The Daisy Garden

Part 2 - The joke's on you

Part 2 -  The joke's on you

Barny and Daisy sat around the table playing snakes and ladders, Barny checked his watch "Dad'll be home soon." Daisy rolled the dice

"What's he been doing today?" Barny shrugged and moved his counter along three

"Dunno, just hanging about with a bunch of other intoxicated steelworkers" he paused "not that my Dad would be one of the drunk ones." Daisy nodded and rolled the dice again "I'm not entirely certain that this is the career for my father, he seems a little underwhelmed by it, but he says it'll come in useful as training." Daisy moved her counter along to 100 

"Yay, I win!" Barny swiped the counters off the board "D'you want to play again?" Barny got up and opened the fridge to get a carton of juice "No, let's play a different game." He wandered over to the work surface and picked up two walkie talkies and inspected them "you are stopping in tonight, right?" Barny started walking back to the table "yeah, I've got nowhere else, my house is boxes ready to be shipped off to Great Idleton... where my life ends." Barny sat down and handed over the device

"Well then, what's saying we can't go exploring?" Daisy looked shocked and handed the device back "anyone in their right mind!! There's serious thunder and lightening out there!" Barny shrugged

"I don't see your point, the trees'll give us good cover and besides, it's only five 'o' clock and it looks like it'll blow over soon, c'mon Daisy, please!?" 

"Okay but what about dinner?" Barny looked up pensively

"Don't worry I'll pack something." Barny started to get up and Daisy pulled him down "Barny I'm scared." He looked confused

"Of a little storm, don't worry, as I said, it looks like it's blowing over." Daisy sighed, running her fingers through her fringe. "Not that... it's the talisman. I don't want the power!" Barny thought, and he thought, then he got it. "I know! we just need to go and speak to Eppy, I know how to sort it!" Barny grabbed Daisy by the arm "Come on pleeeeeeease!" Daisy smiled

"If I come, can you guarantee this'll work?" Barny made an unsure kind of squeaky noise

"No, no I can't guarantee... But I almost can!" Daisy folded her arms and sat back down.

"Then I'm not going." She had a stubbourn look on her face

"Please Daisy, all the best monsters come out at night!" Barny was now walking circles  around Daisy, smiling sweetly. "You could be queen ....... Of the monsters!" Daisy sighed

"You don't get it do you? It's a prank Barny... And the worst part... The joke's on you..." Barny's face dropped. He held back floods of tears. "N-no, you don't kno what you're saying... It's all real." Daisy got up "you're dellusional, look I always knew you were an imaginative sort, but this, it's sad, Barny. Save yourself from humiliation and don't go back there."

"So what, you're leaving?"

"Yes, I'll sleep among boxes tonight." Barny seriously felt like crying but couldn't come across wimpish. "But we... and you... so...... just go." Daisy grabbed her bag, and, closing the door behind her exited the room.. Barny put the walkie talkies away, he stormed up to his room. "Aaaargh! How!?" He swiped everything off his bedside table angrily, suddenly he heard the key turn in the lock of the front door, he stopped dead "Dad." He said to himself. He started picking up all the rubble from his end table. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, he crawled under his bed, trying not to make a sound. He heard his father pass his bedroom. He sighed and started wiggling out from under the bed when suddenly one of the slats fell on his head. "Aw ow!" Barny heard the footsteps stop. "Barnaby . . . is that you?"

"Yes Dad."

"Go to bed... It's late." It was only half past five, but Barny and his Dad avoided conversations and made very little time for eachother. The lights were switched off in Barny's bedroom and he climbed into bed.

In Barny's Dream (again)

Barny got out of bed, thinking of terrible thoughts he grabbed his torch and opened his door, a large gust of wind blew and he appeared to be in the Willow Gardeen. Suddenly Daisy appeared from behind a tree, she seemed different "oh, it's you." Barny reached out after her, but Daisy shook her head "I'll never be friends with someone like you, someone who's dellusional and afraid of their own Dad." These words carried on echoing in Barny's head, over and over again.

Barny sat up, startled "another bad dream... what's wrong with me?" He got out of bed and proceeded downstairs, he grabbed a coat and a torch and made his way to the Willow Garden. He opened the gate and ventured further. He ran over rocks and through swaps and dodged trees. When he came to a clearing with a small pond in. Standing by the pond was a blonde girl "Daisy?" She turned "Barny!" She looked pleasantly surprised "Oh I hope you'd come, I need to show you something." Daisy positioned herself beside the pond "Come here, don't be afraid." Barny walked towards her. "Now put your hand against mine... like your giving me a high five."

"Like this?" Daisy looked into his eyes and up to their hands

"Yep, just like that, now we wait." Barny looked confused

"Wait for what?"

"The golden eagle... It's like phases of the moon, but with the sun. So when the light shines between our hands... everything will stop." And just at that moment, it happened, it was as if the whole universe was with them and had frozen, every single blade of grass lit up and shone golden rays of sun as the power of the talisman was passed over to somebody else. "What was that?"

"You now have the power, you can use the talisman!" Barny laughed with excitement and stared at the palm of his hand "amazing."

"Hey kids!?" Eppy was standing in a tree above them "You explored this whole place?" Barny shrugged "Pretty much, yeah!: Eppy jumped on to his head

"Wrong! You haven't been to the castle yet!" Daisy looked confused

"I haven't seen a castle?"

"That's right you haven't!" Eppy parted the vines of another Willow tree

"There are so many willows here!" Daisy exclaimed

"No just one, this place messes with your orientation... No actually it's one huge one  that's been growing since this garden was gardened, it was discarded by everyone, because the sapling was an odd shape, who knew it would turn out this spectacular, it's circular, it's comforting, gives me my boundaries."

"Cool!" The Willow opened out and behind was a big stone castle covering the ground in shadow.  "Woah!" Daisy grinned "let's go in!" Eppy stopped them

"Wait. I'm inclined to tell you that once you're in there it's extremely difficult to get out. You have to have the mind of someone with an spectacularly logical mind, someone who's good at physics and maths. But I'm also inclined to encourage and usher you inside." Daisy and Barny stopped, Daisy shrugged and said "I got a B+ in physics." Barny looked at her, and she looked at him

"I got a C in maths."  They stepped forward slowly and through to the castle.