Part Four: The Wishing-Top Tree

Jenny and Mimi Clarke were on an adventure, Mimi clutching her scarlet, little diary and leaning on the wall of a queer treehouse in a strange tree. Jenny was staring excitedly at Binky the Brownie, watching him get ready. Finally, he pulled on the last shoe and did a thumbs-up.

"I'm so excited!" exclaimed Jenny, opening the wooden door. "Wishing-Top, here we come!" She   rushed out after Binky and started scrambling up the tree, as easily as she knew her own name. Mimi was having more difficulty. She tucked her little journal into her pocket and heaved with great effort up onto the first branch. Her fingers struck a bump in the wood, and pulled her hand back, nursing her fingers. She pulled herself up a few branches, and rested against the trunk.

"Hurry up, slowcoach!" called Jenny, who was way ahead. Mimi was so surprised that she nearly fell out of the tree! Luckily, she caught hold of a strong-looking bough-and let go in astonishment as it, before her eyes, morphed into a skinny, frail-looking branch with tiny green buds. Her arms flailed for a second, before she regained her balance. She heard Jenny cry out, and suspected she'd had a fright, too. But the next moment, Jenny came tumbling through the weak branches, snapping a few and bending many. Mimi seized her wrist before she fell out of the tree, and hauled her up onto the thin branch she herself was standing upon.

"Great shock I had there," gasped Jenny, clutching her chest and swaying. "I was just climbing, when the broad boughs changed into those-those sticks!" She waved a fist at the branches. "I guess I forgot the tree changed."

"Indeed!" Mimi pointed. The stick-like, weak branches were turning thicker and stronger. Pears dangled from the thinnest branches, and Mimi picked one. The delicious sweet taste was refreshing.

"You alright, Jenny?" yelled Binky, sounding worried. His hazel, innocent eyes peered down from a long way.

"Yes!" shouted back Jenny. "It's okay, Mimi caught hold of me at the last minute, or I'd have fallen right through your rooftop!" She waved a pear at him. He chuckled and tossed an apple at her.

"It's growing apples up here!"

"Yum." Mimi licked her lips, and reluctantly followed her hurried sister up the tree. When they finally caught up with Binky, he pointed down. They were miles above the trees in the wood, like a fluffy green carpet below. Mimi's knuckles went white as she gripped the branch-she had an excessive fear of heights. Her head swam and her brain felt fuzzy and slow. Her hands were fuzzy as well, and lighter than usual. 

"Come on." Jenny's voice was distant and faraway, like from another world. She shook Mimi impatiently, and Mimi finally dared to pull her gaze from the rug of leaves far, far below.

Then, there was a window, right there in the trunk, a pleasant yellow colour. Jenny peeped through the sunshine yellow curtains. Every single thing was yellow inside. Yellow furniture, yellow walls, yellow floor, yellow ceiling...it was most curious.

A little pixie was writing a letter at a table with a yellow-and-white checked tablecloth. The ink was a bright, neon yellow, and the parchment was a sandy, ageing yellow. His pointy hat was yellow, his clothes, and his curious yellow eyes. When he spotted Jenny's surprised face at his round window, he got up from his yellow stool and marched over to the window. Jenny was now looking very apprehensive.

The pixie pulled his windows open and leant out, scowling and seething.

"Peeper!" he spat in Jenny's face. "I'm tired of it, really! I am working here!" He looked at Binky and yelled, "I suppose you started this? Come back another time. I'm working."

He slammed the window shut and drew the curtains.

"Oops," Jenny said. She squinted through the now tiny gap in the curtains and...

"Can you stop it!" the pixie glared at her through the gap, and Jenny backed off. Binky shook his head and sighed. He smoothened his crisp shirt and told Jenny, "I hope you didn't take it personally. The Yellow Pixie's not always that annoyed. It's just the yellow-really gets to him, makes him in a bad temper (well, it is the colour of annoyed), but he's the Yellow Pixie, and so he needs to be yellow."

"It's fine," mumbled Jenny, climbing up and spotting a green door, set in the trunk of the thick-trunked tree, with a green bell. "It is okay?"

"Yes, that's my friend Willow's door!" Binky beamed, and leapt forwards. He rang the bell, and they heard it go ding-a-ling-a-ling! inside. A soft, gentle voice called from inside, "I'm making some fresh lily-pad biscuits and some lotus flower tea! I'll be with you in a trice, Binky!"

"Okay!" called back Binky. "i'm here with my two friends, Jenny and Mimi, who're exploring the Dreamlike Forest! We're climbing to the top, and would you mind if we had some snacks at yours?"

"Of course!" Willow's voice came from inside the tree trunk house, and the green door swung open. A fairy looked out, her brown hair like slim, willow tree branches, her eyes a neon green. She was wearing a lime-green apron and had tiny shoes. In one hand there was a spoon, in the other, an empty teacup. And on her back were a pair of brown-and-green butterfly wings!

"Oh, hello!" she smiled. "Are you climbing up the tree? I shall join you. But first, let us eat some lily-pad biscuits and lotus flower tea! You'll love it!"