The Adventures Of Lemmie Montinaro

A Door in the Wardrobe

In which our hero finds a door in her wardrobe, climbs through and discover what's on the other side.

It was ten in the evening and Venus had decided to stay the night with Lemmie and Chance. While Chance was setting up the spare bedroom, Lemmie was lying on her bed watching Venus go through her wardrobe in attempts to find something which she deemed 'even remotely fashionable'.

This annoyed Lemmie for she felt that her clothes were, in fact, 'fashionable'.

Not that she cared.

"Hey, Lemmie?"

"What?"

"There's a door in your wardrobe."

"What? No, don't be ridiculous. Of course there isn't."

"Well, unless you put something in my tea, I'm 100% sure that there is a door here."

"Can't be," Lemmie said, getting off the bed and walking towards Venus, "I've looked in there thousands of times, and not once have I seen a door."

"Then what would you call that?" Venus asked opening the wardrobe door wider so that Lemmie could see. And indeed there was a door. A white door no less. White paint against the brown wood of her wardrobe.

No. There was no way that that was there before. She would have noticed. "H-how? I should have seen it. For God sake it's bright white!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't throw a fit, darling. Quick, what room is behind yours?

"Chance's, but there is definitely no door in her room."

"Like how there was definitely no door in your wardrobe?"

"Shut up."

Venus grinned and grabbed Lemmie's hand, dragging out of her room and into Chance's. Venus began to eagerly look around the wall that the door should lead to. After a few moments of watching Venus run her hands along the wall, Lemmie decided to help her search. Besides she had nothing else to do.

They gave up just as Chance joined them. "What're we doing in here?" she asked in confusion. Venus leapt at the chance to explain about the mysterious door, while Lemmie just rolled her eyes at her friends excitement.

Chance scrutinised the both of them before resting her eyes on Venus once more.

"If you're so excited, why didn't you just go through the door?"

Lemmie and Venus looked at Chance and then at each other. And then they both sprinted out of the room, followed by a curious Chance.

By the time Chance reached Lemmie's room, both of them were already in the wardrobe, attempting to pry open the miniature door.

Chance approached the wardrobe warily, stuck her head in and saw the door. Since Venus appeared to be having difficulty and Lemmie seemed not to care, Chance leaned in and gave  the door a big tug using both hands.

The door sprang open. Venus was too excited to thank Chance for all her trouble and Lemmie was still pretending not to care, but even she couldn't hide her excitement when she saw what was inside.

A tunnel.

"What is this," Venus asked, slightly breathless, "Coraline?"

"Lets go through!" said Lemmie, trying and failing to mask her excitement.

"No." came Chance's disappointing response.

"No?! What do you mean 'no'?!" exclaimed Venus.

"I've seen Coraline and I do not want to go through the same horrors she experienced."

"Coraline is a kids movie."

"So?"

"So it's fictional."

"We've just found a tunnel in your wardrobe, that wasn't there before, and it also disobeys any of the laws of logic that I have created in my mind. Besides, we are completely unprepared. We are in our pyjamas, we haven't any supplies packed nor have we any idea what might lay at the end of the tunnel. We are adults, not curious children."

Lemmie frowned at her, "It might be like Narnia."

Chance looked at her, and it was clear she was wavering. "Well, we still have to pack three bags. Just to be on the safe side."

They all nodded in agreement.

"Come on, darlings, lets pack!"

And with that Chance left the room with Venus to lend her a bag. Lemmie leapt up and began packing the essentials. Spare clothes, money, phone, keys, toiletries and two pairs of shoes. She then began to change into the outfit she had been wearing earlier in the day.

Meanwhile Chance, being more practical brought enough torches, umbrellas, food, raincoats and camping equipment for them all.

And since all of Venus's clothes were back at her own home she had to borrow all of her supplies.

They all joined together once more in front of Lemmie's wardrobe. They weren't entirely sure how long they would be, so they locked up the house.

"Who'll go first?" asked Venus.

"I will." said Lemmie bravely.

And with that, Chance handed her a torch, and she ventured forth into the unknown, climbing through on all fours, followed by Venus and Chance bringing up the rear.

Holding the torch in one hand, Lemmie crawled through the seemingly endless tunnel. After what felt like an hour which was in fact only two minutes, Lemmie reached a door similar to the one they had entered through.

Lemmie stopped abruptly causing Venus to crash into her and Chance to crash into Venus.

"What do you see?" asked Chance craning her neck to attempt to see what Lemmie could.

"It's a door." came Lemmie's bored response.

"Well, then open it!" said Venus impatiently.

Without bothering to respond Lemmie began to pound on the door. After awhile of attacking the poor door, it finally creaked open.

With a slight smile tugging at her lips, Lemmie climbed through.

And to her utter surprise when she exited the door she saw, not a secret room in her house, but a garden.

It was an extraordinary garden. With flowers that shined with colour, trees that towered above them, grass of the greenest green, ponds, rivers and a small bridge over the rivers.

On the pond swam a weird creature which seemed to be a mixture of a duck and an eagle. How that was possible Lemmie didn't know.

Above her soared dozens of odd hybrids.

Walking along the ground around her the creatures were just as weird. There even seemed to be a half dog - half cat thing. She had no idea what to call them.

"Wow." came Venus's happy sigh.

"Damn." came Chance's angry mumble.

"What?" asked Venus, "Mad it's not Narnia?"

"No, we appear to be in Wonderland and I packed no cards."

"Why would we need cards?"

"Because by the looks of things we'll be here quite some time."

"What do you mean?" asked Lemmie turning around, "Oh."

The door was gone.