Chapter 3

Lola made her way down the dark and gloomy corridor and eventually came to a door that had a giant theme park ticket on it. It felt like magic. She opened the door and the aroma of candy floss filled the air. Upbeat music blasted out of jet black speakers. Then she realized that this was a theme park. Stalls with games such as coconut shy  were there. The theme park had everything you might want: Roller coasters; Merry go rounds; and dodgems.

‘Hello?’ called Lola, hoping for an answer. She thought she heard a faint reply coming from someway up the helter skelter. She made her way up to it and as she approached the it she looked up and saw that it was taller than the clouds.

She climbed the steps for hours and hours and when she reached the top she saw a wizardly looking man with a golden bejeweled staff. He told her about the book and the emporium. Just as she was about to ask a question he disappeared into thin air.

Lola made her way down the steps but she kept hearing a hissing noise coming from inside the wall. It sounded like there was a creature. The more loud and desperate the noise became the more terrified Lola became.

Suddenly the bricks started shaking, the out burst a furious looking snake. ‘Aaaarrgh!!!’ screamed Lola. The snake looked even more furious than ever. She ran back down the stairs, the snake was chasing her. When she reached the bottom she realized that the door was shut. She ran back up the stairs to get to the top.

When she reached the top she couldn’t see the snake anymore. She ran forward, but she eventually reached a dead end and then heard a voice calling, “Come back!’, She was trapped.

Lola heard a sound of shuffling and her head turned rapidly to the corner in which the sound was coming from. Out of the darkness emerged a tall, gloomy figure. As he moved closer, she realized it was a tall man in a top hat and tails.

‘Who are y…you?’, she asked nervously.

‘I am Mr Bronze, owner and creator of this emporium!’, he exclaimed,

‘And don’t touch that book.’, he gestured over to the old, leather-bound book in Lola’s hands.

‘Why though?- It’s just a book’, said Lola.

‘That is the book of wonders!’, he exclaimed ‘It is forbidden to any members of the public outside this emporium’.

Mr Bronze left the room, the velvet red curtain mysteriously closing behind him. Lola was left in the silent room all she could hear was the ticking noise of the two grandfather clocks.

Now that Mr Bronze was gone, maybe she could take a look at the book. She reached for the book once more and pulled it off the shelf.

She opened up the leather cover and was bewildered by the sight in front of her. She saw pages of wonder and drawings of frosty wintry rooms, lined with snow globes. Rooms that would remind you of summer holidays, sandy floors, the sound of waves crashing and seagulls squawking. Rooms of flowers, rooms of sports and rooms of caves beyond despair. 

Each of these books  was probably a real room in the emporium. She took a pen and found a blank page and thought about something she enjoyed. Theme parks were something she enjoyed so she started drawing roller coaster after roller coaster, dodgems and more.

She went past the velvet curtain, and she felt like she was being dragged down the corridor but she didn’t know who by. Eventually she stopped at a dodgem shaped door with pictures of roller coasters on. She opened the door and suddenly felt like she was in a real theme park. Roller coasters whizzed past and screaming kids ran past. What was this place?…

Go and open the door…

Go and open the green door, 

Maybe you will see the shadow of a crocodile snapping its jaws,

Ivy creeping up the lime coloured walls or seaweed hugging the bottom of the murky ocean.

Go and open the red door,

Or the bloodshot eyes of foxes hunting in the darkness.

Maybe you will find vintage post boxes lining the scarlet walls,

Towering trees bearing juicy strawberries

Go and open the white door,

Maybe there are pearls surrounding you,

Or cotton bushes growing, or maybe you will find peace, or peace might find you.

Go and open the blue door,

Maybe you will see a peacock showing off it’s feathers,

Bluebells nodding in the wind or a butterfly flapping its cyan wings.