It's such a small amount that I should have finished it up and got it over with yesterday, but I had a bedtime and stayed up two hours past just to get what I did get written done... so, the 8th day will be the perfect day. Maybe I'll get ahead, even.
Goldie didn't want to lie to her mom, but when she specifically asked what Goldie had done to knock the air out of herself, she didn't want to admit where she'd been. She didn't really know whether she was supposed to be in that room, or what sort of strange creatures lived inside of it. Maybe Aunt Wilma didn't even know about it and the portal had opened just for her. Oooh, that'd be strange. Still. She didn't want to say anything to mother about the secret room. So, she made up a story.
"When I was outside, I met an ogre, Mom. A big, tall, ugly, fat ogre." She stood on her tiptoes and spread her arms out as wide as they would go. "Well, at first I thought he was ugly, but actually he was really nice which made him not ugly anymore. It was like, what I thought about him transposed onto his face... since at first I thought he was probably coming to kill me, I was like, 'Oh, no! It is an ugly beast ready to chop me down with his sword!' But, no, he walked right up to me and said,
'Hello, how are you? What's your name. I'm Dingaling.' He knelt to the ground and peeked around the tree that I was hiding behind.
"I stared at him for just a moment while I convinced myself not to be scared of him, since I could tell he was nice. I mean, he was so polite. How could he not be nice?" Goldie paused for a moment and frowned, wondering whether an ogre could be polite and mean at the same time, or maybe the other way around, nice, but not polite. Was that possible or would it cause the ogre to implode? "Anyway, he was nice. And so, I said,
'Hello, Dingaling. I'm Goldie. It's very nice to make your aquaintance.'
"We shook hands, which was very hard to do because his hand was almost bigger than my entire body! He wanted to take me into the Forest of No Return, but I was kind of scared, so he let me ride on his shoulder, and you know what? The dark forest wasn't really as scary as I expected. There were a few dark shadows that hid behind trees as we walked along, and I was pretty sure if I was in there alone, they might have come over and tried to eat me. But, they were all scared of Dingaling. I learned right then that he was the king of the Forest of No Return and he was nice to everyone, except for the bad guys. He protected me from them."
Mom went to sit back down in her chair where it looked like she'd been knitting a pair of socks.
"I didn't know you knew how to knit!" Goldie sat on the couch as close to Mom as possible and put her chin in her hands to watch.
"I do," said Mom. "Now, let's hear the rest of your story."
Goldie looked up at the ceiling in thought.
"Oh, ok, I remember. So, Dingaling said that it was the forest's yearly leaf races exactly today and that I was invited to come take part. Of course, I was excited to try leaf racing, but I wasn't quite sure how it worked. Dingaling said that the rainy season had come and that it had caused the creek to rise high and run fast enough for races. So, he took me to the creek.
"There were a lot of other ogres around and also some fauns, and, oh, Bambie fawns, and there were some forest fairies and I think I might have seen Doctor Who, but he was only there for a second. I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination or not. So, Dingaling told me the rules.
'We line up at the starting line and when the fauns release the butterflies, we each have to run to find a leaf that we want to use to race. It's very important the size, the color, and the weight of the leaf you pick out. Pick the one that seems right. Make sure there are no holes in the leaf's surface.'
'OK.' I said, shrugging my shoulders. 'What's next?'
'Well, then, you're really going to like this part,' Dingaling grinned wide, but I didn't know why.
'What am I going to like about it?' I asked.
'The next step, you run over to the nearest wizard...' He pointed to a man wearing a dark blue bath robe with yellow stars splattered all over its surface. 'I would suggest that guy.'
'OK,' I said, getting impatient.
'And, say to him, 'SHRINK ME DOWN, CAPTAIN,' just like that. You have to say 'Captain' or he won't do it.'
'Why do I have to be shrunk?" I asked.
'So you can race your leaf, you silly!' Dingaling started laughing so hard that I started to slide off of his shoulder, but he caught me just before I fell. It was a miracle because Dingaling is so tall, I probably would have broken my neck if I had fallen from there." Goldie grabbed hold of her neck and gave it a quick rub, as if she could feel a pain in it that had not happened.
"Dingaling sat me on the ground, then, so I could watch all the other creatures prepare for the race. I saw a few carefully scan the ground and take note of the nearby leaves as they made their way to the starting lineup. I wondered if I should do that, too, but since I had absolutely no idea what sort of leaf I was looking for anyway, I figured that it wouldn't matter whether I saw it now or saw it later. So, I waited and waited just watching all the people. Watching all the people.
"And then," Goldie jumped from the couch and threw her hands out in front of her. "It was time! Dingaling helped me line up next to him and we waited for the fauns to release the butterflies. I think the butterflies were the thing I was most excited about. I waited. Three fauns lined up on the right side of the path. Everyone had to run past them before they ran to get their leaves or else they would be disqualified from the race. Each of the fauns held a squirming net full of golden butterflies. I felt bad for them being trapped in there, but I also wondered how they even got them into the net. That was crazy. They lifted the nets into the air and pulled the sides apart and suddenly the sky was filled with hundreds of butterflies, swirling this way and that, each trying to make its way home. And I was transfixed watching them float and flutter. I felt like I could heard their wings flapping, but now, I'm not sure if it was true. Butterflies are so small and quiet. Maybe it was my imagination," said Goldie, shrugging. "I was caught up, until I heard Dingaling calling out,
'Goldie! Goldie! Hurry before all the good leaves are gone. You'll never win the race if you don't get a good leaf!'
"I crawled out of my reverie and realized that everyone had left the starting line but me. I took off as fast as my little legs could carry me and almost forgot to run past the fauns before I turned off the path to look for my leaf. It would have been silly to get disqualified before I'd even started the race, but I remembered just in time and veered back onto the path and around the fauns and no one said a word, so I think I did alright. I searched around the forest floor because I knew that any of the leaves on the trees were going to be too high above me and no one was allowed to help me, even though I was new. So, I looked around on the ground and suddenly, just kind of hidden under some old brown leaves, I found the most gorgeous fall leaf I'd ever seen. It had five points and a nice long stem, and it was red and green and yellow all mottled together in this beautiful swirly sort of way. And, I loved it. I knew that was the leaf I was supposed to race. So, I carefully picked it up from the ground and I ran to the wizard in the bath robe.
'SHRINK ME DOWN, CAPTAIN!' I shouted and just like that, he pulled a little gray bunny out of his pocket and patted me on the head with it. At first, I thought he was just being silly and then, as he put the bunny back into his pocket, I noticed he was getting taller. His head stretched almost to the sky by the time I noticed that my leaf was getting heavier.
'What in the world?' I said when I looked at it. Because, my leaf wasn't really a leaf anymore! I mean, it was a leaf, it looked like a leaf, it had been a leaf, but now it was a boat. A leaf boat! What? How crazy was that? Did the wizard transform it when he shrunk me or are all leafs like little, tiny, magical row boats? I have no idea, but it was awesome.
"So, I looked around to see what everyone else was doing now. Our audience was towering above us like it was part of the forest. I saw Dingaling in the distance and I grabbed my leaf boat and ran over to meet him. Funny thing is, that as I got closer to Dingaling, I realized he was smaller than he had been. When we were big, he'd been about ten times as big as I was, but down here in our shrunken size, we were all the same size.
'Hey,' I said to Dingaling. 'What do I need to do now?'
'You made it,' he said, grinning his wide grin. He studied my leaf boat for a moment. 'That is a great leaf. And beautifully colored. I can't wait to see it float. Right now, you need to quickly check and see if there are any holes you need to cover with tar before you start the float down river. Several of our competitors are already in the water, but most likely that means they didn't check their leaves as well and they'll end up sinking before they get too far into the race. It's better to be safe than sorry.'
"I examined my boat and I didn't see any holes, but Dingaling pointed out a nick by the stem, I hadn't seen. I was glad he was there showing me what to do or I probably would have drowned in the creek because of that hole. So, we both pushed our leaves to the creek and jumped into them. Each of the leaf boats had built in oars, so we didn't have to worry about that. We started rowing and Dingaling quickly got ahead of me. I found a pretty fast current, though, and I was doing pretty well. We were swooshing and splashing, and it was kind of like going tubing."
"Not that you've ever done that," said Mom.
"No, but I know what it'd be like. This was definitely like tubing." Goldie gave a quick nod and continued her story.
"So, I was just shooting along, rowing as hard as I could with the oars, passing people left and right, and I'd almost caught up to Dingaling, but... then we reached the end of the race. I didn't get first place, but I got second place. Dingaling won first, but I didn't mind. He was a pretty good friend, so I didn't mind him getting first. We gave each other a hug and skipped back to the bath robe wizard to get big again. The wizard was standing on a bridge and Dingaling and I had to jump over the cracks between the wooden slats so we wouldn't fall through. The wizard removed the bunny from his pocket and set it on the ground. It was like a giant monster bunny now. It hopped up next to us and tapped each of us on the shoulder with his ears. I grew faster than I had shrunk and just as I was almost fully me-size again, I sneezed! I forgot I was allergic to bunnies! When I sneezed, I fell backward over the side of the bridge and landed on my back on the sand beside the creek. I started gasping and choking, so Dingaling picked me up from the ground and ran at lightning speed back to Aunt Wilma's house and that's how I got the air knocked out of me."
Goldie crossed her arms and sat down on the couch beside her mom.
"Oh, Goldie. I'm going to have to start teaching you the difference between dreams and reality so I can get a straight answer out of you for once."
"But she's so creative!" declared Aunt Wilma with a laugh.
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