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Red Man, Green Man

Red Man and Green Man were feeling very excited. They could hardly wait for it to go dark because then they were going to have an adventure. Red Man and Green Man had always lived in the traffic lights. They had never been anywhere else. Everyday they watched from their lights as people pressed the button on the crossing and waited for the Green Man to flash so they could walk across the road safely. For the rest of the time it was the Red Man’s job to shine brightly to warn people that it was dangerous to cross until the traffic had stopped.

Day after day, night after night and in all weather, Green Man and Red Man always made sure that everyone could cross the road safely. On their way to school in the morning and then on their way back home again in the evening, all the children would press the button and wait for Green Man and Red Man to tell them when it was safe. And then, during the day when all the children were at school, people going to the shops or on their way to work pressed the button. In fact, the only time that nobody pressed the button was in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep.

Because they had always lived in the traffic lights, Red Man and Green Man didn’t know what it was like anywhere else. They didn’t know that people lived in houses and that everybody did lots of different things. They didn’t even know that there was another set of traffic lights just around the corner where another Red Man and Green Man lived.

But now, they were bored of just living in the traffic lights all the time, and they wanted to get out and have some fun. And they had a plan. Red Man and Green man were going to wait until everything had gone quiet in the middle of the night before climbing down from their home in the traffic lights to explore. They thought that if they could get back to their traffic lights before all the boys and girls came in the morning to cross the road, no one would ever know that they had been out on an adventure.

It was getting dark now. Red Man and Green Man meanwhile were getting more and more excited as the traffic started to ease and the road became less busy. And as the road became less busy, so, too, did the crossing. The only people pressing the button now were those who had been out late and were on their way home. One by one the last few cars of the day passed by and Red Man and Green Man knew it was nearly time for their adventure. Soon everything was still with just the stars twinkling in the sky and the moon shining brightly.

First Red Man climbed out of his light and slid down the pole, closely followed by Green Man. Then, hand in hand, they crossed over to the other side of the road. Opposite their lights, of course, was another set of lights with another Red Man and another Green Man for the people crossing the road in the other direction. As Red Man and Green Man crossed the road to begin their adventure they waved to the Red Man in the opposite set of lights. “Come and join us” they shouted “we’re off on an adventure, bring Green Man, let’s go and have some fun”. Well, Red Man and Green Man in the lights opposite thought this was a great idea and slid down the pole to join their friends. So now the four of them, 2 Red Men and 2 Green Men, were ready to start their adventure.

Because they were very small, everything looked enormous. Not only that, because they had always been high up in the traffic lights looking down at everybody, it was very strange for Red Men and Green Men to be so low down.

In all the excitement of their adventure they hadn’t noticed that a sly cat that had been watching them escape from the lights. The cat thought that it would be great fun to spring a surprise on Red Men and Green Men and had waited patiently for the right moment, pounced on the four friends. Now, unbeknown to the cat, a big dog had been watching too. And he had been waiting for the right moment to pounce on the cat. Well, at the very same moment as the cat made its move for the Red Men and Green Men, the big dog made its move to catch the cat. Just as the Red Men and Green Men thought they were going to become the cat’s dinner, the dog leaped out and chased the cat away.

”Let’s get out of here before the cat comes back”, shouted Green Man and they started to run. Running along the pavement by the side of the road, they saw something that made them stop in their tracks. What do you think they had seen? Well, right in front of them was another set of traffic lights with the Red Man flashing. How could that be? They just didn’t understand it. How could they be in two places at the same time. Green Man decided to climb up the pole carrying the button for the crossing and press it. Straight away another Green Man was flashing. Green Man waved and shouted “Come with us, we’re off on an adventure, bring Red Man let’s all have some fun”. But the Red Man shook his head “No, we must stay here, it’s too dangerous for us to come out of the lights. If we get lost, there will be no one here to help the children cross the road safely in the morning”. And he went back to sleep.

But the two Green Men and two 2 Red Men wanted to have even more fun so they made their way further up the road. The first thing they came to was the children’s playground. Sitting on one of the swings was another cat. It watched quietly as the 2 Red Men and 2 Green Men crossed over the playground and started to play on the slide. What fun they were having. Time after time they slid down the slide with the Green Men shouting, “We can go faster than you” to the Red Men. They were enjoying themselves so much that they didn’t see the cat creeping nearer and nearer to the slide. The nasty cat wanted to pounce on the little men as they slid down the slide. Yet for all its cunning, the cat was in for a big shock! What the cat didn’t know, you see, was that the little Red and Green Men were made out of electricity so that they could shine in the traffic lights. So when the cat pounced on the four little men, a shocking tingling feeling went right through its body that made its fur stand up on end. Miow, Miow, Miow it shouted as it ran away as quickly as it could.

Looking at each other and feeling very pleased with themselves, the little men started to laugh. They wouldn’t have to worry about cats anymore.

Now it was time for them to have a go on the swings. But try as they might, the little men were just too small to make the swings move. It was the same on the roundabout. They just didn’t have the strength needed to push it and get it moving. “Never mind”, they thought to themselves, “it’s great fun on the slide let’s have another go on that”. But after while they started to wonder what else there might be to discover and so, skipping out of the playground, they went back out onto the street. By now the 2 Red Men and 2 Green Men were so happy. What fun they were having. Laughing and jumping around, life had never been so exciting for the little friends. Oh how they wanted their adventure to last forever.

All around everything was still. The houses that lined the road were in darkness because everyone was asleep and all the shops were shut. Next the four little men came across the school and decided to check out the school playground. The great thing about the school playground was its system of tunnels. Long tubes had been set up for the children to crawl through and hide in. “Let’s play hide and seek in the tunnels”, said the Green Man. “O.K. you hide and we’ll count said the Red Men.

The game was so much fun that they hadn’t seen the huge rat that was creeping towards them. It had been scavenging in the bins for food when it had spotted the four tasty-looking little men and had decided to eat them instead. The Red man had found a fine hiding place in the tunnel and was standing as quietly as he could so as not to be seen by the others, when suddenly he felt something grab hold of his leg. He looked down and saw the rat with his leg in its mouth. “The electric shock treatment”, he thought to himself. But it was no good he didn’t have enough power on his own to bother the rat. “Help”, he shouted, “I’m being eaten by a rat”. His three friends heard his shouts and came running to help. The Red Man and two Green Men jumped onto the rat’s back to save their friend. There was now enough electricity coming out of all three of them to burn the rat’s back. Letting go of their friend, the rat shouted “Stop it, stop it” and ran away.

With the rat gone, the 2 Red Men and 2 Green Men felt shaken. In fact, they were beginning to feel a little bit frightened. Slipping out of the school gates, they made their way back down the road.

But coming along in the other direction was something so big it looked like a huge monster. It was making a lot of noise, spraying water everywhere and there were 4 big brushes at the side of it. It was, of course, only the road sweeping machine that came out at night to clean the roads. But the little men didn’t know what it was. Thinking it was a monster, they decided to crouch down next to a lamppost until it had gone. But as it passed by something very strange happened. As the water spraying from the road-sweeping machine came into contact with the 4 little men, sparks started shooting from them. It was the electricity that was causing the water to spark. They thought it was really funny and as soon as the road sweeper had gone the four little men from the traffic lights started to jump in the puddles that the road sweeper had left behind. Jumping higher and higher, the water came down on top of them, sending sparks flying in all directions. There were so many green and red sparks flying that it was better than firework display. Now they were really enjoying themselves. Never before had the little men from the traffic lights had so much fun. They kicked the water at one another and splashed about all night until all the water had disappeared.

Indeed, Red Men and Green men had been having such a great time that they had forgotten all about getting back into the traffic lights by morning. “Oh no”, Red Man said, “it isn’t dark anymore”. The moon and stars had gone and day was beginning to break. It was morning and the children would be waiting to cross the busy road. Oh dear, what could they do. It was really important to get into the lights before anybody noticed they had gone. Because they were so small, however, it didn’t matter how fast they ran, their little legs couldn’t take them far. And although the traffic lights where they lived were still a long way away, they soon began to feel very tired. They stopped running to take a rest by the side of someone’s garden wall.

And who should be coming up the garden path carrying a large sack of letters but Mick the mailman. He didn’t see the little Green Men and the little Red Men at the side of the wall and as he bent down to post the letters, the little men jumped inside his bag. They had seen the mailman every morning press the button at the traffic lights to get across the road and they knew he was going down to the traffic lights that morning. This was their chance to get back into the lights before it was time for all the boys and girls to go to school.

Mick the mailman closed the gate behind him and walked on down the road. He kept stopping at the houses along the road to mail the letters and the little men had to be very careful that he didn’t see them. Every time he reached in his bag for the letters, the little men squeezed behind the parcels so he couldn’t see them. They kept peeping out to see where they were. Passing the traffic lights at the top of the road where the other Red Man and Green Man lived, they could see people waiting to cross the road and knew they were too late. The children would be waiting for the Red Man and Green Man to tell them when it was safe to cross the busy road. Whatever would they do if the Red Man and Green Man weren’t there to make sure they got safely across the road?

After bumping up and down inside the mailman’s bag for a long time, it suddenly went still. Red Man peeped out to see where they were. Mick the mailman was waiting with lots of children by the traffic lights. Children kept pressing the button but nothing was happening. The traffic lights wouldn’t work because Red Man and Green Man had gone on their adventure.

“Where is the Red Man and where is the Green Man” the children were saying, “We can’t cross the road until Green Man flashes”. The mailman looked at all the boys and girls waiting to cross the busy road. “The traffic lights must be broken this morning” he said “Red Man and Green Man aren’t working. “I’ll show you across the road this morning, but we must be very very careful because the Green Man isn’t showing us that it’s safe to cross”. But suddenly the traffic stopped and everybody began to smile again. While Mick the mailman had been talking, the Red Man and Green Man had very quietly jumped out of his bag and without being noticed had climbed back into the traffic lights. The Red Man flashed and the children knew to wait by the roadside. The Green Man flashed and all the boys and girls knew they could cross the road safely. Red Man and Green Man were back in the lights and now everybody could cross the road in safety again. The Red Man and Green Man waved to the other Red Man and Green Man on the opposite side of the road. Happy to be back home, but they couldn’t wait for their next adventure.

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