The Bringals of Carly by Michael Schneider - HTML preview

Chapter 19: Strange Happenings

  Strange things were happening in Carly.

  For one thing, the ‘Hooter’ birds seemed to have become a lot more active        lately around the town. They had always kept to an area close to the sea,   near the old part of town but now their loud “HOOOTs” announced their     presence all over town.                                                                      But there were other things that were so inexplicable that those who     witnessed them could hardly believe their eyes.                                          Joe Pearson, driving to work at the factory one morning took the last cigarette out of its box. He put the cigarette in his mouth and pressed the cigar lighter on the car dashboard.  The radio was playing Joe’s favourite 60’s pop-music.                                                                                Singing along with the music and without thinking, he crumpled the cigarette box in his hand and tossed it out of the window. The crumpled box immediately flew straight back in to the car.                                   Joe thought it must be the wind and threw the box out again.  Back it came, a third and fourth time.                                                                    Joe couldn’t understand it. Eventually, he decided to wait and throw the box into a waste bin later.

The heart-beat grew just a touch stronger.

The town judge, Justice Hamilton Jones, happened to be out buying a newspaper and to his utter amazement, saw what happened.                             He was sure that he saw a cigarette packet hit the street and a piece of  tarmac,  become a hand and throw it back into the car. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but it happened four times. “I knew I shouldn’t have had that scampi for breakfast.” He muttered to himself. The judge immediately went home to lie down for an hour.                               Vince Varrocks, the son of the family living down the road from the  McQueen family, was taking his dog for a walk.  As they passed Mary’s front garden gate Vince stopped to allow the dog to do his business. “Go on, Tiger,” he urged, “Quick, before anyone comes.” Tiger sniffed around the gate for his favourite spot.  Suddenly, with a yelp, Tiger was off down the street dragging a surprised Vince behind him. Arriving at Vince’s front gate, Tiger wasted no time in doing his business right there. In the middle of the path leading to the front door of the house. “What did you do that for?” shouted Vince, “I’ll have to clean it all up now!”

The vibrations were slowly starting to return.

Alfred Meaney, the town scrap-dealer, liked smoking cigars. He liked to sit in the “Rose Cafe” for tea and toast every morning at 10.30 and read the newspaper. He always lit up a large cigar. People in the cafe had complained to Rose, the owner, that they couldn’t stand the smoke and Rose had asked Mr. Meaney, “Please don’t smoke cigars in the cafe as a lot of the clients don’t like it. Besides, there is ‘No Smoking’ sign on the wall.”  Alf red took no notice. He was big, strong and rich and nobody was going to tell him what to do! Poor Rose lost most of her morning clients because of Alf  Meaney.   It was 10.30 in the morning and Mr. Meaney came into the cafe as usual.  The two people already sitting in there finished their drinks, immediately, paid their bill and left.                                                                       Alf sat at his usual table in the window, ordered his tea and toast, opened his newspaper and lit a cigar. Rose brought his order and returned to the counter. As the smoke drifted up from the end of the cigar, it curled and twisted into a strange kind of shape. The shape took the form of a ghost with big, gaping mouth and large hollow eye-sockets that stared at him as he read the paper. “ALFRED MEANEY,” boomed a ghostly voice. Alfred looked up and saw the ghost.  The cigar fell out of his mouth and into his cup of tea with a hissss…

“ALFRED MEANEY,” boomed the voice again.

        WHY ARE YOU SO SELF-CENTRED?                               HAVE YOU NO CONSCIENCE OR THOUGHT FOR      ANYONE BUT YOURSELF?

        ARE YOUR PETTY COMFORTS MORE IMPORTANT    THAN THE DISTRESS THEY CAUSE TO OTHERS?

        PERHAPS YOU NEED ME TO ACCOMPANY YOU        EACH DAY – TO REMIND YOU OF YOUR BASIC RESPONSIBILITY TO YOUR FELLOW MAN?

        APOLOGISE, ALFRED MEANEY.

        APOLOGISE TO ROSE AND TO HER CLIENTS. 

        FROM THIS MOMENT ON, YOU ARE TO BE CONSIDERATE TO OTHERS. OR I SHALL VISIT YOU     TIME AFTER TIME.

        DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”

                   “Yyyyeeesss sir” stuttered Alfred.

“WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” boomed the voice.

Alfred Meaney jumped up and stumbled to the door.  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Rose. Tell everyone I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again. I’ll never smoke again. Tell everyone I’m sorry!” He fell out of the door and ran down the street telling everyone he passed that he was sorry and would never do it again. Most people thought he’d gone mad.

Carly Chemical factory was in crisis. If it wasn’t enough that the police were taking proceedings against the management of the company for the illicit dumping of toxic waste, now, the main chimney-stack was blocked. Poisonous smoke filled the whole factory. All work had been stopped.  John Billings, the factory director was in emergency session with his managers. “Do we know what caused it?” he asked., pacing the room in agitation. “Nobody knows, sir,” answered his production manager. The fire brigade thinks it might take up to 3 days to fix it. We’ll have to close down the factory ‘till then. There has been a lot of activity around the factory lately by those big birds,”

“Birds? What birds? Close down the factory? Do you know how much that’ll cost us?” shouted Mr. Billings. “It’ll cost us millions!” he screamed, answering his own question. “MILLIONS!!!  And you’re rambling on about birds! The only bird around here is you, bird-brain! When I find out who’s responsible for this he’ll have plenty of free time to feed the birds every day of his life!”                                                                                              Who would be blamed for this?  The managers in the room became frightened for their jobs. Their hearts beat faster with fear.

The heart of the world was beating too, getting stronger and stronger with every beat.

What was happening here in Carly was happening near every Bringal community in the world.                                                                     Bad drivers were finding weird things happening to them that made them drive better and safer.                                                                    People and businesses, large and small, were having all sorts of problems when they polluted the environment.                                                          People who were inconsiderate to other people found that they suffered in some way for it and slowly changed their ways.                                   Yet, all this was just a pin-prick in these world problems but it was a beginning and who knows, one day those vibrations would be back just as strong and healthy as they once were.

The vibrations were coming back.

But still you ask, how does all this involve the children? Well, I’ll tell you.

Chapter 20: Getting the Word Out

  This is the plan that Pa and Ma worked out with the Carly Bringal family as the best way to spread the word among the kids. They decided that someone should write a children’s book about the Bringals.

  The book should describe who they are, what they do, their way of life, what they are trying to achieve and how they are trying to achieve it. If the book becomes popular with the children, the possibilities are endless. Business people will jump on the bandwagon and produce toys, games, television, Internet sites etc., all aimed at making money by promoting the Bringals ideas and thereby showing the children how to make the planet a better place for all its inhabitants. “Wouldn’t all this tell the world that the Bringals exist?” you ask, “The very thing that they’ve been trying to avoid.” That’s a good point and the Bringals discussed it for a long time. The answer they came to was this: “This plan will not prove that the Bringals exist.  After all, they are invisible to humans and nobody knows which trees are the ‘Home’ trees. Apart from that, we’re just talking about a book. It’s entertainment, and entertainment doesn’t have to be true. Does it?                But who would actually write the book? Well, who better than two human children who are part Bringal?                                                          Of course, they would need a mentor to guide them through the intricacies of the Bringal way of life and culture.                                                     True, Jack and Laura would have a big responsibility on their shoulders, but Michael would be there to help and guide them through the whole project.          This was a big step that the Bringals were taking. They were risking the future of their way of life on planet Earth but they believed that it was a risk worth taking. Don’t you?

Chapter 21: And Here’s Another Thing

Dear Reader:

There’s something I have to mention, while I think of it.

You must never rely on the Bringals to look after you.

Of course they will always help if they can but the problem is this, they can only sense danger and use their Bubblevision in a limited area around their ‘Home’ trees.

Unfortunately, ‘Home’ trees are spread very thinly around the country.

It is quite possible there is not a family anywhere near where you live.

I wish I could tell you what the ‘Home’ trees are called in English so that you would know if a Bringal family is living near you but I’m sworn to secrecy. You see, if you humans found out where the Bringals were living, they probably wouldn’t last very long.

That’s sad but true.

But the Bringals have helped you already even if they don’t live near you.

How? Well, you’ve read this book, haven’t you?

That’s a start!

You’re going to be safer and the world will be a better place.

You could even spread the knowledge that you learn from the Bringals to other people that you see behaving badly. But be careful, most people don’t like being told they are wrong and you don’t want to get into trouble!

There’s one more thing I feel I ought to tell you now we’ve come to know each other better. My name is obviously not really Michael. I have a Bringal name that would fill 16 pages of paper. That’s because I’ve passed through so many generations and the more generations we pass through, the longer our names become, as our names are a summary of our lives.

I finally decided to use the name ‘Michael’ as I like its meaning in your language.

I was a 2nd generation ‘Pop-in’ with the group of Bringals that first saw Carly from the back of a ‘Squawker’ bird.

Don’t forget, be careful on the road. It’s a dangerous place.

And take care of the environment as well as you can. You need it! We all do.

Take care of it and it’ll take care of you.

And last but not least of all, be considerate to other creatures. Even those like the Gluppers!

All of life in all its forms always deserves consideration.

Bring back those vibrations and you’ll save the world!

‘Bye for now,

Lots of Love,

Michael

(Written on behalf of Michael and the world Bringal population by Jack and Laura McQueen, for the ‘Children Save the World’ Project.)

THE BRINGALS' SONG

  Invisible to human eyes, we do our best to save kids lives.                        Living in Home trees high above, celebration and kids are what we love. (Ch:) We're the Bringals, We're the Bringals, We're the bri...i...i...ingals.             Life is good, life is great, Bringals love to celebrate.                          We try to show the kids what’s right, then we party all through the night.

(Ch:) We're the Bringals, We're the Bringals, We're the Bri...i...i...ingals.

Planet Earth’s a wondrous place, it’s Nature’s gift to every race

We want to help you keep it Green, so you won’t see what we have seen.