Mr Meep 4 – Mr Beep (Deleted stories)

All day long, Mr Meep had been up in his room, building something; banging and sawing and drilling and making the most terrible racket.

“Oh dear”, thought Doris Didcott, Mr Meeps kindly but near-sighted, old landlady, covering up her ears, “What can Mr Meep be building? Whatever it is, I hope he finishes it soon. I shall never be able to listen to the wireless with all that noise going on”.

And, switching on her old radio, Doris turned the dial for the volume up high just to drown out the sounds of the work going on above her.

But, just then, in the middle of some light classical music, there was an announcement.

“We interrupt our usual programming to bring you an important news bulletin”, said a man, “A Dragon has set fire to the leaning tower of Pisa, Italy and four British tourists who were visiting the tower are presently believed to be trapped at the top of it. Italian fire crews that were called to the scene say that they are reluctant to make any rescue attempt for fear that the tower may collapse
or that the dragon may come back”

“Oh dear”, said Doris, turning away from the radio, “Those poor people”.

But, just then, she heard Mr Meep coming out of his room and down the stairs and, rushing out into her hallway, she saw him, wearing blue overalls instead of his usual spotted tie and a large pair of safety goggles but still wearing his bowler hat.

“Oh Mr Meep”, she said, “Did you hear the terrible news, about the people who are stuck at the top of the leaning tower of Pizza’s?”.

“Meep?”, asked Mr Meep, confused, scratching his blue furry head.

“Pizza’s”, said Doris, “You know. It’s a place in…um…Italy, I think”.

Then Doris told Mr Meep everything that she had heard on the radio and the blue, furry alien got that very serious and determined look upon his face that he often did when someone was in trouble;
then, raising his hat, courteously, as usual he opened Doris’s front door and, at enormous speed, almost like a furry, blue tornado, he rushed out of the house.

“Oh, I wonder where Mr Meep has rushed off to now in such a hurry?”, said Doris.

But, just then, over the radio, she heard the excited voice of the radio reporter say, “Quite astonishing! Only a moment ago, in the skies above Pisa, a blue, furry thingummybob appeared,
wearing blue overalls and a bowler hat and, at present, the thingummybob seems to be making a daring attempt to rescue the people trapped at the top of the tower and…oh my word..the blue thingummybob has just carried two of the tourists out of the burning tower and flown them, safely, to the ground…quite extraordinary…but wait…the tower is beginning to shake…it looks quite unsteady… and oh, what’s that in the distance…it’s the dragon! The dragon is coming back and he looks angry. Can the blue, furry thingummybob rescue the other two tourists who are still in the tower before it collapses or before the dragon eats them all up?”.

“Oh no!”, said Doris, listening, on the edge of her seat, to the radio, “Hurry, thingummybob, hurry!”.

But, just then, from Mr Meep’s room, Doris heard a very peculiar sort of sound, like bleeping and beeping and whirring and buzzing.

“Ooh? What on earth can that funny noise be?”, wondered the old lady, peering out of her kitchen and up the stairs that led to Mr Meep’s room.

Suddenly, however, there was a loud whooshing noise and, to Doris Didcott’s surprise, down the stairs came a strange, floating mechanical man with bright flashing eyes like lightbulbs and long, mechanical arms and ears like TV aerials and, on its head, a blue baseball cap worn at a very jaunty angle.

“Goodness!”, exclaimed Doris, covering her mouth as she gasped with shock, “What are you?”.

“Beep!”, replied the mechanical man in a friendly sort of way.

But Doris seized hold of a broom anyway; she wasn’t taking any chances. Not with a flying, beeping, mechanical wotsit.

She needn’t have worried, however, because, his baseball cap automatically raising itself, Mr Beep, for that was the robots name, rushed out of Doris’s front door just as fast as Mr Meep had earlier.

And then, to Doris’s further astonishment, the man on the radio said,

“Quite incredible. The furry, blue thingummybob has just been joined by a second, strange flying object, some kind of mechanical wotsit and now, would you believe it, the wotsit is helping the thingummybob; holding up the tower with its mechanical arms while the blue thingy is rescuing the two remaining tourists and even the dragon looks surprised ”.

“Oh, good”, said Doris, smiling, relieved, “I’m glad the people are safe”.

“But now the dragon is very angry, its throwing its arms up into the air and roaring and now its coming towards the blue furry, thingummybob”, said the radio reporter.

“Oh dear”, said Doris, “What an awful thing. I do hope that the dragon doesn’t eat the poor thingummybob”.

“But wait”, said the radio reporter, “The thingummybob is getting something out …it looks like a telephone and now the thingummybob is making a phonecall… how very strange”.

“Oh yes, it is. Very strange”, said Doris, agreeing.

“But now… oh my word…this is amazing!”, said the reporter,excitedly, “A helicopter has just flown into view carrying what looks like…a pizza. A ginormous cheese and tomato pizza, and now the dragon is taking the pizza and the dragon looks very happy”.

Then, just at that moment, whooshing back through Doris’s front door came, not only Mr Meep but also the bleeping mechanical man.

“Oh, Mr Meep! Thank goodness you’re back”, said Mrs Didcott, coming out of her kitchen, looking both bewildered and a little cross, “Now, perhaps, you can explain to me what that thing is that’s floating about in my hallway”.

“Meep!”, replied Mr Meep, pointing proudly to Mr Beep.

“Invention?”, asked Doris, scratching her head, “But what is it? What does it do?”.

Reaching out a large, blue furry hand, Mr Meep turned a dial on the front of the robot and, suddenly, Doris heard the sound of music coming from out of a speaker in its chest and then, even more remarkably, it started to dance.

“Oh! It’s a radio”, said Doris, relieved and quite impressed, “A radio that dances. Ooh! What a good invention”.

Then, Mr Meep took Doris by the hand and they danced round and round the hall until, all worn out, they put their feet up on Doris’s settee and Mr Beep put on the kettle and poured them both a nice, warm cup of tea.