Gran had just cleared away the lunch things & Grandpa said he going to lie down & have a rest for a while.... he & Sam had worked hard all morning painting the front fence.
Gran picked up the new book & Sam & Sarah sat on the comfy bean bags as she read them..........
It was a rainy day & Kate & Justin were teasing each other. First Justin kept changing the T.V station that Kate had turned on, then Kate went over to the table & started to pull apart the amazing lego model that Justin had spent hours on. Justin turned on her in a fury and kicked her hard on the leg, so Kate grabbed his hair & pulled it really hard.....just as Mum came in the room. While Mum stood there glaring at them both, Justin said he was sorry, but Kate stamped her feet & refused to apologise....so Mum sent her to her room. "See if I care," Kate retorted, "I'll stay in Fantasyland all day!" (that's what she liked to pretend her Mauve room was called.)
"Good," said her brother, "she's always off with the fairies anyhow!"
So Kate slammed the bedroom door behind her & set about getting all her toys out. First she put the mauve fairycastle
she got for Christmas in the center of the floor; then she arranged her teddybear collection
around it; then & the toy soldier
Aunty had brought back from England. She played for hours, dressing her many dolls
in their mauve & purple dresses & pretending that they were talking to each other. She climbed onto her rocking horse,
which was her favourite toy & she imagined she was galloping far away from her brother!!
Yes, she wished she lived in Mauve Fantasyland all the time.... no worries, no problems, no cares; everyone's perfect & nothing ever gets broken there....But after a while Kate started to feel hungry & a little lonely... she could smell some yummy cookies baking in the kitchen & her daddy's voice laughing with Justin. She looked around her Mauve Fantasyland & thought that she didn't really want to stay there forever... because nothing here was REAL ....only toys! A little tear
trickled down her cheek, & just then Daddy opened the door. Seeing the tear on her face, he put his strong arms around Kate & picked her up.
"There, there," he said, "Is something wrong in Fantasyland?"
Kate wiped her tears away & said, "Oh it's all right for a while, but nothing is real, you know... I'd rather be in the kitchen with you & Mummy & some nice cookies."
"AND your brother?" asked Daddy with a smile.
"I suppose so," said Kate sheepishly, "I don't really want to live in a purple & mauve world all the time!"
Back to Chapter 1
