Sally and Ronnie's BIG Adventure
by Vaughan Patrick
Copyright 2011 Vaughan Patrick
SALLY & RONNIE’S BIG ADVENTURE
PART 1
Once upon a time there were two children who lived in a big house with their Mummy, Daddy and a cat called Rufus. Sally was 9 and had long brown hair which reached to her waist while Ronnie was 7 and wore a super-hero costume all the time, even when he went to bed. Their house didn’t have a very big garden and what little room there was had been taken up with a garden shed, (where their Daddy kept his lawn mower) and neat garden beds where Mummy grew all sorts of plants which she was always either weeding or watering. Sally liked to ride her bike but there wasn’t nearly enough room for that in the garden. Ronnie liked to kick his football but he couldn’t do this in the garden either because when he did, the ball went into the flowerbeds all the time, despite Ronnie being pretty good at football. The only one who could play happily in the garden was Rufus the cat! Sometimes they would see him stalking butterflies but mostly he would curl up and go to sleep in one of the many plant-pots.
On weekends, when they were not at school Sally and Ronnie used to play with their toys. Their favorite toy was their D.S. game but Mummy would only let them play with them for a limited time. ‘You’ll ruin your eyes!’ she would tell them, but when she was out shopping their Daddy used to let them play with with their D.S’s all the time. Their Mummy much preferred them to make things and the shelves around the house were covered in all the lovely things that they had made. Ronnie would sit at their craft table and make cars and rockets out of cardboard which he would paint with bright colours, while Sally enjoyed making things from clay which she would also paint once they had dried and gone hard.
Sally and Ronnie were two ordinary children living ordinary lives in an ordinary street. So it was quite remarkable to everyone that they would have such an extraordinary adventure and no one was more surprised than Sally and Ronnie themselves.
I guess you are wondering how it all started? Well, it was a very ordinary day (much like today really). Mummy was kneeling in the garden weeding as usual. She was being helped by Rufus who kept digging little holes in the newly weeded dirt before racing around in circles chasing his tail. Daddy was sitting on the couch watching a football game on the television. As he stared at the big screen he would occasionally put some chips in his mouth and you could hear him crunch them all over the house. Sally and Ronnie were bored and were looking for something exciting to do.
‘Why don’t we visit the wood?’ Sally whispered to Ronnie.
The wood was a forrest of trees that sat beyond the fence at the bottom of their garden. They sometimes visited the wood with their Daddy looking for mushrooms, but they were not allowed to got into the wood on their own in case they got lost.
‘I think Mummy and Daddy would be cross if we went on our own.’ said Ronnie.
‘Well you can stay here then!’ Sally said taking an apple from the kitchen bench and heading into the garden.
‘I’m coming, I’m coming’ Ronnie said running after her, his cape flapping behind him.
They walked past Mummy who was so busy looking for weeds she never noticed them. Rufus the cat did notice them but just looked at them with his head on one side before giving himself a good scratch. When they got to the garden shed Sally walked between the shed and the fence to where there was some timber boards missing. ‘Come on’ she said to Ronnie before disappearing through the gap in the fence. Ronnie scrambled after her. He was a little bit afraid but he didn’t want to miss out on any adventure that Sally might have.
Once through the gap in the fence they needed to climb through quite a thick cluster of bushes and small trees before finding the walking path that they had sometimes walked along with their Daddy. Sally was the first onto the path and she stood picking leaves and twigs off her hair and clothes as she waited for Ronnie to pull himself through.
As Ronnie emerged from the thicket Sally took his hand, ‘We should keep our eyes out for mushrooms. Wouldn’t Daddy be surprised if we came home with a bag full of big juicy mushrooms?’
The path was quite narrow and weaved between the trees on either side. In some areas of the wood the trees were so close together that the sun had trouble getting through. They walked along looking for somewhere that mushrooms might grow but didn’t see any. They did hear birds singing and they even saw a rabbit. It suddenly appeared in front of them, stopped in the middle of the path, looked at them and then without taking its eyes off the two children rubbed its face with both its paws before hopping off into the undergrowth and disappearing!
Ronnie had picked up a long stick and as they walked along the path he flicked it at the bushes on his side of the path. He was getting a bit bored of the wood, he wanted an adventure and yet here he was looking for silly mushrooms which he didn’t even like. He thought about turning back but he was a bit frightened of being on his own so he decided he’d stick with Sally who knew lots of things and wouldn’t get them lost.
Suddenly the path entered a large open space. The big trees around this circle of grass were wide enough apart that the sun was able to light up the whole area such that it was much brighter than the path they’d entered by. They both had to shade their eyes from the brightness as they looked around the circle. Apart from lush green grass the circle also had a number of large stones that were equally spaced and were as tall as Ronnie and smooth on each side. The stones were very similar in shape, not identical in size but certainly the same shape. However, what Sally and Ronnie noticed most of all were the mushrooms! There were hundreds of them! So many of them that as they walked around the circle they had to be careful to not tread on them.
‘Wow’ said Sally, ‘Have you ever seen so many mushrooms?’ And she immediately started to pick them and carefully place them in her bag. (She went everywhere with her Barbie backpack which at the moment only held the apple she’d taken from the kitchen).
Ronnie also started to pick mushrooms although he wasn’t as careful as Sally. He specifically went around looking for the BIGGEST mushrooms and as he found each one he’d call to Sally “Look at this one, it’s a giant!’
They very soon had filled Sally’s bag. ‘Lets go home and show Mummy and Daddy how clever we’ve been. They can have these for dinner tonight.’
‘Ugh, Yuk!’ said Ronnie who hated mushrooms.
As Sally carefully lifted the bag onto her back and took hold of of her brother’s hand, she looked around for the path that they’d come along. As she stood and looked she saw that there were a number of paths that led into the clearing. Which one had they taken?
‘Lets go’ said Ronnie pulling on her hand.
‘No wait, we need to take the right path.’ She looked this way and that way but they all looked very similar. As she began to walk towards the path that she thought was the right one she saw another that also looked like the right one. As she dithered Ronnie began to get frightened.
‘Come on’ he said, ‘it’s starting to get dark and I’m hungry.’ He didn’t want to admit to Sally that he was scared but he hung onto her hand very tightly.
Sally, who was a very sensible girl and wanted to reassure her little brother said, ‘Look, you sit and eat the apple while I look at each of the pathways. I’m sure I can find the right one.’
Ronnie sat beneath one of the large trees and began eating the apple. From this place he watched Sally as she went around the circle looking down each of the six pathways trying to decide which one they had arrived on. It was very quiet. He heard only the odd bird singing in the distance and above his head the gentle rustling of the leaves. He was about to
take another bite of the apple when he thought he heard a voice.
‘Help me’ the tiny voice said, ‘Please help me.’
Ronnie looked around but he couldn’t see anyone. He stood up and looked around the base of the tree.
‘Help’ the tiny voice said again.
Ronnie stepped closer to the tree and looked around it. What he saw made him drop his apple and fall back onto his bottom in complete surprise!
‘Help me’ the tiny voice said to him.
He immediately jumped up and raced over to Sally. ‘Sally, come quickly, you won’t believe what I’ve found!’
Sally was still trying to decide the right path but Ronnie grabbed her hand and pulled her with all his strength to follow him.
‘All right, all right I’m coming.’ And she followed her excited brother over to the tree where the half eaten apple lay on the grass.
As they got closer to the tree Ronnie got behind her and pushed her to look around the back of it.
‘Its not anything horrible is it’ said Sally who knew that Ronnie was always looking for things that would make Sally scream and run away.
Ronnie pushed her forward, ‘No, go on and look, go on’ he said giving her one final push.
As Sally slowly looked behind the tree she heard the tiny voice ‘Help me. Please help me.’ Her mouth dropped open she was so surprised. She was so surprised that she forgot that she couldn’t find the right path! She was MORE surprised that she had every been in her WHOLE LIFE!!!
Standing no higher than the length of her hand was a FAIRY!
What would you do if you found a fairy in trouble?