Goodie Dreamer's Arc

Chapter 6 of 13

Goodie stood in the bare ballroom and pressed her hands together. The silence felt loud. She needed music, and she needed it now. She closed her eyes and pictured a song. A round little cloud drifted down with a fiddle tucked under its chin. It hopped in the air and pulled the bow across the strings. A bright tune spilled out. A small canary with soft pink and mint feathers fluttered beside it and added a clear, sweet whistle. Goodie clapped once, then ran to gather puffy pillows in pink, blue, and yellow. She set them in a ring on the floor. "Drums," she told the first guests. "Play along." Hands began to pat. The ballroom filled with sound. But as the music swelled, more neighbours pressed at the open doorway. A line stretched far past the cottage, waiting to come in. Millicent Windborne stepped to Goodie's side and watched the crowd. "There are more outside than in," she said. "You're out of room again." Goodie's chest tightened. The music played on, lovely and full, but the walls held only a fraction of her guests. She had solved one problem and built a bigger one. The party was alive now, and it was already too small.