Paddy's Journal: The Lady of Ophilia

Winter. 22nd December 1990. 6:55pm. Illinois. Paddy, aged fourteen, sits at his desk gazing out of the window. The biggest blizzard Illinois has seen in decades; roads are nowhere to be seen, the golden rays of light from the streetlamps beam across the street, creating a warm, homey, wintery scene. The cheer of children outside launching snowballs at each other like cannonballs is heard. Paddy lets off a sigh.

“Mum,” yells Paddy, “I want to play in the snow too.”

“I’ve told you time and time again,” Paddy’s mum replied, “you’re not going out there. You’ll make yourself ill. Now, get ready for bed.”

Paddy puts on his pyjamas. It’s 7pm. Nowhere near his bedtime. But, with winter at its peak, Paddy’s family are poor. They cannot afford heating. Every room was bone cold, except the living room with the fireplace. Even so, there was barely any wood for that. Now dressed for bed, teeth brushed, Paddy climbs into his already falling apart bed. Every time he moves on it, the most irritating creak sounds or another plank supporting his mattress begins to snap further. “Merry Christmas to me,” Paddy whispers as he blows out the candle on his bedside table.

-

8:15pm. Just under an hour has passed since Paddy tried to go to sleep. Does anyone have any luck trying to sleep that early? Paddy strikes a match as hard as he can. His hands shake, not from the anxiety of living in horrible conditions, but from the bitter cold. Why go outside to play when you can freeze to death indoors? The sound of a sizzling match fills the room like a batch of sausages in the frying pan. As the candle creates a cove of light in his bedroom, Paddy reaches for his journal from his bedside drawer, along with his favourite blue pen. Paddy loves the colour blue.

“Bother, all the pages are full,” Paddy said in disappointment. “Whatever shall I use now?” Paddy looks about his room quietly for something to continue his journal. Dare he makes himself heard that would mean his mum comes raging into the room. Standing on a pile of books, Paddy reaches for the top shelf on his bookcase. On the top shelf, a black notebook. He hates it, which is why it’s on the top shelf. “This will have to do,” Paddy muttered. He sits back on his bed and begins to write. “22nd December 1990. Another bitterly cold day in the Miller home. Not much I can do about that, I suppose. Oh, we’ve had a mighty blizzard. Mum won’t let me play in the snow in case I get ill. I wish I was allowed. It looks fun,” Paddy said aloud as he wrote it all down in his new journal. Next to his passage, he drew a hat, scarf, gloves and a coat. Before Paddy could do anything else, a bright white light flashed on the cream-coloured pages of his journal. The sparks that flew out the journal blew all the dust off his bedside table and shelves. They’ve never been so dusty. Materialising on the floor was a hat, scarf, gloves and coat. The same as the ones Paddy drew. “What on earth,” Paddy said in shock. “How is that possible?”

Quickly putting on the winter woollies, Paddy peers out of his bedroom door. In the distance, he hears his mum and dad arguing with one another. Paddy closes the door again. “There’s no way I can sneak past them,” Paddy said in disappointment once again. “Wait a minute!” Paddy ran to his notebook and drew a ladder. Not a very good one, but good enough for the black notebook to recognise it and materialise it into his bedroom. “Perfect,” a joyful Paddy screeched. Grabbing the ladder, Paddy dangled it out the window and onto the porch.

-

It’s absolutely freezing out, but Paddy wasn’t bothered, for he had his new winter woollies to keep him warm. Climbing down the ladder, Paddy jumped the last few steps and onto the porch, which made a snapping noise. As he landed, the porch collapsed to the floor, with Paddy going with it. “Whoops,” Paddy said with fear, hoping his mother wouldn’t notice. Finally, Paddy was out in the snow. This is what he wished for. Paddy ran about, threw snowballs at the lampposts, made snow angels, and threw the snow into the air. Paddy hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. Despite finally being out in the snow, Paddy had never been happy living on this little Illinois street. Behind him, a black iron bench, covered in heaps of snow. Plonking himself on the bench, Paddy begins to draw. “Let’s see what else you can do,” Paddy questioned as he started drawing in the book. This time, Paddy didn’t draw any clothes or a ladder. Neither did he draw anything particularly useful. Instead, he started drawing great big hills, trees and a beautiful lake. Nothing happened when he finished. “Well, that is utterly disappoint—” Before Paddy could finish, the bright light appeared again, this time sucking Paddy into the book. What witchcraft was this? The book slammed shut and landed on the bench.

-

Trees taller than you can imagine stood all around Paddy, who was now lying on the floor rubbing his eyes. Has he stood; Paddy saw this mighty lake glistening in the distance as if someone poured bucket loads of glitter into it. Behind the lake, hills of green that go back for miles. “Where am I? Where’s all the snow?” Paddy questioned himself. He began walking through the forest and pretended he knew where he was going. “This looks awfully similar to the scene I just drew. Could I have made Illinois disappear and turned it into something more peaceful?” asked Paddy.

After hours of walking, the sun begins to set behind the great hills; a sunset more beautiful than Illinois, that was for sure. The sound of owls tooted in the trees to the left of Paddy, the breaking of tree branches to the right of Paddy. Nervously, Paddy moved away from the trees and back onto the path.

“The sun is setting,” Paddy said to himself, this time a bit more scared. He is a long way from home now. “Whatever shall I do for sleep?” Paddy walked down to the lake. A crystal-clear lake. You can see the bottom. There’s nothing there. Paddy dipped his hands in the water and splashed it onto his face to clean the dirt off.

“Come with me, young boy,” a voice of a young woman echoed all around Paddy.

“Hello? Who’s there?” replied Paddy.

“Come with me, young boy,” the voice said once again.

“I demand you show yourself immediately,” Paddy yelled into the distance. No one appeared. Not a single soul. Instead, a grey cobble path rose from the water. The water either side of it pushed away. More witchcraft. Where exactly is Paddy? Just like any intrigued child would, Paddy followed the path.

The twisty path led to this portal of water swirling around. A white light – the same from his notebook – started to emerge at the bottom of the portal.

“If you think I’m jumping down there, you’ve got another thing coming,” screamed Paddy into the portal. As Paddy kept yelling down the portal, the path behind him started to get taken over by the water and before Paddy knew it, he was falling down the portal, screaming louder than he’s ever screamed.

-

A great big dining hall. A long rectangular, brown table right in the centre of the room with two chairs around it. The room filled with candles in every location possible. A romantic setting? Definitely not. The setting of a witch? Not this time. At the far end of the table sat in one of the chairs was the Great Princess of Ophilia. Her hair is long and golden brown. Her long white dress covers her surroundings and her tiara gleams in the light. The portal above the other chair appears and Paddy falls into it.

“I can’t tell you what sort of day I’m having,” Paddy said to the Great Princess.

“Welcome to Ophilia,’ said the Great Princess, “We finally meet.”

“Who are you?” said a confused Paddy.

“For I am the Great Princess of Ophilia,” she replied. “I do believe this is what you wished for in your notebook? Somewhere better than Illinois?” The Great Princess continued.

“That notebook is private,” yelled Paddy. “How dare you look in there.’

“What do you mean?” questioned the Great Princess, “you drew this land, and I came with it. That can only mean you were thinking of a princess at the time. So, here I am.”

“I drew this land because I wasn’t happy at home and wanted something new. Not to be kidnapped by a princess,” said Paddy as tears begin to fall from his eyes. The Great Princess gets up and brings a glass of ice water over to Paddy, who was sobbing in the corner. Paddy slurps the water and places the empty glass back on the table.

“That’s better isn’t it?” asked the Great Princess.

“No, my home is still falling apart, my family is still a big argumentative mess,” Paddy came back with. “Water wasn’t exactly going to solve that, was it?” sobbed Paddy.

“No,” said the Great Princess holding out her hand, containing twenty tokens, “but these will,” the Great Princess finished.

“What are they?” questioned a hesitant Paddy.

“Tokens of goodwill,” the Great Princess explained. “They are only to be used on children that deserve it. Take these home and I promise you a life of happiness with your family forever.”

“Why should I believe you?

“You created this world with your imagination,” the Great Princess exclaimed. “It would be foolish for you to stop believing now, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t know”, said a tired Paddy. “What if I don’t make it home?”

“Oh, you will, and I’ll make sure of it.”

Paddy grabs the tokens out of the Great Princess’ hand and puts them in his coat pocket. The Great Princess closes her eyes and the room around Paddy begins to turn white, like a dream.

“What’s happening?” yelled Paddy.

“You’re going home, Paddy,” replied the Great Princess.

“What about you?” echoed Paddy’s voice.

“Don’t worry, we will meet again, the Great Princess shouted. The room flashed white and disappeared.

-

Illinois. Merely ten minutes after Paddy left. Paddy woke up on the bench outside his home. Was it a dream? It has to be. No way did all of that just happen.

“Your pockets,” the voice of the Great Princess said, echoing around Paddy before fading out.

“My pockets?” Paddy said with confusion. He put his hand into his pocket expecting to find twenty tokens of goodwill. Not this time, no, no, no. Paddy pulled his hand out of his pocket. In his hand is a shed load of dollars. More than Paddy could even imagine. “There must be thousands here!” Paddy shouted as he jumped off the bench. Twenty-thousand dollars to be precise. More than enough to fix the porch, install brand new heating in his home, and some leftover to create a life of happiness with his family. Paddy ran back up the road to his house crying with happiness and plenty of dollars in both of his hands.

“The best of days come to those who wait. Those who wait deserve a life of happiness and goodwill. More so, those with such imagination as Paddy’s is only just the beginning,” the voice of the Great Princess said as the front door to Paddy’s home closed.