Chapter One
Holly daydreamed, Holly daydreamed a lot, whenever and wherever she
went, she daydreamed. Her mum used to say that she should have been
born as a cloud because she had her head in them so often.
When most girls of her age were using their brains to work out complex
long division sums at school, Holly used hers to devise new and
exciting things to daydream about.
This impressive skill didn’t really cause her any problems in life,
save for the odd joke made at her expense by her classmates, so Holly
really had no reason to stop doing it. Her dad used to comment that it
was a shame they didn’t run competitions for her special kind of talent.
Sometimes she would take herself off to her favorite place and dream
for hours on end. It was always her mum or dad that would have to stop
her so she could eat!
Holly, her Mum and Dad lived in an old thatched cottage just outside a
country village called Middlewhich. They had a large back garden, with
a wood behind it and some pretty roses in the small front garden. All
in all it was a lovely place to live.
It was the summer holidays so there were no classmates to bother her.
One day at the breakfast table with her dad Holly was having a
particularly nice dream. She was sitting on a shimmering silver unicorn
in a large crowd of people who were all cheering a brilliant idea she
had just had.
All of a sudden she was interrupted when her mum burst through the back
door looking very excited.
This didn’t surprise Holly, or her Dad, as her Mum was prone to bouts of
unusual excitement. They could be about anything from the news of a
newly born baby to the totally uninteresting news that one of her
Rhubarb plants had a leaf shaped like their next door neighbors cat
(perhaps this was where Holly’s imagination had come from!)
So when she burst through the door Holly and her Dad merely lazily
turned their heads towards her.
‘You’re back quickly dear’ her father remarked.
‘Well..’ Holly’s mum started, but was so flustered she had to prop
herself up on the edge of the work-surface just to catch her breath.
”You know how we joke there should be daydreaming competitions for
Holly to enter?”
Her dad nodded, looking curious.
“..and if there was, she would win first prize?”
“Yes” said her dad again, more curiously.
“Well…there is, down at the village hall in four weeks time!”
Holly and her father both turned to stare at one another. Surely mother
was making this all up? But as excitable as she was, inventing
something as fancyful as this, was not like her.
“No way!” they both exclaimed disbelievingly.
Her mum said, still out of breath “I heard it from Mrs Dukes, who got
it from Mr Dukes, who saw it on the notice board down at the village
hall. There’s going to be a tent set up and judges to assess the
entries and everything. And there are prizes!”
Surprised and excited both Holly and her dad didn’t know what to say
but looking at each other they both knew what each other was thinking.
Where do we sign up?
Andrew Maxwell 