She gazed at the ceiling of her bedroom. She really loved it. It made you feel as though you were really in the deep waters, frolicking with those sea creatures.
She jumped out of bed and humming to herself went into the bathroom. No one was up yet and wouldn’t be for some time so she took all her time, to brush her teeth, and then take her shower. She took her bath by herself now, she was a big girl.
She always woke up before everyone as she loved to go for a walk in the small woodland just beside her home. It was a private one, that’s why her mom let her go by herself. Afterwards, as she was already ready for school she just had her breakfast and then her dad dropped her off to school.
But let’s talk about her walks in the woods. She just loved that part of her day – but not just that part, actually she loved the whole day, and the nights too! But that’s for later. About her morning walks well, they were just super.
She always took a small basket with her, so that she could keep whatever thing she saw that interested her. It could be anything. A leaf; its shape could be queer, meaning that it was special. Perhaps the tree from which it had fallen didn’t like it because it wasn’t like all the other leaves, a sort of Ugly Leaf – like the Ugly Duckling, you know! So she kept it, because she thought that everything that was different was special – well, everything was special in its own way, but being different made it even more so, that’s what she thought anyway…
Sometimes it was a stone; she particularly liked white stones. She had collected lots of those, because she thought that they could help someday. If she had to go somewhere she didn’t really know, she could let the small stones drop at intervals, so that she could find her way back home! She got that idea from a story her mom had read her one night before she went to sleep. In the story, the little boy didn’t have time to go search for white stones the second time his parents had taken his brothers and him in the forest, so he had taken bread. But birds ate the pieces of bread and he couldn’t find his way back. That’s why Holly had picked lots and lots of white stone. Well, not that she wanted to get lost or anything!
Today she found a small red, spotted with white, mushroom. It was really sort of cute, so she put it in her basket for her to put away with her treasure trove when she went back home. Holly looked at the mushroom and thought to herself: what if she ate a piece of it, would she become a giant or smaller even than a dwarf?! Alice had done it, but Holly couldn’t remember which side of the mushroom did what. So, better not chance it!
She walked some more then not finding anything that was that interesting to pick, she decided to return. As she opened the back door that led to the kitchen, she could hear her family inside. Her mother was most probably making pancakes; it was Tuesday, and on Tuesdays it was always pancakes for breakfast. She put her basket down, and removed her coat.
“Hello mom, hello dad!” said Holly, and went to kiss each of her loving parents.
“Hello honey. How was your walk this morning?” asked her mom as she scooped a couple of pancakes on Holly’s plate.
“Oh, it was very nice, thanks mom! I found a small red and white mushroom… I’ll show it to you –”
“Holly, eat your pancakes. You’ll show it to your mom later, O.K? I have to go out a little earlier today, so you’ll have to be quick today, Hol,” said her father gently.
“All right dad. Sorry mom, I’ll show it to you later.”
Her mom looked at her fondly, her eyes full of love: “It’s O.K my darling. Now finish up your breakfast…”
Holly dropped a kiss on her dad’s cheek: “See you tonight daddy.”
Her father looked until she was safely inside the school premises then drove off.
As soon as Holly entered the gates, she spotted her friends, who were playing near the small fountain. She had known them since kindergarten, which at seven seemed quite a lot, but actually wasn’t! She liked them a whole lot, and shared all that happened in her small life, which wasn’t much – that is in real life but in her head, she had sooooo many adventures! She could be anyone, anything, from another person, to a mermaid, to a bird, to a butterfly… And she always told her friends about the small adventures she had, and sometimes they all even made up an adventure for them all to have.
If something got lost in her classroom, she would tell them it was probably stolen, or there was some kind of mystery behind the said disappearance. And that would make all those small wheels, in their small heads, turn, and turn like mad, to try to discover the robber, or find the ‘stolen’ thing!
They were a group of friends who always had something to do at recess; they were never still, forever running here and there, forever inventing stories…
But they worked too. It wouldn’t do for them to bring bad results back home! Holly particularly liked the “Drawing & Painting Classes”. No wonder, since she could use her imagination to the full! Sometimes she drew something she had seen when doing her walk in the morning, sometimes she would just take something that was trotting around in her head and put it beautifully on paper. She drew really well for a seven year old.
She even told her mom that when she really knew how to draw and paint, she would make a scene like the one on her ceiling, only it would be on the walls of her bedroom and it would be a woodland scene. She would put in tiny sparkling fairies who would fly around her room and make her dream of wonderful, magical worlds…
“Oueeeeeeehhhhhh!!!” Holly screeched joyfully, as she went up…up…up, and then dooooowwwwwnnnnnnn! “Higher, Nessa, higher!”
Nessa pushed her harder, and closing her eyes, Holly imagined she would be able to fly if she let go of the swing. But of course she didn’t do anything of the sort! Just in her head; she might be seven but she wasn’t a fool or crazy or anything!
It was recess time and her friends and she were playing. Today was a rather quiet day; nothing extraordinary or out of the ordinary had happened: no stolen thing, no nothing…
But it didn’t matter, as she loved to just be with her friends. And to be playing and just to be free! She was still very young but she knew that a lot of children didn’t have the same chance as her: to have loving parents, sometimes to even have parents, not to be beaten, to be protected… and being free, free to do anything she wanted…
“Holly, come on it’s my turn now. Get down!”
Holly opened her eyes, and sighing said: “Oh, ok…”
She got down, and Joanna proposed to push Nessa, so Holly went to sit down on a nearby bench and watched her friends.
“Bye Ania! See you tomorrow!” Holly shouted from the car. She had just dropped off Ania, another of her friends. Her mom hadn’t been able to come fetch her from school so she had phoned Holly’s dad to ask him to take Ania home. They often did that. If dad couldn’t come, then she went home with any one of her friends’ parents. She felt that it was nice to be so close that you could count on any friend at any time, for anything.
“So, how was your day?” Mr. Darssy asked his daughter.
“Oh, it was really nice as usual…” Holly began, and it was only when they entered the front door at home that she finished telling her dad of every little thing that had happened at school that day.
And then she began again… but with her mom this time!
Holly moved until she got really comfortable, then turned her head towards her mom: “G’night mommy…”
“Goodnight honey. Sweet dreams…’
Holly thought of the sea creatures that were watching over her. She hoped she would meet them in her dreams. Well, she hoped she would have a wonderful dream and not that awful nightmare she sometimes got. But she got it only when her day hadn’t been good or if she was ill, which she wasn’t.
Blink.
So, meaning she would…blink…perhaps dream of…blink…her sea creatures…yawn…or fairies…or…blink…or…
And Holly’s eyes finally closed.
Goodnight Sleeping Beauty…
This was a day in Holly’s Phantasy Land, where anything, anywhere can happen. Wouldn’t it be nice to sometimes forget reality, and dream? Because I think, that a person without dreams, or at least one dream, is dead (though not physically, of course!). He’s like a zombie wandering on this earth… Thinking positively is a good way to start. So if you’re dying, reach up to the stars, to your life… start dreaming…
Finished on: 05/09/05
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