1000 words a day

Well today is day one of my newest challenge, one thousand words a day for a year.  It won’t be easy I’m sure but I just told my aunt who is currently in college and has her first writing course that writing 1000 words isn’t hard.  So here I am setting out to prove it.  If I keep up with my promise then I will have over three hundred and sixty five words at the end of a year.  I will try to complete a book, or a series of poems.  Perhaps I will just journal my way through a year.  Who knows!  But this is leg one of my journey. 

I found writing prompt online the other day and saved it for when I was stuck, but I think that it may serve me well in this endeavor:  you find yourself in front of seven doors.  A voice from above tell you: “these seven doors lead to seven places, Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Camelot, Middle Earth and Westeros.”  Which door do you go through?  Why that door?  What happens?   And now it truly begins…

“Mandee, these seven doors lead to seven places, Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Camelot Middle Earth and Westeros.  Choose wisely.”

“What on earth?” I mutter to myself.  “Where am I?”  I found myself in the middle of nowhere with no recollection of how I came to be in such a place.  There seemed to be nothing at all anywhere.  I was in a sea of endless white; the only thing within my sight was seven doors.  They were free standing; I could walk entirely around them.  Each door was identical heavy oak doors with aged coppery gold fittings.  As I looked closer I noticed that the doors weren’t quite identical.  There was one difference that distinguished each door from its counterparts; the handles.  The first handle was inset with the head of a lion, the second a clock.  The third handle had a caterpillar on it, the fourth a pointed witch’s hat.  The fifth and sixth doors both had swords on them, though one shined blue, and the last door had hand grasping a crown.

 

Each symbol clearly designated the supposed location that each door led to.  The lion was for Narnia, the clock for never land, the caterpillar must be for Neverland, the Witch’s hat was clearly for Hogwarts, the swords were for Camelot and Middle Earth and the grasping hand and crown for Westeros, wherever that may be.  That was, at least according to the magical voice from nowhere.  I rolled my eyes and squeezed my eyes shut tight, and when I opened them I would be back home in my bed, after all this was clearly a dream.   I opened my eyes and sighed, I still wasn't awake.  Time to try the pinching, I hate being pinched and so I try to avoid it at all costs, I took a deep breath grabbed onto my arm and squeezed, “Ouch!” I yelped in surprise.  Well that didn't work either.  Well, I could always walk away and wait for this to turn into some other crazy thing.  I did an immediate about face and marched off, away from the doors. 

I walked for what seemed like forever.  I walked until my legs ached and my breath was labored but nothing changed, all I could see was the white nothingness of this strange place.  I stopped and turned around to see what kind of progress I had made; I was no farther from the doors than I had been when I started on my trek.

 

I sank to my knees panting, my mind reeling, how could I have walked so far and gotten nowhere?  Had I walked all the way around in a circle?  There was no way for me to know, I was too tired and thirsty to try again, and I apparently wasn’t going to be waking up any time soon.  I threw my hands up walked closer to the doors.  Now the question was how to choose?

I closed my eyes and spun myself dizzy one hand out, index finger extended, I would leave my fate to chance. 

I spun and spun; the joy and freedom of my childhood returning, laughter bubbled up in my throat and as a stopped spilled from my mouth.  When I had caught my breath again I opened my eyes and looked at the door my wild spinning had brought me to.  The door with the caterpillar on it; I was headed to Wonderland. 

I walked to the door, the many versions of wonderland I had seen ran through my head.  The version I envisioned when I read the classic Lewis Carroll tale, the Disney Cartoon version, the Warped Version from American McGee, the ABC miniseries and the Tim Burton Movie all made an appearance.  I wondered which one was closest to the truth, if any were close at all.

  

I was right in front of the door now, I touched it, and it felt like regular wood, I’m not sure what I expected.  I pressed my ear against it to try and decipher any sounds from the other side, to give me warning of exactly what was waiting for me on the other side, my hears found silence.  I held my breath and reached for the door, I jerked my hand back before I even got a grip on the handle.  My heart was pounding, and I was shaking, nervous as I had ever been. 

“This is ridiculous,” I scolded myself.  “This is a dream, it’s not real.”  And I reached out for the door again.  I steeled my nerves and yanked the door open stepping though without giving myself a chance to back down again. 

I felt a cool breeze and let the door close behind me.  I had stepped into a wood, I was surrounded by the tallest trees I had even seen, and I was standing on a carpet of soft moss, I could hear birds chirping in the distance.  I turned to take not of where the door was, so that I could return to it if I needed to, but it was no longer there.  I was now in wonderland with no discernible way of returning to the hall of nothingness and doors.

that is the beginning my friends, I don't think I will post every 1000 words, but I wanted to document my first step.