By the end of the day, I had finished my drawing of a dream catcher. I knew that it would last all night. The only question left was, “Would it work?”.
I brought it to life as soon as I felt tired and hung it on the end of the bed.
I then laid my head down on my pillow and soon fell asleep.
Yet again, I dreamed about my father. However, my dream was not about the December night I had spoke of. It was about when we had sailed from Hispaniola and were crossing the Atlantic to the Spanish main. The Hispaniola was where my father hid all his gold riches, and we had just taken thousands of Kitties, Pesetas, Yuan, Francs and were we off to spend them in different countries.
I was with my father in his cabin, discussing what we were going to spend the money on.
My father wanted to spend the money in Singapore on something for me. Singapore was my favourite part of the world. I love the dragons at their new year.
The money was my fathers, yet he never talked about how he would spend it on himself. It would always be about me.
And after we spent our riches, we celebrated our fortune with the crew.
Music was played. Food and wine and rum was passed round for all. And me and my father danced together, waltzing to the music.
I was so happy.
What a dream to dream.
I woke up happy as well.
That meant that my dream catcher worked!
By the time I woke up it had faded from where it once hung. But no matter, by night fall I should be able to bring it back to life again.
And it was a good job I had a good night sleep, because today was the day I would start my drawing in the town hall.
I woke up nice and early and made my way down to the hall as quickly as I could.
I was so exited.
What I would draw would be truly incredible.
I was hoping that his majesty would like it when it was finished.
As I came to the hall, I sighted the Mayor. He was putting up a sign on the door of the hall.
“Access forbidden until ten PM Halloween, (signed) the Mayor.” The sign wrote.
‘Annie!’ The Mayor called as he noticed when he turned round. ‘Jack’s waiting for you inside. What are you doing with that canvas, anyway? I do wish you could tell me.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. That is not for me to decide.’
‘Oh, there’s no need to call me “Sir”. Everyone calls me Mayor, Annie.’
‘Very well, I shall, Mayor.’
‘And why don’t you call Jack “Jack”, instead of “Sire”. He knows how polite you are, Annie, but everyone has always called him “Jack”. I insist you do the same.’
I pondered for a moment or two about what the Mayor had told me.
‘Anyway, I must attend to the pumpkin patch to see if Behemoth had started harvesting the pumpkins yet.’ The Mayor spoke as he journeyed off to his next destination. ‘It was wonderful to see you so happy again. See you later, Annie.’
‘Fair well for now, my friend.’ I waved him goodbye as I opened the door and entered inside the hall.
I gazed at the stage at the other end of the hall. I then saw three familiar faces.
‘Emma! Sally!’ I called out as ran towards them. ‘Jack!’ I also called out.
‘Am I hearing things?’ Pondered Emma.
‘Did you just call me “Jack”?’ Jack asked me.
‘Yes! I did.’ I ran towards the stage where my friends stood.
‘What’s made you suddenly change your mind, Annie?’ Sally asked me.
‘I suppose I finally realized that it would actually be more appropriate to address his majesty as the name he desires.’
‘You said “his majesty” again, you posh little thing.’ Emma realized what I had said, but it really matter not.
I suddenly noticed black and white pots of paint on the table at the back of the stage.
‘Is this for me?’ I questioned as I wandered up to the pots and brushes.
‘You did say that black and white was all you needed, right?’ Jack made sure that there were no mistakes.
‘Of course…Jack.’ I answered with his name. ‘This is everything I shall need.’
‘What exactly are you going to draw, Annie?’ Sally wondered.
‘I love dragons. That might give you a hint, Sally. I use to journey to Singapore with my father. He took me there so many times since I loved the dragons they painted. They even made a giant costume of a dragon and dozens of people gathered underneath and paraded though the villages. However, the dragon I shall paint is going to be slightly different. You shall soon see what I am talking about.’
I gazed up at the canvas again. ‘Am I to use a ladder of some sort?’ I enquired.
‘Of course. You can use the scaffolding we use to set the lights.’ Jack elucidated as he pointed to the rows of stage lights on the ceiling and then to the scaffolding at the back of the stage.
‘Don’t worry, Annie. I’ll help you move it around. I know my technical theatre and I know how to move this thing safely. You just concentrate on your dragon painting thing.’ Emma instructed.
So, I began sorting out brushes, which ever sizes I would require for different parts of my painting.
I also began looking through my book for a smaller planning sketch I drew the previous day. As soon as I found it I folded the book over to view just the page with my sketching.
‘Wow. Is that what it’s going to look like when you‘re finished?’ Jack wondered.
‘Hopefully, sire. I mean, Jack.’
‘Thank you for remembering. It did take you long enough to call me by my name.’
‘But you did know why I insisted not to, do you not, Jack?’
‘Well, you know that this world is nothing like your old one. That’s why you love this town so much, right?’
‘Yes, Jack. Of course.’
As the subject of my world had been raised, Jack was reminded of my trouble sleeping.
‘Did you sleep alright last night? You didn’t have another nightmare again did you?’
‘No, Jack. I did not. Doctor Finklestein’s idea of a dream catcher worked just as it should have done. I should thank him for his help later. And that reminds me to thank you, Jack.’
‘Thank me?’
‘You the first soul in this town to befriend me, and you’re now my greatest friend in this town. Thanks to you, I’ve found happiness again. Jack, I have not felt this joyful since before…’ I paused as I did not want to finish my sentence.
‘Hey, that’s all in the past now, right?’
‘Not entirely, Jack.’
Jack seemed slightly puzzled.
‘Jack, you know me and my friend were separated from our world when we died. And you know that out deaths were not supposed to happen.’
‘Yes, I understand that much.’
‘You also know that if we reunite then we can go home. If we do return home, all that was wrong will be reversed. In each of our worlds, some other things happened that were not supposed to, those wrong things ultimately caused us to die. If we go home, we will be put back to before our these wrong things happened.’
I paused as I came to the purpose of my explanation.
‘I hope that my father was never meant to die. That the ambush was never meant to take place. I hope that if I return home, I shall see my father again.’
The expression on Jack’s face lightened as I explained what could happen if I returned home.
‘You see, sire. There is hope for me yet. And for my friends as well.’
Jack sighed as he came down to my head height.
‘The three of you continue to surprise me when you tell me thing about your worlds. Like the story you told me. Your world sounds nothing like this town. Why, we don’t even have a pond, never mind an ocean.’
‘On Earth we have lots of oceans and seas. Dozens. Maybe even hundreds. There’s more sea than land on Earth. But this place has it’s wonders as well. Back in my world, there’s no such thing as “Halloween”, or Jack-o‘-lanterns, or vampires, or ghosts, or witches, or living dolls, or even talking skeletons like yourself, Jack. The world you and you people live in, Jack, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I must admit I am fascinated with this town. It’s so enchanting.’
‘You know, you remind me of someone. You’re fascination with Halloween reminds me of someone I know very well who had a fascination with another holiday.’
‘Really, Jack? Who would that be?’
‘Hmm, it’s a long story. I might tell you another time.’
‘Hey guys!’ Emma called from the back of the stage, pushing the scaffolding structure out into the light. ‘Where do you want this?’
‘Hmm, I think I’ll start with the head, so on the left, Emma. Right at the edge if you please.’
Emma huffed and puffed as she pushed the scaffolding, it did look rather heavy.
‘Hold on, Emma. I’ll help you.’ Jack rushed over to assist Emma with moving the structure.
I gazed at my small sketching, and then gazed up at the giant canvas that stood before me.
I was eager to get started as soon as the scaffolding was in place.
From that moment on, day after day, I painted as neatly as I could.
Starting with the head the first day, I painted the outline first. Taking the utmost care with the strokes of the brush.
The second day I roughly sussed out where the body, limbs and wings would be. I also started with the spine of my painting. Since this dragon was going to be different, I needed to think carefully about each part as I painted it.
The third day I put more detail on the head and gradually made my way to painting the wings.
The fourth day I continued with the wings. They were the trickiest of this art work. Yet I did not falter.
Each day I kept up my best work and made sure that this would be the greatest art piece I had ever made exist.
I could not wait until it was finished. I could not wait until Halloween.
What would it be like?
Would it be as haunting, as enchanting, and as exciting as Jack had told me about?
Though I could not wait, I would have to wait until the thirty first of October came.
