Part One
It was a Saturday afternoon in June. Simplicity was looking out the living room window at her new neighbors who were just moving in. Her mother was outside talking to the mother of the moving family. There was a boy standing next to the mom. He had black hair and blue eyes. He looked around twelve years old.
It seemed as though the neighboring mom was asking if the boy could come over while they were unpacking. Simplicity’s mom must have said yes because she and the boy started walking towards the house. Simplicity had a nervous feeling in her stomach. She didn’t have many friends and it was hard for her to talk to new people. When her mom and the boy came into the house, Simplicity was in the kitchen pretending to read a magazine.
“Simply! Come here!”
“Coming Mom!”
She put down the magazine and went into the living room.
“Simply, this is Arthur. He’s going to be staying here for a few hours.”
She looked at him and he looked at her. Their eyes met. Simplicity felt a spark of excitement but she didn’t show it.
“He will see it.”, she thought.
She stuck out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Simplicity. It’s nice to meet you.” He shook it and replied, “Hi, I’m Arthur.”
“How about you two go in your room, Simply?”
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“Follow me.”
She grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs. Screaming children ran down the stairs shouting, “Woodland elf! Hermia! Woodland elf! Hermia!”
“They just got their parts in the YWS play,” Simplicity explained.
“What’s that?”
“The Young William Shakespeare’s play, they’re putting on A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”
When they got up to the landing, they were confronted by Simplicity’s sister, Margaret.
“Simplicity?”
“Yes Maggie?”
“Could you help me with my essay for the writing contest?”
“Maybe later, okay?”
More kids ran past as they walked down the hallway.
“Your house reminds me of a zoo.”
“There are nine of us. I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Simplicity stopped at a door at the end of the hall. She opened it. Through it were
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more stairs.
“Last flight, I promise.”
When they got to the top of those stairs, there was another door. This door was painted white. Simplicity put her hand on the knob, but she didn’t open it.
“Before we go in, I need to ask you a question.” “Okay, shoot.”
“Do you believe in magical worlds?”
“I never gave it much thought before.”
She sighed a sigh and then, she opened the door. Part Two
To Arthur’s surprise, when Simplicity opened the door, instead of the normal girly room he thought he would see, all he saw was, “Paper.” Simplicity had a world in her bedroom entirely made out of paper. Now, you might think that she made a paper model or something but no, it was a real world going far over the dimensions of her house for miles and miles and miles, and it was all made out of paper.
“I can’t believe it!”
“I can’t believe it either.”
“You can see it! That’s amazing!”
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“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Simplicity grabbed Arthur’s hand and she led him to a hollow tree. She led him through the opening. It was a little room with a paper flower floor. A paper hedgehog was sniffing Arthur’s shoes. He was still shocked. She was still surprised that he could see her world. No one has ever been in her room and saw her world before. When they would question her later, they would say that when they walked in her room that she had disappeared. Simplicity handed Arthur a cup of tea. The paper kettle sat in the corner over a fire. Arthur questioned how it didn’t burst into flames. He also questioned the teacups; they didn’t get wet or get soggy. For a person who didn’t drink tea, Arthur drank his tea very fast. After his second cup, he was normal Arthur again.
“Do you want to go on an adventure?” “Sure, which adventure?”
“Do you want to climb a mountain?”
Without any answer from Arthur, Simplicity walked outside. She looked out to the pine green cardstock trees. A gentle wind kissed her fingertips. Scrap paper clouds drifted through the sky. She closed her eyes and a mountain crunched to the surface. The ground shook like an earthquake. Simplicity fell over and Arthur could barely stand up to go and see what was going on. The earthquake stopped. Arthur ran to Simplicity’s side and offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet.
“How did you do that?”
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Paper, 6-8, p.5 “Ummm...It’s hard to explain, but, I guess you should know, since you are my friend.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, why not?”
She smiled a soft smile and started walking to the watercolored mountain. “Come on! This mountain isn’t going to climb itself!”
It took them a half an hour to get up the mountain. The whole time they were hiking, Simplicity told Arthur about how she created her world and how she could create objects in it just by thinking of them.
“It started when I was a little girl; I would have dreams about paper animals that I made that would move and breathe like real animals. Then the dreams became more and more real and the place I was in, in my dreams, became bigger and bigger until one day, I woke up and thought I was still dreaming.”
“But how did you ever get out? How did you make things when you were awake?”
“I get out by using the door; it appears out of thin air whenever I want to go out or if someone calls me. When I make things, I think about the thing I want to make really, really hard and then it appears. I don’t make things in my dreams anymore though, I only dream about what I should make and sometimes even...”
She beckoned him to come closer so she could whisper in his ear. “The tiger.”
Part Three
Simplicity refused to say anything else about her dreams until they had reached the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain was flat and covered with grass made of strips of green construction paper. It was dark when they reached the flat top of the mountain. They lay looking at the printer paper stars. Simplicity was pointing out all of the constellations hidden in the sky to Arthur. She showed him Stone, the mountain king, who had saved the great Blue Mountains in older days; she showed him Star, Stella, and Stek, the three night children of the moon. She showed him Dor, Corin, and Rouge; she showed him Aike, Lorth, and Smite. All were once guardians of her land, but none were as great as Rorge the Tiger. Simplicity showed Arthur Rorge’s constellation last. It was an image of a crouching tiger, forever roaring. The constellations were so vivid that when Arthur looked upon the tiger, he almost thought it was real.
“Who exactly is Rorge the Tiger?”
“I don’t really know for sure but he sometimes appears in my dreams to tell me what to do when the land is in trouble. I think that maybe he is the greatest guardian or head guardian of the land.”
The clouds rolled in as they talked, the clouds were dark. Suddenly, they heard a crunch and then thousands more. It was raining blue shades of watercolors. When each drop landed, the drop would splash and color the paper blue.
Simplicity jumped up, grabbed Arthur’s hand and started to run down the mountain. The rain was coming down as fast as they could run. The mountain began to get slippery on account of the extra paint. The water sat in places and rolled down the mountain in others. Both slipped many times, it was so hard to stay on their legs. When they were nearing the end of the mountain, Simplicity slipped, fell on her bottom, and sped down the mountain in a summersault. Arthur ran down after her, but then he
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Paper, 6-8, p.7 slipped and slid down the mountain. It was like a waterslide, fast and wet. When Arthur
reached the bottom, he looked for Simplicity. She was hidden by a rock that she slid past. She was in a blue puddle. Arthur ran over and helped her up. They looked at each other for a second and then started to laugh. They were both completely blue. Simplicity’s honey brown hair was now cyan and Arthur’s jet black hair was now an ocean blue. They ran back to Simplicity’s tree and got dried off. The only thing blue after that were their towels.
“We should be getting back now, huh?”
“Yeah, I wish we didn’t have to though. This place is so cool!” “Well you could always come back tomorrow.”
Suddenly, the opening in the tree was closing! But instead of the flaky, brown bark Arthur was expecting, it was a white, wooden door. It looked a lot like Simplicity’s door. It was Simplicity’s door; she opened it and crawled through. Arthur looked at the napping hedgehog and crawled in too.
Part Four
He almost fell down the stairs. Arthur stood up to see that Simplicity was talking to her sister Maggie about her story. He walked down the stairs and heard Simplicity’s mom yelling for the children.
“Kids! It’s time to eat!”
“Come on!”
Simplicity held out her hand, Arthur took it and they walked hand in hand down to
the kitchen.
“Arthur! Your mom called and said that they need you to come home now because they’re going to start on your room.”
“Thanks for having me Mrs. Waterblossom.”
Simplicity walked with him to the door. She held out her hand.
“See you tomorrow?”
He pushed her hand aside and kissed her instead.
“See you tomorrow.”
He walked out the door and went home.
“Wow.”
After that day, Arthur always came over to see Simplicity. They went on many other adventures together.
But that is a different story.
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