A 'SPECS'TACULAR SURPRISE | ONC 2021

2¦ Being Naughty

"Sleep well, beta," Aalo's mother tucked her into the sheets and kissed her forehead.

"Good ninny, Maa." She smiled like an obedient child.

Her mother switched off the lights and closed the door behind her.

"Pompom," Aalo put on her specs and whispered into the dark."Are you there?"

"Here." The little creature jumped up on her bed. The Gyppie was glowing in the dark. Aalo threw off her sheets and sat up straight.

"Let's play," Aalo mumbled excitedly.

"It's time for you to sleep," the Gyppie insisted.

"But I don't want to sleep so early," she whined.

"If I don't pour sleep dust into your eyes and make you sleep, then I'll fail in my job and my Papa would scold me," the little Gyppie said.

"You have a Papa?" she asked quietly.

"He's the best Papa in our world." Little Pompom's eyes shone.

"I've never seen my Papa." Aalo lowered her eyes, picking up spots on her nightgown.

"That's sad." Pompom patted her back. "I am sure your Papa loved you a lot."

"But if he did, why would he leave me and Maa?"

Pompom stayed quiet for a while. "Do you miss him?"

"I don't know how he looks like. We don't have a photograph of him in the house and the albums from my Maa's wedding are locked away," Aalo sniffled.

"Do you want to go for dream-surfing?" Pompom asked suddenly.

"What is dream-surfing?"

"It's going into other's dreams and jumping from one dream to another. That's what we do all night," the Gyppie clarified.

"How can I go into someone else's dreams?" she asked.

"It's simple. You fall asleep. I enter your dream and later take you along to someone else's dream. Just keep your glasses on."

"Is it allowed?" Aalo asked, her eyes glistening with excitement.

"No. My Papa would scold me. But I want to be naughty some days. Only if you are with me." Pompom grinned.

"What if my Maa scolds me?"

"If everything goes well, neither your mother nor my father would know." The little Gyppie winked.

"Let's do this." Aalo clapped her hands. She was way too excited to be naughty. Being a good kid was boring.

"Shush." Pompom put its hand on her lips. "Your mother would find out."

"Sorry." Aalo giggled, quickly slipping under the cover and closing her eyes. She could pick up a light scurrying noise as Pompom scuttled around the room. Soon the sound faded away into the stillness of the night.

A dog barked somewhere in the distance. The owls hooted nearby. The sounds of the night were all so prominent. Aalo closed her eyes tightly, but sleep seemed to be miles away because of her excitement.

"Pompom," she whispered again.

"What?" the Gyppie's voice seemed annoyed.

"I can't sleep," she whined.

"I can't jump into your dreams unless you start to dream," Pompom cried.

"Then what should I do?"

"Try to fall asleep." Pompom went quiet after that.

Aalo tried to count sheep in her mind, anything to help her fall asleep.

One sheep jumping over the fence...two sheep jumping over the fence...three sheep...

And she didn't realise that she was actually tired. Her heavy eyelids drooped and somehow the sheep turned to Gyppies in various colours, jumping over a rainbow bridge. They looked quite happy, holding hands and jumping around in circles. Pink, peach, green, yellow, violet - they came in various shades and had the same pattern on their body like Pompom. They were in various sizes too. Some bigger ones had fat brown moustaches. They were probably the Papa Gyppies, and the ones that had boobies were the Mama Gyppies. They played with the little kids who twirled and sang

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies

A pocket full of posies

"Aalo?" Pompom's voice alerted her to its presence. The little Gyppie looked at her amusedly.

"I see you're dreaming about my family," Pompom said.

"Is that your family?"

"Cousins and extended relatives. But I don't think we should stand here for my papa to catch us." Pompom yanked her hand, dragging her along.

"Where are we going?" Aalo ran faster to catch up.

"To someone else's dreams," Pompom replied, as a little black hole opened up in front of them. Aalo stopped for a moment, afraid to jump into somewhere unknown. Pompom waved at her from inside the hole. She took a deep breath and stepped in.

She felt as if she was hanging in the sky. Stars twinkled and sparkled all around her as if dancing to the merry tunes of the universe. The moon gleamed somewhere in the distance. She bounced as her body felt lighter. Pompom was hopping ahead of her and she strode faster, following the trail of the stars.

"Do you see those?"

Aalo stopped walking and looked at what Pompom was pointing at. Beautiful translucent lights in various colours floated amidst the stars. They looked like the little shimmering lights when she closed her eyes and rubbed them. They burned brighter and dimmer, like fireflies in the dark.

"Those are the various dreams that people around you are watching. Which one would you like to visit?" Pompom asked.

Aalo looked at the ample number of choices in front of her. One particular dream sparkled in the softest shade of baby pink. That dream seemed livelier than others. It somehow made Aalo happy. She wanted to see what it was about. Aalo lifted her fingers and pointed to that dream.

"Very well." Pompom extended its hand to Aalo.

She clasped it willingly as they both started rising into the air.

"Yoo-hoo," Aalo screamed as they started floating towards the pink light that grew bigger and bigger and engulfed them as a whole.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Author's Note: 2000 words completed! So excited for the ONC 2021