Dreams Really Do Come True…Kinda  

“I’m so excited for this, Cally,” Lin said, admiring her new heavy-bound book. “Fairytales: The Cliché. Everyone needs a cliché once in a while, I always say. Right, Cally? Er… Cally?”  

She looked down by her feet, but the orange tabby wasn’t there as she usually was. Lin giggled and shook her head. “Not again, Cally! Where are you?” She checked the nearest rosebush for her dear friend. The sunlight blanketed Anglo Park with its brilliant light, easing Lin’s search. The girl bent over the small hedge by the path in case her friend was in the midst of trees. Instead, a bunch of butterflies flew past her face, the soft woosh! of their wings flying past her ears as if she were Snow White. She giggled again and continued calling out Cally’s name.  

Eventually, she found her friend creeping toward a huge tree at the corner of the castle ruins. Cally’s green eyes peered up into the tree, her tail bopping from one side to the other. Lin looked into the branches and saw a squirrel admiring its fidgety hands. Shaking her head and smiling, Lin folded her arms and watched the tiny lion. At once, she pounced onto the tree and struggled to climb up to the branch. The squirrel seemed to mock Cally as it watched her claw off the bark then run off.  

Lin giggled. “Oh, Cally…” She lifted the tabby into her open arm. “Leave the poor thing alone. It’s got enough to worry about as it is. Well, this does seem to be a nice spot for a bit of light reading,” she added, admiring the view of the ruins.  

It felt like standing around Stonehenge, surrounded by such an old structure with a sacred aura about it. She sat down against the tree, staring at the castle and daydreaming. “I love fantasy….Well, let’s take a look at our first story, Cally.”  

Lin opened the heavy-bound book and turned the pages to the first story: The Poison Apple.  

“Oh, one of my favorites…” Lin said with a light chuckle. “When I die, the first thing I want to see after I wake up is my Prince Charming smacking one on me.” She nodded, and then she looked up to the castle ruins. “A house full of dwarves wouldn’t be bad either…doing my chores and all…. Well, Cally.” She looked back to the book. “What do you say I start reading some snippets in this book?”  

Cally curled up in Lin’s lap, scratching herself with the corner of the cover. Lin shook her head with a smile and tried to read over her cat’s movements. “ ‘Once upon a time…’ and of course, we start with that…”  

“Oh, Cally,” Snow Lin said with a sigh, watering the castle gardens. “You would think after sixteen years, I’d make my own decisions like…like which chore to do first! Or…well, you know what I mean, Cally. Only you seem to understand.”  

The orange tabby, who was originally about to pounce on a dove, froze and looked at Snow Lin from the corner of its large eyes. She backed off and sat properly on the windowsill as innocent as any other mini tiger would.  

Snow Lin looked to her bucket of water, shook her head, and dumped it all on the sidewalk, sending the flock of doves flying. “I never had a green thumb,” she said. Swinging the bucket in her hand, she wandered to the well not too far away and hooked the pail on the rope. “I really could use a wish-come-true right now too…” She peered down the well as the bucket lowered further and further.  

“I wish my prince will come today,” Snow Lin said half-dully and half-wishfully.  

I wish my prince will come today, responded the well.  

Cally and the doves jumped at the echo. Snow Lin caught the tabby before she tumbled inside from her terrible case of curiosity. “All you have to do is make a wish into the well, and if you hear it echoing, your wish will come true. Try it, Cally.” She set the tabby back on the edge; Cally looked up at Snow Lin like she was insane.  

“How beautiful,” said a low voice.  

Snow Lin jerked up and turned around, but no one was there. She looked to Cally, but the tabby was searching just as much as she was. “Perhaps that was just an echo,” Snow Lin said. “Did you make a wish all ready, Cally?”  

The cat meowed this time. Snow Lin’s brow scrunched up, but she still laughed. “Well, then. We can just continue our chores—”  

“Wait, fair maiden!” Snow Lin picked up the now-full pail of water before looking up into the empty castle. “Please, I’m right here. Don’t go.”  

“I’m over here!”  

Lin looked up for the disrupting voice; Cally jumped from her curled-up position. A few boys were playing Frisbee not too far away. One of them was running toward Lin and Cally, holding his arms out to catch. Lin held her cat close as the disc flew towards them—  

—and was caught by the boy.  

“Sorry ‘bout that,” the boy said, windswept from the catch. His eyes darted from the cat to the book and finally to Lin. “Are you out here reading?”  

“Yes, we are,” Lin said lightly, calming Cally down by combing her back, “and we would very much appreciate it if you took your gaming somewhere else so we weren’t in danger of getting hit.”  

The boy puffed out his chest, mimicking a stereotypical Englishman. “I suppose I could arrange such a task.” His voice seemed to have dropped two octaves.  

She giggled, “Thank you very much, kind sir. I’m Lin White, and you are…?”  

“Busy,” he said, smirking. It’s not every day you meet someone who introduces themselves at the park for no apparent reason. “I’ll just be…over there…. Yeah, I’ll see you.” He ran off.  

Lin smiled and shook her head. “Boys…. Well, Cally. Let’s see here…. Oh, boy! The Glass Slipper. I wonder what story that could be,” she added with a giggle. She peered up at the castle ruins. “I bet this castle looked just like the one in this story. And the staircase…” She stood up and wandered into the ruins. “The staircase was probably right here, where the glass slipper would have been left. It’s a beautiful story, Cally.” She sat down against a piece of the supposed-staircase and opened the book to The Glass Slipper.  

“Oh, it’s lovely, everyone!” Cinderellin said, twirling in her new ball gown. Now she can go to the ball, and her stepmother couldn’t do anything about it! Cinderellin couldn’t begin to describe how much she appreciated this. She looked down at the mice, birds, and Cally staring up eagerly at her. “Thank you, guys, so much! This is gorgeous!”  

Cally tugged at the hem of her dress in the direction of the door. Noticing Cally’s intentions, Cinderellin hiked up her dress and rushed to the door, saying, “Oh, yes! They’re about to leave! Thank you, Cally!”  

Little did she know that Cally slipped out of the room after her. The orange tabby didn’t clean her fur for nothing.  

“Wait! Wait, I’m here!”  

As Cinderellin ran down the stairs, her two stepsisters and stepmother halted in front of the opened front door. Their jaws dropped at the sight of her gorgeous pink gown, sparkled and glittered like none of theirs.  

“Mother, no! You can’t let her go!”  

“She doesn’t belong there, Mother! She’ll ruin everything!”  

“Girls. Girls! She can come. She did all this work, and she still got this far—Oh, wait. Isn’t that...your necklace, dear?”  

Things went downhill from there. The two sisters charged at Cinderellin, tearing off their sash, jewelry, and other fabrics that were originally theirs until finally Cinderellin was able to escape to the garden for a good cry. The carriage left the manor in the distance, leaving Cinderellin shut up at home once again.  

Lin gasped. “The fairy godmother! Gah, she’s so amazing. She makes me laugh.” She turned to Cally curled up in her lap, said, “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” and batted her on the nose.  

Picking up her cat, Lin stood up and danced with her “Prince Charming” around the castle ruins. Cally couldn’t take it and meowed louder than she normally did—close to a shriek. Lin stopped and laughed harder, hugging her tabby close and apologizing.  

“Sorry, Cally. I just love that story! It’s so pretty, especially the ending. Oh, and the ball always gave me goose bumps—”  

A Frisbee flew into the middle of the ruins and passed Lin into the back near the staircase. Lin smiled and shook her head as the boy she met earlier ran up to the ruins. She said hi as he ran past, but he didn’t say anything for a few minutes.  

“Well, Cally—” Lin stifled a yawn at this point. “I’m getting bushed. Why don’t I read one more, and then we can head home. Sound good?”  

Cally brushed underneath Lin’s chin before the girl put down her tabby.  

“Hey, um…Lin!”  

Lin looked up and saw the boy running toward her with the heavy-bound book in one hand and the Frisbee in the other. “This is yours, I think. It was sitting over there on some rocks, and I almost tripped over it.”  

“Oh, sorry about that!” Lin said, flushing slightly. She held the book tight to her chest, giggling. “I can be a bit forgetful at times. Thanks for not tripping over it and saving its life.”  

“Heh, no problem. Well, I’ll see you around still.”  

He ran off before Lin could say another word. Lin giggled, which stifled another yawn in the making. “Well, Cally,” Lin said, smiling. “Let’s take a look at that one last story before we leave.” She flipped a few pages until she found where they left off. The Golden Spindle.  

“Oh, goodness, this is the most beautiful story!” Lin said, getting excited. She walked over to the corner of the castle ruins, close to where they were originally sitting. It could very well have been a tower, since fantasy castles always had towers at their corners. “Well, now…. ‘Once upon a time’ again…”  

“I love him, Cally,” Roselin whispered. “Now I’ll never see him again.” She breathed heavily, keeping from sobbing as she spoke. “Oh, why…”  

The room was silent except for Roselin’s crying. Cally’s company hardly did anything but allow her to talk about it. The orange tabby curled up next to Roselin’s arms so her warm fur would somewhat comfort Roselin.  

A green light emanated from across the room. Cally jumped up as Roselin slowly sat up in the direction of the glow, her gaze hypnotic. There was no twitch of the lip or blink of the eye. Cally’s meows couldn’t reach her either as she stood up. She began walking toward the fireplace where the green light came from; Cally jumped down from the desk and followed her catlike.  

Roselin’s journey took some time; Cally wondered what pulled her along like that. No one was saying anything to encourage her, but something mesmerized her. Whatever it was, Roselin stopped in front of a spindle by the end of her trip, and Cally meowed louder than she had ever meowed.  

Roselin didn’t move.  

Well, except for her trance.  

Cally tugged on her dress as Roselin lifted her finger before the spindle—  

—but Lin didn’t move. She was sound asleep, and only Cally would know how much of a heavy sleeper she is (except for maybe Lin’s mother). Cally made a small cry for the girl, but instead of the girl’s attention, the boy answered.  

“What in the…?”  

The boy nudged Lin with his toe, Frisbee in hand. He laughed. “Is she really sleeping—? I’m talking to a cat,” he muttered, rolling his eyes, then his eyes widened with frustration. “And I’m talking to myself! That’s good.”  

His eyes fell upon the book she held. “Fairytales…. What’re you guys reading, eh, tiger?” he asked as he knelt down, patting Cally on the head. “The Golden Spindle. What’s that, Sleeping Beauty? Who wrote fairytales again? A couple grim brothers. Can’t remember their names for the life—oh, these aren’t by them. Oma White? Who’s Oma White?”  

The cat nudged Lin’s arm and looked up at the boy.  

“Lin White… Are they related?” The cat blinked. “That might explain the name. Roselin?” He chuckled. “Well, I gotta get home. Hopefully she’ll wake up soon, tiger.” Then his brow scrunched. “Why are you even out here? I’ve never heard of someone walking their cat. That’s kinda…”  

“…cliché?” Lin muttered, peering through one opened eye.  

“Er…sure,” the boy said, shrugging. “I was just about to leave. Glad to see you’re awake. I think tiger wants to go home.”  

“I told her we’d leave after this story,” Lin said, scratching Cally behind the ears. “Guess I took a break and dozed off.”  

“Yeah, well… we all need a break. Speaking of which, I have home to get to.” He stood up.  

Lin closed her book, getting ready to stand as well when the boy held out his hand. Lin took it and stood with his help. “Thanks,” she said, smiling. “What’s your name, by the way? It’s hard to believe that it really could be Busy.” She giggled.  

“Oh, no, haha.” He scratched the back of his neck, and they walked through the castle. “Name’s Charles. Charles Prince.”