Sarah
Midgen, now affectionately christened Smidge by all, was once told
that having the right mindset would open doors for her when she got
older. Little
did they know just how true that would become.
Stumbling
upon a magic door handle whilst escaping a bully, Smidge realised
that she could travel from place to place wherever there was a wall
just by using the handle. All she needed was pure intent and, as
she found out from Mrs Norn (the most unlikeliest of R.E. teachers
ever) her intent had to be pure as well.
Three
weeks had passed since finding the handle and Mrs Norn had vowed to
help Smidge learn to use her magic properly. Most
of the exercises were based on focusing on places that Smidge wanted
to travel to, then travelling to them in a variety of emotional
states.
Each trip went further and further afield; the farther they traveled the more unsure Smidge became and the less accurate the
travelling became and before long the only door that she could open
was to her 'safe room'; the room she had escaped to after being
chased by the school bully, Gert.
Mrs
Norn realised that she had to change her tack and find another way to push Smidge's boundaries, so for the next lesson Smidge had to clean Mrs Norn's store cupboard (which was surprisingly
huge for such a small class) and, after that, work on a few 1000 piece
jigsaws puzzles.
After
trying the first jigsaw Smidge pushed herself out of the chair she'd
been sitting on and walked up to Mrs Norn, who was looking out of the
window.
“Mrs
Norn.” Smidge snapped, trying to get her attention. “Look -I've
seen The Karate Kid, right? Who hasn't? I know what you're trying to
do, but I think I need to go back to creating doorways.”
Mrs
Norn turned round and looked at Smidge and smiled at her, her eye
twinkling. “Well, I suppose there's more than one way to learn
something.”
With
that she pushed Smidge into the wall behind her and right through it.
To her shock and surprise Smidge fell through the wall and
landed in the middle of a desert, miles from anywhere, it seemed. What
was worse was there was no doorway back!
What
the hell had Mrs Norn done, where was she? The sand felt warm against
her skin and the sun beat down on her. This couldn't be happening,
Smidge thought… why is this happening to me?
She
couldn't contain herself and started to kick the sand and scream, but
no one could hear her, no one came; she was completely alone.
When the anger and panic subsided she picked the handle out of her pocket
and tried to think of something she could do. Placing it on the floor
she created a doorway into which she slipped through.
Falling
to the ground only feet away from the door she created. Very strange;
the handle had created an invisible door to the sky about eight foot
above her, which was completely useless to her so she tried something
different.
Maybe
she could try digging a hole. Anything was better than just standing
there, panicking. She
soon realised, however, that digging was just as pointless; where was
she actually digging to? She knew that there was no one to rescue her
and it all depended on her resourcefulness so the only option was for
her to start walking.
The
desert unfolded, stretched out for many miles and she walked for some
considerable time before she noticed the hole that she'd dug earlier.
It was exactly the same size and shape, even down to the hand print
she'd made when pushing herself off the ground.
So she tried walking in another direction, this time carefully counting
her steps. Just as she thought, it wasn't long before she ended up at
that hole again. Her little pocket room was roughly fifty square foot
in size.
So,
she couldn't use the handle on the empty air, or the floor, and nor
could she fly. She couldn't use it on any walls because there weren't
any. But what if she could build her own wall?
The
sand was of the right consistency for the hole to keep its shape so
maybe it would be possible to build a wall. It wouldn't have to be a
large one necessarily, just as long as it worked.
It
took Smidge around two hours to build but when it was finished it
just about came up to her waist, so it was plenty big enough for her
purposes.
Taking
the handle out of her pocket and carefully placing it on the wall,
she said a prayer to herself and gently pulled. Smidge was overjoyed
when the door opened and, getting on her hands and knees, she
crawled through the door and was soon enveloped in blackness. And that
was when she banged her head on another door. Where was she now?
She
could see a vertical slither of light so she must be in a cupboard
somewhere.
“Hello?
Can anyone hear me?” She shouted, her voice a little hoarse from
the desert, and banged on the door.
“Whence
squeeks the mouse?” Came the reply of a familiar voice. The
cupboard door was unlocked and opened, and Smidge found herself back
in Mrs Norn's classroom. Obviously she'd passed the test admirably.
“You're
not always going to have a wall available, but, just as you found out
the first time you used the handle, any surface is viable;" Mrs Norn explained, "even one
you make yourself.”
“Where
was it that you pushed me to?” Smidge asked. “It was another
room, wasn't it?”
“It
was… once upon a time.” Mrs Norn replied, with a sadness about
her. “But it isn't any more. I'll tell you about it another time…
I think we've had enough excitement for one day.”
Smidge
nodded.
“Perhaps
next time,” Mrs Norn concluded, “you'll be less impatient and
actually take the time to learn properly!”
1 comment:
I like where this is going, and how it is developing the story.Nice short and concise story telling
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