Sam’s jaw dropped. She had never seen anything so majestic in her life. A gangplank was dropped as if by magic. Without hesitation, Sam boarded the boat. The gangplank lifted itself back onto the deck of the ship.

At the sound of a sharp whistle, the ship’s sails unfurled and lurched forward. The takeoff was unexpected and caused Sam to fall on her butt. She picked herself up and began to explore. At the back of the boat, there was a staircase leading to the second landing of the deck.

Sam climbed the stairs and she watched the boat cut through the water as it raced forward, but was surprised at how steady the boat felt. She ran her fingers across the engravings in the wood that seemed to sparkle as her hand passed over it.

The boat began to lose momentum and the sails magically furled themselves. Sam peered over the edge and watched as the ship stopped at a dock identical to the one she had used. Upon the dock, there was another young girl that looked familiar. She looked the same age as Sam and had short black hair and round brown glasses. She was dressed in purple pajamas and white socks. This had made Sam look down at her outfit and realize that she was still in her pajamas as well.

What is going on here? What is this place? She thought.

The magical gangplank had lowered itself and allowed the other girl to come aboard and Sam felt it rude to not introduce herself. She made her way to the girl.

“Hi, I’m Sam, what’s your name?” Sam flashed a smile.

“Um..hi. My name is Isabella, but you can call me Bella if you like.”

The sharp whistle rang out again and the ship took off. Sam reached out and held Bella so that she didn’t fall as Sam had done before.

“Thanks,” Bella laughed.

“Your welcome.”

“This is so weird, do you know where we are?”

“I have no idea. This is all like a dream.”

“A dream! We must be dreaming!” Bella exclaimed.

They both reached over to each other and pinched the other and shrieked when they felt the sting.

“Well, it looks like we are stuck here,” Sam said, rubbing her pinched arm.

“And the boat must be on a set course, we will just have to wait it out.”

“Well, there’s no reason we can’t enjoy it.”

Sam turned her head and looked towards the center mast and saw a ladder leading up to the crow’s nest. “Race you to it!”

She took off and Bella followed. Sam, of course, reached the mast first and began climbing. It didn’t take long until they were able to climb into the crow’s nest. From up there, they could see the whole of the lake; all except for a white, misty area on the horizon in the direction the boat was facing.

They watched from above as the boat stopped at a dozen more docks, collecting children of various backgrounds. With all the children gathered, the ship took off at a faster pace than before. The girls held tightly to the edge of the nest. The children below held onto anything they could find.

A fog rolled in underneath the boat. Sam couldn’t see the water in front of them anymore. A great roaring sound filled the air and grew louder the further they went.

Bella saw it before anyone else. She shrieked and pointed out through the fog. The roaring noise turned out to be all the lake’s water pouring off the face of the earth, down into a deep chasm.

“What are we going to do??” She cried.

“I don’t know!”

The two girls closed their eyes and held each other, waiting for their inevitable descent. But, there was no crash or splash or boom. There was no end nor waking up in their beds screaming for their parents. Sam and Bella slowly opened one eye at a time and let go of each other one arm at a time.

They looked overboard and saw that they no longer floated across the lake water, but instead glided across the air, leaving a wisp of silver fog in their wake. The sun had now been fully devoured by the horizon and in its place, an array of stars appeared.

A serene feeling took over them as they sailed through the ocean of stars. Their mouths, like those of the children below, hung open. The ship smoothly sailed skyward until the peace was interrupted by an explosion that rocked the boat.

Streams of colored light streaked up from an unknown source. Explosions sounded from near and far, but the ship was never in danger. The kids were amazed by the beautiful firework display as the boat began to slowly descend.

From out of the darkened sky came whoops and hollers. As the children looked around the saw vehicles like boats, trains and paper planes carried older children in the same direction as them.

Then, one of the fireworks burst and gave view to their destination; a beautiful, gleaming castle floating in the sky. The castle was made of white brick and was topped with long, golden steeples. Stainglass windows decorated the castle wall’s exterior.

The Sweet Dreams began to descend rather rapidly. Sam and Bella once again held each other to keep stable. They screamed in terror as they saw no landing platform, they were certain that they were going to crash. Sam almost closed her eyes to brace for impact, when she noticed a plethora of glimmering lights come from the bottom center of the castle. From where there had been a small door, grew a gaping maw of an entrance.

The vehicles of the older children soared into the entrance and vanished in puffs of smoke, while The Sweet Dreams gently lowered and made its grand entrance. The ship had stopped, hovering over a long, red carpet that seemed to stretch forever into a seemingly infinite hallway. The magical gangplank once again moved itself to allow the children to disembark.

Sam had allowed Bella to make her way out of the Crow’s Nest first, then quickly followed. They made their way down the ladder and across the deck to the gangplank. Bella disembarked and joined the circle of children that gathered in a circle surrounding something. Sam was left at the top of the gangplank, lost in awe, staring at the gorgeous castle.

Then she heard a voice faintly call her name. It was a voice that she had never heard out loud but so so strangely familiar, she couldn’t put her finger on it. The figure stepped out of the circle of children and made his way to the end of the gangplank.

“Please, hurry up, Sam. We are waiting for you to start the tour.”

She couldn’t believe her eyes. There in front of her, walking and talking, was her teddy bear, Teddy. She gasped and took a step towards him. Her brain and her feet must not have communicated because instead of walking down the gangplank, she did some kind of tripping dance down it, falling into Teddy’s arms. He was soft and sweet-smelling as always.

“There you are,” he said as he helped her to her feet. “We may begin!”

Teddy held her hand and led her to the group of children, looking around and pointing; covered in a cloud of excitement.