Judy stared at her bedroom ceiling, just as she did every night. She admired the familiar crevices as she allowed her mind to drift freely. Normally this habit resulted in sleep, but this particular night her brain was wide-awake. Her eyes careened to her bookcase, as she thought of the many adventures that lurked inside each book, ready to be released into her imagination. She looked at her favorite, “Out of the dark and into the sky”, and thought of the brilliant adventure it took the reader on. There where fairies, griffins, giants, castles, and an infinity of adventures that could be unlocked by an imagination. Oh how Judy wished she could live there, never a dull day, and adventures around every corner, but alas, she was trapped where she was. She was just an ordinary human girl, trapped in an ordinary world.
“Nothing exciting ever happens here.”
She though with resentment. She turned onto her side, determined to fall asleep. Her eyelids closed wearily, but no sleep came. There was a loud crashing sound, and a bright blue light flooded her room. She darted to her window, and saw a deep hole spewing light, in the dead center of her mother’s flower garden. She thought of how unpleased her mother would be at this, and flew back into bed to make sure her mother did not think it was her fault. She looked back to her ceiling and found that the small crevices had stretched into long shadows. As she lay there staring at them, she was certain she saw one of them move. She disregarded the idea, figuring it must have been her imagination, until it moved again, undoubtedly this time. She stared intently at the shadows on her ceiling as they began to dance, as if with joy, around her entire ceiling. She watched as the shadows cast by every object in the room joined them on the ceiling, as they all danced together. They all joined hands, ran down the wall, across the floor and into the hole in the garden, Judy looked around the room with amazement, as all of the shadows were gone! She looked back to the hole, with an inescapable urge to run into it too. She ran to her parent’s room, and found them asleep. She felt that this was worth waking them, and she approached her father’s bed. She reached out to wake him before realizing that if she did, he might not let her go. This thought frightened her, and she decided not to risk it. She wrote a note telling them what had happened and what she was doing then ran outside to the hole. As she approached it, an unearthly chill ran through her. She shook it off as a terrible idea, and headed back in the direction of her house. She felt called to the hole again, and returned to it. She changed her mind several times, as you do when making a big decision, but finally decided to go for it. She leapt into the hole. She was falling and falling, and after about ten minutes she began to doubt the intelligence of her decision. Another few minutes after that, she fell onto a soft cushion of some kind. Even before she got the chance to look around the room, she knew something felt familiar about it. She sat up and glanced about her, before realizing she had landed back in her own bed again. She looked around her room, still shaky from falling, and saw the familiar toys and objects that she loved. She looked up at the ceiling, and saw the familiar crevasses, with their shadows returned. She was scoffing at what a waste of time the endeavor was, until she realized a difference. The light outside had changed from blue to green. She didn't care about colors, so she lay back down, and slept, for by this point it was about 3:00 AM. She woke up the following morning and went to the kitchen for breakfast.
“Good morning honey! How’d you sleep?”
Judy’s mom sang, but Judy was not feeling the least bit cheerful. She had at last found a way to adventure, and it had been a fraud. She wanted to tell her mom what had happened, but was afraid that the woman who would not allow her to approach stranger’s cars would not approve of her jumping into a random pit in the backyard. She looked out the kitchen window, and saw that the hole was still there. She said in her most surprised sounding voice
“Whoa, what is that thing in your flowerbed?”
She was not the best actor, but she pulled it off and her mother rushed to the window. Her disapproving eyes turned to Judy and she said
“Don’t do that Judy!”
“Do what, mother?”
“Make things up like that!”
Judy’s eyes traveled back to the bright green pit in the center of her mother’s flowerbed in confusion. How could she not see it? Judy’s mom went back to making pancakes as Judy tried to convince her that there was something there. Eventually she gave up and ran across the street to her friend’s house. She dragged her friend over to look at the hole, but again she was confronted by oblivion. She dismissed it, and went to play with her friend. They cheerfully skipped to the park where they always played together. When they approached the field where the park was, Judy’s friend stopped short.
“What is it?”
Judy asked, prodding her friend forward.
“That is Winifred’s field, remember?”
No, Judy most certainly did not remember.
“He has threatened to kill us if we ever step foot in there!”
“Oh come on, don’t be silly!”
Judy’s friend shrieked and ran. Why was she behaving so strangely? No one ever threatened them! She turned back to the field and saw a man about 75 feet tall looming about three yards behind her. She stood staring at the man with her mouth agape. He locked eyes with her as he smiled a very sharp toothy grin. Judy just stood there shaking, petrified with fear. She snapped out of it, and ran as fast as she could. It was no use though because her legs were no use for the giant’s, and he was on her heels instantly. She shrieked
“I didn’t go in your field!”
And he thundered back
“I know, and I don’t care.”
Judy found herself being thrust upward. This was it. She finally found the adventure she was looking for, and now she was to die before it had even started. She lifted and lifted, but no teeth followed. She looked at the beast holding her, and saw to her delight that it was a griffin! Still potentially deadly, but not the giant! Suddenly the griffin released her, and she fell from several thousand feet in the air. Instead of splattering on the ground however, she landed on a squishy pillow she quickly discovered to be a cloud. She looked down, and was terrified at how incredibly high she was. She scuttled backward toward the center of the cloud, and then stood to get a better look. She saw a beautiful castle on the cloud, crawling with fairies. She shrieked with delight at the splendor of the castle. She was passed by several fairies that gave her some weird looks. One fairy grabbed a phone and called someone, staring at Judy all the while. A moment later another griffin lifted Judy, taking her inside the castle. Judy was the happiest she had ever been. The griffin dropped her again, and this time her landing was not nearly as pleasant. She groaned as she scrambled to her feet, before realizing that she was at the throne of the queen of the fairies. She bowed, but the queen did not seem pleased. The queen barked
“Why are you here?”
“What?”
“How did you get here?”
“I fell through a hole and appeared here.”
“A hole?”
“Yes”
“Did you go through alone?”
“Yes”
“Good.”
Several fairies swarmed Judy and sprayed a mist in her face. Judy began to feel sleepy as the queen continued talking.
“Could anyone else see the hole?”
Judy yawned
“No”
“What color was it glowing?”
“Blue”
Judy’s eyelids began sagging. The queen snapped her fingers and the fairies brought Judy a mat to lie on.
“You have come to our dimension uninvited. We will forsake further punishment on the grounds of that it appears to be an accident, but don't let it happen again.”
“A parallel dimension?” she mumbled unintelligibly, and then she collapsed onto the mat. She woke up with a start back in her own bedroom. She looked around and saw nothing peculiar in her room. She ran to the kitchen where her mom was making pancakes. Her mom sang out
“Good morning honey! How’d you sleep?”
She looked out the window at the beautiful, perfect garden. She said to her mom
“I had an amazing dream last night…”
She trailed off into thought, and her mom asked
“What was it?”
“I don’t remember”
Judy replied with a shrug. She looked back at the garden and noticed a small patch of flowers missing, but did not mention it for fear of being blamed. As she ate her pancakes, she looked longingly at a book sitting on the table and thought
“Nothing exciting ever happens here.”