Children’s Writing Entry (2016) by PETER JOKISIE
Feenam awoke in her evening dress; in her hands was a deck of playing cards. She looked around and she was trapped in a room with iron bars. She pulled out the first card, it was the Joker and it read: Dear Feenam at some point today, you will come across the King, the Queen and the Jack of Spades, when you see them, you know that the game is over. To get out of this maze, you have to solve the riddles, puzzles and problems.
She walked to the gate and saw a white paper stuck on the bar with her first clue:
I am rich; I always carry my axe with me until one day I lost my right eye in a battle.
“Oh i know this, it’s the ‘one-eyed king’,” Feenam flipped through the deck, pulled out a card and slotted that into the keyhole- ‘The King of Diamonds’- the gate opened and she walked out. She walked on, tuned corners and came to a dark dungeon. Her only way is through that dungeon so she stepped inside and saw four beautiful women surrounded by blooming roses. But they were crying because they were chained to the floor. A fire started suddenly and grew bigger. Feenam’s instinct tells her to run but she doesn’t know the way out, all around her were ten foot wall of flames. There was a clue written on the floor:
Dear Feenam, Happiness comes after tears, door opens to roses given.
Feenam thought long and hard, I know this, these are the four queens. She flipped through the deck and pulled out the four queens. She stared at the four cards, she stared at the four women and she pondered over the hint on the floor: Happiness comes after tears, door opens to roses given.
Suddenly it dawned on her: Make the four women happy and they may show you the way out but how? So she went and picked eight roses, carried them over and gave each queen two roses each. All the queens stopped crying at once and smiled with gleefulness. The fire suddenly disappeared and a door opened. Feenam breathed a sigh of relief and walked through.
She came to a broken bridge and saw a blind king sitting on the side of the bridge. This king was very depressed as he sat and stared down into the boiling lava below.
Feenam came close and asked him, “sir, why are you so gloomy?”
The king replied, “Because I lost my two identical twin sons and I’m so sad I want to kill myself.”
Feenam thought, hmm a sad king, with a loving heart trying to kill himself, it’s the ‘suicide king’, the king of hearts.
“Sir I know where to find your twin sons, I’ll bring them to you.”
“Careful; one brother is greedy while the other is caring. You have to bring me the one that cares and shares.”
She left the king and found the twin brothers. She couldn’t tell which is which and she thought, how can I tell them apart? On the floor was a glass filled with water half-way. So she had a clever idea- she held up the glass of water and asked the twins: “Is the glass half-empty or is it half-full?”
The first brother replied, “It’s half-full.”
The second brother replied, “It’s half-empty.”
Right away, she chose the first brother, “you’re the caring one; come with me, your father needs you now.”
The king was pleased with Feenam and granted her permission to cross the bridge and Feenam crossed and enter a great big hall.As she stepped inside the tall doors shut loudly and on the floor infront of her was a clue:
Mirror mirror on the wall, show me the way out. One move to make, wrong move you take, your life ends you break.
She only has one choice to pick the right way out. She looked to her front and saw the portraits of the King of Spades, The Queen of Spades and the Jack of Spades, their top faces all facing to her left. She turned and looked at her back and saw the same portraits of the King, Queen and Jack of Spades but this time all three top faces were facing right. Feenam simply smiled and walked toward her front thinking this has to be the mirror and right she was. Feenam walked right through and out safely.
(But how did she know? You’re looking at it).