Alice and Alfie and the magic windmill

by Lloyd Jennings

  The witch doctor and all his friends built Alice and Alfie a boat so they could sail back to the magical windmill. They got into the boat and said goodbye to everyone. The prince was crying although he was very happy. Alice and Alfie said they would be back one day as they sailed off into the sunset.

  As they sailed across the sea they saw a large piece of wood floating in the distance. As they got nearer they heard someone singing, “I’m a pirate of the sea, give your gold and silver to me.”

  Alice said, “It is that pirate that hung us up on the ship.” The pirate pleaded with them to give him a helping hand and Alice and Alfie helped him into the boat. They tied his hands once he got on board the boat so he could be put in prison for robbery and treason. They dropped him off in a port and off they went on their way.

  On the way back up the river they went past the castle where the Wooden Prince once lived and soon they were home at the magic windmill. They lay in the window and were nearly off to sleep when the moon floated down and they told him of their adventures. He said, “Sleep well, sleep tight because Nichole’s star is shining bright.”

  Alice and Alfie were awoken by the sound of the windmill grinding the corn to make flour for the baker to make bread and cakes. Jacques was working hard as he always did. Alice got up and went downstairs and she saw on the kitchen table a newspaper and on the front page it said in large letters THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN – FREE TICKETS INSIDE. The paper said animals, clowns and merry-go-rounds and monkeys too.

  Alice ran upstairs to tell Alfie but he was fast asleep.

  Alice shook him and shouted, “Pst, pst, pst.” and he woke and said, “That is not my name!”

  She told him that the circus had come to town, so they both went downstairs to have another look at the paper. They read about the free tickets on page four. As they turned the pages they saw that someone had cut out the free tickets, “Oh, no” said Alice, “Now we can’t go to the circus. They looked around but could not see them.

  The kitchen door opened. It was Jacques, so they fell to the floor and Jacques tripped over them. He picked them up and put them on the magic carpet in front of the fire. He muttered to himself, “The windmill has been up to its tricks again.” He looked at Alice and Alfie, “Do you know I have lost three pairs of glasses and my van keys twice. They must be somewhere in the windmill.” He then had a cup of tea and a cake and went back to the mill to make some flour.

  After Jacques had gone, Alice heard a squeak, squeak, squeak and lots of giggling. Alfie said, “Good morning, why are you laughing so much?” The mice told him to wait a minute and ran back into their hole in the wall and come running back into the kitchen wearing Jacques’s glasses. Alice could not stop laughing and asked, “Have you got his keys too?” They said they had and Alice said, “You must give them back.

  Alfie said, “You should because you cannot drive.” The mice replied, “We can now because we have got glasses.” But they decided to give them back and left them on the table.

  Alice said to the mice, “The circus has come to town, but we have no tickets,” and they showed the mice the paper. The mice said all they had to do was go early. “Do you remember your friend Elle the elephant. Look, she is in the show. She will let you in free.” All of a sudden the cats ran through the back door. The mice said, “Run, run, run so the cats don’t have their fun,” and they ran into the hole in the wall. The cats waited and waited by the hole until they fell asleep.

  The next day was the first day of the circus. Alice and Alfie set off early down the ladder, along the riverbank, towards the town. They met Mr. Hedgehog chasing a frog. They told him where they were going and he said he would love to come too. Then they met Mr. Squirrel, who was sat on the wall playing the fiddle.

  Mr. Otter also heard what they said and he started walking with them.

  The rag dolls and their friends all arrived at the village green and there was a big tent with flags flying and a sign saying, “Welcome to the big circus.” There was a very long queue with mummies and daddies and children too. Everyone had a ticket except Alice and Alfie.

  When they arrived at the village green they looked for Elle the elephant but could not see her. Then all of a sudden they heard the trumpet blowing. It was Elle and she was inside the tent.

  Alice said, “We are never going to get in there now,” and she started to cry.

  Alfie told her, “Don’t cry, Alice.” and she sobbed, “But we won’t be able to see the show without tickets.” They all sat down and started to think of how to get into the circus when all of a sudden the ground started rumbling and there was dirt and soil flying everywhere. They heard a squeak, squeak, squeak, they all thought it was the mice but they were at home.

  After the soil had stopped flying about Mr. And Mrs. Mole popped their heads out. Alice told them what had happened. Mr. Mole said, “No problem, we will get you in there.”

  Alice asked, “How?”

  Mr. Mole said to Mrs. Mole, “dig, dig, dig,” and they all followed. They all squeezed through the tunnel and up into the tent. The rag dolls and all the animals popped their heads up and they were right in the middle of the circus with the ringmaster, who looked very grand in his red jacket and big top hat.

  They could see the whole show from here. First it was the bears, they sang a song but all of a sudden they stopped; they had forgotten their lines. So the ringmaster asked, “What’s with the big pause?” and waving their paws about they replied, “because we are bears!”

  Later, after the circus they walked back along the riverbank with the moon shining bright. They went up the ladder and soon went off to sleep. Later that night the moon shone down and went tap, tap, tap on the window. The moon said to Alice, “I see you went to the circus and met your friend Elle the elephant. You and Alfie looked as though you were having so much fun. Nichole is also laughing tonight with delight with her star shining bright.”

  “Alfie, stop clowning around.”

  One night when it was very late and the sky was getting darker and darker, Alice and Alfie fell asleep on the windowsill. They were awoken by a loud bang, and a woosh and another bang. They looked out of the window but they could only see the stars. Alfie said, “What was that?” The moon saw them looking and he floated down to them. He said it was the loudest bang he had ever heard and told the rag dolls that it was a firework called a rocket. He said the next day would be November 5th, firework night, and that they were going to have a big party on the village green tomorrow night.

  Alice and Alfie told him that they would love to go and the moon said he would see them there and look out for them.

  The next morning Alice and Alfie got up and decided to walk to the village to see what was going on. As they walked along the path through the woods, they heard an unusual sound. It was going cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo and coming from up in the trees. They saw a big bird and it flew down and sat with them on a wooden log and it went cuckoo, cuckoo again.

  Alice said, “What is it with this cuckoo, cuckoo?”

  “It is my name,” the bird replied.” Alice told him, “it is firework night tonight.” The cuckoo got very upset at the thought of all those bangs and started shaking.

  Alfie said, “Are you alright?”

  “I hate fireworks because they wake me up and sometimes they follow me flying through the sky.” He replied.

  Alice said, “That must be fun,” and with that the cuckoo flew off to tell his friends about the fireworks so they could hide in the trees.

  Alice and Alfie carried on walking until they reached the village green. There they saw many tents, some with food, some with drinks and right at the end of the green was an area that had been roped off with a sign saying, ‘Beware Fireworks.’ They decided to walk to the edge of the woods and wait till it was evening where they both fell fast asleep under a tree.

  Before long it got dark and they were awoken by the sound of hundreds of children with their mummies and daddies. They heard music playing and everyo
ne was eating and drinking. All of a sudden there were catherine wheels spinning around to the music and all the children were going, “aww! Ahh! Wow!”

  There were coloured beams of light flashing up in the sky from the rockets. Alice said to Alfie, “Isn’t it lovely?” as the fireworks got higher and higher.

  Alfie said, “Look, there is the moon.”

  Alice shouted out, “Moon, moon get out of the way, or a rocket will take you to the Milky Way.”

  Alice and Alfie moved forward just as the man who was organising the display lit the last biggest firework to end the show. All of a sudden from nowhere Mr. Cuckoo flew down and tried to put it out.

  Alice and Alfie ran to help and they jumped onto Mr. Cuckoo’s back and steered him away from the rocket which was making a loud woosh, woosh, woosh.

  As they were flying high they saw all the children below, watching the rocket let off all its colours.

  Alice loved it, but Alfie said, “The problem is, what goes up must come down.” The rocket went flying past the moon, who was laughing. The moon followed them up into the sky and as the rocket started to slow the moon dropped down and said to Alice and Alfie, “Jump on my back and I will take you back.”

  Alfie said, “That was lucky Alice.” And as they travelled back to the windmill the moon told them all about the stars and planets.

  The moon told them about the Milky Way and said it was too far away. He told them about the planet Mars and all the other stars, then out of the blue in front of them was an amazing shining star. The moon asked them, “You know whose star that is?”

  Alice said, “It’s Nichole’s star”

  “Yes it is, you must make a wish as we go past.”

  The rag dolls closed their eyes and sang together “With a woosh and a wish, please give Nichole a kiss.”

  The moon lowered them gently onto the village green.

  The fireworks had finished and the party was over. All the children were walking home. They were all saying how lovely the big rocket was.

  Alice and Alfie set off again back to the windmill. Before they went off to sleep the moon said, “Goodnight and God bless and remember, remember the 5th November and remember fireworks are fun but only mummies and daddies must light one. Nichole sends her love woosh, woosh.”

  “Alfie, that rocket went off with a bang!”

  Alice and Alfie were playing in the windmill and Jacques had gone to market to sell bags of flour. They ran down the stairs and out to the back of the windmill.

  Alice said to Alfie, “Please start the sails so I can watch them go round on the windmill.” Alfie went into the mill and turned the big wheel, and called to her, “Alice I have done it.”

  She shouted back, “Nothing is happening,” so he went back inside and tried again. The wheel started to move but then stopped. Alice said to Alfie, “Help me push the sail at the bottom.” It still didn’t move at first so they both jumped onto it. All of a sudden the sails started to move, but it was too late for them to get off.

  The wind blew and blew and blew as the sails turned faster and faster. Alfie called to the wind, “Can you make it stop please, as I am shaking at my knees.” The wind said it would have to stop on its own, and round and round went the sails, faster and faster. Alice shouted, “I can’t hang on any longer,” and Alfie said, “I’m scared.

  I think we are going to crash to the floor.”

  The rag dolls could not hold on any longer and they flew off the sails of the windmill and came down with a crash and a bang and landed right on Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit who were sitting in the magical garden. Mr. Rabbit said, “You should watch where you are going when you are flying.”

  Alice answered, “We are sorry, it was the wind’s fault.

  He blew and blew and blew.”

  Mr. Rabbit said, “Pigs might fly but not rag dolls.”

  There was a lot going on in the magical garden and

  Alice said, “Why is it so busy?”

  Mrs. Rabbit replied, “It is the Easter egg hunt tomorrow and everybody has got to hide an egg. Afterwards all the children have to try and find them and the one who finds the most will win a prize. Would you like to hide some?” asked Mrs. Rabbit.

  Alice and Alfie replied, “Oh yes please.”

  The rabbits gave them two chocolate eggs each to hide.

  Alfie put his first egg in a hole in an apple tree and two bees came flying out and stung him on the knees.

  To hide his second egg he pulled up a carrot but by the time he had put the egg down into the ground another carrot had popped up. Alfie had forgotten it was a magical garden, so he turned and put his second egg in a bucket next to the shed.

  Alice decided to put her two eggs in the hen house so the chickens would sit on them with their other eggs.

  The rag dolls told Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit that they would come back the next day to watch the children play.

  The next day Alice and Alfie got up early. They crept down the stairs, opened the curtain at the bottom of the stairs and went through the door into the magical garden after saying the magic words.

  The animals had already arrived and they all had their babies all in a line. There were ducklings, bunnies, chicks, piglets, baby hedgehogs and little baby squirrels.

  All of a sudden Mr. Owl sitting on his perch shouted out, “Let the Easter egg hunt begin.”

  All the little animals started running everywhere, looking for the eggs. Mr. Cuckoo come flying in low and knocked Mr. Owl off his perch. Alice could not believe her eyes, the chickens were running around with chocolate on their bottoms. They had been sitting on the eggs and the chocolate ones had melted!

  The wood lice had eaten the egg that Alfie had put in the apple tree and all that was left was the wrapper. The worms had eaten the egg under the bucket so they were two eggs down and that meant that some of the children would not get an egg. Alice said, “I will go back and find some more, Alfie.” and off she went back to the windmill.

  The sails had stopped going round on the windmill.

  Alice crept into the kitchen. She looked on the kitchen table and there were six chocolate Easter eggs. Jacques had bought them for himself. They were only very small so Alice quickly took two of them and put them in her pocket. She rushed back into the secret garden and hid them. It was the perfect end to the Easter egg hunt as all the children found an egg each.

  Alice said, “It is very EGGSCITING watching the children playing games.”

  Later Alice and Alfie watched the egg and spoon race, roll the hedgehog to pop the balloons and the tug of war. It was the ducks against the piglets, and the sound was amazing. They were going quack, quack and honk, honk when all of a sudden the ducks pulled the piglets over the line to win.

  The day was EGGSTRAORDINARY and everybody had a lot of fun. The pigs went home with a honk, honk, honk, the ducks said quack, quack, quack and the chickens scratched all the way home. Mr. Cuckoo just went cuckoo!

  Alice and Alfie collected some vegetables for Jacques to replace the two Easter eggs that Alice had taken. They went back to the windmill and put the vegetables on the table next to the other Easter eggs. Suddenly they heard Jacques coming down the stairs and they fell to the floor and heard him say, “How can there be only four Easter eggs instead of six but vegetables in their place?”

  Jacques said thank you to the magical windmill for the vegetables. He looked at the rag dolls and thought “That is funny; they have chocolate on their faces.” So he washed their faces and put them to bed on the windowsill.

  Before Alice and Alfie fell asleep the moon shone down and said, “I saw what happened today and what fun you had at the Easter egg hunt. Nichole sends her love and two Easter eggs from above.”

  Alice and Alfie were awoken by the window shutters blowing in the wind. Alice said, “It is very windy outside Alfie.” As they looked out of the window to their amazement the leaves were falling off the trees. Alice said, “It is very sad, the trees loosing their leaves.” They decided to wait u
ntil Jacques the windmill keeper started work and then they climbed down the ladder. The sails of the windmill were turning faster and faster.

  The rag dolls heard Jacques talking in the mill. He was on the telephone and saying he could not make any flour because it was too windy and the windmill sails were going around too fast. He said, “but it is a good day for flying kites.” Alice looked at Alfie and said “I wonder what he means by flying kites?”

  Jacques said he would meet his friend and they would go fishing for the day instead.

  All of a sudden the two cats came running round the corner and knocked Alice and Alfie over. The cats rolled and rolled and rolled down the riverbank and landed in the river. They got out, shook themselves off and Alice said to them, “What have you been up to?”

  The cats replied, “We have been chasing the mice.”

  Alice cried, “Where are they, you haven’t eaten them, have you?”

  The cats smiled and said, “No, we have been playing cat and mouse in the house.” The mice went squeak, squeak and shouted, “We are too quick for you.”