Like the Melody that’s Sweetly Played in Tune

CHAPTER I - “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”?

Meladie’s awakening in the middle of the night was something she rarely ever did. She usually slept so soundly. And although she was an early riser, she had never arisen this early, for It was just after midnight. When she opened her eyes, the third story room where she slept with her sister for some reason seemed to be as bright as midday. She looked to the twin bed where her older sister Madison was sound asleep with a quiet snore that was little more than heavy breathing. The light of the full moon pierced the room through the curtained windows, making everything visible as though it were noon.
When she sat up she saw what had never been there before. Right smack in the middle of the outside wall between the two curtained windows was a pink door. “How could that be?” she wondered in a quiet whisper. It had never been there before to her knowledge. She was certain she would have noticed.
The thought occurred to her that she might not be awake at all, but just dreaming. How could she know? She thought of Dickens‘ “Bah Humbug” character who mistrusted his ghosts because he thought that he might have been dreaming, but she quickly dismissed the dream possibility with her conclusion that it did not really matter. It was very astute of her to conclude that dreams are really the same as being awake. We experience them just as we do reality. So as not to waken her older sister Meladie quietly slipped from her bed to approach the pink door. Her curiosity would not allow her to do otherwise, for what if she fell back to sleep only to find that the door was not there when she awoke in the morning?
As she crept up to the door, she noticed a small sign with an arrow pointing toward the door knob. “OPEN HERE” it directed.”What a silly sign,” she mused. “Anyone would know that a doorknob would be used to open the door.” But her random thought quickly turned suspicious when she considered that her bedroom happened to be on the third floor of their home. What if she opened the door and was sucked out by the wind to fall past her parents’ bedroom on the second floor and past the kitchen on the first only to land in the rock garden below, for she knew there had never been a stairway on that side of the house.
She did not know what to do. If only Madison were awake she could ask her advice. She stepped quietly to the side of Madison’s bed and gave her a shake.
“Maddie,” she said in a whispered shout. Without opening her eyes Madison plainted “Oh leave me alone and let me sleep.” She rolled over, turning her back toward Meladie. Obviously, the option of getting Maddie’s advice was not open to her. She would have to fend for herself. By nature, Meladie was a very logical thinker, knowing that if she should err, she should always err on the side of “low risk.” But her alter-ego was very adventurous as well, and it was that side of her nature that pushed her forward to reach for the door knob.
She placed her hand on the knob without turning it, but immediately jumped back, for the door knob appeared to send a vibration of some sort up her arm and through her entire body. It was almost like a mild electrical shock which she understood much later to be what many called the “thrill of adventure” that came with experiencing something new. Not that opening a door was new to her, for she was eight years old and had already opened more than her share of doors.
She decided that perhaps she should consider this whole situation in greater depth before making the decision to move ahead. It was obvious that the side of “logic” was pulling her away. Meladie thought that she would get back in bed and close her eyes for awhile to see if the door would still be there when she opened them again.
As she moved away from the door toward her bed, she caught a glimpse of her pillow, on which rested another sign which simply stated, “FEAR NOT - GO BACK!”
“Now what is to be made of that?” she queried. After all, Meladie prided herself in doing whatever was necessary, regardless of any trepidations she might have. She had little patience with those who could not do the same.
Her mind was made up. Once decided, she could ‘brave’ herself through anything. Which is exactly what she did.
She approached the pink door once again, resolved to absorb that initial “thrill of adventure,” and reached for the knob once more. But this time, there was nothing. There was not the slightest bit of any vibration whatsoever. Had she just imagined it before?
As unsettling as the situation was (for Meladie was not pleased when she could not come up with ‘reasons’ for any given situation), she resolved to try the door. A slight twist to the right and a gentle pull was all she needed. The door opened. Meladie immediately felt a cooling breeze on her face and in her hair. And then she saw! It was the most amazing sight she could have imagined. She could see far beyond the tops of the trees which served as the citadel of their family estate. She saw the snow-covered mountains far in the distance enwrapped by the azure sky and billowing white clouds.
The view was simply magnificent. It seemed to cry out to her that she should follow the pathway which was suspended in mid-air from the doorway to far beyond her ken. Meladie stood in wonder at the sight of it all, and, adventurous as she was, it did not take her long to make the first step onto the pathway, for her curiosity would not be subdued. While stepping gingerly at first, for there were no railings to safeguard her steps, she was soon moving forth with reckless abandon, determined to find where this magical path would take her. She crossed over the open space beneath her and was walking among the treetops which at first were just slightly above her head. As the pathway very gradually descended, she could no longer see the mountains in the distance. She paused a moment to catch her breath and looked back. It was then that she realized that the pathway behind her was gone. It was disappearing with each step she took. She knew at this point there was no turning back.
She calculated having walked at least a kilometer or perhaps a mile, she was not sure which. She never did really understand why everyone made such a fuss over calling them one or the other. The highway signs that had both only served to confuse the issue and provoke arguments among adults who thought one system was better than the other. More importantly, she calculated that the pathway had dropped in altitude approximately one story; therefore, if her bedroom were 3 stories high and each story were 10 feet high, (3 x 10 = 30; 30 - 10 = 20) She was still approximately 20 feet up in the trees. If her descent continued at the same pace, then she would reach solid ground in 2 “kilo-miles.” (She knew there was no such measurement, but it suited her purposes and she did not have to argue about which system should be used.)
Having been so absorbed in her calculations, she hadn’t realized that she had come almost face-to-face with a creature whose slight movement caught her eye. She was a bit startled until she recognized the being to be an owl who appeared to be more startled than she.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Whoo am I?” queried the owl. “I already know whoo I am, so you must tell me whoo yoo are.”
“I’m Meladie.”
“Well, if yooooo are not going to tell me the truth, there is no point in our speaking to one another. I am on to yooo. Yoooo cannot be melody,” declared the owl.
“No, it’s true. I’m Meladie. That’s my name.”
“Impossible!” the owl stated very firmly. “I know what a melody is. It’s a term for a tune or song.