4th Week

All images and text copyright Michael Smith - Doodle Bag Productions

09.09.10

The girls rode into town, Sara bumping along on the bouncing beanbag and Maura trotting next to her chatting away.

“We should try the general store!” She said over the sound of the hooves and flopping bag. “There is always some good licorice that they sometime give you samples.  If your page isn’t in there we could try the main stables I guess, but the library is closed today so it wouldn’t be in there.”  She looked over at Sara who was holding on with both hands as the beanbag skipped from one side of the trial to the other like it was sniffing the flowers that grew along the edges. Maura’s little pony snorted as the red chair scooted across his path.

“W..w…well, m..m..maybe w..w..we s..s..should s..s..see w..w..where t..t..the w..w..wind i..i..is b..b..blowing!” Stammered Sara.

“That might be a good idea.” Maura allowed, “but the licorice is really good.”

They entered the edge of the little town and Sara looked to see all of the people walking up and down the street and the old timey buildings. “Cool.” Said Sara, she pointed to the building next to the General Store. “What is that?”

“The Boarding house? Why would you want to go there?”

“It is the tallest building in town, if we could get on the roof we can see all around.”

“It’s the tallest building, but not the tallest thing!” Maura pointed to a water tower that was peeking over the buildings on the other side of the street. “We could climb that and see, why, we could see forever!”  They headed over to the water tower, hitched the pony to the posts and Sara told the beanbag to stay in place before they started climbing to the top.

“Look!” Maura pointed to the landing around the edge of the water tower. “Is that a piece of paper?” There was a flicker of white at the edge of the railing, “Hurry!” They scurried up the wooden structure, Sara was a very good climber, and Maura was right behind her.  They climbed over the edge of the walkway as the wind picked up again, lifting the page off of the platform and out over the edge.

“I’ve got it!” Sara shouted and jumped over the railing and reaching out for the sheet, she could see the page, it looked it was a drawing of Ms. Robinson and her class, but the page was just out of her reach!

“Be Careful Sara!” But it was too late Sara had reached too far and her hand slipped from the railing and she fell from the top of the tower, the page underneath her as she plummeted toward the ground!  Before she could even make a sound she saw the beanbag dash to where she was falling!  The bag jumped the last few feet and Sara crashed into it, but it felt like she was falling all the way through it, but it was slowing her down!  Through the darkness she kept falling until she bumped into a hard cold floor.

“Great! Now where in the world am I?” She looked up and down the dark hallway, Maura was nowhere to be seen!