ADVENTURES IN FAR AWAY PLACES

© 2016 Connor Callaghan

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THE FIRST STAR | SPECKLIT

This is a 100 word adaptation of the Unfinished Bedtime Story, “The First Star”.

A flash of light. A streak of silver. A rogue meteor that I swore just fell outside my window.

A moment later I was tumbling down the cliff of a crater that wasn't there the day before.

A hot white sphere, floating, like a mini sun the size of my palm.

I touch it. My skin tingles. It feels good. I smile.

I want to run. I want to jump. I want to fly.

So I do.

Faster, higher, and…

I’m soaring through the sky, cutting through the crisp night air like a meteor.

Back in my bed, I dream.

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THE POEM | SPECKLIT

This is a 100 word adaptation of the Unfinished Bedtime Story, “The Poem”.

Tom kicked deeper into the blue, gliding through rays of moonlight, pushing through swirling clouds of sparkling sand particles, deeper into the haze towards the ship wreck.

He threaded his way through the splintered wood of the hull and then he was there:

An empty, dark room. The compass needle was pointing straight ahead.

He turned on his flash and the strobe illuminated the space in an unsettling flicker.

There was something carved into the walls of the room. The words of a poem.

His mind read the words and retraced the final sentence.

X marks the spot.

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THE CASTLE | SPECKLIT

This is a 100 word adaptation of the Unfinished Bedtime Story, “The Castle”.

“No way,” Leah said.

But Lucy was already ducking under the “FORBIDDEN” tape.

Boy would their teacher be mad when he found out that they’d ditched their field trip.

But they were already moving down the stone hallway of the castle until…

A dead end.

But not quite.

A treasure chest as big as a bath tub.

The girls climbed inside and closed the lid on their new fort.

“No boys aloud,” Leah giggled.

Her stomach dropped, her body fell, and there was a rush of air.

They were falling through an azure sky and a swoosh of green caught them.

Suddenly they were riding a dragon.

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SNOW PUZZLES

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are hiking up a cold mountain peak in a snowstorm. You pull your warm jacket tighter. You climb to the top of the rocky peak where your hang glider is waiting. In the distance you see the stone statue of a giant polar bear. That's where the entrance to the secret temple will be. You strap on the harness of the hang glider and leap from the cliff!

You soar through the sky and feel the wind on your face. As you get closer to the polar bear you make a big circle in the air and prepare to land. Then a gust of wind catches you and it blows you away! You crash onto the wrong side of the mountain. There is a big cliff between you and the polar bear statue below. It's too far to jump but luckily you brought your treasure hunter gear. You throw your grappling hook and it catches on the statue. You tie the rope to a rock and you zip line across the gap! You land on your feet and roll into the snow. When you stand, the polar bear is looming above you.

You search for the secret entrance but find nothing. Then you find words carved into the stone. It's a riddle.

If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it. What is it?

You think for a moment and then you say the answer aloud, “A secret!”

The statue transforms into a real, living polar bear. He smiles at you and trots away down the mountain. Where he was standing, is the entrance to a dark cave. You crawl into the cavern, but all you can see is darkness.

You find more writing on a wall. It's another riddle.

I'm tall when I'm young. I'm short when I'm old. What am I?

You know the answer right away.

“A candle!” You shout. Just then, hundreds of candles spark to life in front of and light a long hallway with tall marble pillars. Beautiful paintings and drawings line the walls.

You follow the hallway until you come to a fork in the path. There are three different ways to go. You don't know which one to take. Then you see a few, flat, broken pieces of stone on the ground. It's a puzzle. You piece them together and they form the shape of an arrow. It's pointing down the left tunnel.

You hurry down the tunnel and come to a big room full of golden statues. At the center of the room, high above you, hanging from the ceiling is a beautiful golden bell. It's as big as you. That's it, you think. You just have to get to it. There are stepping stones that lead to a stone staircase that will take you to the bell. You step onto the first stone and just as you do, it sinks! Lava begins to fill the floor and you jump between the stepping stones! Don't step on the lava! Finally you make it to the staircase and run up it. You reach the bell and the lava stops rising.

What now you think? That's when you find the third and final riddle carved into the bell.

What is so delicate that saying it’s name breaks it?

You don't know the answer. You think long and hard but you are stumped.

Frustrated, you shout, “I don't know!” Your voice breaks the silence and as you listen to the echo, the answer comes to you!

“It's silence!” You shout!

And with that, there is a GONG as the bell rings! The bell dissolves into thin air and a genie is floating in front you.

“Hello there,” the genie says.

“Hello,” you say.

“I am here to grant you three wishes,” says the genie. “You can wish for all the money in the world or for world peace or for eternal happiness. You can wish for a beautiful house by the ocean or for a best friend to share your adventures with. You can wish for whatever you want, but you only get three wishes. What will they be?”

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JUNGLE BOY

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You live in a big treehouse in the jungle with your family. There are ladders, bridges, and rope swings. It’s like one big playground with everything fun that you could ever imagine. You have geothermal hot tubs, hammocks, and trampolines. You eat delicious breakfasts of fresh tropical fruit on the porch, watching colorful parrots fly towards the sunrise. You spend the days exploring new parts of the jungle and discovering new secrets and treasures. At night, you stare up at the stars from your cozy bed. And if you want to, you can climb a ladder all the way up to the top of the canopy where you can see the whole world stretch out before you.

The best part is that you have become good friends with all of the animals. You swing through the trees with the monkeys, chimpanzees, and gorillas. You ride on giraffes and they let you climb up their long necks to reach fresh figs and mangos. Sometimes you even go down to the river to surf on the backs of friendly crocodiles and giant turtles. You live a wonderful and carefree life.

One day you are following your friend Lucy the lion cub through the jungle. You push past big green leaves, smell beautiful flowers, and feel your bare feet press into the soft mud along the river bank.

“Come on, we’re almost there!” Lucy says.

You hear the roar of water and, as you round a bend, you come to a big waterfall and a pool of clear water. Lucy goes splashing into water. You go swimming after her. It is cool and refreshing in the tropical heat.

“This is it! This is what I wanted to show you.” She says.

“What is it?” You ask.

“If you drink the water, you can become any animal that you want.”

“No way,” you say in disbelief.

“Watch,” she says as she takes a big gulp of water.

POOF! Lucy suddenly becomes a river dolphin!

“See!” She says as she swims and jumps through the water faster and higher ever before. “Now you try!”

You take a big drink of water and POOF! Now you are a dolphin too! You swim and play in the water. Then you take another drink and this time you transform into an eagle! Lucy takes a drink and she becomes a falcon! The two of you flap your wings and soar into the clouds. Your treehouse looks tiny from way up here. Then you fly back down and drink again. POOF! You are a human again!

“What should we be next?” Lucy asks.

You smile, think of your favorite animal, and take a big drink of water.

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A COZY FIRE

This is the final piece of the children’s book that doesn’t exist, Unfinished Bedtime Stories. It puts you in the shoes of the protagonist, sets up the world and the character, and lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are sitting in your favorite chair by a warm fire, listening to the sound of gentle rain against your window. You are surrounded by shelves lined with books. The room is hardly bigger than a closet, but that’s what makes it so cozy. It’s your favorite place in the whole wide world.

Right now you are looking at the pictures of your favorite book. It is full of exotic animals, faraway places, and beautiful colors. You feel yourself getting sleepy and you set the book aside. You close your eyes, pull the blanket tight, and stretch out into your favorite sleeping position.

You feel yourself breathe in and out. The steady rhythm becomes the peaceful sounds of an ocean and your mind begins to wander. You feel your body relaxing, melting into the pillows. Everything is quiet and soft and nice. You are happy and you begin to dream...

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STOWAWAY

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are in your secret hiding spot. The wood of the pirate ship creaks and groans around you. You’ve been stowed away like this for 3 days, nibbling on a few scraps of food that you brought. You don’t know where the ship is going but you are looking for an adventure.

Right now, you are cramped and hungry. You need to stretch your legs and find some food.

You peer out through the cracks of the barrel where you are hiding. The coast is clear. You climb out and begin searching for a snack. You find a barrel of apples. Jackpot.

You take a big bite of a crisp apple and taste the sweet sugar on your tongue. It’s delicious.

You hear a sudden commotion and before you can move there are ten pirates running into the room. You freeze, caught red handed. “There you are!” One of them shouts. He grabs you by the ear and pulls you along into another room where pirates are working busily. There are a few other kids your age. You share a look with them and one of them gives you a shy smile.

A bag is shoved into your hands as someone shouts, “Well, what are you waiting for?!” You don’t know what’s going on but you are a quick learner and you watch as the others pack blankets and ropes all tied together into backpacks. Just as you get the hang of it, there are no more bags to pack and everyone is running back up the stairs above deck.

You feel the salt air hit you. The breeze is refreshing. You feel alive again. It’s the first time you’ve been outside in three days. You turn your gaze to the horizon and that’s when you see it. The entire ocean falls away in one big waterfall that stretches as far as the eye can see. The water pours over the edge of the world in thundering rapids and disappears into clouds of mist, like a carpet beyond the horizon.

As you stare in awe, someone grabs you, a backpack is strapped to your back and you are shoved forward. “Don’t forget to pull the string." A string is put into your hand. It’s attached to your backpack. You are standing on a thin piece of wood above the water. You are walking the plank! You look up and the entire left side of the ship is filled with planks extending out over the water. There are pirates on every one and they are all excited.

“I heard it’s a city in the clouds.” One of them says.

“I heard it’s a jungle with beautiful creatures like we never seen.” Another says.

“I heard it’s a land full of gold and treasure.” Says the one next to you. “What do you think, lad?” He says.

“I…”

The ship suddenly turns and now you are racing alongside the edge of the world. The waterfall is directly below you. That’s when the pirates start to jump. One by one with a whoop and a holler, they leap from the ship, swing from ropes, and do front flips over the edge of the world. As they disappear into the mist you see sails explode from their backpacks and you realize that they are parachutes.

“Hurry up!” Someone shouts and you are shoved off the plank. You go plummeting through the air and remember the advice. You pull the string and the parachute blooms above you. It slows your fall and now you are drifting slowly into the clouds, surrounded by a sky full of floating pirates, singing a pirate song, imagining what adventure you’ll have beyond the edge of the world.

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3. 2. 1.

This piece is part of a children’s book calledUnfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You and your dad are watching race cars zip around a track. They whiz by at two hundred miles per hour. You cheer as your favorite car crosses the finish line. The crowd goes wild!

You come here every Sunday with your dad. Sometimes, you even go to a car show afterwards. You love looking at all the old cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Your dad says that one day, the two of you are going to build a car together.

As the next race lines up, your dad gets a phone call. You groan. It’s probably work. It’s always work. And you know what that means. It’s time to go home. Your dad hangs up the phone and says, “Sorry kid, gotta go to work.”

Your face falls. He sees it, but he smiles and tussles your hair, “Luckily it’s bring-your-kid-to-work day.”

You light up, “Cool!”

The two of you exit the stadium, but it takes a while because your dad is on crutches. He hurt his leg while he was cleaning the roof. Your mom told him to get some help, but he wanted to do it himself. You come to an elevator and hop inside. Your car is on parking level P1, but your dad presses B. B stands for basement.

You look up at your dad, “That’s not where we parked.”

He just smiles, “I know, but we’re not going home. We’re going to work.”

You stare up at him, confused, when DING!

The elevator stops at level B, but the doors don’t open. Your dad pulls out his work badge and holds it up in the air. A little camera drops down from the ceiling and a red laser scans the badge. WHOOSH! The doors slide open to reveal a sleek glass hallway. There are neon blue lights on the floor, like an airplane runway. They direct you towards the end of the hall.

“Woah…” is all you can say.

Your dad takes your hand and pulls you along. At the end of the hallway, you come to a pair of sliding glass doors. On the other side of the doors, you can barely make out blurry shapes and neon colors, flying as fast as airplanes, but the glass doors are tinted and foggy so you can’t see clearly.

“Hold this,” your dad says. He hands you a crutch and digs around in his pocket. He finds his wallet and pulls out something that looks like a fancy electronic credit card. He hands it to you and takes the crutch back.

“Swipe it.” He nods to a little machine by the door. You swipe the credit card and WHOOSH. The doors slide open to reveal the greatest sight that you have ever seen.

You are standing at the edge of a giant race car track that twists, turns, loops, and spirals like the toys you have at home. There are even ramps and jumps. Cars are racing around it right now, so fast that they just look like blurs of neon blue, green, and yellow. Everything is made from sleek black glass and the stadiums are packed with crowds so high that you can’t see the top.

“This is your job?” You ask.

He winks, “Our little secret, OK?”

You nod. He hands you a helmet and racing suit. They’re your size.

“Put these on,” he says.

You take them. You’re speechless. Then you hear the roar of engines and a row of futuristic cars, trucks, and motorcycles pulls up in front of you. They’re the coolest designs that you could ever imagine. As you admire them, you hear your dad ask, “Which one do you want?”

Which one do I want? What does he mean by that? Your dad sees the look on your face and crouches down to you as best he can with his crutches, “I got a big race today, but I can’t drive because I hurt my leg. I need my backup driver to race for me.” He’s looking right at you. You’re his backup driver.

A moment later, you are gripping the steering wheel. Your dad is in the passenger seat. The other cars are lined up beside you. And a red neon sign counts down.

3…

2…

1…

Go!

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

THE FIRST STAR

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are lying in your cozy bed. Your mom and dad kiss you goodnight and leave the room. As their footsteps disappear down the hallway, you can hear the crickets chirping in the hills outside your window. You open your eyes and watch the doorway. The light at the end of the hallway flicks off. Your parents are going to sleep. It’s safe now.

You slip out of bed, as quiet as a mouse, and drag your telescope over to your window. You point your telescope toward the stars and wait. All the newspapers said that it would happen tonight. Then you see it. The first flash of silver streaks across the darkness. It’s a shooting star. Then there’s another and another and the meteor shower begins. You watch with wide eyes. It’s beautiful.

Then a giant star unlike the others appears and rockets across the sky, but instead of growing smaller and dimmer, it grows bigger and brighter, so big and bright that you have to back away from your telescope. It begins to fall. It's falling down, falling towards you, you think, and then, for a moment, it lights up the whole night sky before it disappears in the hills. You stare out at the hills. They're close. You ride your bike in them every day. Did a shooting star just land there?

You’re going to find out and you’re not going to waste anytime. You grab a sweatshirt and climb out your window onto the roof of the second story. You carefully step across the clay tiles to a branch of the big tree in your front yard. You’ve done this before. You step out onto the branch, grab another branch for support and tightrope walk your way to the trunk where you scurry down to the grass. The grass is cold and damp on your bare feet and that’s when you realize that you forgot your shoes! It’s too late to go back now.

You grab your bike from the front porch and wheel it silently out the front gate and onto the path that leads into the hills. You hop on your bike and peddle. Slowly and quietly at first, then faster and faster until you are racing through the dark green hills, up and down and around the windy trail. Finally you reach the spot where you think it disappeared, but you don’t see anything. Maybe you were wrong, you think.

You are about to give up and head back when you notice a faint glow behind the hill in front of you. You drop your bike and race across the grass until you come to…

...a cliff! You stop just in time. On the other side of the hill, is a dirt cliff at the edge of a giant crater. And at the center of the crater, is a tiny glowing sphere of light. It’s a star. So that's what a star looks like, like a light bulb floating in space.

Without thinking, you scramble down the rocky cliffside and go tumbling into the crater. You spring to your feet and run to the star. You slow down as you get closer. It looks like a bright, white ball of light. It’s brightest at the center and then it sort of fades off.

You reach out to touch it and, as your fingers enter the first particles of light, you feel a tingling sensation. It tickles. You smile and reach deeper into the light. You cup your palm underneath it and now you are holding the star in your hands. Then it begins to shrink, as if it’s melting into your hands. Your whole body tickles. It feels good. It feels amazing. It gets smaller and smaller until POP! It disappears.

You stand there looking at your empty hands wondering what happened. You have a new energy. You feel happy and energetic, like you want to run and jump and climb and fly. You run to the edge of the crater and try to climb up but some of the dirt breaks loose and you fall back down. You didn't realize how steep it was when you climbed down. Now you're stuck.

You try to climb again and again but the dirt keeps breaking away and you keep falling. Frustrated, you finally leap as high as you can and suddenly you are launched into the air, up and out of the crater. You land onto the soft grass and go rolling all the way down the hill. You stand up. Holy cow. What just happened?

You try jumping again and you fly high into the air, as high as a house, higher than you've ever jumped before. This is cool! You grab rock and throw it in the air. Then you jump and you catch it high up, twenty feet above the ground. You throw it again, but this time it's out of reach. You focus your mind on catching it and suddenly you are floating and you catch the rock. But as soon as you realize that you're floating, you crash to the ground giggling. If you focus, you might be able to learn to fly!

You'd better get home before your parents discover that you're missing. You bike home and peddle faster than you've ever gone. You lock up your bike, bend your legs, and spring onto the roof in a single leap! You land with a CRASH on the clay tiles. Your parents will have heard that. You race back into your room and, thinking quickly, you set the telescope on its side. You are about to jump into bed when you see the hall light flip on and hear footsteps pound towards you. It's your mom. She's going to catch you. If only you could make yourself invisible!

Your mom bursts into the room and stops. She scans the room, “Sweetie? Where are you?” You're standing right in front of her, but she can't see you. You ARE invisible! She moves to the window and closes it. You jump into bed and pull the sheets back over you. Ok, now you don't want to be invisible, you think. Your mom turns back from the window and jumps and screams! She's staring right at you now.

“I didn't see you there! It's so dark in here.”

You roll over and rub your eyes, pretending to be half asleep.

“Sorry…”

“Did you open the window?”

“Yeah, I got hot.”

“What was that noise?”

You yawn groggily, “I knocked over my telescope, sorry.”

She looks over and sees the telescope on its side.

“It's ok, get some sleep.” Your mom tucks you in, fixes the telescope and leaves.

You snuggle into your warm sheets with a smile and dream of what you'll do with your super powers in the morning.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

BENEATH THE SEA

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are snorkeling with your mom in the crystal clear turquoise waters of a tropical island. She is a marine biologist and it is her job to protect the life in the oceans. Beneath you, red crabs scurry over the white sand of the sea floor, littered with beautiful sea shells of all shapes and sizes. You swim further and soon you are floating over a colorful coral reef brimming with life. Red, blue, yellow, orange, and purple fish dart through the water. A giant sea turtle drifts past and you're sure that he smiles at you.

With a flap of his fins the turtle sails off into the haze. As you watch him fade into the distance, another shape appears. The shape grows in size. It’s coming towards you. Then another shape appears. And another. It’s a school of dolphins! They rocket out of the depths and begin swimming in circles around you. You look at your mom, amazed. She smiles at you.

You suddenly realize that you've been holding your breath underwater for a very long time. You can't help it and you take a big breath of water. You immediately realize your mistake, but instead of swallowing water, it feels like you take in a breath of fresh air. You're breathing underwater. How is that possible?

Before you can think you feel something grab your arm. It's your mom. She motions for you to watch as she grabs onto a dolphin fin and the dolphin pulls her along. She is riding a dolphin! You do the same and soon you are both being pulled in circles. Then the dolphins break off and they dive deep into the blue water. You look at your mom, wondering if you should let go, but she hangs on and you do to. You dive deeper and deeper into the warm water.

You feel like a torpedo. The water grows deeper shades of blue and then the opposite happens, the darkness begins to grow lighter, but you are still heading deeper. What's going on?

Soon the water becomes clear again, like polished glass, and it feels as if you're flying through the air with a school of dolphins. Down below, you notice shapes forming on the seafloor -- whales, dolphins, fish of all shapes and sizes, crabs and lobsters, octopus and squid, and last but not least, mermaids, are all swimming among giant, magnificent sandcastles.

You look at your mom. She is stunned. Neither of you can believe what you’re seeing.

One of the mermaids flips her tail, hair flowing in the water behind her, and swims up to you. The dolphins stop swimming and you float there. It all feels very natural.

The mermaid extends her hand, “Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.”

You open your mouth, expecting bubbles, but by some miracle the words come out, “We can't talk underwater.” You clasp your hand over your mouth in surprise as you hear the words aloud. You hear laughing. It’s your mom. She’s giggling! How can you speak and hear underwater?

It doesn’t matter. It’s amazing! The mermaid smiles at both of you and says, “Follow me.  The oceans are in trouble and we need your help.” And she leads you to a great gathering of sea creatures where your adventures have only just begun.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

THE CASTLE

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

Huge stone towers rise up all around you. Shining suits of armor line the hallways. Grand tapestries woven with knights fighting dragons cover the walls. You are on a field trip in a castle in London. The tour guide is explaining the history to your class, but you’re bored and you want to go exploring. That’s when you spot another hallway with rope blocking the entrance. A sign says, “FORBIDDEN”.

You point it out to your friend. The two of you linger as the rest of your class moves on. As they disappear around a corner, you duck under the rope and race down the hallway. The air is cold and dark, but soon you emerge into another room. It’s filled with ancient treasures of all sorts -- golden statues, silver swords, crowns embedded with gemstones, everything you can imagine. It’s some sort of storage room.

On the shelves, you notice piles of little tubes, scroll cases. You take one and pop off the lid. Inside an ancient piece of parchment is rolled up. You can’t make sense of the smeared ink so you open up the next one. You open them one by one, but everything is written in a language that you can’t understand, covered with strange symbols and diagrams.

One more, you think, then you’ll move on. You unroll the last one and something familiar unfolds before your eyes. There are sketches of tiny castles, houses, mountains, rivers, lakes, fields, oceans, and more. Dotted lines run between them. It’s a map.

“Hey! We’re gonna get in trouble if we don’t go back soon!” Your friend shouts to you.

“Five more minutes,” you say.

“I’m not your mom,” your friend says. “We can stay as long as we want!”

You smile and roll up the map. You stuff it back into the scroll case, tuck it at your waist, and continue exploring the room.

The next thing you find is a beautiful silver sword with jewels in the hilt. It’s just big enough for you to hold. You pick it up and admire the shining metal. There is a belt and scabbard with it so you wrap it around your waist and admire yourself in the mirror. You look like a real knight.

Then, behind the mirror, you notice a big oak door. You move behind the mirror and see that the face of a lion is carved into the wood. A plastic sign hangs on the handle. It says, “DO NOT ENTER.”

“Look at this!” You call to your friend.

Your friend trots over, already wearing a bow and a quiver of arrows. You two are going to be in big trouble if anyone finds you.

Turning back to the door, you ignore the sign, turn the knob, and push it open. Inside…

...is nothing. It’s a tiny, empty, stone closet.

“Boring!” Your friend says and moves on.

CLANG! You hear a noise down the hallway, followed by rushing footsteps followed by, “Where did you two run off to?! You are both in big trouble!” It’s your teacher!

You are about to put down your treasures and run when, in the tiny stone closet, you notice something etched into one of the stones. You move closer and see that they are two intersecting lines that form the shape of a sword. As you inspect it, you notice that the stone is loose. You pull it out to reveal a secret compartment. In the compartment, a golden key sits beneath a lock.

“What are you waiting for?!” Your friend says. You look back over your shoulder. Your friend is standing over you. The footsteps are growing louder. You’re running out of time.

You pick up the key and stick it in the lock. It CLICKS into place and you turn the key.

You feel a gust of wind and hear the sound of stones grinding as the stone wall in front of you begins to move. It slides out of the way and reveals…

...another boring stone closet. But this one has a giant treasure chest in the middle of the room.

“If you don’t come out right now…” It’s your teacher again. She’s somewhere in the room.

“Come on. We have to see what’s inside before she gets here!” Your friend pulls you towards the treasure chest, but the chest is locked. You know just what to do. You run back and grab the golden key. You stick it in the treasure chest lock, twist, and CLICK. It unlocks.

The two of you use all of your strength to heave open the lid. It CLANGS open. But it’s empty.

“I heard that!” Your teacher is right around the corner.

“In here,” you say and jump inside the treasure chest. You both jump inside and hear a CREAKING sound. The treasure chest lid is closing all by itself! Before you can do anything, it slams shut, locking you inside!

You and your friend exchange a nervous look when you feel your stomach drop. Sunlight pours in from underneath your feet. You are blinded by the hot white light, but then your eyes adjust and you see a beautiful valley of rolling green hills, orchards of trees ripe with yellow, orange, and red autumn leaves, and magnificent castles dotting the landscape below you. You recognize the terrain from your map. You have a bird’s eye view of everything.

That’s when you realize that it’s all getting bigger. And fast. You are falling!

You look up and the treasure chest is gone. There is only blue sky above you. Your friend is falling beside you.

Suddenly a huge shape swoops past and catches your friend! You feel a thud and you land on something too. You look down to see the glittering emerald green scales of a dragon! There’s a WHOOSH and another dragon with ruby red scales soars past. Your friend clings to its back with a wild grin. Your friend laughs and cheers and you turn your view to the horizon as you fly off into the world.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

SPACE EXPLORER

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

For your last birthday, your mom gave you a space suit. It was just like hers. It worked perfectly. She was a professional space explorer and it was her job to travel to distant planets, inspect them for life, and return home to report her findings. Ever since she gave you that space suit, you had found a little cabinet in her space jet and stowed away on her missions. You had only been a few times and you were never gone for long. You watched everything through a crack in the metal door.

One time, you landed on a planet made from sand, striped with a million colors, like a world of playdough. One time, the air was filled with floating fish. It looked like you were under the sea as your mom snapped photos of octopus and whale-like aliens floating past her head. The last trip had been hot and boring.

Right now you are tucked away in your hiding spot as the stars whip past outside the cabinet. You are hiding in your secret spot and your mom is on the way to another planet. The night sky looks like a carpet of black velvet littered with sparkling diamonds. Soon you breach the atmosphere and the stars disappear, but are replaced by swirling gold flakes in the air. They glitter and dance in the billowing white clouds. You wonder what they are and then they are gone. There are only fluffy white clouds now. And then the clouds grow darker, gray, and cold. Snow is whipping past. You feel the jet slow and turn. You're familiar with the maneuver. The spaceship is landing.

You touch down and hear the crunch of snow beneath the landing gear but all you can see is swirling white outside. You wait for your mom to get out, but she stays in the cockpit.

“Base, this is Hummingbird, we’ve got a bit of a snow storm down here. Gonna settle in for the night and see if it clears up by morning.” You hear her click off the radio. You decide that you’d better eat your snack now and then try to get some sleep. You’ve never spent the night before. You're usually gone only a few hours. So you press a button, a little straw pops up within your helmet, and you drink your dinner. It's quite tasty.

Suddenly you hear a crunching in the snow. It's the next morning already. Light is shining into the cabinet. The planet’s sun is out. The footsteps circle around to your cabinet and stop outside. Then you hear, “Come on out, you need to see this view.”

“I'm not in here,” you say.

Your mom laughs and opens the door, “Your old mom is smarter than you think.” She's smiling. You climb out and give her a big hug.

When you pull away, the world stretches out before you. It's absolutely stunning.

You are on top of a high mountain peak. The sky is crystal clear. In one direction the mountains slope down into beautiful forests with strange trees the size of skyscrapers. A lush green valley with lakes and rivers stretches beyond that where large, lumbering creatures the size of spaceships wander through the fields. Beautiful birds of all colors fly overhead. Yellow deserts and red mountains line the horizon. The entire landscape is dotted with beautiful stone castles unlike anything you've ever seen.

In the other direction, is the ocean. A million shades of brilliant blue water glitter in the sun’s reflection as far as you can see. The water is littered with scattered tropical islands, bound by white sand beaches covered with sea shells and fresh fruits hanging from vibrant green trees.

“Wow…” is all you can say.

Your mom crouches down to you, “We still have a few hours before we need to head home. Should we go for a quick walk?” You scan the beautiful setting and nod eagerly.

“Where should we go?” She asks.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

EL DORADO

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are a legendary treasure hunter. You are sitting in your library researching the myth of a rare diamond the size of your fist. Out your window, you have a view of the Mediterranean Sea. Your office is lined with shelves of cracking texts, fossils, rare crystals, antiques from ancient civilizations, feathers of exotic birds, and specimens of rare insects. Each one has a story behind it. You've travelled around the world to collect them all and taken special care to preserve them.

Despite your success, it's hard to come by money in your line of work, and you've been struggling to pay your rent. After all, you keep all your treasures instead of selling them. It's a bit foolish, you know, but you're a collector at heart. If you don't get money soon, you’ll have to sell everything, and you don't want to sell your life’s work. All you need to do is find this diamond and everything will be ok.

The diamond is rumored to be hidden in the city of El Dorado. The only problem is that El Dorado, also known as the lost city of gold, is a myth. No one is really sure if it exists. Historians think that it's somewhere in the Amazon, but that's two million square miles of jungle to search. And that jungle is so thick you can hardly see three feet in any direction. As badly as you need this diamond right now, it’s not looking good. People have been searching for thousands of years and no one has found anything.

Still, you refuse to give up! For the past 10 days, you have been inspecting an ancient slab of rock with a magnifying glass. You found it on a recent expedition in a South American temple. There are intriguing shapes and lines carved into the surface, but you’ve been over it a hundred times. It’s time to give up. As you set down your magnifying glass and take a step back, you recognize a pattern. The circles carved into the stone form the shape of something familiar. They look like a constellation in the night sky. You grab a star map and find what you’re looking for. The dots are organized in the same way as the Big Dipper! You're on to something! What could it mean?

You match the Big Dipper’s position in the sky to a satellite image of the jungle. All of the stars match up with the ruins ancient cities. All except one. There is one star that is missing a city. It matches up with a random spot deep in the jungle. You jump into Google Earth and zoom in as far as you can to that part of the jungle, but all you can see is green canopy. As you look closer, you notice distinct lines of shadow between the trees. They form the shape of a square. A square, unnatural shape. Something is buried beneath the jungle. Could it be El Dorado?

You're going to find out. You gather your explorer’s gear, buy a plane ticket, and soon you are flying across the world to the Amazon jungle. You switch to a smaller plane that will drop you off deep in the jungle, but as you are flying over the trees, the plane runs out of fuel and crashes! The pilot escapes with a parachute, but you go down with the plane. It gets stuck in the branches of a tree a hundred feet above the ground. Now you are stuck with no way to call for help. You climb down from the tree and try find a village or tribe or anyone at all, but you are alone and lost.

You decide to make the most of your situation and build an epic treehouse around the plane in the trees. You have multiple huts, ladders, and hanging ropes that you use to swing between suspension bridges. You become very good at climbing and swinging through the trees. You become good friends with the animals -- jaguars, monkeys, and parrots, and even crocodiles, anacondas, and lizards. Ten years pass and soon the diamond is forgotten and the rent is the least of your worries.

One day you are following one of your monkey friends through the trees, running along the branches and switching on the vines high in the canopy. He leads you to a secret clearing in the jungle where you see an ancient temple overgrown with grass. At the center, is the opening of a cave, overgrown with vines. The entrance is dark and mysterious. A thought occurs to you. Could this be El Dorado? There's only one way to find out. You make camp and wait for night to fall. The stars come out and sure enough, directly overhead is the Big Dipper, aligned exactly above where the missing city should be.

You move to the entrance and brush dirt from the walls to reveal ancient paintings of a giant diamond. This could be it. Then you notice that the bricks are made from gold. You've discovered El Dorado! You turn your gaze forward into the darkness, illuminated by shafts of sunlight filtering in through cracks in the stone.

Directly ahead of you are three hallways. They all lead to the same room where a giant sparkling diamond sits on a giant stone statue. You start forward when you notice that each of the tunnels is booby trapped! You stop just in time. Each one has a puzzle to solve. One has strange shapes on the stone tiles of the floor. One has a thin rope strung up over a dark pit. And the third has wooden poles sticking out from the walls. Which one will you choose?

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

A NIGHT AT THE OFFICE

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are at your father’s office. He is working late. He is always working late. When he has to work late, he makes the babysitter bring you to his office on the 107th floor of a big building downtown. He sets you up in a cubicle and says, “Be good.” And then he disappears.

Sometimes you sit there quietly and imagine you are somewhere else. Sometimes you play games on the computer. Sometimes you pillage the office supplies and build your own toys. That's your favorite thing to do. You send paper airplanes flying down the hallways. You string up chains of paperclips as boobie traps. You throw sharpened pencils into the ceilings. You are a “little troublemaker”, your dad says. It's his fault for leaving you alone anyway.

Tonight you are going to raid the supply closet. As usual. It's your favorite place. You sneak away from your desk and crawl down the hallway so that your dad doesn't see you passing by his office window. You enter the supply closet and close the door behind you. You are safe. This is your happy place. You begin digging through boxes of notebooks on a bottom shelf when you notice something behind a box. Against the wall, is an air conditioning vent. It must lead somewhere. You pull out your lucky penny and use it to twist the screws loose. You remove the cover to reveal a secret tunnel. Just as you suspected.

You crawl inside the tunnel and make your way through the twists and turns of the vent system. Soon you are hopelessly lost in the maze, but there's no turning back. You press on until you reach a dead end at another vent. You peer through the vent and see an impressive office. You try to push it open but it's stuck so you use your feet to kick it loose. Each kick CLANGS loudly and you wait for your dad to shout, but there's only silence.

A moment later, you are crawling into the new office. It's a real, full office, just like the big businessmen in the movies! This is no cubicle. It even has a locked door! You are in someone’s private space. And by the looks of it, it is a very important person’s private space.

You notice that the entire back wall is a glass window. It looks out on the twinkling lights of the entire city. Your dad’s office doesn't have a view like this. You turn back to the dark office and find a light switch. You flip it on but nothing happens. You try again, flipping it on and off, but nothing happens. Then you notice something happening in the reflection of a picture frame. Something is happening outside the window behind you as you flip the switch on and off. You turn around and see that, as you flip the switch, the entire city below flickers, like a computer glitch. When the switch is on, you see a sleek, futuristic city with silver skyscrapers and flying cars. It's incredible. When the switch is off, you see the regular, boring old city. What world have you discovered, you wonder? You decide that you’d better search the rest of the office.

You turn around and move to the desk. You find a drawer and try to open it, but it's locked. You turn to a stack of papers and shuffle through them, throwing paper everywhere. Finally you find a manilla folder that is labeled “TOP SECRET”. What’s this? You open it and find a piece of paper with all of your information: name, age, height… Everything. Where did they get all this? And who is they? At the top of the paper it says “secret agent” in front of your name, followed by your favorite number. You're a secret agent? Before you can process the thought, you notice a handwritten note at the bottom of the page. It says, “Look under the desk.”

You duck under the desk and discover a button. You press it and the locked drawer slides open. Inside is a laser gun. You carefully pick it up and examine it. It is sleek and silver and beautiful. You love it. On the side, your name is engraved. Does this belong to you? As you hold it, you see that where the gun was resting in the drawer, there is another note. Alright, enough notes, you think, but you’d better read it just in case. This one says “Run.”

The locked door suddenly bursts open in an explosion of fireworks and standing in the doorway, is a robot. In a robotic voice it says, “You are under arrest,” as it raises its own laser gun. Without thinking, you raise your laser gun and fire! ZAP! The robot is pulverized in a dazzling display of sparks. But as the sparks clear, you see more robots coming down the hallway. They also have laser guns! What is going on?! Where is your dad?!

But the moment that the thoughts cross your mind, you hear something shatter behind you and you turn around to see the glass of the window fall away. Wind rushes inside and you are staring at a sleek, silver flying car. The driver raises goggles, breaks into a wild grin, and extends a hand, “Come on kid, we got a city to save.”

You take the driver’s hand with a final glance back, a final thought about how much trouble you’ll be in when your mom finds out about this, and you climb into the flying car as the robots open fire and lasers whiz past your ears. The flying car zips off in a flash, weaving between the skyscrapers and the whole city opens up before you as you race off into the horizon.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

THE POEM

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the character, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You are swimming deep below the ocean's surface. Rays of moonlight cut through the blue water, illuminating specks of sand that sparkle like clouds of glittering dust. You are wearing scuba gear with only a head lamp to guide you. In the haze below, you can just make out the silhouette of a shipwreck. You've been hunting treasure for your entire life and this shipwreck is the most mysterious discovery you have ever made.

A dark shape suddenly passes in front you. You stop. Panicked air bubbles rise from your oxygen tank. You scan your surroundings, but you’re alone. Then you see the shape again. It’s coming straight towards you. You recognize the pointed mouth, sleek torpedo-like form, and slicing fins of a great white shark. Serrated teeth flash as its jaw widens, but at the last second, it turns away. It glides past. Your eyes meet and you think that perhaps it’s a very smart animal. A very smart fish, actually. Perhaps. But you will never know.

It disappears into the haze and you kick downward, continuing your descent towards the ship. You have a mission and your oxygen tank is already running low. You need to keep moving. As you approach the ship, you spot a gaping hole in the deck. That’s where you’ll enter.

You pull out the compass, carefully wrapped in a plastic bag. This compass is what started it all. It was handed down for generations from your ancestor who was one of South Africa’s first explorers. When you were younger, you thought that the compass was broken. You thought that it was strange how the needle spun in endless circles without stopping. But now you knew better. The compass had just been too far away from what it was seeking. Now you are close. Ever since you arrived in Cape Town, the compass has been leading you somewhere. This was one of those places.

You look down at the needle. It’s currently wavering back and forth, pointing towards the shipwreck. You swim forward, through the hole in the deck and make your way down the narrow passageways, careful not to snag your oxygen tube on the splintered wood.

Finally, you reach a large open room. A crab scurries across the empty sand floor and disappears into a shadow. You follow the compass lower, towards the sand at the base of one of the walls. Suddenly, a small, iridescent black stone emerges from the sand and floats up towards you. It gently CLINKS against the compass and stops, stuck there.

What are these little black stones, you wonder? This is the second one that you’ve found. The compass seems to be leading you to them, one at a time. If this was the ship of your great ancestor, he must have left these stones behind, like the breadcrumbs to some great treasure. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Finding the treasure.

That’s when you notice a carving in the wood. You move closer and shine your head lamp on it, illuminating a single word. It’s part of a sentence. You scan the sentence with your light, but it’s too hard to read. You need more light. You pull out your dive camera, back up to get a wider view, and turn on the strobing flash of your camera. It illuminates the space in an unsettling flicker and the message becomes clear. Before your eyes, carved into the ancient wood, are the words of a poem:

If splintered on stone, sunk all alone, south in the sea of Haii.

The map down with me deep in the dark, close to where I may lie.

Past to present, myths to legends, footsteps shrouded in time.

Heed my words and it shall be yours, in another lifetime.

Where mountains of sand burn red like the damned, bones lay dry on shores of fog.

North, north, and further north, we trekked until life was withered and lost.

In a land of nothing, a stone is something, X marks the spot.

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

THE MEADOW

This piece is part of a children’s book called Unfinished Bedtime Stories that puts you in the shoes of the protagonist. It sets up the world and the characters, but lets your imagination do the rest. Read this before you go to sleep.

You live alone in a tent at a campsite. You have always loved the mountains, even before you ran away from home. That’s why you came here, to Washington’s North Cascades. Jagged peaks rise up all around you, waterfalls pound over distant cliffs, and lush green pine forests swallow you when you want to disappear. In the spring, when you can get a few days off from your job at the shop down the road, you fill your backpack, call your best friend, and wander deep into the wilderness.

Right now you are hiking through a thick forest together. It abruptly opens up into a hidden meadow. It feels like a secret that only you’ve discovered. As you follow a trickling stream, your foot CLANGS on something metal. You drop to one knee and beneath a tangle of wildflowers you find a rusted iron trapdoor. You cautiously lift it open and peer into the darkness. Before you can see anything, your brave friend descends the creaking stairs and you follow.

Your eyes adjust to reveal a once-sleek robotics laboratory. The futuristic technology is overgrown with vines and roots. What a strange place… You move down the hallway and pass complex drawings of dinosaurs, cowboys, medieval knights, pirate ships, Aztec warriors, cavemen, and everything else you can imagine. You turn a corner and see a table with a virtual reality headset on it. Your friend runs to it, but you grab it first. You put it on. A list of options appears, all the settings and time periods that you just saw drawn on the walls are written out as choices. It’s a video game, you think.

You choose “Jurassic” and suddenly you are surrounded by giant ferns. The ground thunders. Is it an earthquake? No. A stegosaurus wanders by. You panic and reach for the headset but you’re not wearing it anymore. How can it be gone if still you’re standing here with this giant stegosaurus? You look around and see the headset sitting on the ground. You dive for it just as an enormous spiked tail sweeps overhead. You scrape your hands in the dirt, but manage to grab the headset and put it on.

Suddenly you are back at the loading screen with the list of options. You rip off the headset and see that your friend is gone. What happened? Why are you alone? You look down at your hands. They are scraped up from the dirt. You must have done that in this room on accident, you think. Then you notice a giant Jurassic fern leaf stuck on your T-shirt. Could it have been real? Could this headset have actually transported you back to a time with dinosaurs? You turn the headset in your hands, contemplating the time machine, and then you put it back on. The list of options appears and you choose...

[connorcallaghanfiction-blog]

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

This is an excerpt from a book that doesn’t exist, The Edge of the World.

The wood of the bowsprit creaked beneath his feet. His hand gripped a shroud. The behemoth dipped down the face of a foaming swell and raced into the trough. The ship shuddered as it collided with the wall of ocean, sending up a spray of salt as it burst through the other side. Landon never lost his footing. There was never a sway that wasn’t a choice, never a step that wasn’t a dance. He’d spent his life at sea and it took a hurricane to unsettle him, but today the skies were clear. Deep blues spread in all directions, an endless horizon of the sea’s choppy silver-reflections beneath the deepening shades of an azure sky, where Luthor and Lilian hung suspended and out of reach. Landon’s tangled hair whipped in the wind, matted and dreaded after a year at sea. They were heading to the edge of the world.

His wild grin shone through his sand-blonde beard, relishing the salty spray as the vessel emerged from the crest of another wave. They were close now. He could see it. The horizon was beginning to fall away, the lip of the falls revealing themselves. The excitement was taking hold of him. His eyes were locked on the destination. He’d spent his life preparing for this. What lay beyond this undiscovered boundary, no one knew. He would be the first.

"Captain!" Selina shouted for his attention, but Landon was entranced. They were heading straight for it. The ship would be slow to turn, they were running out of time, but Landon had made his name by pushing boundaries. Just a little further. Just a little further, he thought. The ocean fell away at the horizon, revealing a massive waterfall that stretched as far as the eye could see. The entire world ended in this single saline mass. Landon howled with delight, an explorer’s madness in his eyes.

"Captain! We’re out of time!" Selina shouted again. Landon whipped around, taking in his ship, the deckhands that had followed him to the end of the world, the towering masts, the billowing sails, and the groaning wood. She was beautiful. She was the Artemis. 

"Aye! Starboard turn!" Landon shouted back as he raced across the deck. The men whipped into action as if they’d been waiting for the queue. Lines whizzed, sails snapped, and timber screamed as the monster veered, but the ship was slow to turn. It strained against its own momentum, pulling away from the impending cliff. Landon caught the widening eyes of the anxious deckhands, unsure if these were their final moments. Landon grinned, ever at ease while others were afraid. He knew he had timed it right. The ship would turn. He knew that. It would be close, but they had to be close. They had to be close for what he was going to do next.