My Sweet Journey of Finding Carol

 

                             “Excuse me…excuse me…excuse me!”
The constant calling woke me from my slumber and placed me in the middle of my bed staring at the ceiling. I recognized the voice instantly, for it was not the first time I had heard it. I searched my room for the painting I’d hung up when I first moved here, the one I had found on one of my morning runs. My eyes found their target, but the picture was visibly different. Instead of the lady in the summer dress standing in front of the lake with a little girl, there was just a huge face, which stared back at me.
“Ah!” was my first reaction to this new scene, but I followed up with a question, “Susan what are you doing? And where is your daughter?”
I suddenly thought it would be rather odd if someone were to walk in on me while I talked to a painting. They would think I was crazy, but little would they know, that I already thought I was crazy.
“Lucky,” said Susan, who had now backed up so I could see her neck and brim of her hat, “She’s gone missing again, and I was wondering if…”
“If I could go look for her?” I finished her sentence, this wasn’t the first time her daughter,
Carol had gone missing.
“Let me guess, you think she went back to the mansion.”
“Precisely, since you’ve been there before, would you mind going to fetch her for me?” Her voice trailed off when she saw me already standing putting on my shoes.
“Move out of the way, I’m coming in.”
And with that, I leap forward toward the painting, and suddenly my room disappeared and the warm summer breeze was upon me. No matter how many times I visited, the scene of the lake always left me breathless, but I wasn’t here to enjoy myself, so I headed in the opposite direction to the mansion.
“Don’t get lost!” yelled Susan as the mansion came into view.
Thoughts of the last time I came still left me bewildered. As I approached the giant maze of rooms, I became a little hesitant, but I pressed forward and knocked on the wooden door. As I expected, there wasn’t an answer, just like the last time. I grabbed the handle and opened the door to the magnificent room. Again, like before, I stood in front of a large set of stairs, and to my left and right were doors.
“Hello? Carol?” My calls rewarded me with silence.
“Well, I might as well start looking, she couldn’t be in too far,” or so I thought.
As nonchalantly as possible, I gradually made my way up the large mass of steps. There were two hallways, both filled with more doors. Though hard as I tried, I could not see the end of the hallways in either direction. Suddenly to my great surprise, the door nearest to me on my right began to open, and laughter could be heard. A very elderly-looking man stepped out, with a great white beard and a smile on his face.
“Sean, come back again! You're welcome anytime!” The voices deafened as the door began to close and ultimately disappeared as it was completely shut.
“Excuse me, Sean was it?” as I spoke the man picked up his head, “You wouldn’t happen to have seen a little girl by the name of Carol have you?”
“Why yes, I believe I have,” said Sean now making his way down the stairs.
I grew tense with anticipation, “Do you know which way she went?”
“I believe I do,” as he spoke he continued to make his way down.
“Can you tell me?”
“Can I tell you what?”
“Can you tell me where she is?”
He finally stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned around; the gigantic grin was easily visible.
“The little girl walked past me as she walked through our game. Quite a nice girl she helped me win a hand,” and with that, he proceeded towards the front door.
“Uh, ok…thanks,” not knowing what he meant I walked into the door he had just come out of, and inside I saw the most peculiar scene. Seven dogs, all sitting in chairs, surrounded by bottles of beer, one smoking a cigar, were all playing cards. The door shut behind me, as it did one of the dogs let out a loud bark and said,
“Sean you back already?” He gazed up and looked at me, “You aren’t no Leo, who’re you?” As he spoke he took puffs from his cigar.
“I’m just on my way through to find a little girl,” I said, but as I spoke I could feel my eyes widen with disbelief.
“Oh, you looking’ for ‘Lily?” said the same dog as before.
“Yes, I am.”
“Sweet kid, she went through that door,” as he spoke he pointed towards the other side of the room with his cigar.
“Thanks,” I uttered and cautiously walked to the door. I walked through hearing accusations of cheating behind me. When the door finally closed, I gathered my senses only to find an even weirder scene before me. Clocks everywhere were melting; at this point, I welcomed the new discovery, as the card-playing dogs were a much stranger encounter.
“Carol!” I yelled, and to my surprise, I had an answer.
“We’re over here,” as I heard the sound I saw a tiny hand wave me over.
There she was, sitting on a bench talking to another woman, who I had not seen before.
“Carol, what are you doing?”
“Just talking to my new friend Jennifer, but that was too hard to say so she said to call her Emily,” Carol’s new friend smiled as she spoke.
“Well, we have to go; your mom wants you home.”
“Ok, bye Emily I have to go, I’ll see you again.”
 Continued to smile as we exited the room.