blow me bluebell bubbles

by Liss Webster

Written for a brilliant Alice Longbottom prompt on the Awesome Ladies Ficathon: "I'm here to blow bubbles and kick arse and I'm all out of Drooble's Best."

This is how it works. Listen carefully. It's important.

She has bluebell bubbles the boy brings (he's a sweet boy). She blows them, big and round, and fills them with the noises in her head. Do you understand? They aren't filled with air, like normal bubbles, they're filled with sounds and pictures and things she doesn't think about (they aren't there; they aren't there).

She once blew a bubble that a had a man in a woolly jumper screaming Alice, which is her name, she's told, and she thought, as she blew it, what a strange coincidence it was.

There's another bubble that has a woman laughing. She doesn't like that one at all.

One bubble has a baby that wobbles and laughs. People like babies (she thinks), but that bubble hurt, and she cried.

She has lots of bubbles, because the boy comes often (he's a sweet boy). There's a stuffed vulture in one; a screaming skull in another; a phoenix in the one she blew yesterday - or was it years ago?

Have you heard all that? Keep listening, because this is the important part. She pops all the bubbles: pop, pop, pop. Then they're all gone, until the boy brings her more (he's a sweet boy).

So she starts again...