Big Imaginations

James turned 11 today, he had been in the orphanage for years now and the monotonous routine was normal for him, but there was one day a year where it was different. His birthday was his special day because this was the only day of the year, besides Christmas, where he received anything. He had hardly been able to sleep at all last night because he was too excited. He was wishing for coloured pencils this year; he had seen them advertised in a shop window and asked the Orphanage Master, Mister Tembley, if he could have them for his birthday with only a “perhaps” as an answer. Perhaps wasn’t a no.

He practically leapt out of bed and hobbled over to the communal dresser to dig his birthday shirt out; a hand-me-down from previous children who had outgrown it, but it was his and he was excited to wear it. He hobbled back to his bed to put his trousers on, grinning to himself, thinking about the extra fried egg he will get for breakfast this morning, as he pulled his leg through and tied up the other leg. He exhaled slowly to calm his excitement only for his leg to kick out and his body to shiver in retaliation until he shouted, “It’s my birthday!” and throwing his arms up in joy. His shout woke up the other boys who groaned in displeasure.

“Congrats.” One managed to utter out as he pulled the bedsheet over his head and turned away. A few of the boys sat up, yawning, before slouching forwards to look at James with confused looks.

“Why are you up so early? It’s Saturday.” one boy whined.

“But I can’t sleep.”

James fluffed up his pillow and pulled out from underneath it his Little Black Book of Secrets - his escape from the world. He lost his leg to gangrene six months ago and adapting to this new life was a struggle at first, he cried many times when he couldn’t run and play with the other children, but this little book allowed him to go on wild adventures of his own. He took it with him wherever he went along with his pencils and charcoal and would draw pictures inside of the most fantastical of lands and let his imagination run free.

It was almost time for breakfast and the boys heard Matron coming down the hall, her heels clicking against the floorboards in a rhythm that was characteristically hers, which betrayed any surprises she had planned because, just by the sound, the children could tell when she was coming and methodically straightened up. Matron was a stern woman who expected order and cleanliness from the children without fault; if she believed they were being too loud she would come stomping down the hall with much passion to tell them off only for the children to be ready and waiting for her. She came into the boys’ room holding a lantern in her hand, scanning the room before laying her eyes on James. Matron was not one to smile often and when she did it was with restraint.

“I see you are up and ready. Happy birthday, James.” A small smile crept on her lips before disappearing as quickly as it formed. “It seems like the others could do to follow from your example. Get dressed, all of you.” She demanded with groans and moans from the boys reluctantly pulling themselves up from their beds.

During breakfast James was shocked to receive not only one, but two, extra fried eggs. The other boys around him looked on in envy and muttered words of annoyance only for them to also receive one more fried egg than usual. The boys didn’t care about the reasoning and were just happy to fill their bellies. Mister Tembley did his usual rounds, his hands behind his back as he walked with a little spring in his step and his round chubby face adorned with his jolly smile, his smile was infectious enough to make others smile with him. Mister Tembley was a soft man both in personality and physique, he was always talking with the children and making jokes, and this made living at the orphanage with 50 other boys feel more like a home. Before making his way back into his office he spoke with Matron in a hushed voice to which she rung the small hand bell to quiet the boys.

“As you all know, it is James’ birthday today.” Matron started clapping her hands to congratulate him and the other boys followed. James looked around the room with a grin on his face. She shushed the boys, her hands motioning downwards to lower the volume.

Mister Tembley came out of his office with a small brown package, wrapped with brown ribbon, and walked towards James to hand it to him. “Happy birthday, James. You’ve had a hard year, but you did well to not let it get you down and took it on the chin like a good boy.” Mister Tembley gently patted him on the shoulder, displaying a wide smile that was with mixed with warmth and pride. James tore into his present to see those brightly coloured pencils he wished for poking out from a rectangular hole in the box as well as two new notebooks. James started to tear up, with laughs and teases from the other boys, and looked up at Mister Tembley with gratitutde.

“Thank you so much!”

Once breakfast was over, the other children ran outside to play in the sun with only James to be left alone in the dining hall. He pulled up him little black book and opened on a fresh page. Time to play with his new present.

“£20,000?! Sir, that seems too good to be true.” James heard Matron shout from inside Mister Tembley’s office. “Who is the benefactor?”

£20,000? How much was that? That seemed like a big number. What would James do with that much money? His mind raced with thoughts of all the things he could buy from a large boat to Big Ben. He sorted through his collection of colours; what he chose would be his destination.

Light blue, dark blue, green, white, grey and brown.

James started drawing and suddenly the world around him changed. He was high in the sky, the clouds fluffy and serene, and what looked like a castle, floating on a bed of clouds and grass, in the distance. James floated towards it, spotting a large man, or maybe a giant, plucking apples from the trees, and landed on the plush grass a way away from him. James looked up at the giant, in awe of his size, he was the size of a cat compared to him. James walked up to the giant apprehensively.

“H-Hello.” James squeaked. The giant’s ears twitched at the boys greeting, unsure of where it came from. “Hello Mr. Giant!” James waved his arms up to catch the giant’s attention. The giant looked down at the boy, raising an eyebrow with curiosity.

“What’s a pip-squeak like you doing ‘ere?” He said, crouching down to James’ level to take a good look at him.

“Is this your castle?”

“And what if it is?” The giant was an ugly looking thing up close, his eyes big and bulging, with a wart on his cheek and hair sticking out from his nose.

“I want to buy it from you.”

“Buy the castle? Are you mad?!” The giant said, waving his hand at James dismissively, “a kid like you wouldn’t have the money to buy it.”

“I have 20,000 gold coins. I can buy it.” James naively pulled out the bag containing the coins, giving it a shake, and presenting it to the giant. The giant raised a curious eyebrow, a smirk creeping onto his face.

“Oh really? Now where did you get that?” He sung in a honeyed tone and snatching the bag from the boy. “I’ll be taking this. Now, get lost, kid.” He turned away to return to his castle and locked the door.

James was understandably flustered by this. “Hey! Give that back!” He shouted as he raced after the giant but unable to catch up to him before the castle doors closed shut. “Now what?” He asked himself, looking around the castle walls for a way to get inside. He spotted an opened window on the far side, the apple tree the giant was picking from leant towards it which would make for a great way in. James climbed up the tree and balanced on the branch that face the window, he readied himself to jump, swaying back and forth before using the momentum to reach the ledge and pull himself through.

He found himself looking into the lounge, filled by large plush fabrics and wooden furniture much bigger than James had ever seen, with the giant sitting in a large armchair facing the fireplace and counting the gold coins he stole. James needed to get that money back, but how? He looked down to the desk that was just underneath the window he climbed through and saw a fountain pen about the length of a brush. Perfect.

James slowly lowered himself down onto the desk, picked up the pen, but then realised it was a long way down to the floor. He noticed there was a basket on the floor beside the desk filled with paper, so he decided to be brave and jump in. Thankfully there was enough to break his fall and the sound didn’t alert the giant. He climbed out of the basket, with pen in tow, and crept up to the armchair. The fabric of the chair used nails to hold it in place which he grabbed on to climb up the back of the chair, using the clip of the pen to catch onto the nails edges to help pull himself up with his other hand. This giant sure was engrossed in counting the money, having stacked up rows of gold coins on the small table next to him, that he hadn’t even noticed James yet.

Once he had stable footing, James hit the giant with the brush-sized fountain pen, first on the back of his head and then on one of his bulging eyes when he turned . The giant recoiled in pain, “what the?!”, waving his hand in the air to beat off James and push him to the floor. “Get off me, you little flea!” James managed to hold onto one of the giant’s ears, pulling his head down with his own weight, before sticking the pen into his nose.

“Give me back my money!” James shouted, pulling the pen out and then thrusting it into the other nostril. This caused the giant to scream, flinging James off him, dropping the money, and running out of the castle crying. He was victorious! Then he heard bells ringing but he didn’t see a bell tower around. Where was it coming from? Suddenly the world around him started to disappear and turn into dust. He found himself back in the dining hall with boys pouring in for lunch time. James’ stomach growled.

“Good timing. I’m hungry.”