Archie

It was so terribly cold. The snow was falling and it was almost dark. Tabitha closed the door of her old yellow mini and walked up the frozen path to her parent’s house. Tabitha was 23 years old. She had a mass of red hair that was always piled high on top of her head, swamping her tiny frame.

Tabitha had lived in Broughton her whole life, only moving a few miles away from her parents after finishing university. She had inherited her cottage from her beloved grandmother and it was a perfect 2 up, 2 down stone cottage in a row of 3.

She arrived on the doorstep, her blue fingers brushing show off her coat. She couldn’t believe that she was finally going to release Archie. After all these years, he would be free.

“Tabitha!” her mother exclaimed and threw her arms around her. Tabitha wriggled into her mother’s warm embrace.

“Hi mum” she said.

“Tabitha!” her father’s voice boomed down the hallway.

“Tabitha is half frozen Frank! Poor little love. It’s that car love. Are your heaters working?”

“Yes mum it isn’t the car. It’s minus 4 outside. It’s mid-winter”.

Tabitha unravelled herself and headed towards the large open fire in the living room. Although she loved the idea of being independent and having her own space. She always felt so at home at her parent’s house. The walls were lined with books. Large colourful rugs were placed onto the old wooden floors and an enormous oak table sat at a large window overlooking the countryside. 

The large table was where Tabitha had spent most of her childhood. Making up stories and illustrating them. Her father was an Artist and her mother an English Literature Teacher and Tabitha had inherited both of their talents in equal measures.  What her parents didn’t know was that she had also inherited a talent from her Grandmother. She had kept it a secret since she was a little girl.

Turning around in room she took in the smells of the beef stew cooking on the old stove. Her fingers began to thaw as she warmed them up by the fire. She wasn’t sure whether Archie was still where she left him and she felt the familiar combination of butterfly’s and excitement in the pit off her tummy. 

Tabitha’s parents seemed occupied in the kitchen so she took her opportunity. It had been some time since she had ventured into her loft bedroom. Her parents hadn’t moved a thing. It was wonderful to be able to return to her old room whenever she felt like it.

Tabitha carefully opened the large bedroom door and peered across the room. There in the corner was the old trunk. It was still fastened tightly and covered in dust. The trunk had been there for years. She had never been able to open it or attempt to release what was inside but finally she had been given the link to the channel of the other realm.

“Archie?” she whispered.

Silence

“Archie are you there?”

She turned disappointedly back out onto the landing and then she heard it. The familiar rumbling. It was impossible not to recognise the shuffling and snorting coming from her room. She span on her heels and went back into the bedroom.

“Archie?” she said, a little louder this time.

She walked over to the trunk and there in the darkness she spotted a blinking eye peering through the old crack in the leather straps of the case. 

She leapt over the trunk and unbuckled the top and was completely trampled over by an enormous green creature. 

“Tabitha!” the creature cried. “You’re back!” 

Before she knew it, Tabitha was bowled over and swept up into the large arms of the green creature.

“Archie put me down” she giggled. 

Tabitha’s Grandmother was a fiction writer. She had written many unpublished books and they had spent hours writing stories and creating wild characters together at the old oak table by the window.

On her 8^th birthday her Grandmother revealed that she was part of sisterhood that had created characters and written them into stories for another realm. Only a selected few were part of this sisterhood. Her Grandmother intrusted her with this secret and she was unable to tell a soul. 

Archie was created by Tabitha when she was 11. However, he didn’t quite make it into the realm. In fact, Tabitha poured so much mischief into this character that he absconded on an adventure in our world until he was finally tracked down by her Grandmother with an old trunk where he had been living for many years since.

Tabitha had made her journey to her parents that evening because she felt with was time. It wasn’t fair on Archie to continue to live in an old trunk so Tabitha had contacted a member of the sisterhood and they had provided her with the language to open the other realm and release Archie into his story with the other characters.

“bouncy bouncy bouncy” said Archie as he jumped up and down on Tabitha’s old bed.

“Archie stop! Mother will hear us and I need to sneak you out of the house unnoticed” hissed Tabitha.

“Sozzy Tabby” said Archie and he slid off the bed and onto the floor like a large green rug.

Tabitha had no idea how she was going to get Archie from her bedroom and into her car unnoticed. Her parents were not aware that Tabitha even knew about the alternative realm, let alone had an absconded character hidden in her bedroom. She turned to look at Archie and he grinned a toothy grin. 

“Archie happy” he said, and Tabitha giggled.

Downstairs her parents were organising dinner at the table. The house smelt of homemade stew and the fire was roaring. There was a gentle snore coming from under the table where their old dog led snoozing. Tabitha yawned and found a place at the table. She really didn’t want to have to leave that evening, the snow was falling heavily now and she was so cosy.

“What are your plans tonight Tabitha?” dad asked, as he ladled stew into a large bowl.

“I need to head off after dinner” she replied, “I was thinking of taking my old trunk with me”.

“That big old trunk in your bedroom, covered in dust?”

“Yes, I think it would be really useful for keeping my books safe”

“Don’t you have a book shelf for that?”

“Well yes dad I do but I wanted to keep some from getting dusty” said Tabitha, feeling pleased with her idea.

“Ok well if you insist… I’ll go up and bring it down for you” said Dad, making his way across the living room.

“NO!” shouted Tabitha. Her mother dropping bread rolls into the sink and her dad banging his head on a low beam. “I can do it myself thank you. Please let’s eat together.”

Her dad made his way back to the table and they settled into comfortable silence.

As Tabitha spooned the delicious stew into her mouth, she saw a shadow dart across the window. She stopped mid spoonful and her stomach sank. “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is”, she thought. As she placed the spoon back into the bowl she saw it again. A large shadow doing star jumps in the garden. 

“I need to leave now” said Tabitha. I forgot that I have a deadline. For work. I need to head off and make a start. Thank you for dinner!” she said backing out through the hallway towards the front door.

“What about your trunk!?” Her mum shouted.

“Another time!” she replied and bundled out of the door.

“Archie! Where are you?” she whispered across the lawn. The snow was falling really heavily now and she could barely make out the shape of the fencing. 

“Weeeeeeeeeeee!”

Archie appeared out of nowhere. He had shaped himself into a large sleigh and was skidding across the lawn. Tabitha slid all over the place trying to catch up him. It was impossible to keep up with him. Why hadn’t she asked the Sisterhood to help her? How did she think she would be able to do this on her own?

“Archie. You need to join your friends” she yelled across the field.

“Tabby is my friend!” Archie shouted back from his position in the snow, making patterns with his enormous green coat.

Archie was developed from a large green scribble that Tabitha had drawn whilst day dreaming. She had been feeling restless and mischievous herself and somehow these feelings had poured into the picture. This is exactly how her Grandmother had taught her to create characters. However, on this occasion Tabitha had forgotten to close her drawing book before she went to bed. When she returned the next morning, the page was blank and the house was turned upside down.

“Archie please!” she shouted. “We need to get you back into my book!”

As she ran across the field she heard her father shouting after her “Tabitha what’s going on?!”  

“Yikes” Archie said and hid under the snow.

“Umm, I’m just having a run dad. I need to get some exercise!”

“But Tabitha it’s a blizzard out here! And you forgot your drawing book!”

Tabitha ran back to her dad and grabbed the book. She headed across the field with the book wide open. It was worth a try. Archie turned and headed up into the woods. She started saying the words that the sisterhood had told her and Archie began to slow down. As she started to get closer, she knelt in front of a tree and pointed the pages directly at Archie. Slowly but surely Archie because to slide backwards towards the pages. 

“I’m sorry Archie. It is for the best” she said as her eyes began to well up.

Archie scrambled began to change shape. He looked like a green whirlwind as he moved closer and closer to the pages of the open book. After a final gasp, he shot into the pages and Tabitha close the book. She sank into the snow, her knees red raw from the cold and her hands blue.

“Tabitha what are you doing?” Dad had caught her up.

“I just needed to check some of the pictures I had drawn dad”, she replied.

“Oh we have all of your pictures hang up in the spare bedroom”, her dad exclaimed, “We found lots of pictures in your drawing books so we decided to display them”.

Tabitha suddenly felt very hot. 

“ALL of my pictures are out of my books?” she said.

“That’s right” her dad smiled, “we have a huge display, we are very proud!”