Wilamina, Wilbur, Elfie and friends

Wilamina didn’t know how she had become, because she didn’t know how she had begun. Wilamina’s first memory was, knowing that she could see, but what she could see was so strange to her. There were lots of small shapes which had been cut out of material and been neatly placed in small piles on a table near a strange looking machine, with more pieces on benches around the room. The pieces seemed vaguely familiar to her but she couldn’t quite place why. Continuing looking about from her vantage point of being up high gave her a good view of the room. In a corner of the room she could see a dark shape sat near an open door. As she watched, she saw the shape scratch an extremely long ear with a very short leg; smiling to herself she thought ‘what a funny sight’! Looking along the shelf on which Wilamina was sitting, she saw a very large head under a bright green hat with a red trim and a yellow bobble on the top of it. It had thin legs and short arms protruding from it and it had a big smile and gentle brown eyes. “Hello” said the head rather loudly “who are you?” Wilamina was quite taken aback that the head could talk and shocked that she could hear it. “Oh, I’m Wilamina” she replied. “That’s a pretty name. I’m called Elfie, I think” said the head. “What do you mean you think you’re called Elfie? Don’t you know - and why are you shouting? You’re hurting my ears” commented Wilamina. “Was I? I’m sorry - talking is new to me, you see, up until a little while ago, I didn’t know, do or say anything as I don’t think I was! It’s all very confusing” said Elfie. Wilamina contemplated this statement for a moment then turned fully to face Elfie and replied, “You know, that’s the same thing with me. How strange we both feel like this”. “Well that makes three of us then” said a voice below them. Wilamina and Elfie both looked down, with Elfie nearly falling off the shelf they were both sat on. “Hello” said Elfie “who are you”? “I think I’m called Wilbur” said the voice. You see, I was sat over there near the door, when I had an urge to scratch my ear and, well, I could do it”. Wilamina realized the voice belonged to the shape she had seen over by the door. Something very unusual was going on and they needed to try and find out what. Well, the first problem was how to get down off of the shelf. As if reading her mind, Wilbur shouted up to them “If I pull over these blankets, do you think you will be brave enough to jump down from up there onto them? It’s quite a jump, but I will help as best I can.” Wilamina and Elfie looked at each other; they were a little frightened but they agreed they would jump onto the blankets. Wilbur set to in dragging blanket after blanket to below the shelf that Wilamina and Elfie were sat on. He managed to move five big blankets and four large cushions he had found too. “It’s all ready for you to jump onto now” called up Wilbur. Wilamina took hold of Elfie’s hand. “Shall we?” she said she could feel Elfie trembling with fear, “It’s ok, we’ll jump together,” said Wilamina reassuringly with a kind smile on her face. “One, two, three jump” she said and down they both went, landing with a soft plump on the pile of blankets and cushions. “Ah that’s better, now we can meet each other properly” said Wilbur.