Backyard Castle

I woke up one morning to the sounds of birds chirping and a lady singing. That had never happened before except in fairy tales, so I jumped out of bed and peered out the window. Before me was the most magnificent, beautiful castle that I had ever seen. This castle was not there when I went to sleep at least I don’t think it was. That is especially significant because I live in Hollywood and see many amazing sets. I actually have seen at least twenty sets because I am a very famous actress.

I decided to check it out. I walked up to the castle and saw there was a real moat surrounding it with a draw bridge to cross. You don’t see many of those in the twenty-first century. The lady who had been singing was leaning out a fifth story window.

“Hello,” I called to the woman and realized she was only about fifteen years old, a little older then me.

“Oh, you must be Princess Arabella. I’ll be down in a moment if you’ll wait. Please!” she yelled.

Suddenly the draw bridge opened, I hesitantly tiptoed across the draw bridge and was astounded by the beauty inside the castle. Diamond chandeliers reflected off the white marble walls and floor. Silk tapestries were hung on the walls. The girl greeted me dressed in rags. She stepped toward me shaking her head, “This will never do for meeting the queen.” She examined my jeans and T-shirt combination. This was getting weird. The young girl handed me an antique, lace dress that was probably from the 1800’s. “Put it on quickly Princess,” the girl said interrupting my thoughts. “Wait . . .but . . . I stumbled over the words. The servant girl gave me a look of urgency, so I quickly

changed.

The dress fit me perfectly but, it still looked like I was dressed up for Halloween. What on earth could be going on? I then heard a tiny knock on the door to the room I was changing in.

“Princess? You Don’t want to leave the queen waiting please come out” I heard the servant girl say.

“Coming, but please tell me your name!” I called

“Sorry how silly of me Princess, the name is Lucia” she said.

I walked out of the room I was in and Lucia led me down a narrow hallway and up some very steep stairs. When we got to the top of the stair case I was taken back by the ballroom, it didn’t match the rest of the house. Instead it had an elegant painting on the ceiling, some very tall columns, and royal purple walls. One thing I saw that I didn’t notice before was a throne on the far wall with a women sitting on it and three girls standing around her.

“Finally! Girls this is Princess Arabella.” The women on the throne told them.

The women on the throne was wearing a very formal dark dress with a scary smile across her face. She had waist length silver hair with a black ribbon tying it back. Her ice blue eyes stared at me as I stood there. Lucia pushed me forward telling me to go join the three girls. Hello they all whispered in unison. I then figured out that the women on the throne must be the queen.

“Now that the four great princesses of North America are here, I can begin.” The queen spoke.

“I know you girls have never met but, you all have something in common. You are the princess of great powerful royal families in this continent. So get acquainted while I go make sure everything is ready for your ball tonight.” the queen commanded.

“Well, I’m Isa.. Arabella.” I told them.

For some reason I didn’t want to tell them my real name was Isabel or that I wasn’t a princess. The three girls introduced them selves as Claudia, Sylvia, and Eleanor. They all seemed like real princesses I didn’t want to be a disappointment so I pretended to understand as they talked about their parents kingdoms. Then the queen breezed back into the room.

“Everything about the ball is perfect. The reason I wanted you girls to meet was that when you each take over your parent’s throne, you will want friends in high places that can help you.” the queen said as she returned to her throne.

“I guess you should know that she is my mother, she wouldn’t just have princesses over if she didn’t have a daughter of her own.” Eleanor told us.

“I should have known. You look a lot alike,” I said trying to sound poised.

The three girls left the room so I followed them down the now familiar steep dark stair case. The girls turned to the left and entered a bedroom with a pink canopy bed.

“This is my room. My closet is over there if you need to barrow a more formal dress since you didn’t know about the ball.” Eleanor explained.

We all picked one out. They were all beautiful with big poufy skirts. This was starting to remind me of the movie I was doing about princesses and magical castles. I looked out the window and of course saw my own house. The castle was almost right up against it. It was dark I so I should probably head home, but how could I miss the ball? We went back into the main entryway but this time went up a grander stair case. Eleanor explained that her mother reserved it for her mother and father but she was allowed to use it on special occasions.

When we got up stairs we went back to the ball room. There was a string quartet playing music. There were probably over a hundred people dancing, eating and talking. The girls walked to the middle of the dance floor and almost immediately were asked to dance leaving me alone in the middle of the dance floor. The queen approached me at rapid speed.

“Darling, I just wanted to let you know you look smashing and that you are now trapped in this castle forever. You see darling your mother isn’t a queen any more because when she was younger she broke the rules and you have to pay for it! You are now my servant. The castle is obviously magic. Of course most can’t be built overnight, and I have enchanted the doors so you can never escape!”

“What!” I cried out.

I started running but the queen caught me. I started screaming but no one responded. The people kept dancing and eating. The queen grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Then all of the sudden all the people were staring at me and laughing I knew I was crying but it wasn’t funny. My life was ruined I could never see my family or friends again. I looked up even the queen was laughing. That’s when I saw the camera crew and a famous talk show host with a microphone but, the talk show host was famous for one thing… celebrity pranks.

“You didn’t, this is so not funny!” I said crying less hard now.

More laughter rang out. Then I saw my mom and dad and brother and stopped crying and ran to them.

“Sorry honey we told them you could do the show to help get you more fans for your big movie coming out, we didn’t expect you to cry so hard” my mom said.

Unbelievably my whole family was still laughing and in costumes Why didn’t I see them before? Then I figured something out. “Eleanor” was my best friend who’s real name is Jennifer.

“Sorry I had to be involved I wanted to see the look on your face” Jennifer told me while laughing.

“I am mad at all of you, but I have to admit you did a good job tricking me. How did you get this castle up so fast?” I questioned.

“Since you were filming from six A.M. through 11 P.M. you didn’t notice anything lucky for us, we did build it pretty fast though It took about three days.” the host explained to me.

From this experience I learned one thing. Before bed every night look for construction outside your window.