SHAKESPEARE IN SPACE

William Charteris c& p2012  

JAM (JOHN ASPEY MUSIC) 64 Homefarm Rd Hanwell London W7 1NP England Tel 07858485408  

JOHNASPEY1951@HOTMAIL.CO.UK  

IS.B.N. NUMBER IN COPYRIGHT CONTROL First Edition Printed in the U.K.  

This book is sold to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be re lent, sold or hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.  

SHAKESPEARE IN SPACE William Charteris  

BOOK ONE  

A SCIENCE FANTASY FOR CHILDREN WITH GROWN UP MINDS  

DEDICATED TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE WEST WOLVERAMPTON PSYCHIC CIRCLE OF SUCCESS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MUSHROOM MARGARET, FREDA THE FEEDER, BIG BARRY OF BRADMORE, BATTLEAXE BERYL, THE LATE GREAT BERN OF BURMA, RON 'INTERESTING' ASPEY, AND THE ULTIMATE SUBMARINES, CURRENTLY RESIDENT IN THE 87th INCARNATION, NOT FORGETTING THE ILLUMINATED SAUSAGED TONGUE OF THE SALIVATED ARTISTIC MIND!  

                                                  SHAKESPEARE IN SPACE  

                                                          William Charteris  

                 A SCIENCE FANTASY FOR CHILDREN WITH GROWN UP MINDS  

                                                                 Book One  

                                                              Chapter One  

                                                  A new arrival in the sewers  

MancanWiddlyspan was as thin as a rasher of wind and very nearly white as whalebone. To look so clean was quite an achievement as he lived down deep, deep, deep, inside the sewers amongst the dispossessed and forgotten few who were known as The Cardboard Children of Colombia in South America, The World, Universe One.  He was not a man, neither was he an animal, but something in between who had been spirited from a step beyond forever. Having arrived in South America from a planet many light years ahead where the weather was cold, cold. cold, he was beginning to enjoy the hotter climate of this new world in which he found himself.  When thrown clear of his previous space hole by a gigantic inter spatial whirlwind, MancanWiddlyspan had caught the tail force of a black hole connected to the outer cast layer of the universe and was sucked millions of light years down and across into the heavy heat of the Colombian sewer system. As the fall had broken his body, he was unable to move so he simply luxuriated in the warmth and the midnight black of the darkness as he repaired himself for better times to come. Somehow, life lived in the normal way was not possible, but the thought of new beginnings and new adventure appealed to his positive frame of mind.  

'It's amazing how little I know about so much' he thought.  

Just then, two South American street children huddled under old rags and sackcloth caught his electric eyes which were extended on two storks in the direction of the children. This scared the kids as they were not used to anything with extended vision and in fright they began to throw tiny stones back toward Mancan Widdlyspan.He did not retaliate but shriveled up into a scrump of a  protective ball, his eyes returning to their sockets as he sought solace and he was yet to understand them.  They belonged to two sets of young beggars who were hounded by The Peanut Squad, a ruthless band of policemen whose job it was to round up these small vagrants and wipe them out by all means possible.  The Peanut Squad were paid policemen who rather than befriending the youngsters, made it their task in life to maim and discourage the children from begging on the streets above and this sometimes led to their deaths.  Sadly, The Cardboard Children of Colombia never saw through the window of opportunity and they were denied social security numbers so that when they tried to get hospital treatment it was impossible as they were disposables who officially did not exist. Many were covered in sores and bites from the sewer rats and life expectancy was short as they rarely made it through to old age.  The Children of The Andes survived and lived in two places: down amongst the dirt and the drugs, Bangkok without the bugs of fourteen rat infested floors of the underground system and also eight thousand feet up in the Colombian Andes in one of the highest cities of the World in a place called Manasalis.  In both places, they were unwanted, abused and abandoned by society and what separated those in the Manasalis rubbish dumps and The Colombian Sewers was three hundred miles of much more upper class South Americans who did not give a fig for these outcasts. The descending line of poverty on the rubbish tips of Manasalis meant that The Cardboard Children perched upon the lip of the gorge, searched for food at night time, made the dumps their home, sleeping amongst the stench. Meanwhile, the poorest of the poor back in Colombia became crippled by the lack of fresh air down in the sewers, and when the sewer gates were opened, they were often flooded by the stench of whatever it was that was released into the tidal waves of the sewers.  MancanWiddlyspan swiftly rose above the stone throwing of the scruffy waifs and strays, and one such tidal wave engulfed him making it difficult to breathe, stay or  swim. Luckily he had special qualities that the children could never have for he grew a coating of gooey froth which protected him as he sailed past them and down with the tidal flow to the first floor of depravity, where after a few hours, the sewer levels were reduced and he was left high and dry upon a shelf.  What he was also aware of were that two of his space cadets: Mancan Fannymounta and Mancan Swandowna were on line to him as they had landed from a step beyond forever in a faraway Universe and had taken up their position upon the rubbish dump in Manasalis.  Shakespeare was the leader of the street urchins who were assembled beneath Colombia in the sewers. He was bright, intelligent and something of a comedian.. ."What's pink and hard first thing in the morning ?" he asked several of his smelly friends assembled around him, all covered in fresh sludge on level one of the sewerage system.  Barkle who was brighter than most of the others, with the exception of Shakespeare gave his reply. The early first edition of The Colombian Times! Easy peasy"