Time for a family getaway trip to help forget some recent trauma
It had only been a few weeks since the storm came and destroyed clusters of homes on the West Coast . There were some people who could noy evacuate in time so they had to remain in their home until the tornada passed . Mr and Mrs Greenacre and their 7 year old boy Sham were one of those households that say out the storm .
The wild winds wrecked everything in its path .
After the wild winds and the deluge the people returned to clean up the carnage and to see what was left of their homes .
Inside the Greenacres home Little Sham had not spoken a word since the storm passed . Days went by and still he never spoke . Weeks went by with everyone trying to pick up the pieces and start again to rebuild their homes .
Architects started to draw up plans , demolition crews removed whatever they could and builders arrived to begin the reconstruction work .
Counsellors offered help for anyone who required and medical teams were working overtime to treat anyone who had been injured .
Even after many specialists had assessed Sham they had no idea what to do about his case .They assumed it was shock related and suggested that his Mum and Dad take him on a holiday for a while to see if that would help ,
So they followed their advice and began to browse through some travel brochures looking for that getaway place where Sham could recover . After a lot of searching finally they found a place they liked . It was in a little quiet seaside village called Chapters End . The advertisement said , Come away and spent some time at a place where time stops and life begins .
Without hesitation they booked a 4 weeks stay at Mrs McDermott’s guest house and as they packed their bags off they went on their getaway .
It was a long road that took to places they had never been and finally they saw the signpost , Welcome to Chapters End .
Outside the windows of their car , colours of a sunrise reflected a promise that
there were better days ahead for little Sham and his Mum and Dad .
A strange fascination crept over them all when once again they came to the same signpost , Welcome to Chapters End . It was almost like they had driven around in a circle . Mr Greenacre stopped and asked a farmer on the side of the road ,
“Excuse Me is this the road to Chapters End ?“
“Well that a good question as I happen to know myself that sometimes the roads around this place tend to go around in circles at times but just keep on going and you’ll find the place that you are going to “
“Mr and Mrs Greenacre looked at each other and grinned and waved goodbye to the farmer saying ,
‘
“Thank you for your help “
He took off his cap and replied ,
“Enjoy your time with us here. “
They drove off again on the road where they had just been before to a place where they had never been and finally with no idea where or how they had got there , they arrived at their destination , Chapters End .
It just as if felt as if they had been on a road where no one ever goes and yet here they were in the place where they had been told , time stands still .
As a matter of fact when they drove past the Town Clock they noticed that the clock had stopped . There were just a couple of shops , a bakery , a newspaper shop and a convenience store called “ Everything Is Ok Here , There was a sign in the window that said , we sell everything just ask .
On the seashore some upturned boats sat with Pelicans sitting on top of them as if they were guarding them . There was driftwood scattered around the shore and rocky formations that stood silently like fortresses against the waves on the ocean.
After driving around a while they found Mrs McDermotts guesthouse where she was already standing at the door waiting for them .
Mrs Mc Dermott welcomed hew three guests with a friendly smile and warm hug. Then she brought them inside and had someone carry their bags . She showed them the two rooms that were booked . She noticed that Sham was very quiet and spoke softly to him saying ,
“Welcome to the place where young one have ideas and the old ones have dreams and sure there a place for you here to explore if you have time to spare.”
When there was no response m she continued
“ I hope you don’t mind me telling you how much I’ve been looking forward to meet you , I’ve been cooking special cakes and ordered some extra ice- cream as well .
So make yourself at home and if you need anything at all just let me know .”
Mrs Greenacre replied ,
“ That’s very kind of you Mr’s McDermott , I noticed a beautiful old Storytellers Cottage at the end of the town . Does he still live there and would he have some time for us to call and visit. I used to love stories when I was a child ?”
"Sorry to say he hasn’t been around here for a long time , n one knows where he;s gone or what happened to him . He just disappeared without a word but the people of the village are looking after his cottage in his absence in case he would return , So if you excuse me now I need to go and start cooking for dinner .”
She said and turned and walked away .
.
:Well she seems friendly enough , Lets unpack and get settled in .
’
Mr Greenacre said .
After dinner they all went to their rooms . It was so different looking out at the ocean through the window of a bedroom . Little Sham lay there deep in thought . He could hear someone calling his name and softly singing an enchanting song . He put on his soft shoes and quietly left his room .following the sound of the voice . He walked out the door and up the road to the Storytellers cottage and opened the door and went inside . Turning on the light he saw a treasure chest against the wall . The voive continued to call him , Singing away a song that was so enchanting it had put him into a trace . He opened the treasure chest but it was empty , so then he moved it and found a trapdoor underneath . With his hand on the latch he pulled the trapdoor open and climbed down the ladder that was there . At the bottom of the ladder there was a door . He opened the door and on the other side was an entrance to a passage way . He heard a bell ring and a voice call him
“Sham , come away now , won’t you come to the land that awaits for you ”
He felt his head spinning as he was propelled through the air, round and round in a vacuum of time . He was being sucked through a twisting tunnel . Suddenly he landed up sliding down a mat down roller coaster ramp . Around and round he went . Down and down he sped , faster and faster he spun until he hit the bottom with a thud and a thump without a bump or a scratch .
Lying there on the ground surrounded by the sights of a new world where he had never been before . He was amazed to see everything that stretched out before his eyes . There was long road with trees on each side and as he got to his feet he began to walk along the road . Little birds flew over and rested on his shoulder singing softly songs in his ear . He helped himself to long bars of liquorice that hung on the trees and the peppermint leaves were sweet as soft to the taste . On the ground there lay other treats , sherbet rocks and honeycomb logs .
All the plants and even the grass where made of marshmallow and candy .
He saw a strange man standing in a boat on a river . He was calling out his name .
“Sham hurry up . I have been waiting for you . Come on we have so many things to see and do .“.
Little Sham ran over towards the rushing gushing sounds of the river that was flowing fast upstream in a backwards direction .
When he got to the man in the boat , he sat down on the riverbank .
“ Before you say anything , here take this .
The man handed Little Sham a soft cuddly toy and said ,
‘I believe this is yours. “
Little Sham screamed out with a high pitched shriek with the first sound The had muttered since the day the storm came .
“Oh , yes , Toby Woby Twinkle Toes .”
:
The man in the boat replied
“My name is Mr Bubumpkin and I am the ferry man here on the river of dreams .
So Toby is the toy you lost when that the storm lifted the roof from your house .
Well I have been keeping him safe for you to collect .”
“How did you find Toby Woby Mr Bubiumkin /
“Don’t worry about those detail , Lets say he was found him in a place that no one knows and where no one goes and he is the reason why you are here today. “
“ I missed Toby so much and everyday I hoped he would come back but he never did : Thank you Mr Bubumkin for looking after him .
“Now before we get started try some of this “
He filled a cup of water from the river and handed it to Little Sham . When he drank from the cup it was the coolest lemonade that he had ever tasted . After he drank it he was invited to step on to the ferry boat . With a nod of his head he said , .
“Where are we going to ?”
“This is the river of dreams so it will take us to many places ., Lets just go and see that is if you have some spare time .”
The two of them went on their way up the river of Dreams until they came to a bridge by a purple patch of ground where magic mushrooms grew among bluebells and buttercups . Tall honeysuckle trees stood around a little cottage there .
Mr Bubumpkin put the boat to rest , The with a rope he tied it to a post on the riverbank under the bridge . They both got out of the boat and walked across the purple path to the cottage door where Mr Bubumpkin knocked .
An old man opened the door and he said .
.
‘Nice of you to call . Have you got some time to spare today :
‘
“Yesa we sure do . This is Pogue O’ Loan the storyteller Sham , He lives here and he looks after all the plants and flowers . He also likes to tell stories to the creatures who live around these here Olden Hills . Everyone loves to hear his stories .:
The storyteller breathed a loud sigh of contentment and said
“Come inside now and let me tell you about what happened the other day “
They both went into the cottage and sitting in the corner was a treasure chest ,
Mr Bubumpkin and Sham sat down on top of the chest and listened to the Storyteller .
“As you may know Carmella Crackpot has always been very jealous of the Tweedle Birds and she is never happy when they sing their songs around the Wee Ones forest and so just the other day she tried again to make her unhappiness ruin the
sweet sound of the birds by her threat to suck all the honey from the honeysuckle trees and her desire to take all the butter from the buttercups around the river of Dreams . She even went as far as taking the tinkle from the blue bells .
So I had to instruct and inspire all of Tweedle Birds to keep singing and never to give up . So they all did as I asked but then this made Carmella Crackpot even more angry so she planned to steal all the magic from the magic mushrooms in her attempt to make all of us unhappy , So I decided to call all of the creatures around the Olden Hills and all the creatures from the river of dreams to help me take her away somewhere far away where she can never return to bother us again .
Now as you know I have many friends who come here to visit and I spoke to all of the fairy folk as well who have shared many of their stories with me and they managed to spread the word to all of the dragonfly’s who brought messages to the and the speckled frogs and the silver tongue beetles and the field mice that roared so in the end they went to sing and tell jokes with their croaks and with roars of laughter they never let up with the sounds of happiness until she was forced to flee from her wicked castle to the top of Smokey Mountain and that’s when the four winds of thunder and change with a strange kind of wonder started to whistle and hush and with a crushing sound of howling and growing until the ears of Carmella Crackpot popped and she promised that she would never take the magic from the magic mushrooms , or the tinkle form the bluebells , she even took her wand in one hand and cast a spell on herself from her big red book that make her disappear to another place and another time . At that moment the new moon shone down on the purple patch and she had never been seen again .So now everybody here who lives around the river of dreams has nothing to fear from her anymore .
The wind whispers and the frogs of the lily logs don’t moan and groan anymore .
Life is good in Puggles Wood and beyond the Big pond in the sky to the Mermaid sea . So you see everybody is happy to sing and do as they please because Carmella Crackpot has left never to return .
Mr Bubumpkin got down from the treasure chest and said
“Thanks for the story Pogue , now as you know time is not our own so we have to be on our way to meet Peggy from the amber sky who has made time to fly Sham over to Puggles Wood to see the Wee Ones.”
The storyteller replied ,
“ If only I were a feather on the wings of that horse , wouldn’t I have some wonderful stories to tell “
They left the cottage and got back into the ferryboat and continued upstream to a
green hill on a higher ground where a winged horse ran over to meet them .
.
“Hello there Sham. I’m Peggy, good to meet you . Now throw your arms around my neck and get on my back . It’s time to fly , lets ride through the sky . allow me to be your guide and say goodbye to Mt Bubumpkin your friend there
.
The big friendly horse lowered his neck down to the boat where Sham held on tightly
as Peggy raised his neck allowing him sit upright upon his back .
Sham screamed out loud ,
“Thank you Mr Bubumpkin for getting me Toby Woby back again and for helping me find my voice again, “
“Sham if you ever come this way again , you know I’m always here on the river of dreams . Stay happy :
The flying horse ran off and lifted its wings that took them soaring into the sky where they weaved in and out of the clouds , underneath a rainbow and over the Olden Hills to Puggles Wood where Peggy stretched out its long wings , gliding softly down to the ground . Peggy stood there on a blanket of flowers in a clearing on the edge of the woods and he said ,
“ Well Sham here is where you get off for now . I’ll be there after you meet the wee one’ s in the woods . Go now along the path to the place where they dwell beside the wishing well in middle of the Fairies Dell , Enjoy your time with the wee ones . “
Sham waved goodbye as Peggy flew away .
He made his way along the path in the woods and as he went he heard the sound of footsteps following behind him and so he ran . He heard the pitter patter of many little feet running after him so he picked up the pace and ran faster ; the little feet behind him were running like the clappers trying to keep up with him until very suddenly Sham came to a stop at the top of a hill but the little feet couldn’t stop as fast as Sham and the wee ones all ended up slipping and sliding down to the foot of the hill and tumbling over each other there where they fell .
Sham burst out laughing and then he made his way down to where the wee ones lay on the ground . They were tiny little men with funny little clothes and squeaky little voices as they screamed out .
‘AHH OOOH EEE AAYE PHEW””
“Oh no now look what you’ve done “
Said one of the Wee ones .
“Don’t blame me it wasn’t my fault “
Said Sham
“We own the woods and we have the right to chase anyone we want in or out :”.
Sain another of the wee creatures ,
“You mean to tell me you were chasing me out or was it in , well that’s a laugh “
“Ah but no you see the jokes on you “
They said and suddenly they all ran off
Not to be left standing like a gooseberry , Sammy gave chase . Over tree stumps he jumped and through bushes he raced after the wee ones who hurried and scurried through the bracken and bush until finally they came to a clearing in the woods where a wishing well stood in a dell and just there all by itself stood was stood a small cottage , with all of the wee ones looking out from inside the cottage window.
‘Sham walked over to the front door and discovered to his surprise that this was no ordinary cottage built with stone , he sniffed and he whiffed and he realised that the front door was made of chocolate , the windows frames where made of fudge , all the bricks where made of caramel and Sham couldn’t resist it any longer.
First he ate the door then once inside the cottage started to sniff for more . He ate the floor that was made of candy , he ate the furniture that was made from honeycomb and next he ate everything that was left of the cottage .
The wee ones had watched in silence as Sham slowly ate up and swallowed their entire cottage . Suddenly they all began to wildly jump up and down screaming
“Stop ! Stop! Stop ! “
But it was too late now as the last piece of the wee ones cottage disappeared with a gulp and a burp .
One of the wee one approached Sham and stamping his little feet on the ground he screamed out with his loud little squeaky voice ,
“ Well are you satisfied now. You home wrecking , hecking pecking , kracken backing , fast trekking kid from wherever you’re from . “
Said one of the wee ones looking up into Shams face .
Sham suddenly felt ashamed and said ,
“I’m really very sorry for eating you out of house and home but once I started, well you see I just couldn’t stop myself . Please let me help you rebuild another cottage “.
After giving it a lot of thought , they all looked at one another murmuring and
conferring and then the wee ones all shook their heads and agreed .
“ Well ok then . Follow us “
They led the way into another part of the woods where these chocolate trees grew in a row , with their wafer white leaves and toffee heart shaped flowers .
“These are the caramel. trees of Puggles Wood and you have our permission to cut them down “
They handed him a saw to begin chopping down tree after tree until there was enough to fill the little carts they brought from over the hill . Then they took the trees back to dell and lit a fire where they began to melt the caramel and chocolate , pouring the liquid into brick shaped moulds and one by one then made bricks to rebuilt the walls . The work continued until Sham and the wee ones completed all the work and the little cottage proudly stood with Tweddle birds singing again all around Puggles Wood . it was then Sham said farewell to the wee ones and continued his journey through the woods .
At the end of the path he came to a beach where the waves crashed down on the golden sandy shore .
Sham sat down there with the golden sunshine on his face and the sound of singing coming from the sea , There was music in the air that echoed everywhere as if it was being piped from a music making machine ,
The songs were being sung by women and even though he never heard the songs before he seems to know them .
He put his hands over his eyes he squinted through the glare of the sun to the sky above . Then he could hardly believe what happened m as ice cream cones began to fall from the sky in parachutes to the sand on the beach .
Sham caught some of the ice creams and swallowed them as fast as he could .
The waves that washed over the rocks bubbled and looked like creaming soda and in and out of the crevices on the rocks it fizzed and flowed . The sand on the shore tasted like sherbet and out of nowhere he saw the Mermaids surfacing on top of the water on the sea .
One of them swam to the shallows and allowed herself to be washed up on the shore . As she lay upon the sand , she waved her hand to Sham who went over and sat down beside her . The mermaid spoke softly in a melodic voice and her tail was at rest in the shallow water . She seemed happy as she said ,
“Welcome Sham we have heard about you and you are welcome here to the Mermaid sea and I hope what I will tell you is easy to understand . The time you spend in this is not the same as the time where you are from . For time in this world is non existent so whenever you return to where you are from not a second will have passed . From the river of dreams to the Mermaid sea and all the territories here and beyond you can spend as much time as you want . No one get any older “
“Where does the music come from ?”
Sham asked her .
“It comes from under the sea in Atlantis where creatures of the deep have been gifted to play their music and sing for the lost souls who seek passage to another place in another time .“
‘Why did they get lost ?
Sham asked
“They became angry with the world they lived in and acted with the same way feeling . They were known as humanities disgrace and in the end were not able to find the grace to transcend to their destination . We try to help them return from the caves of time where there is only darkness every day for them and they can’t find their way home
“ What is out there beyond the Mermaid sea”
He asked and she replied .
“You will find out some day .“
Then she flipped her tail and said farewell with a swish she swam away out to the sea ., leaping in and out of the water”
Sham watched the clouds sail over the sky until they slipped away out of sight .
He could still mermaids singing as a treasure chest was washed up on the shore .
He open the treasure chest and discovered he was instantly back in the Storytellers Cottage at Chapters End .
He made his way back to Mrs Mc Dermott’s guest house and quietly climbed the stairs to his room . He slipped Toby Woby Twinkle toes under the blanket and then climbed into bed and closed his eyes .
A pirate/mermaid love story fantasy set in the 17th - 18th centuries the Golden Age of pirates. A thrilling adventure that creatures a new and unique mythology - Book 1 of the Gemstone Series.
