As the fourth chime sounded Molly pulled open the cupboard door and, suddenly, the hallway became filled with Purple light that was bursting out from the cupboard under the stairs. But as Jenny followed Molly in through the door she did not find herself standing amongst Wellington boots and coats. And there was no vacuum cleaner and no doll’s pram and no spare golf clubs. In fact, Jenny did not seem to be standing inside a cupboard at all. Instead, she was standing at the start of a long corridor. Its walls and floor, and its ceiling way above, were all Purple. And a bright Purple light was coming from rows and rows of tiny Purple jewels that ran along the walls and ceiling, getting closer and closer together as they disappeared into the distance. Jenny thought that whatever was at the end of this Purple Path, it was going to take a very long time to get there.
‘How far have we got to walk?’ asked Jenny, looking down at her new shoes and thinking that perhaps they might be a bit uncomfortable for walking a long way.
‘Oh, we’re not going to walk,’ said Molly. ‘We’re going to fly!’
Jenny watched Molly closing the door they had just come through. She felt a little worried because there was no doorknob on the inside of the cupboard under the stairs. But then, at the moment this wasn’t actually the cupboard under the stairs. And Jenny was also not at all sure about the flying. She checked Molly’s back for any tiny wings that she might not have noticed. But there were none there. Not a trace of any wings. And she was pretty sure she hadn’t sprouted any wings herself either. Perhaps Molly had some magic dust, like Tinkerbell’s pixie dust. No! That would be ridiculous!
‘Molly,’ she said, ‘how can we fly when we don’t have any wings?’
‘That’s simple,’ explained Molly. ‘All you need to do is to believe you can fly.’
‘But it’s not possible for a person to fly,’ complained Jenny.
‘Of course it is,’ said Molly. ‘Birds can fly and they rarely believe anything. And you’re not as heavy as an aeroplane, are you? And they spend most of their time flying. So it’s easy for you to fly.’
‘But what do I have to do?’ said Jenny, feeling very worried indeed.
Molly stepped round to face Jenny. Then she took both Jenny’s hands in hers. And this is what she said: ‘Firstly you have to close your eyes, because everything around you is telling you to keep your feet on the ground. So it’s better to see nothing.
So Jenny closed her eyes.
‘Then,’ said Molly, ‘you have to think of feathers and dandelion clocks and butterflies and bubbles and daydreams and all of the other things that don’t weigh anything at all.’
So Jenny thought of all those things. And then she heard Molly whispering:
‘And then you have to keep your eyes closed and believe that you can be lighter than all of those light things. You have to believe that you can be so light that a tiny breeze can lift you higher than the lightest bubbles.’
So Jenny started to believe. She could feel Molly’s hands holding hers, but then suddenly she could feel something brushing against the top of her head: ‘What’s that?’ she whispered, still holding her eyes tightly shut.
‘You can open your eyes and look for yourself. If you promise not to stop believing.’
So Jenny opened her eyes and looked up and she discovered that the thing that was brushing against her hair was the tall Purple ceiling that was only inches above her head. Jenny gasped: ‘Molly, will I fall if you let go of my hands?’
‘Not if you believe,’ said Molly, letting go of one of Jenny’s hands. ‘There, you see, Jenny, you’re as light as a bubble.’
Jenny looked down at the Purple floor way below. She told herself she had to carry on believing. Then very bravely she let go of Molly’s other hand. And there she was, still hovering just below the Purple ceiling. Just wait until she told Grandma Lily about this! Then she sighed: ‘Even Grandma Lily will never believe this.’
‘Yes she will,’ said Molly. ‘And now, what we have to do next, Jenny, is to fly as fast as we can along the Purple Path until we reach the Golden door. It’s straight ahead until you stop.’
‘But how do I move forward?’ said Jenny, picturing herself just bobbing under the ceiling forever.
‘You look where you want to be and imagine being there. Come on, Jenny, there’s no time to waste!’
Molly held out her hand and Jenny held it tightly and imagined being at the end of the path. And suddenly they were flying hand in hand, with the Purple ceiling just above them and the Purple Path way below. They were travelling very fast, but every now and then Jenny noticed another pathway disappearing off to the left or right. And all of these other pathways had colours of their own.
‘Where do all those other pathways go?’ asked Jenny.
Molly turned her head to smile: ‘To other places. This Blue one we’re about to pass leads to the Kingdom of Forgotten Things. Sometimes things go straight there, like memories and dreams. But mostly things get LOST first and wait in Raggedy Lyme until the King decides that they’ll never be found. And then they go to the Kingdom of Forgotten Things.’
Jenny glanced down the tunnel as she sailed by: ‘Is it a sad place?’
‘No, of course not. You can’t blame things for being forgotten, can you?’
‘But what about sad memories and bad dreams?’
‘Well, they go to Raggedy Lyme first, to the Garden of Errors, so they can be repaired. I’ll show you when we get there. The thing to remember, Jenny, is that nothing finishes up nowhere. There’s a place for everything in the end.’
Jenny was pleased about that. And she was pleased to be flying. She had always thought that she might be able to fly. And now she was. But she hoped that she would soon be there. She was a little worried that her mum and dad and Grandma Lily might notice she was gone. Then, suddenly, Molly pulled her to slow down. Jenny carried on concentrating on the path ahead. And then she caught sight of something in the distance, not Purple but Golden. It was an enormous, Golden Door that stretched from the floor to the very ceiling.
With Molly’s help Jenny flew slower and slower and lower and lower until she came to a not-too-bumpy landing in front of the Golden Door.
‘Beyond this door is the furthest away place of all, Jenny,’ explained Molly. ‘Because this is the Door to Raggedy Lyme.’
The LOST Stories of Raggedy Lyme 