Once I got lost in my own house. Now I know that doesn't sound easy, after all everyone knows their own house back to front- don't they?! But then my house wasn't a normal house, it was a magical one. Try to navigate a house that turns itself upside down every five minutes, where the corridors bend and twist at random. where up becomes down without warning. In such a house you might think it was a miracle I only ever got lost once. But then, when you've spent your whole life somewhere you get used to its quirks, you adjust for its peculiarities. In fact, more than that, they become normal to you. The little creek that mystifies strangers becomes a kind of signal, the leaking tap a sign and a slight tiggling when you touch something metal belies a change.
The day began like any normal day. I got up, opened my wardrobe door and searched for my clothes. I found my sister's clothes instead- nothing unusual there (this often happened). I reached into the wardrobe, parting the clothes, until I could see her room beyond and then pulled at the doorway until the world seemed to spin and my own clothes appeared. After pulling on my school uniform, I opened the door and stopped to assess the arrangement on my home on this fine morning. The stairs had decides to arrange themselves in an upward manner so I jumped over the balcony, using my finely trained muscles to make a secure landing.
"Good morning" greeted Mum, serving scrambled egg from a big basin under her arm, "did you sleep well?"
"OK" I replied, already scoffing down what was infront of me.
Dad arrived through a doorway tthat had suddenly appeared in the floor. He kissed Mum goodbye, picked up his briefcase and left, Mum trailing after him trying to offer some toast and a mug of coffee.
My parents did their best to make this house seem the same as any other. The only problem was that it wasn't (and we all knew it). No matter how things appeared on the surface it was hard to pretend otherwise when things kept disappearing. (At that moment the table changed colour as if to illustrate what I was thinking).
"Don't forget your lunch" Mum warned me, taking off her pinny and putting on her shoes as she said so. "And don't be late" she continued, kissing me goodbye. I hardly had time to take in what she had said before she left through the ceiling.
I gobbled down the last of my toast and took my packed lunch out of the fridge. Swigging down a can of cola, I headed for the door through which Mum had just left. To my surprise I found myself upstairs once again. There was no sign of Mum.
"Oh well" I thought, "the house must have reconfigured whilst I was distracted, I'll just head back down again". I jumped off the balcony, but this time I landed admist dust ontop of a pool table. I looked around- I was in the basement! Climbing off the pool table, I headed up the stairs to where the kitchen should be. But when I arrived I was surrounded by boxes and cobwebs. A squeeking noise was coming from the corner. I made my way cautiously accross, wary that things were even stranger than normal. And then a scrapping noise started up, small and sudden and something darted towards me. I jumped back and fell flat on my bottom. I felt my face become warm, as I realised it had just been a mouse.
Picking myself up once again, I looked around and tried to get my bearings. I seemed that I had arrived in the attic. I'd never been here before, in fact Dad had given me the impression that there wasn't ever a way up here. Well, somehow I'd found one. Now I just hoped I could get out to tell him.
