing at?" Then after a moment  he thought "At least I can't hallucinate about this - I don't even know what it is."

Mr Benn was about to close the door when he heard a loud "CLANK." The giant key had fallen from the chain around his waist. He stooped to pick it up and noticed that on the wall next to his front door, in spray paint was the following message:

"What?" he exclaimed out loud. The children all at once stopped their game and turned to stare at Mr Benn.

Mr Benn rushed back into the house and slammed the door.

"No, no, no, no......" he screamed. He heard laughter from the children outside. Not the playful innocent laughter he was used to, but a mocking, sneering laughter.

He looked in the mirror. "Who am I? What is..." he began to mutter. Then out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something appear. It was as if by magic. He daren't look - he was sure he caught sight of a Fez but this couldn't be. This was his home not a fancy dress shop. His home was a sanctuary. He closed his eyes and kept them firmly shut.

The shopkeeper, in his fez, carrying 1970's leather costume, wig and false moustache just stood there.

He could wait.......