A Time With Alice

A Quiet Day Alice

It was a beautiful day as always here and as I sat down, a little girl walked by.

Carrying a beautiful book,”Hello little one and who are you?” “I am Alice she replyed and you are Grandad” she seemed to sing, but the singing was the way her voice seemed to be, so gentle on my mind, that it sounded like singing.

“I am at the Lyceum with the other children, and thought to go to the Library of Knowledge for a book, I had heard so much of Charles Dickens and the great writers, I wanted to read one of their stories, I couldn’t read before I came here, and now we all can, it is lovely, it’s not reading as you do, the words just flow to us, from the books.”

At this Alice walked over to the stream and sat on the bank with the book open.

The book looked beautiful in its colours as she held it in her small hands

You could hear it talking to her in gentle tones but the words seemed strange to my ears.

It didn’t seem to matter though as there in my head was a picture of the old times and I felt that had I been reading, I could have gone inside and actually watched the flow of the story,

I was distracted by Shuma, and his new friend little bear (Little bear is much smaller than Shuma, and is black with a triangular white bib,Shuma asked him here to be a friend to him) they were playing by the waterfall where it splashed into the pool.

Little Bear was chasing Shuma across the rocks splashing him and was being covered in lots of rainbows.

Little bear jumped and pushed Shuma into the pool with a great splash of colour, that flooded out and engulfed both of them and it felt as if they were laughing. I expect I will have to get use to the change of colours for some things, and feelings for words, it is lovely and I soon became part of the whole scene

Charlie came running in, then seemed to slow down, thought this was so much fun, crept up behind Little Bear and pushed him in with Shuma

Then Charlie jumped in with them, lots of children hearing, or seeing the fun joined in with them, the sound of laughter and the splashing sent out great colour bursts of love and happiness.

I had just seen and felt the happiness and love of a lot of children playing and it made me sing inside.

There was Alice still with her beautiful book, as if nothing was going on, the words were flowing, and you knew when there was a lovely piece of reading as the words flowed out and around her as she watched the book, in colours and symbols of things we usualy see in dreams. The book closed and seemed to shimmer in the light and slowely faded into the background and Alice came over to me

“That was a beautiful story Grandad” she said “It told me of the times when I was a child on the earth plain, but I could never see the things this man wrote about, I spent my short life in a Workhouse trying to be good for my Mother” I was only six when I became ill, I was so ill, I went very red and itched, and then I came here with Sadie.

I use to visit my Mother as Sadie taught us, but it was bad times and she even left to come here, but I stayed with Sadie.” “Oh I am Sorry” I said,but Alice just beamed a lovely smile and said “It was, as it was to be, and we learned a lot, even in that short time we were, where you are”

“One day one of us will take you to the Library and you can even go to the art gallery, that will make you feel so many things, there are many things here that you are alowed to see, The wise Old Man from the Mountain has given us permission to show you lots, as he says you are writing about things, and people are beginning to read the words and beginning to understand, or just feeling our place where they will be one day. Alice seemed very grown up as she was speaking to me and there were other things coming in, feelings of being and at peace with everything around, maybe I was drifting a little. “No you are just being” came the lovely cheery voice, and it was Sadie standing there.

“Hello Grandad I have been busy did they look after you” she glowed.

“Yes little one, I have learned of other things here, and it fills my mind but in a gentle way”

“It is sometimes hard for the joining of the two worlds, as you do, to be so uncomplicated” Sadie said.

I replyed that I was able to hear, read, and write, without any of the outside

being able to change things or make fun.

Sadie seemed to be hearing something I couldn’t. “It’s Tuo, calling us to a meeting” she said, “So I will have to go”. ” I will talk to you again soon, as it’s time for you to rest Grandad” She laughed and shimmered love all over me, as I walked up the pathway to my Cottage