THE SOUL SCROLL (I.P. Jan 20th.)

- - Whenever Lucy had her three friends, Paul, Stevie and Sally round, it was never a quiet time, what with upsets, disagreements or something getting broken. They were there today playing in the lounge with her latest must-have toys, (she was a little spoilt, after all).
- - And then it happened, the statutory squabble - this time over who'd caused Spiderman's head to fall off and go rolling under the settee.
"Well, you threw it on the floor," said Lucy to Paul, "-look what you've done;
you'll have to buy me a new one now," she whined.
"Got no money," pouted Paul.
"Well your Dad will have to pay for it, then," retorted Lucy in no uncertain terms.
"He won't, he won't," shrugged Paul.
"Well my Dad will see that he does," Lucy stated emphatically.
- - Paul stamped his foot. "My Dad's a Policeman, and he'll come round and put your Dad in prison," he threatened.
Sally joined in, "My Dad's an Electrician, and he'll make all your lights go out when it's dark!"
"Yes, well my Dad's a Genetic Engineer, and he'll make all monsters come in the night!" put in Stevie.
"Ah," drooled Lucy, knowing she had the trump card "- but my Dad's a Time Traveller, and he'll go back in time and kill all your Grandads when they were little boys!"
"Oh yeah?" smirked Paul, "And how d'you think he'll recognize any of them all that time ago?"
- - Lucy leaned forward and spoke in a hushed voice, trying to add an air of mystery to impress them: "Well, he ....he brought a secret 'Thing' back home - from the Future,"
In unison: "Oh?"
"Time Travellers made it, Dad said. It has pictures and soul-patterns of everyone who's ever lived down through history. He calls it a Soul Scroll."
"What does it do, then," asked Stevie, curious but disbelieving, "What's it like - does it glow?"
"OK, Promise not to tell anyone", she teased, going to a little drawer in her Dad's posh computer desk.
- - They 'promised' to keep it a secret as she took out a holographic image of the aforementioned device -
- - "This is what a Soul Scroll looks like," she said.