Sarah and Jack -Of how a fourteen year old should never miss sleep

Of why a fourteen year old should never miss sleep.

Sarah was so tired. Her eyes felt like they could drop out of her head at any moment. She knew she shouldn't have had that fourth cup of coffee but her Junior Certificate examinations started in a week and she was cramming so hard her head felt like it would burst. She felt guilty too, because she had lost her temper in a fit of anger and bumped into her little brother who had then hit his head off the wall. She didn't mean to.
Eventually, Sarah had to give up. She wasn't learning anything. So she went and brushed her teeth and then got in to bed. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was the time, 3:17 a.m.
***
Sarah's dreams that night/morning were strange. She slept fitfully until 4:00 a.m. when she finally drifted off... and immediately regretted it. A sharp sound awoke Sarah. It took a few minutes for her to register it was a slight tapping. She looked around and realised that this was not her bedroom. It seemed that she was in a little cottage. She got up slowly and noticed that the cottage that she was in looked like the cottage from Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Brushing it off, she opened the door.
"Miss Sarah Desmond of Cherry Drive?"
A goblin stood there, looking intimidating in a black outfit with red trimmings.
"Two seconds"
Sarah closed the door and gritted her teeth.
"Oh, for God's sake. What have I done to deserve this now?" she muttered under her breath.
She forced a smile on her face and opened the wooden door carefully.
"Yes, how may I help you?"
The goblin didn't answer but instead grabbed her by the arm and sprinkled some dust on her head. Sarah then felt the oddest sensation. It was as if she was falling backwards. She shut her eyes instinctively as she waited for the usual sense of nausea to arrive as it did when she was on planes, but it didn't. She opened her eyes as she heard whispers.
Sarah realised that she was in a court room but the jurors were not human. They were toys. An involuntary shiver went down her spine. It was similar to the court room she had seen in Mary Poppins the Musical when she was seven. She noticed that she had thought aloud when someone answering her shook her out of her thoughts. It was a Jack-in-the-Box, looking similar to her old toy. She gasped as she realised it was her old Jack-in-the-Box, which she had nicknamed Bobby.
"Yes, Sarah, it is. This is your imagination, well part of your imagination", said Bobby, gesturing around as the other jury members tittered behind their hands, in squeaky voices.
Sarah looked around and realised that all the other jurors were her old toys too. There was Jenny her old rabbit, Lulu her rocking horse, Poppy her teddy bear, Fluff and Fliss, her identical fluffy ducklings, the five Russian dolls and one of her old toy soldiers.
"All rise for the Honourable Judge"
Sarah looked up and gawped. The Judge was her old imaginary friend, Mindy. She was aware that Mindy was talking but she couldn't seem to focus.
She was finally shaken out of her thoughts when she felt the floating sensation for the second time that day. She closed her eyes again. When she opened her eyes again, she was on the ground next to ... a giant beanstalk?
"What on earth...?"
She felt the gaze before she turned around. Standing behind her was what she presumed Jack from the infamous tale.
"Hello. I was waiting for you. How come you took so long?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm Jack, in case you hadn't noticed. You know, you're a forgetter."
"A forgetter? What's that?"
"Well, technically you are supposed to be known as a non-believer, but forgetter is slang for it around these parts. A non-believer is somebody who stops believing in us. I think they are called teenagers and adults in your area."
"Okay..."
Sarah breathed in sharply. Why did these things always happen to her?
"Of course, you better not call yourself a forgetter near Rapunzel. She is kind of touchy about grammar. I suppose being stuck in a tower for eighteen years is bad for your mental health."
Sarah rubbed her head as if a headache was coming on, even though it was impossible as she was in a dream.
"I just want to get home. How do I do that?"
He looked at her as if she was stupid.
"You wake up, idiot."
Sarah growled.
"How?"
By then, Sarah was quickly running out of patience.
"By climbing the beanstalk, of course and defeating the giant."
Two minutes later, Sarah was ready to shove the boy down the beanstalk. Jack was grinning lazily at her from the top of the beanstalk as she panted in the middle of the monstrous beast of a plant.
"How... much...longer...do...I...have...to...climb...this...thing?"
"Two minutes more, I'd say"
Ten minutes later, she was up on top of a cloud, heading towards the castle. It was ludicrous. As Jack crept closer and closer to the castle, Sarah lagged behind, cautious. She knew that the giant, if the tale was correct, was very strong. Lucky for her, he would also be very dumb.
As they approached the castle, Sarah held out a hand and stopped Jack.
"What?"
"What's our game plan? We can't exactly enter without a plan."
Jack seemed to consider this as Sarah waited impatiently.
"You know the tale. Mrs Giant comes along, discovers me, helps to hide me, I take her and her husband's stuff in retribution for her husband killing my dad after escaping from her husband who attempts to kill me, I climb down the beanstalk, Mum and I cut it down with the golden axe, blah, blah, blah, the end. The usual."
"Yes."
"Right then, just follow that to a tee and everything will be fine."
"But you end up killing someone."
"And? Your point is..."
Sarah sighed to herself.
"No murder, no way. There has to be another method."
Jack paused and stared at her for a few minutes. Then his face split into a wide grin.
"Thank goodness. Killing someone over and over again does get boring you know."
Sarah resisted the urge to point out she didn't know, because she had never actually killed someone, and bit her tongue. She regretted it as the coppery taste filled her mouth.
"Ok. So here's the plan..."
Three minutes later, Sarah was hiding behind a bush near the entrance of the castle as Jack crept over the moat and into the castle. She heard the whistle and quickly ran over the moat and joined Jack in the castle, pulling up the door using a long white rope.
She winced as the sound of the entrance being closed echoed through the great hall. She waited in the hall as Jack went ahead.
Jack gave her the go-ahead five minutes later and she crept cautiously through the halls. She found Jack in what she supposed was the giant's counting room. He was trying to grab the chicken that laid golden eggs. Sarah quickly grabbed the golden axe.
"Come on Jack, we need to go. Hurry up."
"Two seconds"
Sarah noticed that Jack was starting to take some of the giant's gold.
"Jack, put that down now. We need to go."
"Fine. Women", Jack muttered under his breath.
Sarah felt a flare of anger and irritation and resisted the urge to throttle the boy.
"Come on."
They walked through the halls of the draughty house of the giant. Sarah shivered as the cold but nothing touched the simmering rage that was slowly building up in her mind.
Suddenly, the sound of thundering footsteps interrupted them and a spike of fear went racing through Sarah's heart. It was the giant.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman."
"What do we do?", Sarah hissed frantically to Jack.
"Let me take care of this", Jack said as he puffed out his chest importantly, "I am a man, you know."
The simmering rage turned into a boiling frenzy.
They backed into the giant's kitchen but luckily Mrs Giant was nowhere to be seen. The giant entered the kitchen too and smelt Jack. He approached Jack with a murderous grin on his face.
Jack, the pompous child, puffed out his chest.
"See here, giant. I am so much more important than you."
Sarah rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall. The giant did not take much to this accusation and picked up the boy with one finger.
"I smell little girl too.", grunted the giant.
"Leave her alone, she is only a weak girl."
"That's it"
Sarah snapped and with a lunge, picked up the giant's frying pan and whacked both of them unconscious.
"Bloody sexist pigs... if my friends behaved like that I would kill them... idiots."
Sarah left the giant in the castle and heaved Jack out of the castle and down the beanstalk.
"Jesus", she muttered halfway down the beanstalk, "I should work out more."
She dragged the heavy lump down the rest of the beanstalk, grabbed the golden axe and heaved it at the plant. As the monstrous stalk trembled, Sarah felt the floating sensation again.
She woke up and sighed in relief as she recognised her bedroom and bed. Then she gulped when she saw the time. 7:30 a.m.
Sarah jumped up, got dressed quickly and ran into the kitchen where her mum was sitting. She poured herself some cereal and a glass of orange juice. As she sat at the kitchen table, she suddenly saw the frying pan and thought it would be great to intimidate twats in her class with.
"Mum."
"Yes darling"
"You don't need a frying pan do you?"
"What?"
"Never mind"
The plotting of her classmates downfall could be arranged another day.

The End.