The Gift Revealed

During Carry’s after-breakfast nap she dreamed of sandy adventures and a dazzling silver castle. Within its grounds, a little girl skipped in a pink rose garden, with a laughing Queen whose golden hair gleamed in the desert sun.

Carry still felt full, stretched and did some yoga, then explored her new home until she reached the unlit attic floor. Clicking on the light switch that remained dark, she put on her phone torch. A gold ornate key was on a hook outside the room. Carry took it and unlocked the room, which smelled of sand and seas.

A light in the corner of the room caught Carry's attention. Carry found a painting was the source of a bright light after removing an old cloth covering it.

Carry felt the gaze of the woman in the painting. Moving to its side, Carry noticed the beam was brighter. The light of a bright desert day greeted her and drew her in.

Carry found two crayons in her pocket as she looked into her left hand, then up at the strong desert blue sky.

"Hello there, have you come for tea?" Asked a blonde haired girl in a nineteenth century, high neckline ankle length white floral summer dress.

"Why yes," smiled Carry, thinking she was dreaming.

"My mummy and I live here, and we will live this way forever. I don't mind that I'll never grow up, because my mummy will never die here. I couldn't finish drawing my daddy before the accident, so I drew his face on a worm sitting on a big red apple in the silver palace orchard," she turned and stopped, "My mummy's castle is that big silver one by that oasis. The locals think we aren't here, so refuse my offer of tea and sadly perish. But I redraw them back to life with my special crayons my daddy got me the day it all changed.”

An elegant blonde woman with rose coloured lips was moving near them at the tip of the Silver palace gardens.

"Have you come for tea?"

."Yes, Your Majesty, I have," Carry curtseyed

"Where have you floated from, you don't look local to here?"

"Mummy, we shouldn't ask in case your hands tremble again."

"Silly mummy, of course I shouldn't ask. Well, give me a vague reply then," waving her hand in a circle.

"From over there and through a canvas, your Majesty," bowed Carry this time.

"As I prefer your bow to your awkward curtsey, do the bow instead from now on."

A lavish tea with thin sandwiches and tiny cakes of pink and yellow were served on rose painted plates.

"A glass of fizz for our guest," commanded the Queen, clapping her hands, "you will stay for dinner." She declared, pointing a bony finger at Carry.

A blonde haired maid glared at Carry as she served her fizz in a beautiful champagne flute with a gold eight point fleur de Lys pattern.

Carry wondered if she would wake up soon, as she sipped it and found it was cream soda. Feeling uneasy, Carry drank down the cream soda, and then she stood up and bowed.

"Why do all our guests feel the need to leave so suddenly?"sighed the Queen in mock sadness, "I know, we could chase you away, so you come back tomorrow?"

"Mummy, are you getting too excited? Say goodbye to the nice lady and come and rest."

"Oh very well, I do get tired, even here, you know, but at least it never rains here."

Something was wrong, and Carry felt herself stumbling out of the silver castle towards the door in the sand. The crayons glow in the sand, led Carry to believe it was canvas, so she drew a door and handle. The door clicked open. In front of her was sand up to the door threshold, and beyond that a wooden floorboard.

"Miss Stevenson, are you about?" called an echo from downstairs. It was Mrs.Minty.

Stepping across the threshold, shaking the sand from her boots, Carry looked at the painting of a sleeping Queen in her bed. Relieved the Queen was asleep, Carry covered the painting and locked the attic room, knowing she will be back.

"Coming Mrs. Minty," sneezed Carry.

"Oh dear ‘ave you been in that draughty room at the top of the ‘ouse, they should brick that up, you know, so many have caught Tuberculosis going up there. Fortunately, in this day and age you can be cured, so I put the gold key back on the hook yesterday."

Carry went numb and was ill in bed for three days. The local doctor gave her a Tuberculosis shot and she recovered. Three days later, Carry unlocked the attic door with the golden key, and relocked it from the inside.

“Oh hello, are you here for tea? Emelia asked again.

“Why yes, how about a picnic? But we don’t need to worry your mummy today, do we?”

“ If she cut those off it would be quite hard for me to redraw my ears even with a mirror in front of me.”

“Nice lady, are you getting crafty? Mummy is tending her pink roses today. She loves her roses and often teases daddy worm with the thorns until he disappears. Mummy laughs, but some days it gets upsetting. Particularly if she decides my hair is too long and cuts it all off. I wait until she cries and falls asleep, then I redraw my hair. The sound of the scissors near my ears is alarming, you know. If she cut those off it would be quite hard for me to redraw my ears even with a mirror in front of me.”

“Yes, I can imagine your distress,” Carry had to think of a way to find out if this little girl was real and from her world, and if she would come and stay for a little holiday. Carry felt that if Emelia could be in the real world for a while, some of this unusual behaviour from her mother, the Queen, would be less palatable to the girl.

“Sanders, go make a picnic for two and bring it here, without disturbing mummy in her rose garden because she has the big pruning shears today, and you want to keep all your fingers? Remember last time?”

“Yes, of course, Princess Emelia. How about treacle sandwiches with peanut butter, and pink and yellow mini cakes? We all have to watch our waistline.” The butler giggled, with pink lipstick on and red heels, his black trousers rolled up to his knees wearing a collar and lead.

“Mummy says I am not allowed a puppy because they are too noisy and smelly, so Sanders has to pretend to be my puppy, don’t you Sanders?”

“Yes dear Princess, I love my new tail and brown nose you drew on for me yesterday, though the red court shoes make my feet ache.”

“Er excuse me.”

Carry looked around and couldn’t see who was speaking to her.

"Don't be boring, daddy worm or mummy will make me draw a zip on your mouth again." Scolded Emelia at a rainbow worm sitting on an apple chewing a leaf.

“Yes, I will be careful. Those zip marks ached for days until you properly rubbed them off and put a smooth smile back on my face.”

“You will make mummy cross, you know how she gets. It's upsetting for me to have to zip my own daddy worm's mouth shut, you know.” Emelia sniffed and a tear dropped onto her cheek, just as servants arrived with chairs, a table and a picnic hamper.

“Here we are Princess Emelia, come with all your favourites.”

“Princess Emelia, do you ever go on holiday, many royalty do you know?” quizzed Carry.

 "I sometimes thought about visiting my old room. So we can now go for a short visit if you like, but I have to be back before bedtime, or mummy goes in a rage and gets the giant shears out. It's not pretty clean up afterwards, nice lady, I can tell you. It would be nice not to worry about everyone here for a while and be a little girl again, rather than a princess with staff to protect from mummy. I mean to manage with mummy.

“Let’s eat up while chatting to your daddy, then we can be on our way.” Carry moved her eyes to the rainbow worm to see how the colours blended. 

“Good idea, but let’s walk and drink just in case mummy comes, she can’t go into the desert, no one I have drawn can, or they start melting into the sand. I don’t because I come from Portrait House. Is Mrs. Bunty still the Housekeeper?”

No, her daughter Mrs. Minty is Housekeeper for me.”

Oh so you own our house now, did you paint over my mummy’s pretty drawings from when she was a little girl?”

“No, I love drawing, so I decided to keep everyone.”

“So you are a nice lady for real then. Can we have beef stew and dumplings for dinner tonight? Sanders doesn’t know how to make it, because he comes from south of the desert, where they make a big pot of cinnamon flavoured meat. All delicious, but not quite beef stew as I know it.”

“I know there are some, so that should be fine," replied Carry.

“Every few years I creep downstairs at Portrait House and take a magazine to see the news and fashion styles. That’s how I could draw those nice red shoes for Sanders, plus a dog collar and lead from the for-sale section I read.”

Erm excuse me, can I talk to you now while Emelia pours tea before it gets cold?”

“Oh daddy worm, why didn’t you tell me the tea was getting cold? I do like my tea steaming.” groaned Emelia, copying her mummy’s weird tone.

Daddy worm told Carry the story of how he started life as a man, banged his head on a stone floor, and ended up as a daddy worm. Carry couldn’t help laughing, forgetting the Queen had sharp ears.

“Emelia’s mummy was…” began daddy worm.

“Quieter daddy worm, mummy has the shears today and may shrink your length until I can draw you back in again.”

“Quite right my daughter, well Emelia’s mummy caught Tuberculosis when we went on a family holiday and was sick with a small cough for years. I went searching for the special crayons for Emelia to draw us a new crayon world just in case her mummy did get too sick to stay in the real world. She took a whole day drawing the beauty of her mummy but forgot to put kindness in her heart or compassion. Her actual mother who is at bridge-end with me these days was both kind and compassionate. Sweet Emelia didn’t know about those things then. But has since learned the painful truth about what happens when they are missing from a person.”

“Do excuse me, Emelia's daddy worm, but erm, what is bridge-end?”

“Where our real bodies are, but don’t ask anymore, as we don’t want the Queen to hear.”

“Hear what?” The silver Queen was moving quickly towards them, with shears in her hand glaring at daddy worm.

“Go my dear, enjoy your beef stew.” whispered daddy worn, bouncing off the apple leaf onto the face of the Queen to distract her.

Carry took a chance and grabbed Emelia’s pale hand, pulling her to her feet to escape the palace orchards, through the sand dunes to the invisible door leading to the attic.

The screams of the Queen in a rage, and the sounds of shears snipping, echoed over the sand dunes as they ran. Slowing down, Emelia opened up her rainbow coloured notebook and firmly spoke, “Crayon remake this and that quick, we are in a spot we are in a jam split,”

The crayon lit up and something grew from the notebook. It was a living silver winged horse, and Emelia commanded it to fly them to the invisible door.

“I have done this before when mummy was in a rage, and I do not want to redraw my hair again, so I will go to the attic.”

“We are here, so ask your horse to fly us down to the door, please Princess Emelia?”

“Just Emelia while I am at Portrait House, gosh, being a little girl for a while will be nice. Will you wash my hair like my mummy used to before she got sick? Down horse, to the hiding door, then fly back in my drawing notebook, there's a good girl.”

The winged horse neighed as she went down onto the sand dunes. As Carry began drawing the door to get back into the attic, she nodded, “Happy too Emelia.”

Falling onto the attic wooden floor in a tumble, a voice from downstairs called up.

“Is that you Miss Stevenson messing about in that loft again? My Mar did warn me of this ‘ouse and it’s strange goings on. A forever little girl and sand from nowhere appeared all over my clean floors, eating all my pies with grubby hands and leaving thank you notes in yellow crayon.”

“Two for dinner and two sets of fresh clothes after two baths, please Mrs. Minty.”Carry called.

“I see we are starting this weird ‘ap-nins all over again. My ma said, just go along with it all as she soon goes again. Like a ghost who needs a bit of human love, so yes, I will be kind to her that’s visitin’. But you be careful not to let blonde woman in ‘ere, or you’ll never get a moment's peace I can tell you for nothin'.”

Mrs. Minty slammed the kitchen door as Carry wiped away the crayon door and moved out into the attic landing to relock the attic door.  

Emelia looked around her old home with sad eyes and a tear stained face. Gone was the pretty nineteenth century summer dress, and in reality it was a dirty night dress with torn sleeves and a repatched hemline.

“Come on, let’s get scrubbed in a nice hot bath. Mrs. Minty runs a lovely bath and sometimes even gives a mug of something.”

“When I draw a new house for a new mummy, I will have another portrait house I think, so daddy worm has a daddy body like he used to here.”

“Brilliant idea Emelia, we will draw it after we are fed and clean, and you are wearing nice new clothes. I bought some and hung them in your room.”

“Really? You are a really nice lady, thank you. I think the Queen needs fresh memories now. When I drew her before my mummy here was dead, I was very upset and my tears mixed with the crayons, so she has always cried a lot in the palace. I want a happy loving mummy who is kind to a nice funny daddy. That would be a lovely birthday present for me, as today is my birthday.”

“Of course Emelia, we will draw while thinking kind thoughts, so you and your family will have many happy days of fun picnics where your daddy picks you up in his arms and your mummy lovingly washes your hair in the bathtub,”

“I like the sound of proper family life forever, that is the best gift of all nice lady.” Emelia sighed and went into the bathroom to soak in a warm bath. Down to the dining room, they went where their noses were greeted with beef stew and dumplings.

Leaning back on her chair to rub her full stomach. The dinner and birthday cake went down well, and they both got very sleepy.

“You two get drawing so this little girl can have her mummy and daddy to put her to bed tonight after a nice story time. I will leave a nice hot drink for supper so get going.”

“Come on, then let me draw your birthday gift for you, your own loving, kind family forever together,” Carry had a tear in her eyes as she took Emelia to go up the stairs together to the attic to draw the new world on the back of the painting.

Both Carry and Emelia spoke carefully as they created the new world for Emelia, ensuring no sickness was there and plenty of kindness and fun were all around. 

“Goodness, we are all done Emelia.”

“I think I will drink the hot chocolate that Mrs. Minty left outside the attic door for us. Oh look, she even left some nice biscuits with pink and red hearts on them. What a nice lady Mrs. Minty is, I will leave those footmen for her by the kitchen door to help her.” Emelia lifted her crayon up, ready to draw.

“Make them visible though, so she doesn’t get cross,” remarked Carry, dreading what those footmen would be like.

“On second thoughts, you draw them Carry nice lady so they do a sensible job.”

Emelia hugged Carry after dinner and stepped into the moving drawing. Carry's birthday gift was for both her parents to tell her a bedtime story while cuddling her.

Cuddles are underrated, Carry thought as she locked the attic door and heard the Silver Queen screaming Emelia's name. Carry would draw a new Emelia to manage the queen and the daddy worm tomorrow, so that strange land would continue.

"That crayon drawing was an unusual gift for an unusual little girl," Carry shook her head. She knew the Silver Queen wouldn't be happy to not get the original Emelia back, so she would have to make her drawing skills realistic.

Afterwards, Carry wrote a book about the adventures of the Silver Palace and the pink roses at Portrait House at One Canvas Walk, Back of the Painting, Oxford, called Return To Portrait House.