Chapter Nine

Sally had wondered around being sulky for quite some time talking to herself mumbling and grumbling about how strangely rude The Girl with the Big Blue Hair was. She thought of the things she would like to do to her, teach her some manners and make her say sorry. After awhile she became bored of this and the feelings of loneliness and lostness took over and she hurried around this corner and ran around that one and up this hallway and down those stairs and getting more and more lost and lonely all the while. Sally came to a very long white corridor full of chairs of all sorts and in some parts there were so many she to climb over them, at the end she could see an arched doorway which came to a point much like church doors. The chairs seamed to go on for ever and ever first walking between them then climbing over them, catching her dress and falling and bruising her hands more then once. She was starting to get very tired when finally until she climbed over the last pile of chairs and walked toward to door wiping her bruised hands on her now rather tattered dress. “If the door doesn’t open” Sally threatened “I shall kill myself, for I am NOT climbing back over those chairs” she waited for a while just in case the door was listening for she was she couldn’t take it if were to be locked, after catching her breath she walked solemnly up to the doors which were much larger not so friendly looking now she was standing in front of them. Slowly she reached to the door knob knowing there must be something grand behind such grand doors, taking a breath she grasped the knob turning it slowly around then it caught and would turn no more. Sally’s heart sank and she stood holding the door knob a few moments before sliding to the ground and bursting into tears for it was the most disappointing thing that could have happened. She had cried a bit she remembered she was going to kill herself and after thinking about this she thought she would try opening the door again for she didn’t feel like doing this. “I’m a bright girl and when I put my mind to something it gets done” she encouraged herself standing up “now dry your tears Sally and open that door” in time she noticed a large red key hanging on the wall “ah ha! If that’s not the key for the door I shall eat my hat” (which was a much safer bet since she wasn’t wearing a hat) but the key was much too high for her to reach so she tried jumping then running and jumping and then jumping and screaming none of which proved helpful so she just screamed as loud as she could and sat down with a bump which rather hurt. She had been sitting for some minutes when it occurred to Sally to peek through the keyhole and see what was behind the big red doors, so she got up and put her face to the door and peered through. At first she couldn’t make out what she was seeing then it came to her as quite shock; there was a colourfully painted face staring back at her. Sally gasped and jumped back from the door and stood against the wall with her heart pounding. “It may have been there the whole time watching me -whatever it is” she shivered, then a thought came to her that maybe the face didn’t belong to a person or creature at all but was a painting or statue “for there does seam to be a great many paintings and statues around this place” she reasoned. But even this thought didn’t give her the courage to peek through the keyhole again so she sat down on the floor again and wondered if anything could get worse for her. Sally looked at the big red doors another thought struck her that she might call out to whatever it was on the other side of the door because maybe it was friendly or maybe just a painting. So she called out “hello” and because she couldn’t think of anything else to say “hello?” but there was no answer. “Maybe it doesn’t know what to say back to hello” Sally wondered so instead she said “what’s your name? I’m Sally” and then a little louder in case the thing didn’t hear “I’m Sally, who are you?” and then a voice croaky voice answered “Hello Sally” This was quite a relief because it was a rather friendly sounding voice, so feeling much more happy now Sally called out to it again “who are you?” “I’m A Clown Juggling Oranges” came the reply “oh” said Sally and couldn’t think of anything to say for awhile. Presently she thought that a clown juggling oranges might be able to open the door so she asked but he couldn’t and asked why she couldn’t and Sally told him. “How curious” said a clown juggling oranges “you really aren’t very clever are you?” “yes I am” retorted Sally “But I can’t reach the key because I’m too short not because I’m not clever” a clown juggling oranges laughed at this which made Sally stamp her foot “stop laughing, you can’t open the door either” “I can help you open the door” laughed a clown juggling oranges “how please?” asked Sally “why have you been sitting on the floor” asked a clown juggling oranges “how is that helping? Just tell me how to open the door” pleaded Sally “think about it” came the reply through the keyhole. Sally thought for a minute “because I was tired, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately” the voice sighed at this and then said “you can’t see the tree’s for the forest can you? Take a chair and place it away from the others” so Sally did this “now what do you see?” said a clown juggling oranges “I see a chair”  said Sally sulkily. “Think” came the croaky voice through the keyhole “can’t” said Sally. There was a long silence after this and Sally sat down on the chair and then jumped up again “I could have sat on this chair” she exclaimed “right you are” agreed a clown juggling oranges “and what else can you use the chair for?” prodded a clown juggling oranges “I don’t know” said Sally “reach golden keys?” the croaky voice suggested “oh yes” exclaimed Sally and dragged the chair over to the wall climbed up and grabbed the key.