Creations

What ever is in my head, what ever I'm mulling around all day.  What ever inspires me. 

What ever I'm writing.  ..you will find here.

There was once a little girl and she lived in such a big house.  One day she saw a door she hadn't seen before.  She went through the door and saw a Merry-Go-round.  She climbed on the merry go round and the ride started.  It went faster and faster until the room blurred.  She thought maybe she should get off but she didn't know how to stop the ride.  She finally decided she was going to have to jump.  She stood at the edge and held on to a pole while she found her courage to jump.  Just as she was going to jump she saw a big red button.  She pushed it and the ride slowed down to a stop.  Fortunately, because she wasn't looking forward to jumping. 

When the ride slowed down and she climbed off, she realized the room was full of doors.  All different doors.. One was a shiny metal door and one was a wooden pink door.  There were at least 20 doors and she couldn't remember which door she came in through since she had been spinning for at least 10 minutes.  It seemed like her thoughts were still spinning.  She finally picked the pink door. 

She walked through into a bedroom w/ a big bed in the center of the room.  The room was a circle w/ windows covering all the walls.  Tapestries covered the ceiling and white blowing curtains covered all the windows. 

Out of the bathroom, connected to the bedroom, walked a rabbit w/ a towel wrapped around its head like a turban. 

The rabbit stared at her for a moment and finally squeaked

"You must be lost."

It was true.  "Yes." She answered.

"Well, then you need to find the Grand Pubah.  He'll help you find your way."

"Who's the Grand Pubah?"

"He's through that door." It pointed to a small door while it didn't directly answer her question.

"But how will I fit through that very small door?"

"Walk toward it and you will know." The rabbit answered.

The little girl looked at the door and took a step toward it.  The door didn't get any closer.  She took another step and another step and soon she realized she was walking down a long hall.  The closer she came to the door the more she realized it was a big door.  Finally she was standing up close to this very large door indeed.  She looked back at the rabbit in its bedroom which now looked very small, like a picture. 

She turned the handle on the door and the door creeeaaaakkkeeeed open.

Inside was the biggest room she had ever seen.  In the center of the room was a trampoline as big as a grassy field.  It took up most of the room.

She thought it should be fun to jump on a trampoline as big as this one.  She looked all the way to her right and she didn't see a way to climb on.  Then she looked all the way left (she had to turn her head back and forth because it was so big) and she saw a ladder .  She skipped to the ladder where a sign said

"Please remove shoes."

"Please remove shoes from what?" She thought out loud.

She looked around to see if there were shoes to be removed from something, before she realized the sign meant to remove her shoes.

She took off her shoes and stepped on the ladder.  It was tingly when she touched it.  Her feet felt "tingle tingle tingle" as she stepped up and her hands felt "tingle tingle tingle" when she pulled up to the next step.  The ladder was three times higher than she was tall and when she almost reached the top she looked down.  She was so high, she decided she wouldn't look down again.  She climbed up on the trampoline and jumped.

BOING

It was everything she imagined it would be and more.  She bounced so high again and again.

She looked up and was surprised to see shiny tinfoil stars hanging from the ceiling.  She thought if she bounced just a little harder she might be able to reach one. 

The next bounce she put a little extra oomph into it (BOOOIIIIIINGGG) and just barely touched the closest star.  She noticed it was warm on her finger as it slid out of reach and she dropped back to the trampoline.

She bounced her hardest and this time she reached the warm star.  She wrapped her fingers around it.  She expected to break the string and fall back to the trampoline w/ it, but the exact opposite happened.  The star lurched up and pulled her to the ceiling.  She held on w/ all her might, even though she knew logically, if she fell, she would only bounce.  The top of the room was much further than she expected.  The star pulled her closer and closer and suddenly she burst through and onto the roof.  It hadn't hurt as much as she thought, so after a brief check of her arms and legs, she looked around. 

The entire roof was covered w/ snow, and she saw animal tracks zigzagged in all directions.  She followed the closest cutest tracks to a little house.  It was actually an igloo.  Out of the igloo popped another little rabbit.  This one, she noticed, wore little booties on it's feet.  Only, none of the four booties were the same color.  They were pink, blue, yellow and green. 

"You're lost."  It squeaked.

"How do you know?"  She replied.

"The only time I get a visitor is when one is lost."

"Well, you're right, I am lost."  She decided.

"You need the Grande Poobah.  He'll give you what you need."  The rabbit decided.

"But, how do I find the Grande Poobah?"  The little girl wailed.

"I'll take you there.  Follow me."  The rabbit with the mismatched booties turned and hopped away. 

It was all the little girl could do to follow.  She thought it wasn't fair that she had two feet, trying to keep up w/ a rabbit w/ four feet.

The rabbit hopped, hopped, hopped until it suddenly stopped.  When the little girl caught up w/ the rabbit, she realized they were looking into a hole in the roof.  It was dark in the hole.

"Jump in if you want to find the Grande Poobah."

The little girl looked at the rabbit.

"What's down there?"

"You already know, silly."  The rabbit laughed.

"How do I know?"  She glared at the rabbit.

"It's the same room you left."

"Oh, the trampoline room."  She realized.

She sat on the edge and dangled her legs in the hole.  It wasn't easy to imagine the trampoline was there when she couldn't see it.  She knew she had to believe it was there and she could remember exactly what it looked like. 

She closed her eyes and slid off the edge of the roof. 

Shwoosh!  She heard as she fell back into the very large room.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the stars as she fell past them.  She looked down and watched the trampoline come closer and closer until she bounced up again.  On her way up, she passed the rabbit still falling down to bounce.  They passed each other, bouncing lower and lower and closer and closer to the edge until they found themselves sitting, looking for the ladder. 

The little girl stepped down the tingly ladder until she got to the bottom and found her shoes patiently waiting for her to come back and claim them. 

She was still putting her shoes on while the rabbit was hopping down another long hall.  She hopped on one foot and still pulling her last shoe on.  She realized maybe it wasn't as easy to hop, and maybe that's why the rabbit had four feet instead of two.  When she finally looked up she saw the hall was full of pictures.  All the eyes in the pictures followed them down the hall.  When they walked up to a picture they eyes looked down the hall at them and when they passed the pictures, the eyes turned and followed them.  The little girl was walking backward so she could see the eyes watching her so when she finally looked forward again, she was at the end of the hall facing three doors with large numbers on them. 

"Which door do we take?"  She asked.

"There is a puzzle to solve."  The rabbit answered.

"How do you know?"  She asked the rabbit.

"It's written above the doors."  The rabbit pointed.

"Oh."  How had she not seen the puzzle written above the doors?  She thought maybe it was because she was watching the eyes in the pictures.

"What is the loneliest number?"  She read aloud.

"Well, that's easy!"  She almost shouted.  "It's one."

"Let's try it."  The rabbit squeaked.

"Do we knock?"  She looked at the rabbit.

"No."

The little girl reached for the door and turned the handle.

Inside the room had white walls  and a white floor and a white ceiling.  There were no windows and no doors, except the door they were using.  The only thing in the room was a dog sitting in the center of the room, on the white floor.

"Um, hello."  She said.

"HELLO."  The dog boomed.

"It's the Grande Poobah, It's the Grande Poobah!"  The rabbit was squeaking and jumping.  

"You're the Grande Poobah?"  The little girl asked?

"I AM."  He boomed again.

"Grande Poobah, I'm lost and I need to find my way.  Are you the one who will give me what I need?"  She was hesitant.  What if he couldn't.  What if she was just lost w/ no help?

"I will, but what you need isn't only to find your way."  He responded, not quite as loud.

"It's not?"  She asked.

"It's not."  He responded.

"Well, what else do I need?" 

"You need a friend.  Someone who will go with you on your adventures and help you through the tougher spots."  He answered.

"I do need that."  She realized this trip would have been much easier if she wasn't so alone.  She wouldn't have had to depend on random rabbits for answers if she had a friend to go with her.

"I could be that friend for you.  The loyal companion.  You know that's the reason people call dogs 'man's best friend'."

"Only, this time you could be a little girl's best friend."  She replied.  She was getting excited. 

"Grande Poobah, will you show me the way and be my friend?"

"I will."

They walked together through the door, under the puzzle, and down the hall with the eyes watching them the other way. 

"Goodbye Grande Poobah!"  The rabbit jumped up and down, squeaking.

They walked together into the trampoline room, through one door and out the other very large door, into the hall that got smaller as they came closer to the first rabbits bedroom. 

"You know."  the little girl said.  "Grande Poobah is just too long to say every time."

"Hi Grande Poobah."  The rabbit said w/ the towel still on it's head.

"See what I mean."  The little girl continued.  "I think I'll call you 'Poobah' for short."

"Sounds good to me."  The Grande Poobah answered as they stepped into the Merry-go-round room.

"We'll have to remember where that door is, in case we want to ride the merry-go-round again."  She remarked.

"Don't worry, w/ two of us, it will be easier to remember."  Poobah decided.

The little girl stepped through the door, back into the familiar part of her home, w/ her new friend.

One day the little girl was getting ready for school.  She was in the living room, ready to put her shoes on when she said to Poobah, her dog:

"Wait, I need socks." She looked around on the couch, but she didn't have any.

"Didn't you say last night you needed to remember socks?" Poobah reminded her.

"Oh yeah, they're still on the washing machine in the basement."  She remembered.

"But I don't want to go down there by myself."  She looked at Poobah. "Will you go with me, please?"

"Of course.  I wouldn't be 'little girl's best friend', if I didn't."  He agreed.

They walked around to the back of the couch and looked down the stairs into the basement.

The stairs were spiral and circled around three times to the basement floor. 

A skylight poured sunlight across the spiral stairs. 

"It's always not as dark as I imagine."  The little girl said.  Poobah agreed.

Down the stairs they went around and around.  When they came to the third and last curve in the spiral stairs, the little girl Pointed.

"Poobah look!  There's a play park down here!"

Tucked in the corner, away from the main section of the basement, there was a two story play area.

They ran down the last curve of the stairs and toward the play area.  It had steps up to the top level and two slides back down to the lower level. 

Pubah was looking at a funnel with a pipe leading upward. 

"Do you think this connects to another one up there so we can talk to each other?"  He asked.

"I'll go see."  She climbed the stairs while he waited.

"Pubah."  he heard through the pipe.

"It works!"  he answered back through the pipe.

"I'm going to go down the slide."  her voice came through again.

Poobah went to see which slide she would choose.

At the upper level she looked down both slides.  Did she feel more like a loopy tunnel slide or a straight shot flat slide.  Since she just came down the spiral staircase, she decided on the straight shot flat fast slide.  She sat on the edge and prepared herself to let go.  She saw Pubah was looking into the tunnel, so she let go before he had the chance to look up to see her. 

She flew so fast and then burst onto the bouncy lower level and took Pubah by surprise, just as she hoped she would.

"I really thought you would take the tunnel slide."  He said while they got back on their feet.

"But I didn't."  She laughed.

"I want to keep playing, but I have to go to the restroom."  She thought out loud.

"Well, let's go find one.  Then we can look for your socks too."

"Right," she answered. "We can always come back here later.  We live here."

They walked around the back of the stairs into a hallway with doors on the right.  They walked to the first door and opened it. 

This room was brightly lit and full of balloons.  It looked like three or four layers of balloons of all colors covered the floor and so many balloons of all the same colors full of helium covered every inch of the ceiling.  The helium balloons had ribbons streaming down halfway from the top.  The air moving from the door opening blew the balloons and they made that wonderful balloon sound "rub rub".

"Well, that's not the restroom."  Pubah announced the obvious.

"Oh my goodness Pubah, we have to come right back here after we find it."

"Well, of course we do.  We can't miss out on a balloon room."  He answered.

So they closed the door and continued to the next door.

When they opened that door, they saw what they were looking for. 

"I'll wait out here."  Poobah decided.

When she finished washing her hands and drying them, she came out to find Poobah exactly where she left him. 

"Ready?"  he asked

"Ready."  She stated

They ran the two steps back to the door to the balloon room and burst open the door.

It was dark. 

"I don't remember turning off the light."  She reached out for the switch, but all she felt was the edge of the door.  She couldn't feel the wall that should have been right there.

Poobah stepped in and his front feet fell into what should have been the floor, but wasn't.

The little girl grabbed him by his back legs and pulled him back into the hall. 

"That was close."  She said

"And weird."  He answered.

"What happened to the balloons?"  She asked

"Or the floor?"  He asked.

They closed the door and looked around.  The hall looked exactly the same as it had just a few moments before.  They saw the spiral staircase on one side and the restroom door just next to them on the other side.

"Look!"  Pubah was closer to the ground so he was the first to see the light suddenly coming through under the door.

"Well, should we open it again?"  she wondered.

"Let's!"  he answered.

This time they opened the door a lot slower, and they could tell right away the darkness was gone.   

They looked inside and Poobah put one foot forward to test the floor.  It was the balloon room again!

They probably should have used more caution, or maybe walked away from the room entirely, but the balloons were making that glorious sound and all the little girl wanted to do was go into that room. 

So they did.  They ran in and jumped right into the middle of the balloons covering the floor.  There were so many balloons that when they popped there were more balloons under those and the little girl and Poobah never reached the floor.  It was like playing in a ball pit only instead of hard balls, they were trying to reach each other through bright squishy balloons.  Poobah was jumping up and grabbing the helium balloon strings with his teeth and the little girl was building a tower in the corner, but neither of them was having much success at it as much as they were having fun just trying.  Finally they were both exhausted and collapsed in the center of the room.

"Don't forget your socks."  Pubah reminded her.

"Oh yeah.  Let me catch my breath and we'll go find them."  she replied.

After a minute she mustered up her energy and practically swam toward the door with Poobah following her.

"What a strange room."  He thought out loud.

They walked through the door and shut it behind them.

"I wonder."  She looked back at the closed door.

"if the balloons are still there?"  He finished her question.

This time when she pulled the door open again, they weren't as surprised to see the darkness before they both pushed it shut and turned to look down the hall.

They walked past the restroom door and looked around the curve in the hall to see what was ahead.

The first thing they saw, on the left again, was a dark window.  It was tinted like cars have dark windows and it covered the wall from the ceiling to the floor.  They had to cup their hands around their eyes to see inside the window it was so dark.

Inside they saw couches lined, front to back, slanted sideways, across the window view. The couches were facing a big movie screen and on the screen, "Finding Nemo" was playing.

"Oh Poobah! We have got to go in there!"

They bounded to the door and burst in to the quiet room.

For a moment, they stood still, taking in the room. The movie sound was down, so Dory was quietly shouting her excitement at remembering the address to find Nemo. The walls were red and the couches were black. On the first couch in front of the screen, was a big bag of popcorn. The little girl and Poobah jumped up on the couch and started munching on popcorn. They forgot the socks or even school until the whole bag of popcorn was completely gone. By then, they'd watched a good part of the movie and were completely engrossed in it.

"I don't want to miss the end of the movie, but I have to find my socks for school."

"This is more fun than finding socks, but we have to do the right thing." Poobah reminded her.

"I'd rather stay here with you." She tried one more time.

"I'll always be here, even after you come home from school. Then we can watch the movie, or whatever we want."

She looked at him. "Okay. Let's go find my socks." She decided.

After one last look at the movie, they walked out the door, back into the basement hall.

They walked past the movie room and around the corner to a sight they didn't at all expect.

Ahead of them at the end of the hall was a big sunlit racquetball court. The little girl pulled on the glass door and they walked into the bright light. In the corner were two rackets and a blue bouncy ball.

"Have you ever played this game?" Her voice echoed when she asked him.

"No, have you?" He echoed back.

She picked up the ball and a racket.

"Are we supposed to hit this to each other or at the wall?" She wondered.

"Well, I don't know how we are supposed to play, but you are going to have to hit it to the wall." He showed her his paws. "..No opposable thumbs."

"Hmm, you know, you're right.

"Of course I'm right. I am the Grande Poobah." He reminded her.

"Oh yeah, that's right."

The day they met, she told him 'Grande Poobah' was too long to say every time, so she shortened his nickname to just 'Poobah' to make it easier.

"Okay, let's see how this works." she said as she bounced the ball and swung her racket.

The racket hit the ball and the ball hit the wall before it bounced back. But then it was gone.

"Where'd it go?" She looked around.

"mumble mumble." Poobah answered.

She looked straight at Poobah to see he had caught the ball in his mouth!

"Poobah! You weren't supposed to catch it!" She got down on her knees and reached in his mouth to grab the ball.

"Ew. now it's all slobbery."

"I'm sorry; I wanted to play too."

"Well, we'll just have to find a game we can both play." She decided.

"After school." He finished her sentence.

"Oh yeah, socks." She remembered.

They left the rackets and the slobbery ball in the corner and walked back through the glass door into the hall.

Next to the racquetball court, on the right, was an open door to the laundry room.

"We found it!" They both shouted.

Inside, on the washing machine, under the glowing florescent light, they saw the rolled up ball of newly cleaned socks.

"My socks!" She yelled and she picked them up and hugged them like an old friend.

"Finally we can go back upstairs and get you ready for school." Poobah stated.

"That sounds like a good idea to me." She agreed.

The two walked back out into the hall, past the racquetball court, around the corner, past the movie room, around another corner, past the restroom and the balloon room (they thought they might have seen the crack under the door change from darkness to a sudden bright light), to the spiral stairs.

When they reached the stairs, they both looked longingly at the double decker play park.

"I suppose a few more minutes couldn't hurt. Poobah thought out loud. Even he couldn't resist the lure of the underground play park.

When they reached the bottom of the slides, Poobah noticed a lever they hadn't seen before.

"I wonder what this does."

"What?" She asked and came around to see.

"It's a switch for something." He answered.

"Should I push it?" She asked him.

"Um, it can't be too dangerous. After all this is a playground." He debated. "Okay push it."

So she did.

After all the surprises they already had received that morning, they didn't know what to expect. The little girl thought maybe the button might turn the play park into water slides. That would be so fun, she thought, even though she would have to change into dry clothes before the bus came.

That was not what happened at all. As soon as she pushed it, the floor opened up to a third level to the play park, with stairs leading down, right in front of them.

They stepped down onto the stairs without even wondering if they should. The new set of stairs took them into an observation room with a periscope hanging down in the center. The curious little girl peered inside.

"I can see the back yard!"

"Really!" Poobah asked.

"Yeah, I see the pool and" She swiveled the periscope around. "A tree house and a swing set! Take a look!"

Poobah stood up on his hind legs and put his front paws on the handles. He looked in the lens to see the back yard.

"Wow! That looks like a lot of fun."

"Oh Poobah, lets go there now." She pleaded.

"But what about school?" He asked.

"Oh yeah. How do I keep forgetting that?" She wondered.

"How about we go there right after you get back." He suggested.

"Okay." She consented.

By then they had a little more time to look around the secret room. The walls were covered with video screens. The screens showed all over the house. One screen showed the living room, where they could see her little shoes waiting for her. Another screen showed the same view as the periscope. One screen showed the kitchen and another showed the merry-go-round, motionless, waiting for a passenger. The screen that caught the little girl's attention, though, was an under water scene.

"Do you think that's looking inside the pool?" She asked.

"It must be. That's the only place here with that much water." He answered.

"Wow." The lights moving through the water was relaxing and distracting at the same time, to the point she almost forgot where she was.

"Remember you need to catch your bus." Poobah reminded her.

All she heard him say was "...bus." but that was all she needed.

"Oh yeah. Let's go before I forget again." She announced.

She turned and marched up the stairs, with Poobah right behind her.

They came out of the secret room to the basement floor and climbed the spiral stairs to the living room.

Finally, she got her socks and shoes on and Poobah walked her to the door.

She looked at him. "I will miss you all day."

"I'll miss you too, but don't worry. I'll be here waiting when you get back. I'll always wait for you." He reassured her.

"And I'll always come back." She responded.

"Goodbye little girl."

"Goodbye little girl's best friend."