A novel, by Hazel Meades (last updated 24 April 2005)
Once
in a deep dark wood there was a house. Inside the house there was a hall.
Hanging on the hall was a coat hanger. Swishing on the hanger was a jacket. Sewn
on the jacket was a pocket, and in the pocket there was a diary. This is where
our story begins. Hesta Mortan, a girl aged seven, was a little girl mad about
ponies. She’d kept a pony herself called Ann. Hesta was a Victorian child, as
was Ann, apart from Ann being a pony. But there was something magical with Ann
no matter what happened she remained a young pony. She still lives in the modern
days. As for the atmosphere it was the middle of the cold winter, the sky was
dark, clear though. So clear that it was like a bottle all dry, cleaned and
rinsed. It had been snowing hard so the outside grounds were carpeted in silk,
soft snow.
Ann remained in her
warm
stable where some welcoming hay was placed. The stable was made
out of special wooden planks. The wooden planks were special because they
belonged to Hesta’s father. It was the remaining parts of her father’s boat
that had been shipwrecked. The only reason they had the planks was because they
happened to get washed up on Moorsloon beach, and their father always wrote
Silver Moon on the planks. So it just happened that when it came to
building a stable for Ann their father suggested
using the old planks!
Well
going forwards to the modern days a girl called Janet happened to come skipping
through the woods. She was moving into the house with her family. She skipped up
to the door in her bouncy bright way so fast she accidentally bumped into the
annoying door and it creaked open. As to describe the door it was rather fragile
and the bright blue paint was peeling slowly off revealing the proper brown
mucky door. She was about to walk in when she heard a mournful neigh.
She had a look round
the back, it helped that her father had given her a map. Neigh! Went the noise
again. Turned her head right round did Janet. Suddenly she froze like a shimmery
still iceberg. She stared at an old stable. It was old, mucky and was worn with
red, peeling paint revealing the proper planks. As she touched the planks she
realised they felt like candle wax all smooth and neatly carved in an old
fashioned way. “Wait a minute neatly carved!” “More like beautifully
carved but I didn’t know that planks were carved!” said Janet.
She turned her
attention to the planks and saw through the holes…
A
sweet little pony was inside the stable. That immediately took her mind off the
planks and what the carvings said. Janet crept into the stable through a
delicate hole which was crumbling slightly like some dark soil. She (after
crawling through the crack) stood up quietly, walked over to the small pony and
stroked it. It was then that she realised the poor thing had run out of food.
“Dear!”
“Oh my pretty sweet cheeks!” called mother and father Mr and Mrs Sabbath.
That gave Janet an idea. “Coming Ma” she called in her casual way.
They were rather rich
you see so she begged her father to buy her some straw. He finally agreed.
“Well all right sweet cheeks” he said sighing.
Off
he walked through the woods leaving Janet Sabbath on her own to explore. Janet
smiled. “Ooh” she squealed.
Janet turned around. She felt like someone was watching her. But it was just her good luck! She’d found a hole in the prickly rose hedge! “Wonder what’s behind it?” “I know I’ll go and see what’s behind it,” said the excited Janet. She backed up, started running and jumped through the hole in the bush.
“Oh! Lovely legs” came the irritating voice of her father. “Oh! She’s not here I’ll put the straw next to the rosebush anyhow. Wonder what she wants it for.”
With that her father went. “ Phew” sighed Janet.
She stretched her hand out of the hole and brought the straw back through the hole, then she closed up the hole neatly. She wanted it to be her place and hers alone, nobody else’s.
Once she had the straw through the hole she looked about herself. Had she just gone into a special garden? Or was she dreaming? Right in the middle of the secret garden she could see a pretty fountain. It had carved pictures on it. Janet looked closely at the pictures. On top of the fountain for decoration was a dainty statue of a young child. Swirling down was the welcoming yet mysterious water of a deep depth and width. Her back began to ache so she looked for somewhere to lie down.
Suddenly Janet spotted a nice fruit tree to lean her back on. It was a smooth tree it had a few brown markings on it but it was so cosy her eyes weren’t open long enough to read them. She fell into a deep slumber. She was dreaming that she was making friends with the people in the emotional fountain. There were beautiful ladies with flowing silk gowns of every colour who lived in width land. But in depth land there are men with severe black uniforms and a pitch-black bow tie and a tall top hat. All of a sudden she woke up! She remembered the brown markings she read them. “THE DREAMING TREE” in big capital letters. She quickly moved away from the tree as she was beginning to feel drowsy again.
All of a sudden she heard the upset neigh again. Quick as a flash she remembered the straw. “The stable seems to have moved” puzzled Janet.
Very quickly she lay the straw beside the chestnut pony. “I’ll call this pony Mini because she’s really small” said Janet. As she heard the pony munching the food she said “So now to explore inside!”
Off she went past what she called THE EMOTIONAL FOUNTAIN. Then she went past the DREAMING TREE. Opened up the hole in the hedge and jumped through it. “Oh! My little pretty face!” called mum.
“Oh! My little garland!” “Darlink!” called annoying mum.
“I’m coming for goodness sake!” shouted Janet.
“Don’t be so impatient darlink!”
Janet lit up her face with a bright crafty smile. She slunk round to the front then opened the front door and then tippy-toed into the house though you could call it a mansion it was so big! She crept into what she would call a corridor. There were no windows so it was very dark. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark she suddenly saw a candleholder and a golden box of matches! Slowly she picked up one of the good candles and carefully lit a match.
But all of a sudden! She saw a light coming down the dark place. It looked like an alien’s eye with no pitch-black pupil. Then she realized that it was a beautiful flaring candle like her own all red, golden and orange. But whose candle could it be? It was now hand-sized skittering about and tittering nearly into the walls! Reminding her of the annoying creaky door she walked into that very day. It got closer and closer soon it was right in front of her! Blinding her eyes. All of a sudden she realized it was just her chittery, hot, red-faced mum!
“You’d been gone for a whole hour you ‘ave you impatient salon,” said mama
“That was nowhere near an hour red sausage” frowned Janet Sabath.
“How dare you call me that DARLINK!” screamed Mrs Sabath.
“Come on lunchtime Lovely Legs,” said Mr Sabath.
Mentioning it being time for dinner off they walked out of the corridor.
The lunch was delicious they even had some servant’. They had hot roast chicken so hot it was like chillies! They also had a scrumptious, rich, round roast pudding for the after’s. “Mama, please may I camp outside tonight?” asked Janet.
To Janet’s delight her mum said, “Yes!”
With no darlinks!
Well out into the night Janet went. After her mother had given Janet her bedtime kiss and her sleeping bag of course. Janet smiled she went through the hole in the rose-hedge and laid her sleeping bag down underneath the emotional fountain...
To be continued...