It was a sunny summer afternoon, with the bright sun shining down on a large green field. This field was a backyard of sorts, to a very large house on the edge of town. Surrounding the house was a rickety old fence, with the paint almost completely chipped away. Not far from this fence was a little hill, with a very large and very old apple tree. Now on this particularly sunny day, if one bothered to look, they would notice a very little girl sitting up against the old fence.
This girl was indeed very little, and someone would not notice her in a passing glance. She was sitting under some tall brush growing against the fence, which provided her with much needed shade, and with a closer look, one would know the reason. The world around her was a blur, and nearly nonexistent, since she was currently nose deep in a thick old book.
Now most little girls her age enjoyed running around, and dressing their little dolls. She looked like a normal little girl, except that she was very little. She had long blond curls that reached halfway down her back, with blue eyes and fair looking skin. Instead of dresses, she wore very plain shorts and a very plain tee, with no shoes or socks, this very little girl was so very different indeed. She did not enjoy people telling her what to do or listening to rules, in fact, she despised rules and preferred to live by her own.
So instead of most childish things that girls her age enjoyed, she preferred the intellectual stimulation of a good book, especially a fantasy or suspense story. Perhaps one that told of far away lands, strange creatures, and various plot twists. She enjoyed so many different books, and she would find them all at the library in town, at the end of Fifth Avenue, second building to the right. Many of the other children teased her for being very bizarre. The reason for this was that they enjoyed books with pictures and conversations, and she enjoyed books with very few pictures and many, many words.
“Why would you read a book that has no pictures in it?” A little boy asked, catching a peek at the book the very little girl was reading just now. “Books without pictures are very boring, and you’re so very bizarre.”
Of course, she ignored him and returned to her book, reading about archery. She looked up at the old apple tree and wondered if the little boy would agree to help her with her aim, by placing an apple on his head, for archery seemed quite tempting at that moment. However, she just chuckled and lost herself once again in the pages.
After the boy got bored enough and ran off, the very little girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, gold pocket watch. It had a long gold chain attached to it, with a small hoop at one end, which she slid her finger into as she swung it side to side lazily. She opened the watch to check the time, and it was only half past three. Her thoughts drifted as the watch began to swing back and forth again, and the summer heat made her very sleepy. She set her book down and closed her eyes, remembering the day she had received this watch from her father.
“Now I won’t be gone long, dear. There’s no need to cry, for I’ll return before you even realize I’m gone.” Her father had told her, as he handed her his pocket watch. “Take this, and this way you’ll always have something to remind you of me while I’m away. Just check the time and I’ll be back at four in the afternoon, you’ll see.”
This was quite a few years ago, and he had not returned. Every day at four, she would sit outside and wait for him to be standing there in front of her, smiling as he always did, and the little girl would feel so silly for having doubted him.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked once again at the time, the one hand reached the twelve, and it was exactly four in the afternoon once again. She looked around with faded hope, wishing he would just magically appear out of thin air like the characters in one of her books.
However, all she saw was a little white bunny, about the size of her hand, hopping rather curiously over to her. She smiled and petted the little animal.
“Why hello, what are you doing around here? You best not be seen by the boys of the neighbourhood, for they will surely tease you, like they do me.”
She swung the watch back and forth some more, and the bunny raised its little nose to the watch, sniffing at it cautiously. The little girl giggled and held it still for him, for she logically assumed that the little bunny was most certainly a boy. Such simple things as watches often fascinated boys, and so the bunny was surely a boy. She nodded in agreement with herself and addressed the bunny once again.
“So then, you like my gold watch, do you? My father gave it to me before he left on his adventure. I am not quite sure where he went, but he will soon return for me and save me from my horrid life, any day now, did you know? That is right, perhaps even tomorrow. He’ll walk up to me and say that he’s so very sorry, and that he was busy fighting a large fire breathing dragon in a far away land. In addition, perhaps he had to recover from injuries before returning. Oh my, I surely hope he is not in any real danger. Everyone says he is dead, but I know that he is too tougher than that mean old dragon. My father is very brave, you see.”
The little girl placed the gold watch on the grass so the little white bunny could examine it thoroughly, seeing as he seemed to want to do just that. The little girl continued to talk with the little bunny, yet he never answered back.
“It’s very rude not to comment or at least nod, and say something like, ‘yes, indeed, well of course.’ However, you just sit there, not talking at all. I have just now realized that I completely skipped lunch; I was too busy reading this book about archery. It is quite an interesting read. Do you know how to read? They say that apples are the best thing to use for practice, when performing archery and that old tree up there happens to be an apple tree. It is a very old tree; it has been up on that hill for years I would suppose, hundreds of years even. Perhaps I will take a walk up there to grab a few apples for target practice, and a couple for myself. Then I would need a bow and arrows, right? Well that’s a problem, isn’t it?”
The little girl was so busy in her own thoughts that she did not realize the bunny had grabbed the chain of the watch and began to run off towards the hill with the old tree. She stood up suddenly and called out to the little white bunny as it dashed as fast as its little legs could go.
“Wait now, didn’t you hear me say that it’s no good? I do not have a bow or any arrows to practice. I am not really in the mood to eat apples today. Are you perhaps hungry then? Well wait for me; I doubt very much that you can reach high enough to get yourself an apple.”
The very little girl ran after the little white bunny, which had quite a head start, as he had already reached the bottom of the hill. The little girl could feel the tickle of the soft grass on her bare feet as she finally caught up and tried to catch her breath for a moment.
“Now how are you going to reach those apples when you’re so very little? I can barely even reach them myself.”
The little girl looked up at the branches of the old tree and they spread so far out in all directions, that the green leaves gave great shade to the entire hill. She stood on the tips of her toes as she reached for an apple, but her attention switched to the bunny as he disappeared through a hole in the base of the tree.
“Wait; there aren’t any apples in there!”
The little girl crawled over to the small hole in the base of the tree and she found herself lucky to be so very little, since she could fit into the hole. It was still a tight squeeze as she forced herself in, calling for the bunny to return with her watch. Once inside the tree, it must have been hollow, she thought, since it felt as if she could stand upright without hitting her head. In addition, the floor felt very smooth for the inside of a tree, and the little girl thought this very bizarre.
She stood upright and felt around, as she was now in complete darkness. She looked back to find that the hole she’d entered through had disappeared and so she thought that perhaps there was a similar hole on the other end of the tree. After walking for a minute or so in one direction, she expected to have reached the other end by now, yet there was no wall.
Then she noticed something in the distance, a dim light, she thought that perhaps this was sunlight peeking through a hole in the tree and she began to run towards it. Unfortunately, it was not sunlight, but rather the light of a small flame from a candle on the wall. By now the little girl was very confused, and yet very excited with the idea of a secret room inside an old apple tree on a small hill.
She looked around for a second to catch her bearings, noticing she was in what seemed to be a long hall and that the candles ran along the wall for quite a long way. The little girl could not even see the end of the hall, since the candles seemed to go so far down the hall that they faded away from sight. She also noticed that the two walls on either side of the hall had numerous doors, all along the walls, as far or even farther than the candles. The little girl immediately tried to open the first door on her left, hoping it would be a way out, seeing as going back was no longer an option, for the opening she had come through to get to the hall was now a solid wall. She was disappointed when she found the door locked, so she tried the next one and each door after that a dozen times at least. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw the little white bunny with the chain of her pocket watch in his mouth as she ran towards him, but he disappeared into the darkness.
“Wait! I need that pocket watch back, do not run away. I didn’t mean to insult you earlier by saying you were too small to reach the apples, I’m sure you could reach them if you really wanted to.”
The very little girl stopped running after a while, and began to walk, assuming at this point that the rest of doors could not open anyways, so she stopped trying to open them. It felt as if she had been walking for hours, even days, with no end in sight, and no sign of the little white bunny. Finally she reached what she thought was the end of the hall. In front of her were three new paths, one to the left, one to the right, and one straight in front of her. She decided that this was as good a time as ever to explore a little, and so she picked the left hallway first as she slowly walked down to the room inside.
The first thing she noticed was the floor of this room, lightly covered in sand, and most of the sand was concentrated in a small pile at the far end of the room. She was disappointed that the bunny was not in this room, but something at the end of the room caught her eye. As she walked closer, she could feel the sand between her toes and she smiled, since it reminded her of walking along a beach, yet she‘d never been to one, but she‘d read about it. She reached the wall, which had a large door built into it, and it seemed to be glowing red. When she tried to touch the handle, it was hot to the touch and she backed up in shock. Suddenly the small pile of sand began to grow as a large brown bear emerged and looked at her curiously.
“Hello Little Miss, what brings you here?” The brown bear asked, as the little girl was still in shock from what was happening.
“Bears can’t talk, as far as I know, and I know quite a bit, from reading my books. Well I came here because the little white bunny took my pocket watch and ran off. I tried carrying on a conversation with it, but it won’t answer me.” The little girl was frustrated, but continued to observe the brown bear.
“Well of course bunnies can’t speak; they lack the intelligence that we bears possess. We are capable of far more complex tasks then mere rabbits. This is of course common knowledge and I’m surprised you don’t already know this, Little Miss.” The brown bear proclaimed with confidence in her voice.
The little girl logically assumed the brown bear was most certainly a girl, from the sound of her voice, and because she could only possibly be a girl since she was so knowledgeable of so many interesting things, and so the brown bear was surely a girl. She nodded in agreement with herself and to the logical fact that bunnies are inferior to bears. However, she frowned at the bear’s name for her.
“I disagree with you calling me Little Miss; I don’t like to be referred to as little. It’s demeaning.”
The bear’s expression softened as she smiled at Little Miss.
“I meant nothing by it, it seems like a cute name to be given to such a cute little girl is all. In addition, since you gave me no name, I gave you one instead. I hope you don’t think ill of me for it.”
Little Miss pondered it for a second or two, and then she agreed that it did fit her perfectly. She looked at the door once again, puzzled by its red glow, and the large gold padlock on it.
“What’s on the other side of this door? And what is this gold lock?”
The bear’s expression hardened as she straightened up, showing authority.
“This is a golden lock, I guard it. Where this door leads is a land called the Sun Hills, which is too hot. It’s not time for you to enter here just yet, since you must first find the key.”
Although Little Miss wished to see the other side of that door, her thoughts were still on the whereabouts of the little white bunny.
“Have you, by any chance, seen the little white bunny pass through here, or where he might have gone to?”
The brown bear thought for a moment, and then she pointed at the exit to the room.
“You may have better luck in the room across from mine. I am sorry I could not be helpful any more than I was. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Little Miss nodded in thanks as she slowly walked out of the room, and the brown bear disappeared once again into the sands. Little Miss returned the way she came and reached the previous room with the three separate paths. This time she decided to go down the right path, wondering what she would find in this room, and hoping the bunny would be in there.
As she entered this room, snow lightly covered the floor and seemed to be slowly falling from the ceiling, which was too high to see. The door at the end of this room looked like it was frozen shut and it too had a gold padlock on it. There was a large white bear, half covered in snow next to the door, and he was sleeping. Little Miss logically assumed the bear was most certainly a boy. He had long thick white fur like a beard, almost like this bear had lived for hundreds of years, and so the old white bear was surely a boy. She nodded in agreement with herself, nudging him lightly as he woke up and looked up at her, yet with no surprise in his look, almost as if he had expected her.
“No, I’m sorry Little Miss, but the little white bunny is not in this room.”
Little Miss was in shock, both from the fact that he knew what she was looking for, and that somehow he knew her nickname without having been told of it.
“How did you know what I wanted, and what I am now called?” She looked at him with utter confusion.
“Well I happen to have overheard your previous conversation that is all.” He gave a reassuring, yet misleading smile as he stood up and stretched for a little while.
Possibly, because he had been sleeping for years, until she woke him, Little Miss thought to herself.
“So let me guess,” Little Miss was quite smart and had already figured it out, “I can’t go through this door, because it’s too cold right? Well what are those gold locks on the doors?”
The old white snow bear smiled and chuckled lightly.
“You really are quite the intelligent little girl, and yes, where this door leads is a land called the White Plains, which is too cold. It is not time for you to enter here just yet, since you must first find the key. As for the locks, there are three doors in this Endless Hall. A bear guards each golden lock, and each door leads to a different world. With hidden keys, that only a special person can find. But you have to find the keys to the locks yourself.”
Little Miss looked around the room for a moment.
“Where exactly is this? It’s quite difficult for me to accept that this entire place is hidden within a tree.”
The old bear smiled and stood upright, sitting across from Little Miss as he cleared his throat, which she thought was funny for no reason at all.
“Well this place is different from your world. It is a world of dreams.”
“So does that mean I’m dreaming then?” Little Miss interrupted, rather sad that this wonderfully curious place was not actually real.
“Well yes, you are dreaming. However, in your dreaming state, you have found yourself having entered the dream world. The world you see now is a place where children can escape and enjoy themselves. The Endless Hall we are in now is a bridge of sorts. The many locked doors you saw are all doorways to various lands that exist within the dream world.”
The old bear pulled out an old rusted pocket watch to check the time.
“You better hurry and find your way out; staying too long can be hazardous, Little Miss.”
Little Miss ignored his warning, as she mistook the old bear’s watch as her own, but noticed that his looked so much older and rusted.
“Where did you get that pocket watch?” Little Miss curiously inquired.
“Well it’s mine; it was given to me by a very good friend a very long time ago. It doesn’t work so well anymore, but I would never get rid of it.”
Little Miss had hoped that perhaps the little white bunny had dropped the watch and the old bear had found it, and once again she was disappointed.
“Have you, by any chance, seen the little white bunny pass through here, or where he might have gone to?”
The old white bear thought for a moment, and then he pointed at the exit of the room.
“I believe he may have hopped into the last room, and you may find your watch there. However, before you continue, I must warn you that you must make certain to listen to the instructions given to you. The dream world can be very dangerous if one is careless.”
Little Miss nodded, ignoring his advice, she did not enjoy being told what to do or listening to rules. Her thoughts were elsewhere as she was intent on getting her pocket watch back from that little white bunny. She reached the main room again, with only one path left, as she slowly walked down the hall to the last room. This room seemed very large and yet the door at the other end of the room was very small, small enough for Little Miss to crawl through. She would surely have to crawl, judging by the small size of the door, thought Little Miss. The little bear sitting comfortably next to the little door, eating a small piece of marble cake, further emphasized this. She walked up to the little bear, and curiously asked.
“Excuse me, but is this little door too hot as well, or is it too cold?”
The bear stopped eating his marble cake as he looked up at Little Miss; she logically assumed that the little bear was most certainly a boy. Boys were often very messy eaters when they would eat marble cake, the little bear was eating his cake in a very messy manner, and so the little bear was surely a boy. She nodded in agreement with herself as she giggled at the sight of the little bear with cake crumbs all over his lap.
“Well this door is not too hot, and it‘s not too cold. This door is just right, in fact, Little Miss.”
Little Miss pondered how bizarre the little bear’s statement sounded, and she noticed a golden lock on this door as well.
“What‘s on the other side of this door? “ She asked, as the little bear had started eating his piece of marble cake again.
“Where this door leads is a land that is a secret, even to me. However, the key to this lock is very close to you, you only need to find it. “
Little Miss wondered where the key could be, and that perhaps it was in her sock drawer, since many things lost would end up in there somehow. Her mouth began to water, seeing the little bear’s piece of marble cake, as she remembered having skipped lunch and feeling very hungry after having walked all this way. She licked her lips and shyly asked.
“Do you have anymore marble cake to share? I haven’t had anything to eat for hours, and some cake would really hit the spot.”
The little bear pointed to a small table that seemed to have just now appeared next to her, with a small piece of cake on a small plate.
“I must warn you. There is one rule here in the dream world. If you eat or drink anything from the dream world, you will lose a piece of yourself. In addition, for every piece you eat, and every sip you drink, you will forget a little more about who you really are. You must be careful not to lose yourself completely, for the consequences will be unpleasant.”
Little Miss was ignoring him, as she despised rules and preferred to live by her own. She had already made it to the piece of marble cake and picked up a bite, placing it in her mouth.
The little bear appeared to be upset at the way Little Miss had blatantly ignored his warning, but he just returned to his piece of marble cake, eating it in a very messy way.
After Little Miss had finished off the small piece of cake, she put the plate down and wiped her mouth clean, remembering why she had really come into this room.
“Have you, by any chance, seen the little white bunny pass through here, or where he might have gone to?”
The little bear thought for a moment, and then he pointed at the exit of the room, but said nothing. Little Miss gave the little bear a curious look as she turned around to find the little white bunny sitting behind her, with the chain of her pocket watch still in his mouth.
Little Miss smiled, having finally found the little white bunny, and her father’s gold pocket watch. She noticed though that the bunny had grown considerably larger since she last saw him. The bizarre part was that he seemed to be growing larger by the second, so large that she looked up at him now. He was now at least ten times her size, though that must not have been very large since she is already very little. Alternatively, perhaps she had shrunk even smaller than before.
“Oh but I do hope not, I’m already very little as it is, I can’t handle shrinking in any way. I refuse to accept it, in fact. “
The now large and monstrous bunny loomed over her with the chain of her pocket watch in his hand, which was bizarre, Little Miss thought, that his larger size would result in the growth of fingers. In addition, the fact that her pocket watch now matched the bunny in size was very troubling, since the bunny was now swinging it around in the air, in a very menacing manner.
Just then, Little Miss heard the sound of thunder coming from the ceiling, which was too high to see. As expected, it began to rain, very heavily in fact. Little Miss dreaded the thought of getting her clothes soaked in the rain, and in such a bizarre place.
“Where will I find a change of clothes in such a bizarre place?” Little Miss asked, but to nobody in particular.
Before anyone could stop it, the room began to fill with water, it was nearly up to her ankles, Little Miss thought. The bunny had now begun to swing the watch towards Little Miss, and she desperately dodged each pass. Little Miss struggled in the rising water and could only run slower and slower as it quickly rose to her shoulders. She decided to forget about getting a change of clothes and instead worry about the bunny, which still seemed focused on attacking her.
“Is this because I chased you, and didn’t feed you an apple? I’m dreadfully apologetic.”
Little Miss tried to finish her thought as the watch quite suddenly came down right onto her head, and would have surely killed her. Fortunately, she decided to dive down just in time and the shock of the watch hitting the water caused her to spin around rather dizzily for a moment. Luckily, she found the surface of the water and took a deep breath, looking to make certain to avoid another lethal attack, but the bunny had disappeared There was a terrible storm raging above, with dark clouds flashing and roaring with thunder, and the room was now an ocean.
“The walls must have washed away somehow.” Little Miss assumed, as she choked back the water and continued in her attempt at keeping afloat. “And perhaps the bunny has drowned? Oh but I surely hope he is all right. It is not his fault he was hungry and scared after all. I am sure he washed up on some deserted island in the distance, and I will soon be joining him, if the tide is right. Oh I do regret I never read that book on swimming, for it would be very helpful in this situation.”
Little Miss tried to kick and flap like the actions she’d heard were supposed to be done when one is drowning, and then she saw something up ahead. It was the little bear. He had found a way to survive by using the small table as a small floatation device. He was busy eating yet another piece of marble cake as he floated by, and did not notice her drowning.
“Well that’s very rude of him, how could he possibly eat at a time like this?” She coughed annoyingly as she realized the rough waves would soon win. The little bear disappeared into the distance as she remembered something very important to this situation.
“The old white bear told me that I’m dreaming right now. So the simple solution is to just wake up, right?”
Little Miss nodded to herself as she attempted this for several moments. When she failed, she felt very silly.
“I’ve never had to wake up before, not when I seem to already be awake. This is troublesome.”
Just then, she sank under the waves and felt herself fall very slowly down to what felt like the centre of the earth, for she sank for what seemed like days.
Little Miss felt drops of water land on her face, and she thought this to be very bizarre, since she was just in an ocean. She opened her eyes to find herself back where she began, sitting under the brush by the fence. It was raining quite heavily and her clothes were very soaked. She sat for a moment and thought back to her very strange journey in the Endless Hall. As she stood up, she realized her gold pocket watch was still missing, and wondered if it had all really happened. However, she was very tired from her adventure, which was bizarre if it had been a dream. Nonetheless, she went inside to dry off and have some much needed dinner.
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It's time again for another "Good Idea, Bad Idea"...