Molly Day-Dreamer

I thought I'd go for a change this time and post a story. This story was written at the end of year 12 or the beginning of year 13, I can't really remember. I only remember having to write a piece inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I actually did a lot of work based on this story during my last years at college and it was all very enjoyable. Anyway, here's the piece that I did, I hope you like it!

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nce upon a time there was a little girl called Molly, who daydreamed all the time. She would daydream while she was at school, she daydreamed while she ate dinner and she even daydreamed while she was daydreaming! All her daydreaming earned her the nickname from her parents of Molly-daydreamer.

But Molly did not mind. Molly loved her daydreams. She could escape to magical worlds whilst she did the dullest of things. When she had to clean her room she just imagined that instead she was a lonely dragon who had to hide all its treasures from the greedy knight. Or when she had to wash the dishes she pretended that each plate and bowl was a boat she had to save them from a terrorising flood.

One summer morning her Mother asked her to go through the small woods by their house to take a freshly baked cake to her Grandmother. Molly thought this was an incredibly dull thing to do. Her Grandmother was so old she could barely hear so she yelled everything; and what was worse was that she despised Molly’s daydreaming. Nonetheless, Molly grudgingly took the basket with the cake in it and set off through the woods. Her Mother waved her goodbye.

Molly liked the woods though. In fact she loved the woods; it was so peaceful and quiet, and she had all her best daydreams between these trees. She followed the winding path through the woods at a dreamy pace, swinging the basket as she went. Her eyes wandered over the trees and she smiled and was pleased when the trees smiled and waved their branches back. The little birds flying about soon became fairies and the sleepy hedgehogs stood on their hind legs and called, ‘Good morning!’ 

She followed the path for a long time, waving hello to all the wood’s inhabitants before the path suddenly came to an end.

She was lost.

‘Oh, this is really no good,’ she muttered to herself. She peered around but the path was gone altogether. She did not know which way she had come from or which way to go. She looked to the trees for answers but their smiling faces had left, leaving her lost and lonely. Molly sat down on a mossy tree stump and sighed.

‘It looks like I’m lost for good; no one shall ever find me all the way out here.’ She sighed again. ‘I will freeze during the night and become as still as a statue…perhaps then I should get into a good pose, I wouldn’t be a very interesting statue just sitting here with a gloomy face.’ So Molly put down her basket full of cake and stood on the stump on one foot balancing like a ballerina a huge grin on her face. She had always wanted to be a ballerina. She held the pose for what seemed like an eternity before her jaw began to ache and her leg shook and wobbled and she fell off the stump with a thump. She sat up and blew her hair out of her face, rubbing her bottom.

‘Well, that was certainly no good. Oh! What am I going to do?’ Molly wailed, feeling rather miserable for herself. But a shuffling noise beside her drew her out of her misery. She looked over her shoulder and saw a small furry squirrel poking into her basket full of cake.

‘Mmm, this will certainly be good for the party,’ It said to itself, licking its whiskers.

‘Excuse me, but what do you think you’re doing?’ Molly asked.

The squirrel looked up in alarm; it snatched up the basket and ran off further into the woods.

‘Hey!’ Molly called out, ‘That’s my cake!’ and she set off after the cake stealing squirrel.

The trees began to thin out and the sun shone through the leaves, and the bird-fairies fluttered above her singing their happy little songs. Molly puffed and panted as she followed the squirrel around another tree. She suddenly came to a halt as she saw a large table in a sunny clearing. Molly looked at the table in awe. Hundreds of tiny china teacups on equally tiny saucers were laid out on the table; some much too small for even a baby to use. There were even plates of minuscule cookies and cupcakes all with different types of multi-coloured frosting. Molly swiped her finger across the top of one and popped it in her mouth. It was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. She was about to eat the whole thing when she saw right in the middle of the table was her Grandmother’s cake. No one seemed to be around, not even the cake stealing squirrel, so she reached across the large table to retrieve her cake. 

‘That’s our cake!’ cried a squeaky voice from her feet. Molly leapt back in fright. She looked down at the ground and saw two little white mice stood on their hind legs and they twitched their noses crossly at her. They scurried up the large table leg so they were face to face with Molly.

‘If you wanted some cake you only had to ask.’ The other mouse squeaked, ‘But you’ll have to wait anyway, the other guests have to come first.’ It pointed towards a chair, its skinny tail flicking irritably.

Molly sat down on the spindly wooden chair and waited for the other guests to arrive. From the size of the table and the amount of cups, saucers and chairs she guessed that there would be quite a lot of them. She jumped when a badger walked out of the undergrowth with a small bowler hat perched on his black and white head. More animals emerged from the woods, each wearing a small yet detailed item of clothing. Molly especially liked the little red waistcoats the Robins wore. She watched with a pleasant smile on her face as they all pulled up a chair and chattered away to each other.

Eventually, the table was full of excited animals and they were allowed to eat. By now Molly had forgotten that the cake was actually for her Grandmother; she was so excited and hungry that she just could not wait to have a slice of it. As she reached for her piece of cake she saw the bushy end of a squirrel’s tail peeking out from under the table. Molly reached under the table and tugged on it; the squirrel let out a squeal.

‘Ouch! What was that for?’ the squirrel asked indignantly, this time poking its head out.

‘You stole my cake,’ Molly replied just as indignant.

‘Oh yes, I remember. You’re the strange little girl stood on the tree stump doing some kind of odd dance.’

‘I wasn’t dancing!’ Molly cried, just a bit embarrassed.

‘Well whatever you were doing, it didn’t look like you were going to eat the cake any time soon.’ The little squirrel replied, and with a furry grin he grabbed a cupcake off the table and scampered up a tree to enjoy his treat.

Molly huffed. Now what would she give to her Grandmother? Her Mother would be cross too if she found out she had let some woodland creatures eat it all. One of the rabbits next to her noticed her anxiety.

‘Cheer up! We have a lot more cake to eat and I think I heard Fox say that there was going to be dancing later.’ The rabbit babbled happily. Molly thought that dancing sounded like a lot of fun and ate her cake with a little more cheer.

After all the cupcakes and cookies were finished, the woodland creatures began to dance around and singly merrily. Molly joined in, sometimes showing the animals a new sort of human dance. They all laughed as the deers tried to copy Molly’s dance but just fell over their own legs.

The sun was getting lower in the sky and the shadows stretched across the woodland ground when Molly remembered why she had even come to the woods today.

‘Oh, no! I’m going to be late! I should have been at my Grandmother’s house ages ago!’ Molly cried. All the animals looked upon her sadly and called out goodbyes as she grabbed her now empty basket and stumbled through the foliage. Molly did not know where she was but amazingly she quickly found the winding path back to town.

The singing of the fairy-birds faded into quiet chirping and the tree’s branches barely moved in the breeze. Molly followed the path feeling a bit lonely, and a bit sad that she had to leave the party so abruptly.

When she arrived at her Grandmother’s house on the other side of the woods the sun had set and a cool wind tugged on Molly’s hair. She knocked on the door loudly and her deaf Grandmother took nearly five minutes to answer.

‘Oh, did my dear little Granddaughter bring me some cake?’ She asked loudly, spying the basket in Molly’s hands. She bent down to take the basket from Molly, her bones creaking.

‘Why, there’s nothing in here!’ She said in surprise. It was then that her Grandmother noticed the cake crumbs down the front of Molly’s dress, the grass stains on her socks and the mud all over her shoes.

‘You dawdled in the woods - daydreaming probably - and ate all my cake.’ Her Grandmother accused her heatedly. Molly bowed her head in shame, but secretly smiled to herself.

That’s what you think, Molly thought happily.