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The Magic Toaster |
| Written by Andrew Ware | |
| Sunday, 16 March 2008 | |
It was January. Nine year old Richard and his eleven year old sister, Polly, were sulking in the lounge room of an old shabby, two bedroom cottage. Last week, they’d been playing computer games in a ten bedroom mansion that was once their home. A fire had taken everything and they were now left with nothing. This cottage was now to be their new home and they weren’t happy about it. Richard and Polly were not used to living like this, because in the past they had been spoilt rotten.
Peering out the window, they couldn’t understand why other children laughed so hard while they were playing in dirt, with sticks, pebbles and climbing trees. Imagination was something that Richard and Polly had never needed to use.
One day whilst shopping with their mother, they spotted a toaster in a second hand shop, priced at just three dollars. Their mother was thrilled as she paid the shopkeeper. Little did they know this was no ordinary toaster!
Next morning, Richard and Polly crawled out of bed, and made their way to the kitchen. “I am sick of wheat for breakfast”, complained Richard. “Lets have toast then”, replied Polly. Richard fetched their ‘new’ toaster and placed in some bread. CRACK! “What was that?” exclaimed Polly, dropping her plate in fright. Smoke surrounded the toaster as Richard cautiously approached. Lying on the floor was a rolled piece of parchment bound with string. Once untied, the children read the message inside. “Go into the garden, behind the shed and ask to speak to Alan. Tell him the password is ‘Collywobbles’ and enjoy your trip.”
Richard and Polly were shocked. They didn’t know what to do. Eventually Polly’s curiosity overwhelmed her and she decided to make her way to the garden with Richard in tow. They had never seen anything like it in their lives. Cottages, hundreds of them, lined in perfect rows and no bigger than a child’s hand. As Polly’s eyes widened in amazement, she felt a movement around her feet. Looking down, tiny little green hats bobbed up and down all around them. “Goodness me!” Richard squealed, “What are they Polly?” Feeling a tug on the bottom of his trousers, a squeaky voice replied, “We’re pixies.” “Um, we’re looking for Alan.” Richard continued. The pixies trotted along merrily and led the children to a cottage overgrown with leaves and vines. This cottage was larger than the rest. Coming out to greet them was a small leaf green goblin, with large pointy ears. “Welcome,” he cried in a raspy voice. “My name is Alan.”
Polly and Richard felt as though they were in a dream. As Richard began to weep, Polly tried to comfort her brother. Then she remembered something. “Collywobbles,” Polly blurted without thinking. “Ah. You’ve been sent here to learn what imagination is, eh?” replied Alan. “Well, you’ve come to the right place. Ok. Are you ready to go?” “Go? Go where?” asked Polly. “Anywhere you want. It’s your choice.”
The children thought and thought. “What are our options?” asked Richard. Alan explained that there were no options and that there were many ‘lands’ to be explored. Pointing behind him was a crop a mushrooms. “Pick a mushroom, close your eyes, repeat the land you’ve imagined and away we go.” he chirped cheerfully. Polly started to become very excited and embraced the idea that she could possibly do this. “I would like to go to a land where everything is in reverse,” she finally decided.
As they picked a mushroom each, swirling winds surrounded them, and before they could blink, they were standing in front of a sign. ‘REVERSEVILLE TO WELCOME.’ “Golly gosh,” exclaimed Polly. “It really worked! Richard, it really worked!” A little man around the same height as Alan approached them. Polly couldn’t help but giggle. His body was striped with every colour of the rainbow. “This is Luap,” said Alan, introducing his friend to the children. “His name is Paul in reverse.” “Today you are how?” asked Luap. Polly thought for a few seconds and replied, good are we,” she giggled. She though this was fun. Spending a short while I this peculiar little town, they reached the end of the road. Alan turned to Richard and explained that it as now his turn to imagine where to explore. Poor Richard tried and tried but just could not move them to another land. “Oh dear,” he wailed. “We shall never leave this land! I don’t want to do this anymore!”
Alan could see that Richard was becoming very upset and needed guidance. “Richard, why can’t you use you imagination?” asked Alan “I don’t know how!” screamed Richard. “And I don’t want to! Can you bring back our house and all my toys? That’s all I want! I’ve tried to imagine that but it hasn’t worked!”
Alan understood what Richard was going through and he had a plan. “Richard, think of a house as big as yours was,” encouraged Alan. Richard thought very hard. “Castles! Castles are big houses! Castles!” Richard repeated as they grabbed a mushroom each. Before realizing what happened, a thundering roar came from behind them, whipping each one of them onto huge horses. Richard peeked from behind his queering hands and realized they were knights on beautiful horses and they were headed towards a grand castle. “What fun we are going to have here,” thought Richard to himself. Alan and the children were taken to a majestic court yard and were placed in front of an extremely tall man. “Who are these intruders?” came a gruff voice. It was the king and he did not look happy to see Alan and the children. “Throw them in the cave with the others!” he ordered
“Please play with me?” a tiny voice pleaded. Once they had adjusted their eyes to the dull light of the cave, a little boy stood before them. He had a grubby face and was wearing ripped clothes. Looking around, there were many children down there just like him. Feeling numb, Richard followed the boy to a pile of twigs and helped him build houses and ships with them. To his surprise he loved it and found himself laughing. Polly, who was laughing as well, was scratching hop scotch into the dirt and playing with pebbles.
The children had leant there lesson, that imagination was important. They turned to find that Alan was gone and in his place was a note saying, “Well done children, you have leant your lesson. You know the way home. Alan.” The children went to the corner of the cave where they found a pile of mushrooms. They each picked one and imagined that they were at home in the kitchen. The walls began to shake and spin until the children were safely in their home. “Polly! Richard!” a familiar voice sounded. It was Mother. “Is everything ok?” she asked. “Everything’s wonderful Mother,” they both choired, as they ran out the door laughing, to join the other children in the street. Copyright 2008 Andrew Ware |
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