Waking up to the warmth of the sun on her face, entering from the balcony doors stood on the left side of her & Stew's bedroom, Felicity sat up staring outside at the busy street. The traffic was backed up, horns were beeping, the taco & coffee trucks were out with customers lined up & the florist shop across the street had fresh flowers in plastic bins lining both sides of the entrance. Noticing it was already 8:00, Felicity stood up & began making the bed. First chore of the day, complete. Next, coffee. Walking downstairs to make a pot of coffee, Felicity noticed a bright white envelope taped to the front door. The front was blank. Curious, Felicity grabbed the envelope & opened it up to see what was inside.
Pulling out a bright blue ticket with a note that read, "The ship leaves at 9 a.m. sharp. This is your chance."
"Is this some kind of trick?" Fecility thought.
"No, Stew would never spend his money on me to go anywhere. And the writing, how odd. It's written in someone's large, swirly handwriting. But not a child's writing, this writing seemed to have a sort of sophistication to it. What do I have to lose? Nothing."
9:00 a.m. sharp -- Felicity, carried nothing but her blue ticket & purse containing her I.D., $13 & her signature red lip stick. Her hair slicked back in a low pony tail, wearing a black and white tank top, black jeans, black boots & black sunglasses (the sunglasses were to be concealed just enough to where she could have time to dodge any of Stew's buddies [or their wives] if they were to think they had spotted her).
A light brown ship, seeming to be filled with nothing, but rope and hay pulled up to dock and a short man with a bald head, white beard & bright red shirt with dark brown corduroy pants steps from the boat on to the dock.
"Ticket?" He asked.
"Oh, yes, sir. Right here." Felicity handed the bright blue ticket to the man.
"Welcome aboard, Felicity. Come with me."
Felicity followed the happy, stout man on to the boat. He took her into the cabin of the boat & down the long stairs.
"Wow!" thought Felicity.
Walking down the stairs, Felicity noticed that on the right side of the wall looked to be a never-ending open window of a beach with waves crashing down onto shore. Felicity could feel the breeze & hot sun & smell the ocean air. She saw a white lighthouse in the distance and besides the seagulls & waves, there was no one in sight.
"But how?" Felicity questioned to herself.
"I'm on a boat, this has to be some fancy artwork that tricks one into thinking it is a live scene."
While still keeping pace behind the captain, Felicity put her hand out of this long open window & grabbed a handful of sand & in amazement, slowly dropped it back down onto the shore.
Looking to the left of her on the wall looked to be another large open window that seemed to go on for days, but outside of this window was a clearing in the middle of a forest on top of a mountain with snow all over the ground and on the pine trees. It was night time & there was a full moon. There were random trees that were lit up like Christmas trees with lights strung all around them. It was silent & calming & snow was falling from the dark sky. Felicity put her hand out & watched as snow flakes fell into the palm of her hand. Felicity felt such calmness and was so immersed in the beautiful, lively scenery that she began to slow her pace. She had the best of both worlds at just the tips of her fingers, why would she want to go anywhere else?
"Come along now, Felicity, we have much more to see," said the captain.
Felicity, coming back to reality, sped up her pace. The stairway came to a completely dark, but very large room with no walls or ceiling in sight. The only light in the room came from the wooden door at the far end & it looked to be draped with green vines.
The captain turned towards Felicity & said, "ladies first," as he gestured for her to enter a two-person seat on rails that looked to be part of a roller-coaster ride.
"Oh, thank you," Felicity said as the captain helped her in.
"Here we go!" yelled the captain excitedly.
No sooner than she sat down they were on the move & FAST! Before she knew it, they were at the wooden door that just moments ago looked to be miles away.
The captain put his hand out to help Felicity out & handed her a skeleton key.
"This is where I must leave you, Felicity. Use this key to open this door & through here you will need to make your way through the giant hedge maze. After that, you will reach a small cottage. There you will find your destiny. Pretty cool, huh?"
Felicity took the key out of the captain's hands & noticed that there were two other keys on that key that were very small, but were indeed keys just as much as the skeleton key was a key.
"Okay, wait, so I need to do what now?"
But as she looked back, he was gone.
"Oh, great. Here I am left alone in a huge dark room in some magic boat. Fantastic!"
Felicity took a few deep breaths.
"It's okay. I got this. All of this is better than being trapped in a house with an abusive man for the rest of my life. I have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Let's do this."
Felicity put the skeleton key in the key hole of the wooden door handle. Nothing. She tried jiggling it a bit. Nothing. Then she noticed a small sign on the side of the door in the same swirly handwriting that was used to write the note in the envelope she received this morning.
The sign read, "Three keys are better than one!"
Felicity was stumped.
"What is this supposed to mean?! There is only ONE key hole. Where would the other two even-"
There. Right there under the key hole were two small key holes. Very small. Felicity took the skeleton key out of the key hole & removed both small keys from the skeleton key. She then put all three keys in the key holes & turned each one of them. With that, the door creaked open & daylight spilled it's way onto Felicity's face as she stood in front of the doorway with eyes wide.
It was beautiful. There was a bright, clear blue sky and the birds were singing & the sun was shining & in front of her was fresh cut grass with a maze of perfectly cut rectangle hedges. The hedges had to be 10 feet tall. As Felicity walked through the doorway, the entrance of the giant hedge maze magically & quickly moved to the very front of the doorway to where all she saw now was the inside of the hedge maze. No more beautiful cut grass field & other places to walk to. Although she could still hear the birds singing & see the clear blue sky above & light from the sun. Felicity had no choice, she must either walk through the giant hedge maze or turn around. And turning around was no real option as all that was behind her was a black room with nothing in sight.
So off she went, Felicity walked through the hedge maze with determination. Each time she had a choice to make on which way to go she randomly chose which ever direction she was intuitively drawn to. As Felicity continued through the maze, she realized that the sun was starting to go down & she was losing light.
"Oh no!" Felicity thought.
"What am I going to do when it gets dark?!"
Felicity decided right then & there to begin to run in hopes that she would get to the end quicker. Felicity ran & ran, but there was no end in sight. It became even more dark & eventually she could hardly see her hand in front of her face. Felicity decided to lay down on the next bench that she felt around for as every so often in the maze there would be a bench sitting on the side if the trail. But as she was feeling around for the bench she began to feel something stone. It seemed to be a statue of some sort. As she felt around to see what the statue was, she came to the conclusion that it was of a gnome or elf. She felt the chubby little face & the pointy hat with the large nose & long beard.
"Um excuse me!" a voice shouted in an annoyed tone.
Felicity shot back in fear, "hello?!"
A grumpy male voice could be heard, "do you mind? I'm trying to sleep."
Felicity couldn't believe it. Was this statue alive?
"I'm so sorry, I thought you were a statue! I'm trying to find my way out of here. Can you please help me?"
"Of course I'm a statue -- you become a statue when you sleep. Well, I was until you so rudely woke me up! If you don't mind, I have to get back to sleep. I have a lot more hedges to trim tomorrow," he said.
"I'm sorry I woke you, but I am trying to get out of here. If YOU would not be so rude, would you please tell me how to get out of here. I am looking for a cottage."
"If you want help, then you will have to find the wizard & the wizard, I'm afraid, is in the cottage. I am no help to you. Goodnight!"
And at that he rolled back into the hedges & was off to sleep again.
"Wonderful," thought Felicity.
"Now I'm back in the dark with no one to help. I better get some sleep too then."
Felicity yawned as she curled up in a ball & began to fall asleep.
