Sofa So Soft

WARNING:

This story has nothing to do with the awful Scream Street episode ‘Sofa So Bad’ or anything to do with Season 2 of Scream Street. Instead, it’s a completely different story which I like to call ‘another Scream Street story’. Read on and feel enticed by what you see.

It was an exciting day at our house. Our cousin Six had come round for a sleepover! We loved it when Six came to stay, because that meant we could play with her more. It was even better than visiting her during the school holidays or the weekend. On this particular occasion, we were doing some cloudwatching in the garden. Clouds have filled the sky quite enough, so it was a perfect, quiet day to do some relaxing and observing cloud shapes. Luke, Resus, Cleo, Six and I lay in a circle and looked up at the sky. The air smelled fresh and a light breeze blew the branches on the trees to and fro. “I wonder what that cloud looks like?” I asked, pointing to a cloud with a little circle thing on its bottom. “Presumably a rabbit,” said Six. “I can tell by its fluffy tail.” “Well that cloud looks like a dog,” said Resus, pointing up at a cloud that had a waggly tongue and a tail. “More like Dig, I think,” I said. At that very moment, we heard Dig and Lulu hissing and barking in joy as they chased each other round the garden. “Pets,” I sighed.

“I think that cloud looks like a lemonade fountain.” said Luke, “You can tell it has a lemon right on the top of it.” “That cloud over there looks like a hippo wearing a tutu,” said Cleo. We laughed over this, as we could clearly see a cloud in the shape of a hippo wearing a ballet skirt. “Clouds do make some funny shapes, don’t they?” I sighed at last. “They sure do,” said Six. “We could just lie here all day and count shapes until they fade away.” “I wonder what lives in the clouds?” asked Cleo. “Millions of toy teddies and rabbits!” I said suddenly, “They like to frolic around all day in the warm sun and make cloud shapes like we make snowmen on Winter’s days.” “Don’t be silly,” said Resus, “There are no such things as bears and rabbits living in the clouds.” “Well there is,” I said, “They live in the softest world you could ever imagine.” “We’ll see about that,” said Resus.

Later, we came back inside for some chocolate chip cookies and milk. I told our parents all about the soft world I made up. Niles on the other hand found it fascinating. “A world made of clouds? Up in the sky?” he said, “I would like to go there.” “It doesn’t exist, you know that,” said Resus. “It does!” I said. “Does not,” said Resus. “Does too,” I said. “Now, kids, stop arguing. It’s quite right to believe what Sybil says. She has a big imagination after all, don’t you, Sybil?” “You bet I have, mum,” I said, winking. “I wonder if it lives in the sofa? It’s all nice and soft.” said Niles. “Dad, don’t you remember last time you had a new sofa, we promised not to talk about that incident.” growled Cleo. “Yes, but there really is a soft world under there. We can bounce like we bounce on the bed. Come on, Sybil!” I took hold of Niles’ hands and bounced with him. Resus on the other hand looked on and sighed sarcastically. “Whatever,” he said.

Later, Niles, Luke, Resus, Cleo, Six and I settled down to watch The Care Bears Movie. Throughout the movie, we tried to convince Resus that when the film was made, people believed in teddies in the clouds. This gave Resus time to think as he watched the tender Care Bears caring for all the world with their loving hearts. By the time he looked at the Care Bears battling the evil villain of the movie, he sighed, facepalmed and said, “Okay, I give up. I believe in a land in the clouds.” “Yay!” I cried, and hugged him tight. Suddenly, my joyous noises turned to yawning. Soon, we were all yawning. “I could just nod off,” said Niles, switching off the TV. “Yeah, me too, dad,” said Cleo. I snuggled onto Niles’ lap, and everyone else snuggled up next to Niles, and soon, we were all snoring. It was quite nice, snuggled up on the sofa in the quiet of our house, especially when we had suffered a long, hard day with a friend at a sleepover.

All of a sudden, the inside of the sofa began to glow. I woke up first, and discovered it. It was so beautiful. “Guys! Wake up!” I shouted. At once, everyone woke up and looked around. The glow was visible to them! “Oh my god,” said Niles, “I wonder where that glow came from?” “No idea,” said Luke, “But if it looks like a trick, then I’m not falling for it.” Some soft harp music came tinkling out of the sofa. “Are you sure there’s a world down there?” I asked. “Maybe. Everyone hold hands.” said Niles. We all took hold of each other’s hands and stood on the sofa. “Ready? One, two, THREE!” shouted Niles, and we all jumped into the sofa. Before you know it, we were zooming through Space on a rainbow slide, and then flying off a ramp, falling into the softest cloud you could imagine.

We landed on a soft, cloudy ground, bouncing three times, and then safely on the ground again. I looked around. The whole world was made of pure, soft clouds, and the sky was coloured like a beautiful sunset. “Wow…” I gasped. “I guess you’re right about there being a world of softness in that sofa.” said Cleo. “By the way, I have never seen a place like this before.” “That’s because the ground beneath us is all soft. Look!” We touched the ground. It was as soft and downy as could be. “Mmmmm…so soft,” said Six. “Yeah, we could just live in this land all day.” “Hmmmm…I guess you’re right about there being a soft world.” I jumped on the cloudy ground. It was all bouncy! I started laughing as I bounced up and down. “Come on, guys, this is fun!” I shouted. Everyone looked at each other in concern. Then they started bouncing too, shouting and laughing. It was a bit like standing on a feather bed - nice and soft and springy, like a giant mattress. We jumped so high we could nearly reach the clouds above us.

Suddenly, Niles rammed into Cleo. “Sorry, princess!” he cried, and soon they were rolling down a cloudy hill. Luke, Resus, Six and I looked at each other, and leapt down the hill, rolling with them. We were shouting and laughing again, and we were so happy as we reached the bottom that all of us started laughing together. When we got up, we looked around. There were orchid trees with pink blossom made out of soft clouds, and little white bunny rabbits and little yellow teddies were going around, picking their blossom harvest. “See, Resus, see, I told you there’s bunnies and bears in this world!” I laughed. “I’m actually finding it easy to believe in.” said Resus, smiling. Near one of the trees, we saw a little band playing a variety of soft instruments. They were playing harps and xylophones and pianos and violins. They were making such a beautiful melody that we wanted to stay and listen to it all day. As we were enjoying this lovely melody, a small trumpet fanfare blasted the air.

We raced up to where the noise was coming from, and saw a parade of pastel-coloured, soft furred animals marching along. There were yellow tigers with orange stripes carrying pink flags, blue penguins in Santa hats jingling sleigh bells, green snakes wearing red party hats, pink elephants carrying bathtubs on their backs with little seals splashing about, pink flamingoes playing with red yo-yos, a flock of yellow, pink and blue butterflies, two green tortoises with blue and yellow shells, yellow giraffes with pink patterns and two green frogs blowing bubbles. We decided to join in too, so we bounced across the clouds after them. We bounced a little too high, and ended up in a flower field. The flowers smelled fresh as perfume, and were coloured a pastel yellow and pink. Just then, a huge tree sprouted out of the ground. “Talk about just planting a seed,” said Luke. Flowers appeared on the tree, and then marshmallows. The marshmallows were coloured pink and yellow. Six marshmallows fell off the tree and landed in our hands. We tasted them - they were soft and squishy in our mouths, and they tasted just like vanilla and strawberries. We ate a few more. They tasted delicious. We could eat those marshmallows all day long. At one point, Six said, “There might be a flower growing inside me at this very moment.” which made us all laugh.

Walking a little further, we spotted a pink door, and above it was a sign with angelic writing that said, “Personal Soft Moments”. Sitting at the desk was a blue teddy bear reading a book. When he saw us, he waved and said, “Hello, I’m Laurence the teddy, welcome to the department of your own personal soft moments.” His voice sounded quite like a familiar fabric softener bear. “Is there one for each of us?” I asked excitedly. “Yeah, they’re so soft I swear you’ll never want to leave them.” said Laurence. “Now follow me!” We followed Laurence into a long corridor, and we saw six doors, each marked with our names. I looked through my door, and this is what I saw:

Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were having a pillow fight in our bedroom. We were shrieking and laughing so much that we fell down on our bed and hugged each other, nuzzling and laughing.

Next, it was Luke’s turn. He peered through the door.

Luke was in his werewolf form, being petted by me, Indy, Coco and Chloe. He was purring and lying in a dog basket, enjoying all the attention. He wasn’t wearing his jeans, but instead his fur was smooth instead of scruffy and he was wearing ribbons and bows all over himself. I leaned up to Luke and kissed his nose.

Luke was really soothed by this. Resus looked through his door.

Resus and Luella were grown up and asleep in their own bed. Resus got up first, and decided to be a little cheeky. He thumped Luella with a pillow. Luella got up, and was laughing at her partner’s antics, so she thumped him back with her own pillow. Soon, both Resus and Luella were having a pillow fight, as only a couple can have, bashing each other with soft pillows and rolling around in bed, enjoying each other’s company.

Resus felt like he wanted to marry Luella when he was older after all. Cleo had a turn next. She peered through her door.

Cleo was relaxing in a pool of smooth, blue water, as two Egyptian servants fanned her.

Cleo was beginning to yawn. Six had a look through her door next.

Six was being led by Dr F along a dark hallway. She was feeling really confused, but then saw a door with a sign on it saying: ‘Six’s Bedroom’. Six was smiling excitedly. Dr F opened the door to reveal her own girly room with a giant, soft bed especially for her. Outside, it was nighttime, and Six was already wearing a pair of soft pyjamas. Six ran up to her new bed and leapt onto it, snuggling under the covers and falling asleep straight away.

Finally, it was Niles’ turn to have a soft moment. He looked through his door.

Niles was lying in a chair, being treated to a shoulder massage while drinking some orange juice. Two servants gave him a pedicure. “Well, it’s fine with me being a king, but being a luxury king? That’s another thing,” said Niles as he stared at the pool his vision came with. “Aaaaah. Now, slave, give me a manicure.”

At once, everyone was feeling relaxed from these visions, including me.

Later, we were getting tired and headed off towards a large set of clouds. The sign near them said, “Beds”. There was one big one just for all of us. We leapt up onto the cloud and yawned. Those relaxing personal moments of softness we saw had made us all tired, so we snuggled altogether onto the cloud just as the sunset sky began to turn dark with a pattern of stars. “So soft…” I sighed as Luke, Resus, Cleo, Six and I snuggled up next to Niles, and soon we were all fast asleep.

The next moment, we were back in our bedroom, tucked up under the covers, fast asleep, with Niles holding us kids in his arms. Mum came in to check on us. We were already sound asleep. “That’s what comes of watching too many soft things,” she said. “Goodnight, you lot.” And she left us sleeping peacefully, dreaming of another soft day of play and friendship.

THE END.