Page 26 of Dreams Come True at the Fairytale Museu
‘Lissa, I know you’ve got your hands full, but there’s something quite odd going on…’
It’s a few days later and Warren’s gone out for his lunchbreak. There haven’t been any suspicious exhibit incidents since the pumpkin carriage, but the hair stands up on the back of my neck as I answer the phone, and it’s Imogen on the other end, sounding apologetic, but also quite worried.
‘It’s this spinning wheel, you see. It’s, well, it’s everywhere, and it’s starting to make me a bit uneasy…’ Imogen runs a shop called Sleeping Beauty’s Once Upon A Dream that specialises in all things cosy for a perfect bedtime. Pyjamas, luxury bedding, snuggle hoodies, bath bombs and pampering kits, among other things, but this is the first I’ve heard of any spinning wheel problems.
‘It was a bit strange when I arrived this morning and it was outside the front door, but I thought it was just kids playing a prank, but a little while later, it was outside the back door, then there was a tap-tap-tap on the shop window and it was out there, lurking in the bushes round the side, but now it’s turned up in my office and every time I look at it, it’s creeping closer.’
‘Wait, it’sinthe office? It’s actually moving?’
‘Well, I’ve not seen it, but I shut the door and locked it in, and now every time I look through the glass in the door, it’s moved a bit nearer, like it’s coming for me. You don’t know anything about it, do you?’
Idoknow this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life. ‘We know something’s been going on with the exhibits, but we’re still trying to get to the bottom of it. I’ll come and get it as soon as Warren gets back. Just try not to… provoke it?’ I say before she hangs up, and I wonder if I should take a defensive weapon or something to fight it off with. How the flippingheckis a spinning wheel taunting someoneinsidetheir office? And in broad daylight? How is it circling her shop with no one seeing it?
I quickly go to check on the spinning wheel that usually stands beside the mannequin of Princess Aurora, and it’s definitely missing, and I go back to the lobby, perplexed by how it escaped my notice earlier, never mind how itescapedat all.
‘Everything al—’ Warren comes back in from his lunchbreak carrying shopping bags and clocks the look on my face instantly. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I’ve just had a phone call from Imogen in the Once Upon A Dream shop. She’s being taunted by Sleeping Beauty’s spinning wheel, and—’ I don’t get to finish the sentence before the phone goes again, and this time, it’s Ali, the head chef and owner of the 1001 Nights restaurant.
‘Look, I know this is just a big joke,’ he says down the line. ‘But putting a big, furry Remy fromRatatouillein my kitchen is not in the slightest bit funny. It might only be a fake rat, butanykind of rat in a restaurant kitchen is a terrible omen.’
‘I didn’t put it there!’ I say indignantly.
‘Oh, I know that, but if you could come and collect it as soon as possible, I’d be much obliged.’ Ali puts the phone down without waiting for an answer.
‘Remy, the rat who loves cooking, has appeared in the kitchen of 1001 Nights,’ I explain to Warren. ‘Ali starts work around this time of day, he must’ve just got in and found him. And he and Imogen are a couple, they started dating last Christmas, is that weird? Someone’s targeted them both at the same time. It must be someone who knows they’re together.’
Warren shakes his head, looking like he doesn’t know where to start dismantling everything he’s just heard. ‘There’s aratwho loves cooking?’
‘Oh, youreallyneed to watch some Disney films…’ I realise that he’s changed since I last saw him. ‘What are you wearing?’
He transfers his shopping bags into one hand and curtsies to me. ‘A nice jumper or something.’
He’s still got on the suit trousers, but like I told him to the other day, he’s now wearing a cosy-looking brown rib-knit jumper with orange leaves around the bottom hem, and it looksgood. ‘Have you just been out and bought that?’
‘Maybe. I’m not a big “autumn jumper” kind of person, or at least, Iwasn’t…’ He shifts the bags he’s carrying between his hands again.
‘You’re not a big comfort person then.’
‘No, I’m not.’
It’s another thing that strikes me as being incredibly sad. There’s something comforting about big, cosy, baggy jumpers at this time of year, something that brings in the season and makes you feel snug, and I feel quite sorry for anyone who misses out on this particular joy of autumn. ‘It was a good choice. It’s a verynicejumper.’
He blushes and the thought that a little compliment from me could make him blush makesmefeel flushed too.
‘Let me put these down and we’ll go and rescue the rogue exhibits.’ He lifts the bags again and heads for the stairs. ‘Ali didn’t sound particularly happy, so I’ll take 1001 Nights in case he’s angry and you take the spinning wheel.’
‘You’re a real gentleman, volunteering to battle a fake rat that’s about thirty centimetres tall,’ I say when he comes back down.
‘Nope, just marginally more terrified of a stalker spinning wheel. If you prick your finger and fall asleep for a hundred years, don’t blame me. You’re single so finding true love’s kiss might be difficult.’
‘Ahh, Prince Philip, the man who ruined me for all others. Quite frankly, if a man isn’t going to fight through roses and thorns and battle a dragon for you, then is it really love at all?’
He goes to reply but I cut him off. ‘And don’t tell me that’s an impossible standard like my friends do.’
He laughs and holds his hands up. ‘Wasn’t going to say a word. I fully support anyone with high standards, no matter how unrealistic they are.’
I laugh too, and secretly I’m quite glad that he’s swotted up on at leastonefairytale.
