The fantastic voyage of young Miss Shirley 1/3

“Butler! I have told you again and again that I want my tea with three lumps of sugar, and not two. Come over here right now.”

With a sigh Butler got up from the kitchen table and hurried to the room of little Miss Shirley. In his one hand a bowl of sugar cubes, in the other hand a pair of tweezers. Outside her door he stopped, adjusted his clothes and politely knocked two times before entering the room. Miss Shirley was sitting at the edge of her big old iron bed, near the coffee table. It had a porcelain tea cup on it; you could see the heat coming off. With the tweezers in his gloved hand Butler took a sugar cube from the bowl, and carefully let it fall in his mistress’s hot drink. With a small bow he excused himself and left the room, silently closing the door behind him. The young girl took a sip from her cup. Her pink held up high, as is the custom for the noble. And that’s what she was. She came from a very old and rich family, and they lived on a vast estate in the family mansion. It had been in the family since forever. While drinking, she looked around her room. She had everything a kid could imagine. Stuffed toys, princess dolls, a wooden pony, puppets. You name it, and she had it. And she liked them all too. Well, most of the times. The problem was that she would always have to play alone with them. She had no brothers or sisters. Thinking of this, she looked outside her window. In the distance, behind the high fence, she saw some children playing. Miss Shirley put down her cup of tea, and walked over to the window. She pressed her nose to the glass, and stared. Her breath condensed, because it was cold outside. But that didn’t seem to harm the kids there. They were shouting and running, and chasing a ball.

“How is it possible that those children there are not affected by the coldness of the weather?” She pondered aloud.

And she seemed right in asking that question, because the kids weren’t dressed very warm. Some of them didn’t even have proper shoes; they had bags tied around their feet. Sometimes she desired to play outside with those children, and this was such a time. She stepped back, wiped the glass clean with her handkerchief and went to look for her parents. After a while – it was a big house after all – she found them in the study. They were reading.

“No, we will not allow you to play outside. Especially not with that street scum over there. They are not worthy to play with you, young Shirley. They are poor and common, and you are a lady. Go play with your toys.”

Essentially the same answer she had gotten several times before. Still disappointed she headed back for her room and played. She sat on her wooden pony and imagined riding with him through endless fields and jumping over bushes or streams. That kept her busy till diner time. After dinner she kissed her parents goodnight, and went to bed. At first she couldn’t sleep, and she stared at the fluorescent moon and star stickers that were attached to the ceiling. But then, suddenly, sleep started to come, and she dozed off into a dream world.

As calmly and gently as she dozed off, as suddenly was she woken up, into that dream world. She was in the middle of a dark forest, and around her she heard all kinds of weird noises: cracking, whistling, sudden bangs. In fear Shirley looked around her. She could hardly see anything, it was very dark. What was that? Over there in the distance? It looked like a light that was going on and off. She decided to check it out. Slowly, with her hands in front of her to feel where she was going, Shirley headed over to the light.

            “Iiiiiiieee!”

Suddenly she screamed, because she felt something touching her right foot. Very short, but nonetheless something had touched her! She jumped up and ran a few meters, before bumping into a big tree. She looked back, but of course couldn’t see anything. When nothing happened for a few minutes, she moved on. But now she looked up scared whenever she heard a sound. And unfortunately there were many sounds in the forest. She steadily approached the light, and felt more comfortable now. By now she was very close to the light, but she still couldn’t see what it was. Suddenly she tripped. An aboveground root she had missed with her eyes, but not with her feet. She fell over, and immediately felt something around her ankles. It kind of felt like hands grabbing her, but also very rough and stiff. She bent down to see what was holding her, and she touched wood. Roots came from the ground and wound themselves around her tiny legs.

“Help. Someone help me. I’m being attacked by trees. Mommy, Butler, where are you?”

She screamed in panic. Shirley tried to loosen the roots, but they held on to her very tight. When the roots had a good grip on her, they started pulling her away. Quickly she grabbed the tree she was sitting against. Because it was a big tree, she couldn’t really get a tight grip. So the roots dragged her with them further and further. Still screaming loudly the little Miss tried to find something to hold on to. But every time she found a root, it tried to grab her too, so she had to let go. Shirley felt herself being dragged downhill, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her screams had stopped because her voice just couldn’t take it anymore. All that was left for her to do was cry. So she cried. Streams of teardrops followed the terrified young girl. You could see them glisten by the occasional beam of sunlight that found its way down between the high and full trees. When Shirley finally gave up hope and stopped resisting the relentless roots, she suddenly heard something in the distance. What was it? She listened carefully, hope rising in her little heart.

“It sounds a bit like a horse galloping.” Miss Shirley thought.

And if you believe it or not, it was actually a horse, running towards her. In the dark she could see a white shadow coming near very fast. Before she realized what was happening, a big and strong white horse had arrived at the scene. With its mighty hooves it banged down on the roots, and Shirley actually felt their grip on her legs loosen. With some final well aimed bangs, the powerful animal had defeated the tough roots. The horse got down on his front legs and said

“Get up on my back, young human daughter. I will take you away to a safe place, far away from here.”

Shirley was surprised that the horse could talk, but she decided to ask questions later, and first get out of here to safety. As soon as the little girl was safely on the horses back, he rose up and ran off. Shirley really had to hold on tight, because the horse was running like the wind. It seemed to know exactly where to go without bumping into the trees. After about half an hour, the animal slowed down. Eventually it stopped. Shirley looked up, because out of fear for the speed she had hidden her head in the white manes of the horse. They had arrived at the edge of the forest, where the sun brightly lit endless fields. Just like in her dream, she thought.

“Thank you so much for saving me, my dear animal. You have my gratitude. May I ask your name and also why you can talk? Because as far as I know, animals don’t talk.”

The horse threw his manes back and answered with a horselike voice.

“In this world every animal can understand each other. So if you don’t know that, you must not be from around here. By the way, my name is Frank.”

Shirley properly greeted Frank, and replied

“It is true, I am not from around here. I fell asleep at home in my bed, and when I woke up, I was suddenly here. Do you know where my mommy is?”

The horse had to admit he didn’t. But he agreed to help her, because he liked human children and he didn’t want to see her sad. Shirley got on the horse again, and there they went. Over the fields, past the bushes and through the streams. This wasn’t completely like her dreams.

“Frank, do you think you can jump over the bushes and the streams? I dream about it a lot and I would really appreciate it if you would do so.”

Frank didn’t have to be told twice, he immediately picked up speed and told Miss Shirley to hold on tight. She did, and that’s why she didn’t fall off his back when he lifted off for his first jump, over some prickly bushes. She loved it, it felt great! And from the happy neighs coming from below her, she could see the horse liked it too.

After a while, Frank had reduced to walking speed, they came close to a big road. It crossed the fields from left to right as far as the eye could see. Alternately on this side or the other side were straight hedges. From behind the hedges, on their left, they heard arguing.

“Bob, I keep saying it brother. You should stop eating all that unhealthy stuff. It will only make you fatter. You can’t even run 10 meters without having to rest for an hour.”

The other one had hardly finished when they heard Bob – apparently – come back with an immediate reply.

“I am not fat, I just have a refined taste, and a very demanding stomach. And besides, I don’t need to run. What’s running good for anyway? It will only make you tired, my dear brother Billy.”

            “If you run, you will get somewhere faster.” Came Billy’s defense.

The two arguing voices came closer to the edge of the hedge, and both Frank and Shirley were curious to see who the voices belonged to. And there they were, the twin brothers Billy and Bob. Billy the thinnest boy you have ever seen. Long, skinny, with a high but small face. And next to him Bob. A big chunky kid that was as wide as he was deep, with a completely round face that contained a porky nose. You could see they were related because of the similar features, but besides from that they couldn’t have been more different. They kept arguing, even when they saw the horse with the little girl on top. The thin one suddenly changed course towards the horse, and asked

“Great white one, can you settle an argument for us. Is it better to be healthy and thin like me or fat and unhealthy like my brother Bob here?”

Before Frank could answer, Bob intervened.

“That is an unfair question Billy, and you know that. Besides, the horse is grey, not white.”

Shirley looked down. And actually she started doubting herself. She had also thought the horse was white, but now it did look a bit grey. Oh well, that wasn’t important right now. She was fascinated by the twins. They seemed to disagree on everything. For every question they had opposite answers, and couldn’t believe the other one didn’t see it his way. Finally Miss Shirley managed to get their attention.

“Excuse me young boys, I was wondering if you could tell me how I can get home. I seem to be lost.”

The boys considered the question. And as to be expected, they both came up with different answers. In the end Billy suggested her to go left, where they had come from. But of course Bob suggested they go straight ahead to where the horse and the girl were already heading.

            “What kind of house do you live in?”