From the sheer banks of this small island rises a wooden ladder that leads to a wooden boat down below. Go up this ladder and you will find yourself standing precariously on a narrow ledge, its sides crumbling down to the ocean bed below. A path then leads you round the little rock to a corkscrew staircase. This spirals up to the little house that stands on the highest point of the rock, a metre or so up high from your head.
The little house is lit with lanterns dangling out from each corner of the attic. On the roof is a black cat. It sits there at night looking at the stars, meowing at the occasional comet that flies by. The cat belongs to the carer of this lost world in the middle of the ocean. She's a little girl with a pair of wings, and petals around her waste, very much like a skirt. Her name is Lillipid.
Every morning, when the sun breaks through the misty clouds that rest on the water under the house, beneath the rock, Lillipid opens her eyes gently and jumps off her bed. She stretches her arms and opens the curtains of all six windows round her little house. Then off she goes down the staircase and through the path and onto the ledge at the bottom of the rock. There she looks down towards the wooden boat, to make sure it is still there (for where else would it be, I sometimes wonder). She climbs down the wooden ladder and hops off onto the keel. The boat wobbles on the flat water line.
Lillipid's wings flutter with excitement. She looks in the water to say hello to her reflection. Then, she sits on the stern of the boat and puts her bare feet in the ocean. With kind strokes of her feet the boat starts to glide on the surface and off she goes, little by little, away from the rock towards the sun.
At night, when Seth the cat, has gone up on the roof, you can see a little boat moving in the horizon. From a distance it looks like a piece of wood floating in the middle of the ocean. But little by little you start to make out the shapes of Lillipid and her boat as they wobble slowly towards the rock.
Eventually Lillipid manages to reach the ladder, and off she goes up to the ledge, as swift as a moth. She looks down at the boat to check if its still there, then hurries back up to her red house.
Eventually Lillipid manages to reach the ladder, and off she goes up to the ledge, as swift as a moth. She looks down at the boat to check if its still there, then hurries back up to her red house.
Six curtains close shut as the moonlight breaks through the mist. The lanterns dangle from the corners of the attic and Seth meows at a flying star, somewhere far away across the night sky.
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