The Adventure I had With Mila and Lilou

The Adventure I had with Mila and Lilou

23/10/16

Sunday

Dear Diary,

There's a new art gallery not too far away from here. Mum said we can go there for my birthday because she knows how much I like art galleries! They are my favourite places in the whole wide world. I'm really looking forward to going there! I wonder if they will have any of Jan Vermeer's paintings. I love his paintings. I like how much he uses my favorite colours – cornflower blue and yellow.

27/10/16

Thursday

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow's my birthday! I'm so excited! We are to go to the gallery straight after lunch with Lynn and Alfie. We went past the new art gallery yesterday. It’s huge!

28/10/16

Friday

I am now officially 11 years old! (11 and 2 hours to be precise!) I can't write much because Lynn and Alfie are about to arrive. This morning my mum made pancakes for everyone then I opened my presents. I got some rollerskates and a canvas!

Don't tell anyone but I saw my birthday cake! I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water, completely forgetting what mum had told me. Then I saw my cake sitting there on the side! It was amazing! It was covered in blue and yellow icing and on the top it had a picture of The Girl With The Pearl Earring. Just below it, said “Happy birthday, Emily!”

Then mum came in and I quickly ran behind the door and hid. I waited for her to turn her back and I ran out of the room. Oh! There go's the doorbell! Mum is calling me down now. I have to go.

28/10/16

Saturday

Dear diary,

We went to the new art gallery as we had planned. We looked at a small map of the gallery and I saw there was a whole room of Jan Vermeer's paintings!

Of course, we immediately went to that room, me running ahead. The first painting I saw was the Girl with the pearl earring! I screamed with joy and mum and a couple of guides came running in to see what had happened. When mum saw the painting she gasped and hurriedly explained to the guides that it was okay, that I was just excited to see the painting for I had wanted to see it since I was three years old, when I had first seen a photo of it in a book. It was my favorite painting in the whole entire world – without any hint of doubt. She is so mysterious...

She looks a bit like me as well, gray eyes and pale skin. She also looks about my age. Maybe a little older. I stood there staring at the painting. I could not take my eyes off her.

Suddenly a voice broke the silence. Mum's voice.

“Emily, you can stay here if you like, we're going to the 'Turner' room. We'll be there if you need us.” Mum smiled. Then she turned around and she and the others walked into the next room.

I turned back to the painting.

“You’re so real,” I whispered. “I wish we could be friends.”

“Really? I would love that.”

I jumped. I looked around. There was no one in the room.

“Hello?” I asked, “Where are you?”

No reply. Then a giggle.

I spun around to face the picture.

“Was that you?” I asked her. “No, it can’t have been. I must have imagined it.”

Then I looked really hard at the picture.

“Did you just smile?” I asked her.

Then suddenly the girl’s face broke into a grin.

“You’re so funny!” she laughed.

“You just spoke!” I gasped.

“Well of course I did!” she said.

“But that’s impossible!”

“Impossible?! Who says!”

“Well… I don’t know… Pictures aren’t really meant to talk…”

“Oh. Well I guess you don’t realise quite how boring it is just standing here and gazing blankly at the wall! It’s awful. My legs hurt so much! I’ve been standing in this same position for centuries! How I long to get out of this picture frame and have an adventure!” she sighed.

“Well why don’t you?” I asked.

“Oh! Because the guards are bound to come in and see me! Then I dread to think what would happen to me.”

“Hmm… Maybe you could dress up as someone else – then the guards might not recognise you if they come.” I suggested.

“Yes, but where will we get the clothes from?” she pointed out.

“Good point…… But you're bound to look different if you take your scarf and coat off.”

So I helped her take off the heavy coat and untie the scarf.

“Oh! That feels so good! The scarf was tied so tight around my head!” she said as she carefully undid the bun at the top of her head. She let her hair fall loosely around her shoulders.

“How I hate that scarf! Do you want to keep it?” she asked me.

“Could I really? I love the colours. They’re my favourite.” I gently took the scarf in my hands. I folded it carefully and tucked it into my pocket. But then I thought again and tied it around my own head.

“It suits you,” the girl smiled.

Then I realised I didn’t know the girl's name.

“I don’t know your name.” I told her.

“Oh! My name! Well, doesn’t It say my name on the plaque next to the frame?” she asked surprised.

“Um, no. It just says, ‘The Girl With The Pearl Earring’. I answered.

“What! Seriously? What an unimaginative name!”

“Well what is your name?”

“My name is Mila.” She said, smiling.

Suddenly we heard some footsteps. They were getting louder and louder.

“Quick! Get inside my frame!” said Mila, tugging on my sleeve.

I hurriedly clambered into the frame, just in time to hear a guard strolling in.

“That’s strange!” said the guard. “I heard some ladies talking in here. They’ve disappeared!”

Then I heard another voice.

“There must be two of them!” I whispered back to Mila.

“Hmm…” replied the second guard. “I did too. How very strange!”

The two guards were getting nearer and nearer our frame.

“Come on, we have to go before they see us!” said Mila.

“But we can’t get out of the frame, they’ll see us!

“So let’s go this way!” said Mila. She grabbed my hand and we ran out of the bare and dark room we were in. We found ourselves in a long, dark corridor. The walls were covered in beautiful paintings of young girls playing musical instruments, reading and writing letters and in the kitchen preparing food.

“Where are we?” I asked Mila.

“I’m not sure,” She answered.

Just ahead of us was a crack of light. As we got closer, we heard someone muttering.

“Who is that?” Mila turned to look at me. She looked really scared.

“Don’t worry” I said, and I slowly pushed open the door. I stepped inside

and I saw a girl sitting at a table writing a letter, similar to the paintings on the wall.

She had on a silk coat with fur trimming and

ribbons in her hair. She was also wearing, I noticed, two big pearl earrings. When she heard the door open she looked up and saw Mila and me standing in the doorway. At first she looked frightened, then she smiled nervously at us.

“Hello. Who are you?” she asked, looking at Mila. “No, wait, I know you!

You’re the Girl with the Pearl Earring!”

“That’s right”

“And who are you?” she said, looking at me. “Are you a painting too?”

“No, I’m not a painting. I’m just visiting the gallery.” I chuckled.

“What! How did you know… I mean, how did you get in?” The girl said, frowning.

Mila looked at me and smiled. I smiled back.

“What painting are you?” Mila suddenly asked.

“Oh! Me? I’m The lady writing a letter.” the girl smiled.

“Really! I’ve always liked that painting! And to think I’m in it now!” I laughed.

“Let’s go and explore another painting!” Mila inturrupted .

“Do you want to come?” I asked the girl.

“Well, I kind of need to finish writing this letter to my grandma.... actually, I can finish this letter later. I'll come.”

“Good.” said Mila ,“Which painting shall we go to fir--” suddenly she herself was interrupted by a loud noise.

“What was that?” the girl exclaimed.

“Let's go and find out!” I said determinedly.

“But it sounds so scary!” whimpered the girl.

“Come on!” and I ran out of the room and towards the strange noise.

We ran along the corridor until we came to a staircase.

“It's coming from down there!” said Mila, pointing down the stairs.

“Oh, are you sure we should go down there?” asked Lilou (for that was her name).

“Yes, it might be dangerous,” Mila suddenly turned to look at me.

“Oh come on Mila, I thought you said you wanted an adventure! Well here’s one right now waiting for you… All right then. You two can stay up here and be bored – meanwhile I will have all the fun and have an adventure down there without you.” And I started walking down the stairs towards the noise.

“Oh! Wait! Okay I’ll come with you… but so long as we try to avoid other people.” Mila said.

“Oh good. And what about you, Lilou? Yes? Good. Now we can all have fun together.” I smiled. I had secretly hoped that they would follow me down

the stairs.

As we got closer and closer to the noise, it was more and more obvious what the noise was and who was making it. But I won’t tell what it was quite yet for that would ruin the story.

We had gone down the old staircase and had found ourselves in a small room which was empty except for a small table on which was a vase stuffed with dull coloured flowers letting off a pungent smell.

On the opposite side of the room from us was a small doorway. A delicious smell was coming from it.

“That must be the servant’s kitchen,” Lilou said. She poked her head through the doorway.

“There’s a maid preparing food in there! Lets creep through the kitchen – there’s another staircase on the other side! It must lead up to the dining room,” Lilou whispered.

So we all crept through as quietly as we could. We had almost reached the staircase when the maid suddenly said, “Carla? Is that you? Could you please go and see where Kreena is. She was taking the food up to the dining room and she has been up there for an awful long time. Goodness knows what has happened to her!”

Mila looked at me wide-eyed and I could see she was trying not to laugh. The maid had not even bothered to turn around!

“Um… Excuse me, miss but – but we are not ‘Carla’,” I said, trying hard not to look at Mila who kept making these weird noises behind my back.

The maid spun around.

“Oh! So sorry! I thought you were one of the other maids!” she apologised. “How embarrasing!” she muttered to herself as she turned around.

“Come on,” I said and we ran up the stairs and into the dining room. But before we could burst into laughter we saw what the awful noise was coming from.

‘Kreena’ was slumped in a chair with her elbow on the table, fast alseep! The food was lying next to her on the table.

“So that’s what the noise was! I can’t believe it! To think it was a lady snoring!” and we all burst into laughter.

“What fun we have had! I’m glad I convinced you both to come with me! It

would have been so dull without you!” I smiled.

“Yeah,” Lilou admitted. “It would have been dull staying up there as well.”

“Um… do you think we should wake her up?” I asked. I have always liked waking people up – and I do it quite a lot, actually. Grandma can never read a book to me without falling asleep at some point during the story, whether it be the title or the last word in the book.

“Um.. I guess so. Then at least ‘Carla’ won’t have to come and wake her up herself!” said Mila, bursting into laughter again. When Mila laughed, Lilou also started laughing. And when Lilou bagan to laugh I started laughing too. Not long afterwards we were all in a bundle on the floor shaking with laughter.

“I just don’t get why this is so funny!” I said, cracking up after every two words.

“I don’t know why either,” sighed Mila “Oh! My side! It hurts so much!”

“Anyway, we should wake her up.”

So we walked over to the maid. At first, we just tapped her on the shoulder. Then harder and harder. Soon we were rocking her back and forth. But still she would not wake up!

“I think a witch has put a magic spell on her,” Lilou sighed. “It’s impossible! She is just not waking up!”

“Wait! I’ve an idea!” Mila grinned mischievously at us.

“What is it, Mila?” I asked impatiently.

Mila didn’t say anything. Instead, she pointed to the small, white ceramic jug on the table. It was full of water.

“No, Mila! Don’t you dare!” gasped Lilou.

“I do dare!” replied Mila and she grabbed the jug and poured it over the maid’s head before we could do anything. We just held our breaths. And watched, as the maid suddenly lept up, fully awake.

“Um… I think we should go now…” said Lilou nervously.

“What on earth are you rascals doing!” the woman gasped. ‘’How dare you! Now I am all wet!’’ she whined.

‘’Sorry, miss, but one of the cooks in the kitchen was wondering where you were!’’ Mila explained.

‘Oh! I must have fallen asleep!’’ realised the woman.

Suddenly they heard a voice coming from downstairs. ‘’Kreena? Is that you?

Goodness! Where on earth have you been?’’

Kreena turned to look at us. ‘’Goodbye, little girls! Vaarwel! I must go.’’ And with that she turned and ran down the stairs.

‘’ We should go no—‘’ Mila was inturrupted by a loud growl. She looked at me. ‘’That wasn’t another snore was it?’’ she asked me.

I don’t know.. It sounded rather like one… I hope Kreena didn’t fall asleep while going down the stairs.’’

‘No!’’ laughed Lilou. ‘’ That was my stomach! I am so terribly hungry!’’

We all started to laugh again.

‘Yes, I’m also really hungry. Its probably lunchtime now. We should be getting back.’’ I agreed.

‘’And I need to finish my letter to grandma.’’ said Lilou.

‘’I guess we will go back the way we came, right?’’ asked Mila.

‘’No, not necessarily,’’ I said, pointing to the frame hanging on the wall. It had no painting inside it and the gallery was on the other side.

‘’Oh! I forgot this was a painting!’’ grinned Lilou and she clambered out of the frame and into the gallery. We all followed her and once we were inside, we looked around at the paintings hanging on the walls.

‘’Look! There’s your frame, Mila! And there’s yours, Lilou.’’ I pointed at the empty frames. ‘’And look! There’s Kreena’s frame! It looks very empty without her! But at least she is doing something helpful now.’’

After we had all said ‘’Godbye!’’ and they had said ‘’Come back soon!’’ and they had both got into their frames, I went to find the others. They were still in the Turner room.

‘’Oh! There you are, Emily! We were about to come and get you. Did you have a nice time? You spent an awfully long time in there.’’ Mum said when she saw me.

‘’Yes, I had a really nice time, thankyou,’’ I replied. ‘’And I made two new frie-‘’ I quickly stopped. Maybe I shouldn’t tell mum. Or at least, not in front of Alfie and Lynn. Then they might tell their parents and the parents would tell their friends and soon the whole neighborhood would be clambering into the picture frames to see what they could find.

I’ll tell mum later, when Alfie and Lynn have left. I told myself.

30/10/16

Sunday

Yesterday I told mum about what had happened at the new art gallery. Of course, as I expected, she didn’t believe me. And I don’t blame her either. I probably wouldn’t have believed that one could clamber through picture frames and that the paintings were indeed real and would come to life, talking to you, holding your hand, and taking you on adventures through the other paintings.

But next time we go to that gallery I will prove it to her. I will prove that paintings can come to life. She will meet Lilou and Mila, and Kreena (that is, if she has not fallen asleep at the dining room table again). And we can explore more paintings, maybe even another painter’s paintings.

I wonder when we will next go to the art gallery, for I am looking forward to it already.

The End
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