I am Alice, from a small town in London. I went to a local school, but I hated it. The reason was that I had no friends there. Whatever I do, people always talk badly about me to each other. Even at home, no one seems to care about me.

I don’t have any brothers or sisters and my parents are at work all day. I am looked after by a nanny who only cares about her payment and doesn’t give a thought about me. This was my life in my real world. I had read the story Alice in Wonderland and wish I could have been her.

Then one typical Monday morning I was walking home from school when I fell. There was a hole in the ground and I had slipped right inside it. Now the world had gone pitch black. My eyes had become useless as they were wide open, but I could see nothing. I wondered if this was how it was for blind people.

I was falling into some place that I did not know of, with no control over myself. Then suddenly I saw light again and for the first time in my life I was grateful to soak in pure sunshine.

I was sitting in a strange place that I did not know of. At first I was blinded by the light after being in such darkness, but then my eyes adjusted and I was able to grasp my surroundings. I had no idea of where I was and so decided to ask someone how to get out of this place. I had only been walking for a while when I saw someone in the distance.

As I went closer I realised that it was Cinderella. She was dressed exactly as I remembered her from my storybooks. She wore a light blue dress and glass slippers. I approached her and was about to ask for help, but she spoke first.

“Oh ! How miserable I am. My fairy godmother has made me a beautiful dress but I must come home by midnight because then my beautiful dress will turn back into my rags and my stepsisters get to stay right till the end of the party. How unfair my life is! I wish I were one of my stepsisters!”

“It is okay. What really matters is that you get to marry the prince in the end.”

“What? Really?” replied Cinderella. “I didn’t know that. How did you?”

“Because I read your story and you were the main character. You are living the story so cannot observe yourself from a distance.”

“Oh, well, actually I want to make a career of my own and not marry the prince. Is there any way to change my story?”

“Sure. There is your author sitting right there with the name tag Charles Perrault. Go and ask him to change your story.”

Cinderella then went with me and requested the author to change her story, ending it with her making her own living by selling brownies. She told the author that she had a passion for baking and her life in a castle may not allow that.

Her author was a very nice and understanding man and did not hesitate making her wishes come true.

I felt deep happiness at having helped someone and for the first time in my life, I felt like jumping up and shouting “Hurray!”

At this moment, I realised that this strange land was actually my home. I felt I belonged here. Cinderella, as if reading my thoughts, asked me if I wanted to join her bakery.

“I would love that,” I responded spontaneously.

We grew into a big brownie company and became very famous, but, most of all, we loved our work. In fact, we cooked many brownies for ourselves too. There was not a person in town who didn’t adore our brownies. Our favourite part of the day was when someone gave us a happy smile after eating our brownies.

Now as I look back to my life, I realise that I did have a best friend all along. My best friend was me, but, of course, I needed Cinderella’s friendship to show me the real me.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 10th, 2019