This is a story about a charm bracelet that leads you to another world.
The first charm is a mint-candy-green cat for friendship. It leads you to a world where everybody is friendly. So, you think it might be the same exact world, but, this time, nobody can harm you there.
The second charm is a lemon-drop-yellow dog that represents fun. It takes you to a world where it is always fun. So, wherever you go, there is always a playground or a sleepover. Anything fun for you.
The third charm is a grape drop, shaped like a shell, that represents peace. It takes you to an ocean where it’s peaceful, and nothing can bother you there. You can never get a sunburn.
The fourth charm is last. The apple heart charm represents love. It leads you to a world where everyone loves you, even though you don’t know who they are.
***
For Finley’s fourth birthday, her great-uncle gave her a charm bracelet.
Finley said, “Thank you, Great-Uncle Charles. It’s adorable,” in a not-so-surprised, but still surprised, way. She thought it was just an ordinary charm bracelet that didn’t do anything special, but she loved the cat, dog, shell, and heart charms!
Her great-uncle said, “Ahh, you will see what’s so special about it,” with a smile on his face, like he couldn’t wait to see something.
It was vacation time from pre-school, so Finley and her family went to Hawaii on a boat. When she landed in Honolulu, she put the charm bracelet on, and she disappeared like POOF!
Nobody said anything because, then, there was just a fake Finley who could also talk and do things. There was a fake Finley because her great-grandpa is an inventor, and he built a fake Finley that could talk and do things just like the real Finley.
Meanwhile, Finley found out that she was up in the clouds, falling down like a piece of rock.
She yelled, “Ahhhhhhh!!!” She was scared that she was going to break every bone she had!
Then, everybody in town looked way up in the sky.
Finley’s friendly great-uncle said, “Look up in the sky!” and everybody held their hands out so that their palms faced the sky, and then Finley fell into everybody’s hands. Their hands were so soft, like a million pillows!
The green cat charm was shining in her eyes. Then, she saw something in her brain. It was the great wizard!
He said, “My name is Marcas. You have been sent to another world.”
Finley said, “Then how come everyone looks exactly the same?”
Marcas said, “This is still another world. It just looks exactly the same, but this time, nobody can harm you here.”
Finley felt a powerful charge of electricity from the charm of friendship. She hurt herself a lot in the other world because she was clumsy, but she felt safe now.
She saw everyone looking at her, and she said, “Why are you all looking at me?”
Her great-uncle said, “Because we’re friendly! Welcome to our world!”
Finley said, with a scared, toothy look, “Well, how come you are my great-uncle?” She could feel her skin stretching in her neck because she was forcing a smile.
In the world of friendship, you always had to be friendly because Marcas would kick you out if you weren’t, and you’d go to the evil world. You would see him up in the sky with a big face in the clouds, and he would say a spell to keep you there forever. The spell was, “Razzle dazzle doozle dreer, make you stay here forever ever.”
Finley felt kind of nervous because she didn’t want to get kicked out of the good world and go to the evil world.
The next day, Finley woke up and found out that she was in the regular world, back in the real Hawaii. Marcas took her because he wasn’t sure that everybody would know her and be friendly enough.
When she got out of bed, Finley dressed as best as she could: a white dress with real, pink diamonds and yellow, sparkly, thunderstorm sneakers. She put on pink lipstick (it’s kids lipstick), curled her eyelashes, and put on kid’s mascara. She had a cute, big head, so she put a crown on top. She wanted to look nice for the beach boardwalk. She didn’t put on the charm bracelet, though, because the paint would wash off in the ocean, and then, she would never be able to get to the all worlds. Marcas told her in her head that the only way she could travel without the bracelet was to go up to the Rainbow Falls in the sky.
“Wow! You look so beautiful, Finley! We should definitely go to the beach,” said her mom and dad.
And they went to the beach. It was soooo hot that they went right into the water to cool off. They saw tiny, yellow and black zebra fish, and then, they saw squid! So, they ran back to the beach. They got cold, so they laid out on the sand and got hot again! They went back to the water, but this time, they saw pink, crowned fish.
Her wrist was still wet, so she didn’t put on the bracelet. She kept it on the dry, dry, dry shelf. When it was time to go back to the ferry to go back home, she brought the bracelet.
But then, when she got home, there was a party with people she didn’t know!
Her mom said, “Oopsie! I think I forgot to lock the door.”
Finley said, “Get out of our home, or else I’ll kick you out on your butts! With my feet!”
So, everybody ran out the door. But there was one guy who didn’t, so Finley kicked him out. She was so mad, but she felt relaxed after she kicked his butt. In the world of friendliness, you couldn’t be mad, but over here, you could! She was so relaxed that she peed her pants. Then, at dinnertime, her dad told a joke, and she laughed so hard that she pooped in her pants!
When they saw the wetness, they said, “What are you doing?!”
She said in a relaxed voice, “I’m peeing and pooping in my pants, and I don’t care.” Then, she kept peeing. She was a little too relaxed.
So, then, she put on her charm bracelet. Then, she figured out that she was somewhere where everything was fun! Everyone was smiling and laughing. There were parks that looked like Central Park, and there were toy trains that were real trains with miniature cabooses that moved around by themselves. There was a cart by the river that sold blueberry lemonade, and an ice cream cart that sold any ice cream you wished (that your parents would normally say no to…). But they would say yes because this is the land of fun, and your parents don’t care if it’s bad for you. All they care about is that you have fun!
Finley’s parents trusted her, so it was the charm bracelet that guided her. If she went forward, and she was supposed to go backwards, the charm would point the direction.
Finley’s dog charm glowed, so she took three more steps, and the charm bracelet turned east, so she turned east. She saw someone, someone from the real world… It was her friend, Mila!
Finley’s eyes got bigger, and there was happy sweat coming out and flicking off of her forehead.
“Milaaaaaaaa!!!” she yelled.
Mila turned around and, with one eyebrow up and one eyebrow down, she said, “How did you know my name was Mila? I never saw you around!” Her hair was blonder than the Mila that Finley knew. When this Mila got happy, her hair got shinier and shiner, and actually lit up!
“Well, I saw you in the other world I live — ”
Mila gasped and yelled, “You are from another world?!” in a high-pitched voice.
Finley said, in a very slow, high-pitched voice, “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.”
Mila crossed her arms and said, “That. Is…” She uncrossed her arms and pointed her fingers down and puffed out her neck. “Awesooome!!!”
Finley said, “Let’s go to Central Park!” And they did.
They went on the seesaw, the monkey bars, the slide, and the swings. And then, they went to the ice cream cart, and Finley wanted chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and so did Mila.
Before Mila got her scoop, she said, “You read my mind!”
Finley said, “You mean you wanted chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, too?”
Mila sang in a loud and proud voice, “Yeees.”
Then, they went to the other park that was also Central Park, and they had different items to play. You could rock in the rocking chair, that was actually a playing horse. Finley got on, but she got dizzy.
Finley put her hand on the left side of her head. “My head is starting to hurt!”
Mila said, “Okay. I’ll let you go back home.”
At the end of the day, Finley went back home. She was glad to be home, because there was not too much fun. And then, the next day, she found out that her purple shell charm was glowing bright purple. Then she disappeared with a Poof! She found out that she was on a beach when she landed. No one was there, and all she heard was a small wave crashing.
Then, she found the original shell from her charm bracelet.
She said, “It’s as small as my charm of peace.” But the shell was different. The shell was grey. It wasn’t shiny, it was dull. And some of its shell broke off, but she found the piece to put it together. Then, she found her old house and put on her pink bathing suit with white polka dots. She went back to the beach to take a swim, but before she even went in the water, she found a stingray.
She stepped around him and said, “I’m not going to creep him out.”
Then, she went back into the store and dried herself with her towel. She took the shell with her and went to her old home. Then, she figured out that it had everything she needed to fix the shell. It had crazy glue, colorback, and a shiny machine. First, she used crazy glue to glue the pieces of the shell back together. The shiny machine was next. Finley shined the glued shell with the shiny machine, and the color of the shell was silver, but the shell had to be purple. The last step was to put the color back onto the shell, and the colorback was a spray. So, she used the colorback as purple, and then sprayed it on the silver shell, and the silver shell tuned purple. Then, the shell of peace glowed on her bracelet and, all of a sudden, she was back at home without even noticing!
She asked, “How did I get here? Oh well.”
Then the last charm was glowing red, and she disappeared with a puff of smoke. Poof! She was gone. Then, she was in a world where the only colors were red, pink, purple, and blue. Except for the people. They were different colors. Then, around the corner of the big building, she found her friend, Mila. She was wearing clothing Finely had never seen in the original world. She was wearing a dress with pink flowers, and around the flowers, it was purple. She had green shorts, and her shoes were the color orange.
Finely said, “Mila! How are you doing?”
Mila said, “Fine. Whoever you are, how are you?”
Finely said, “What do you mean ‘whoever’? I’m your friend, Finley!”
Mila said, “I don’t know you. Are you from a different world? I see you have a special charm bracelet.”
And then Finley said, “Yes, what is this world? A world of love?”
“Yes, you see, everything here is full of red, and purple, and pink,” Mila said.
“This special charm bracelet was from my uncle,” Finley said.
“From your uncle? I thought he was my uncle!” Mila said.
“You mean Uncle Charles?”
“Yes! That’s my uncle,” Mila said.
“But in the other world, when I was two years old, I didn’t know what he was. But as I grew, my mother said that person is Uncle Charles, my uncle.”
“But in this world things are different. So he is my uncle, and you are my new friend that I never met before because you don’t live in this world!” Mila said.
Then, Mila said, “This world is the world where everybody loves each other, even people who rob banks. They apologize, and the police will believe them since this is the world of love. I know where your parents are. They are on the next block across the street on your right. Your parents will be pleased to see you.’’
Finley did as Mila said. She went to the next block, across the street on her right. Then she saw a small door, tall enough for her to go through, but she knew her parents had to bend down because she measured them before. So she went inside the small door, and there was a big room, decorated with purple walls and pink letters that spelled her name: Finley. The lanterns were much more fancier. They were hanging from the ceiling, looking like glass teardrops. Then, she saw a door to the closet and saw all the fancy clothing! The color of the clothing were all Finley’s favorite colors: pink, red, blue, green, and purple. There was another door. Finley opened the door, and there were her parents.
Finley went into the room and jumped on her parents with a big smile that touched ear to ear.
Her parents said, “Oh, how are you doing? I missed you so much! Did you make any new friends?”
Finley said, “Uh, new friends? I already had a friend in the other world, which was Mila, duh!” Her eyebrows looked sad, but she made a ridiculous face, and was smiling with her mouth open.
Then, her parents said, “You should go on a time out.”
She said, “Nuh uh!” She touched her charm and went back to the other world. She went back so fast, she didn’t even notice. She was so tired because it was already midnight, and so, she got into her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and went to bed while her parents were sleeping. But before she went to her parents’ bed, she went to her old crib with her new stuffed animals, blankets, and pillows. She got out one of her new pillows with pink and purple flowers, with blue around them, and got a brown blanket with pink small hearts. She got her stuffed unicorn animal with big, blue, sparkly eyes, and a purple horn. It was a very, very, light-pinkish purple. She had a dream about the adventures she had.
THE END