Chapter 4- Decision

Tripping over her own feet, Isla pelted like a bullet down the mountain. At the bottom, she kept going, until she reached the door. Before she saw it, she knew that something was wrong. Isla gasped. The door through which she had entered this room from was blocked by one of the writhing snake-branches. How had it come all the way from the blossom tree at the top of the hill? It’s eyes were locked on her hand, where the sapphire stone was nestled. She had no option.

Grasping it in her right hand like a ball, she aimed up the mountain with her left. Isla had attended cricket practice every Friday night that year, and her bowling had improved immensely. Bringing her arm round, she released the stone, and it spun through the air, burying into the hole in the tree where it had come from. Isla laughed out loud with amazement.

Instantly, bark clasped over the black slithering branches, and the blossom tree re-formed in a totally different shape to when she first seen it. Relived, Isla clambered over the branch that had intercepted her, swung the door open and stepped onto the Hidden Emporium’s floorboards.

Fiddling with her thumbs, Isla crept back into the shopfront. The first thing she noticed as she parted the navy curtain, was Arlo Haywood’s stick, leaning against the desk in the corner. The faintest of glows illuminated from it, and at the sight, something sparked from deep inside her soul. Mr Haywood’s hand pressed down on top of it, and Isla slowly drew her gaze onto him. Despite what she had just caused, despite her disloyalty, his wrinkled face was as calm as a summer evening.

“I believe you have something to confess?” he questioned, a slight smile forming on his lips.
Isla nodded, “Yes. And I am sorry for not listening to your warning, but something tugged me towards your Book of Imagination. I totally understand if you want to chuck me out and leave me with old Grandpa.”
“No no,” Mr Haywood insisted, “you can visit again whenever you wish, as long as you listen to me this time and accept the rules of this place. I sense that you have a connection with the Hidden Emporium. For now, however, I believe that you have some shopping to deliver?”

Isla smiled, zipped up her raincoat, and ducked under the doorframe onto the pavement. Crossing the road, her head bubbled with excitement, as she thought about what might happen the next time she opened a door.