The Red Door

by Victoria Penny

Holly did not want to move. She was ten years old and had lived her whole life in the three bedroom house on Marigold Lane with Mum, Dad and her goldfish Gilbert.

But now Dad was gone. One day Holly came home from school to find Mum crying and all Dad's stuff gone.

Where they were moving wasn't even a house. It was a flat. There was no garden with a flower bed where she could watch the bees feeding in the summer, where she could kick a football. The flat had one bedroom, so Mum said they had to share. When Holly pointed out she already shared her bedroom with Gilbert, Mum had only yelled and told her to grow up.

She was sullen in the car ride on the day of the move. Gilbert's fish bowl clutched tightly upon her lap. He seemed to stare up forlornly at her, like he didn't want to move either. Holly stuck her pinky finger beneath the surface of the water and let him suck on it. At least it cheered him up a bit.

The new flat wasn't too far from the old house, so at least she wouldn't have to move schools. Mum told her this like it was a good thing, but Holly would have rather they moved even further away. She didn't want anyone at school knowing about Dad, about how they had no money now to live properly. They would only make fun of her even more. But she didn't tell Mum this - it would only upset her and nothing would change anyway.

Mum parked the car in the near empty car park. The space next to them was filled with an old filthy mattress that stank of pee when Holly opened her car door. Scrunching up her nose, she clutched even tighter to Gilbert's fish bowl.

The building loomed above them. One of those high rises with hundreds of flats and even more people crammed inside. Holly hated heights, so Mum hadn't told her this was where they were moving. Holly stared up at the never ending building as stretched up into the clouds, her feet frozen in place. Her hands began to grow slick and she feared dropping Gilbert's bowl.

"I'm not going in there."

Mum sighed, long and tiredly. "Give it a rest, Holly."

"It's too high."

"You won't even notice once you're inside."

Maybe so, but she would know and that made all the difference.

Mum grabbed her wrist and pulled and Holly could only go with her lest she let Gilbert smash fatally to the ground. She wasn't happy about it and made sure her face showed it. Mum said nothing as they got into the lift. This also stank of pee and was covered in graffiti. Words Holly didn't know and some she did that made her giggle. Mum scowled down at her but said nothing.

Up and up they went. Holly felt her ears pop and her stomach flutter unpleasantly. Gilbert swam in circles inside his bowl, like he was trying to catch the first glimpse of their new home.

Finally, the lift stopped. Mum stepped out and Holly followed if only to get away from the smell. She followed Mum around and around too many corridors, walls and doors all the same. Peeling paint, graffitti. There were dents in some places, like someone had kicked so hard they must have sprained an ankle. Mum stopped outside flat 119 and pulled a key from her pocket.

"Welcome home!" she said cheerily as she opened the door. "It's not so bad," she added hopefully, staring down at her daughter for approval.

There wasn't much. They'd had to sell all their old furniture so were stuck with what was already here. A lumpy brown sofa and scratched coffee table. A wobbly looking kitchen table and mismatched chairs. The kitchen was a tiny, narrow thing and Holly couldn't imagine how Dad's huge bulk would fit in there to do the cooking. Then she remembered Dad was gone. It would be Mum doing all the cooking now. Fish fingers and chips and beans on toast. Mum hated proper cooking.

"It stinks," Holly stated. Not of pee this time, thankfully, but there was an old musty smell that reminded her of Gran's house when they used to visit before she died.

"We'll open a few windows, air it out," Mum said reasonably.

Holly stared at the windows but didn't dare move towards them. She could only imagine how high up they were and didn't like it one bit.

"Where's my room?"

"Our room," Mum corrected and gestured down a narrow hallway. Holly ignored this and she and Gilbert went down the hall. There were two doors. One opened into a tiny bathroom. The bath was stained a horrible yellow colour and she could see black mold on the walls and ceiling. The tap leaked, a hypnotising drip drip drip. Holly closed the door and went to the other one.

The bedroom was small. A double bed was pressed up against one wall leaving only a small gap for a person to walk through to reach the built in wardrobe. Holly sighed back tears. She wasn't even getting her own bed. She hugged Gilbert's bowl to her chest and looked down at him. He was still now, as if he too were disappointed by these new surroundings.

She would just have to tell Mum it wouldn't do. They'd have to find somewhere else. Gilbert couldn't live in these conditions!

Holly turned to storm out and do just that when she caught a flash of red from the corner of her eye.

There was a red door a little to the left of the bedroom door that Holly hadn't noticed before. Perhaps mum had made a mistake and there was a second bedroom for her after all!

Holly grinned and grabbed the bronze door knob, not noticing that it was different to the long handled bedroom and bathroom doors. She pulled and pushed but nothing happened except Gilbert's water splashed all over her hand and onto the floor. She put down his bowl, wiped her wet hand on her jeans and gripped the doorknob with both hands. She had to pull and pull until her arms ached and felt like they would come away from her shoulders.

When the red door finally sprang open, she wasn't convinced it had been her own efforts that caused it and not simply just the door taking pity on her.

Inside was darkness. Holly frowned, but she wasn’t afraid of the dark. There was always light to be found come morning.

"You stay here," she said to Gilbert and walked through the door.

She expected a dark and gloomy room. She hoped for her old bedroom back at the house on Marigold Lane, which was painted yellow and filled with all the toys and books Mum had made her get rid of before the move.

What she found was a large field of pink grass and a pale lavender sky. She could smell bubblegum.

Astonished, Holly turned back to the red door. But it wasn't there. In its place was a large tree with leaves of sparkling silver. Holly put her hand out towards the trunk, more to steady herself than from curiosity and yelped out with surprise as her hand went through it. Her skin tingled and the tree trunk shimmered and she thought she could see a glimpse of the bedroom where she had left Gilbert. Holly snatched her hand back and the tree was once again a tree.

"Cool," Holly breathed and couldn't wait to tell Mum.

"No it's not," said a voice from somewhere near her ankles, "it's perfectly warm out."

Holly jumped and looked down. There was an otter curling around her feet, staring up at her with wide, brown eyes.

"Hello," said Holly, wondering if she had gone mad. Wondering if she was dreaming and soon would wake in her bed in Marigold Lane to find Dad in the kitchen cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast.

The otter's nose twitched, its whiskers dancing. "Who are you?" it asked, in a squeaky, curious voice.

"Holly," she replied as if talking to an otter was perfectly normal. She did speak to Gilbert regularly, after all. Except... Gilbert usually didn't reply back.

"What's a Holly?"

"It's my name," she explained. "What's yours?"

The otter sniffed and stood up straight on its back legs. "I don't have one."

"I could give one, if you like," Holly offered.

"No, thank you," said the otter. "I'd rather have a fish." And off it bounced across the field of pink grass until it was out of sight.

Holly stared after it, wanting to follow, but she was afraid of getting lost, of misplacing the tree that led back to the flat. What she needed was some breadcrumbs or a long bit of string. Mum would know. Wait until she told Mum! They wouldn't have to bother with the tiny flat anymore. They could simply go through the red door and here they would be in this huge field. She wondered what else was out here, what her eyes couldn't stretch far enough to see. She wanted to find the otter and ask him more questions.

Her stomach rumbled and Holly realised it was lunch time. She grinned. This was just perfect - a picnic amongst the pink grass!

Holly turned back to the tree that wasn't really a tree. Tentatively, she stuck her hand out once again, slightly fearful that the same trick wouldn't work and she'd be stuck here with no way back. But she felt that tingling sensation again and the tree trunk shimmered. There was the dull beige bedroom on the other side. Gilbert's fish bowl was still on the floor where she had left it. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Holly stepped through.

Back in the flat, Holly checked herself to make sure nothing was amiss. All seemed well.

"Oh, Gilbert!" she cried, kneeling down to stare at him through the glass. "You won't believe where I've been. You'll really love it there. Although," she added, somewhat somberly, "the otter might try to eat you."

Mum was calling her from the living room. Holly hopped to her feet and ran through.

"Mum, Mum! Come see what I found."

But Mum wasn't interested. She was red and sweaty from hauling in their suitcases from the car.

"It's through the red door."

"What are you talking about?" Mum snapped. "Help me unpack."

"No, you have to come see," Holly insisted, grabbing her mum's hand and pulling her along the hall to the bedroom. "The sky was different and there was a talking otter and I think the grass might be bubblegum flavoured - I'll have to try when we go back."

"Holly," said Mum tiredly. She pinched the bridge of her nose in the way that told Holly she was about to get really angry. But how could she possibly be angry once she stepped through the red door? There were so many wonderful things on the other side... "There is no red door."

"W-what?" Holly gaped at the blank wall where the door had been mere moments before. Gilbert sat lonely in his goldfish bowl right where she had left him. "But it was here. I saw it. I went through it."

"Enough!" Mum shouted. "I'm sick of this nonsense, Holly. There is no red door, we're not going back to the house on Marigold Lane. This is where we live now. So come help me unpack."

Tears stung Holly's eyes but she refused to let them fall. She only nodded silently until Mum was satisfied and went back to the living room.

The red door had been there, she thought. It was real. She looked down at Gilbert, hoping he would confirm this, but as usual he said nothing. He wasn't magical like that otter had been.

What had happened to the red door?

It was Mum, she decided. Mum made it go away. Just like she made Dad go away.

For the first time since he had left, Holly let herself cry with a heart wrenching sob.