My favourite book themes as a child were the Narnia-esque ones where a normal child walks through a normal doorway/wardrobe/mirror/etc., to find themselves in an enchanted, magical, fairytale, alternate world. I still want that.
Wouldn’t it be great? Imagine leaving your house in the morning, late again for work. You go through the front door, turn around and lock it, pressing on the handle as you always do to make sure that the latch has caught. Something strange about the light catches your attention; there are odd, feathery shadows on the doors like the reflections of tree branches moving. Trees which are decidedly not on your street of small English terraces. You turn around, and (rather than your ordinary narrow street of ordinary houses and cars parked too close to each other) you see a meadow.
How would you feel? Would you think that you must be dreaming? Would it cross your mind that perhaps you were ill, or in a coma, or even dead…and you have no recollection of the accident that put you there? Or would you not be able to deny the total sensory evidence around you?
And what would you think about the fox sitting on the path leading to your door? Would you answer him, reflexively and politely, when he greeted you?
Just imagine…
I would be both terrified and entranced at the same time.
How do I get back?
Do I want to get back?
it works as a dream or an adventure, since ‘law’ says you will find your way back home from such places when it is time :)
Hmmm… it would totally depend on my mood at the time. :) I would probably think that I’d drank a bit too much the night before.
I’d probably greet him with a smile and hello, and then unlock my front door to see if I could get back and check to see if it happened again immediately. I’m too practical for my own good.
But what if it was no longer there when you came back out? Could you live with knowing that it had happened, and you had gone back inside? ;)
It would be terrifying…but I like to think that I would greet the fox and follow him down the path. I want to be the person who would do that. :)
Hmmm…. I think the fact that I could get back to my real life would be worth the not knowing about the fox world. If I went back in and then it never happened again, I would assume it was my brain playing tricks on me. I know I wouldn’t be able to just follow him down the path. I’d be expecting the Snow Queen to be just round the corner. And she’s just… not something I could handle in the morning. *giggle* Plus the thought of not getting back to the real world would freak me out too much…. I’d HAVE to know before I went anywhere with a talking fox. ;)
See how fragile magic is? :)
That’s why I love Charles de Lint’s novels, for example: the concept that magic and other worlds are real, even though we may not see them. One person sees gemmin/fae living in the middle of the city, another person just sees homeless kids living in an abandoned car. If you could just learn the trick of looking sideways, of stepping through into the shadowlands…what a world it would be.
Hmmmm… I see what you mean. But I also think that sometimes people make their own magick too. ;) It’s the magical touches of others that make a real difference in our lives… like little amazon faeries. ;) *big hug*
Actually, on days when the air is full of cherry blossom flowers, I’m sure there are little faeries flitting about playing among them. :) That’s why I always go join them.
I’m sure that I would feel some amount of shock, and wonder if I was out of my head, but curiosity would most definitely be the victor. I’d be following the fox.
It’s not as if diverting me from work is tough to do anyway ;).
I’ve wanted to walk outside my door and find myself in a different world ever since I was a little girl and read Lewis Carroll for the first time. If it happened I think I’d be frightened for a bit but then my curiousity would win out and I’d be excited.
Glad you liked the Amazon fairies. :) You’ll have to have Phil tell you about his version of fairies sometime. lol…
I liked the idea of cherry blossoms, that is very nice.
I know that you would be one to follow the fox. :) You’re almost kitsune anyway, redhaired and magical.
Yes! It sounds silly, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted that, my whole life.