Sarah sat balled in a corner of her room, crying. Next to her lay a plastic wand with a round plastic jewel on top.
“What’s wrong?” a voice asked.
Sarah looked up to see her neighbor, Samuel. The little boy reached out his hand, and he helped the little girl to her feet. The girl kneeled back down to pick up her wand.
“It’s broken,” the girl said. “I can’t transform into a magical girl. Daddy said I can be a magical girl if I use this.”
The boy held out a hand. “Can I see it?” Sarah handed him the wand, and he carefully examined it. “I see. No wonder. This isn’t a magical kid jewel at all.”
“It isn’t?” Sarah leaned against the wall, sulking. “I wanna be a magical girl, ‘cuz then I could use magic and help people.”
“Actually,” Samuel said, reaching his free hand into his side pocket, “I have something here you might like.” He pulled two jewels from his pocket, a small, round green jewel and a small round blue jewel. He slipped the green jewel in between his thumb and finger, balling his hand around the blue jewel. “Here, take this. Your birthday is over, so this is a late present.” He dropped the green jewel only Sarah’s open palm.
“It’s pretty.”
“It’s more than pretty,” Samuel said, handing the wand back to Sarah. He smiled a teethy grin as he hopped back a few steps. “Watch this.” Taking the blue jewel between his fingers, Samuel held the jewel up high. He closed his eyes, a look of deep concentration on his face. “With this jewel, I can become a magical boy. I am a magical boy. I wear a jeweled glove, and with it I can use magical powers. I am a magical boy. My name is Shamrock!” His final words caused Samuel to be enveloped in a blue light. His short, brown hair turned blue, and his clothes became blue to match. A blue glove formed around his right hand, and the jewel transferred from his fingers, becoming a flat shape encrusted on the back of the glove. The light faded, and Samuel opened his eyes, showing blue rather than their natural green.
Seeing her neighbor’s new look, Sarah let out an excited squeal. “Can I do it, too? Can I, Samuel?”
“Of course. But I’m not Samuel now. I’m Shamrock, a magical boy. All you need to do is concentrate on being a magical girl. Think of what the jewel will be like when you’re a magical girl, and say your magical girl name.”
Taking the green jewel between her fingers, Sarah lifted her hand high up into the air. She closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath. “I… I…” Her arm slowly lowered. Sarah’s eyes opened. “I dunno know what the jewel should be like. I dunno know what my name should be. Yours is so cool, but I dunno any cool names like that.”
Shamrock smiled. He pointed to the wand in Sarah’s other hand. “You already have a magical girl wand, right? Actually, I didn’t know what name to pick, either. My family’s name means ‘Shamrock’, so I used that.”
“Um…” Sarah thought about her own family name. “Cloverfield… Clover… I think I like that.” She lifted the jewel again, this time keeping her eyes on the green sphere between her finger tips. “My name is Clover. I am a magical girl, and my power comes from this jewel on top of my magical wand!” The jewel flashed, and everything around Sarah glowed green. Sarah looked down as her clothes began to vibrate. She watched as the fabrics turned green. When the felt the jewel vanish from her fingers, Sarah immediately looked at the wand, seeing the jewel on top transform into a green jewel in the same style as the plastic jewel before it. The green glow all around Sarah faded.
“You are Sarah no more,” Shamrock said. “You are now Clover, a magical girl.” Shamrock pulled a small desk mirror from behind his back. “Look at yourself.”
“Where did you get that?” Clover asked, but she quickly forgot her own question as she looked at the mirror’s reflection. Her short blond hair had become green, and her blue eyes green the same. “I’m really a magical girl. I’m really Clover.” Shamrock joined Clover in the reflection as he stood beside her.
“Being magical kids is pointless if we don’t help anyone,” Shamrock told Clover. “Look deep into the mirror. Look beyond our reflections. Look through the mirror, and tell me what you see.”
Following Shamrock’s words, Clover concentrated on the mirror, trying to look beyond the reflections. The reflection zoomed in on the opposite side of Sarah’s bedroom, and out the window, and into the dark of night. As Clover watched, the reflection in the mirror traveled across the street, into the air, and over houses. It sailed through the sky, passing through clouds. The reflection stopped on top of a building, where a young boy about the age of the magical two sat in the middle. The boy looked from side to side, then sat down, shivering until the moonlit sky.
“That boy’s in trouble,” Clover said. “He’s all alone on top of that building. He might be stuck up there. We gotta save him!”
“That’s what we’re going to do,” Shamrock said, setting the mirror on the ground. He pulled the top of the mirror, stretching it into a tall wardrobe mirror. “Now you can step into the reflection, and you’ll be with the boy.”
“Really?” Clover asked, a squeal in her voice again. “Let’s go!” She reached a hand to the mirror, finding it slipped through the mirror with little resistance.
“Only you can go,” Shamrock warned. “Only the magical kid with the green jewel can travel through this mirror. After you go through, I’ll use the mirror to guide me to your location.”
“I don’t wanna go alone,” Clover said, pulling her hand back from the mirror.
“Something might happen to that boy before I can get there,” Shamrock explained. “You need to make sure he’s safe until I arrive. When I get there, I’ll help you. It’s up to Clover to keep him safe until then. Will you do this for me?”
Clover sighed. “I guess…” Again, Clover pressed her hand against the glass of the mirror, easily pushing through it. She stepped into the reflection. She closed her eyes as her face passed through the pane. Wind touched her cheeks as her first foot stepped onto the top of the building. Her second foot stepped down beside her first, a strong wind blowing against Clover’s body. She slowly opened her eyes, seeing the entire top of the building before her, and the boy sitting in the middle.
The boy stood from his spot in the center of the flat building top. “Don’t fall!” the boy called out to Clover.
‘Don’t fall?’ Clover wondered? She looked down, seeing the backs of her feet at the edge of the side of the building. The wind now pushed against her, causing her body to waver, starting to lean back to the pitch back below. As her arms flailed from side to side, Clover noticed the jeweled wand in her left hand. She took hold of it with both hands as the wind pushed her off of the building. Her hands trembled as building windows passed by as she fell through the air. ‘I’m a magical girl,’ she told herself. ‘I can do anything.’ “Fly!” she shouted. “With a big balloon!” The jewel emitted a soft green glow.
As Clover fell through the air, small balloons appears around her, tied to her arms by strings. The balloons inflated, growing in size large, bringing Clover’s fast free-fall to a steady rise. After falling many stories, Clover found only a few stories ascend brought her to the top of the building. The boy continued standing in the center of the building, and he let sat down with a sigh of relief to see balloons and Clover appear from over the edge.
Clover stepped down on the roof. As she took steps forward, the balloons vanished one by one. She hurried to the boy in the middle, and sat down beside him. “What’s this place?” she asked.
“There’s gonna be a strong wind,” the boy said, his gaze fixed forward. “It’s like a earthquake. The whole building’ll fall over.”
“The building will fall? How d’ya know?” Clover asked.
“It happens every night,” the boy explained, still staring forward.
“It won’t happen tonight,” Clover said. “I’m Clover, and I’m a magical girl. I can use magic!”
The boy looked at her. “Can you really use magic?”
“I came back up after falling because I used magic,” Clover said.
A sharp jolt shook the building.
“It’s starting,” the boy said, placing his hands over his ears. “It’ll keep hitting the building, and everything’ll fall over!”
Another jolt hit, causing a glass vase to shatter on the ground nearby. With another jolt, a framed photograph fell, the glass cracking. A bookshelf knocked over, scattering books along the edge of the building.
“Where is everything coming from?” Clover asked herself. “We’re on top ov’a building.”
“Everything in my house is falling down,” the boy cried out, his eye shut, his hands still over his ears. He scrunched into as small a ball as he could. “Tall buildings are bad. I wanna live on the ground again!”
Clover placed a hand on the boy’s shoulders, causing him to open his eyes and look at her. “I’ll take you to the ground,” she said to him. “I’m a magical girl, remember? I can use magic, and we’ll be on the ground.”
“No,” a third voice answered. Shamrock appeared from the sky, landing on his feet beside the two. “There’s no ground down there. There aren’t even any other buildings.” Another jolt rocked the building, but Shamrock kept a level footing.
“Why isn’t anything else here?” Clover asked. “I only see a building, and things are falling.”
“Look into the sky, and tell me what you see.”
“Okay…” Doing as Shamrock instructed, Clover looked up at the sky. A large moon shined down, illuminating the building’s top. “I see the moon.”
“Count the stars.”
Clover squinted as she looked across the sky. “There are none. I don’t see any stars.” She looked back at Shamrock. “Where are the stars?”
The building rocked with another jolt. A jolt followed after immediately, then another. A crack shot across the building, pulling it in two, Shamrock on one side of the split, and Clover with the boy on the other side.
“It’s gonna fall over,” the cowering boy said. “It always falls over. Mom and Dad said it would be safe ta live here, but it always falls over!”
“Shamrock,” Clover called out. “What’s happening? Nothing here is acting real. The building is wrong. The windows are wrong. The sky is wrong. Everything is falling from nowhere!”
“Nothing here is real,” Shamrock explained. “This isn’t a building. We’re in a bedroom.” He pointed at the moon directly above. “The light is also a nightlight. It looks like a moon when it goes during the night.”
“How can this be a bedroom?” Clover looked from side to side. “It doesn’t look like a bedroom to me.”
“I forgot to tell you one thing,” Shamrock said. “None of this is real. Everything is a dream. The boy beside you is having a bad dream. You have to help him.”
“I don’t know how to help. What should I do?” Clover asked.
The building shook again, and continued to shake. The piece Shamrock stood on moved violently, sinking quickly into the darkness below.
“Shamrock!” Clover called out, running to the broken edge of the building.
“Stop the nightmare with your magic!” Shamrock’s fading voice shouted from the pitch black. “I’ll be back up soon!”
More items fell around Clover and the boy.
“It won’t stop,” the boy said. “You can’t stop it. Nothing can. Everyone is going to fall.”
Clover looked around. “I can’t give up. I have to try to stop the nightmare.” From the corner of her eye, Clover noticed a falling object. She waved her wand toward it. “Catcher’s mitt! Catch it!” A flash of green light from the jewel shot to the falling object, becoming a catcher’s mitt below the item. The mitt hit the ground, holding a round goldfish bowl.
The boy looked at the caught item. He ran across the building top, and wrapped his arms around the glass sphere. “You saved my goldfish. But, but, this always breaks at this time.”
“What falls next?” Clover asked.
The boy pointed behind her. “My TV.”
Another green glow appeared as Clover waved her wand. She turned and stretched her arm out, pointing the wand at a small television falling. “Pillow! A big, soft, fluffy one!” The light of the wand created a matching pillow below the television, absorbing its fall. “What’s next?” Clover asked, turning back to the boy.
“My desk lamp is gonna fall right here,” the boy said, pointing at his side.
“How big is it?”
The boy put his hands side by side, spaced apart a little. “It’s about this tiny.”
“Pretend it’s a big firefly bug,” Clover told him. She waved her wand. “And you’re a bug catcher!”
In the boys hands, a bug catcher’s net appeared. The small lamp fell right into the net.
Each time an item fell, Clover’s magic safely caught the item, and the boy explained which item would fall next, and where. After catching a number of items, the boy proclaimed the final item had been caught. “Now the whole building will fall over,” he said. “Can your magic stop a whole building from falling?”
“I can try,” Clover replied. “When the new tree in our yard was falling over, Daddy put sticks in the ground on both sides of it, and he tried the tree to it. Daddy said the tree needed help to be strong, an’ to grow up straight.” Clover looked down from the split of the building. The side of the split looked like a rock broken in two. The building disappeared into darkness below. “But, I can’t see any ground to put the support sticks in. Oh yeah, Shamrock said there isn’t any ground. He said this is really a bedroom.” Clover backed away from the edge of the break. She lifted her wand into the air, waving it from side to side. “This isn’t on top ov’a building. This is in’a bedroom.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. The wall clock Clover had caught earlier counting the minutes from on the wall beside her. The wide roof had become a small room, and the moon proved to be a the glow of a nightlight on the ceiling of the room. With no windows, the nightlight provided the room’s only night, its dim glow casting long shadows.
“It’s going the fall over,” the boy said in a shaky voice as his body trembled. Clover looked at him, seeing him huddled under a blanket on the top of a bunk bed. Another person laid on the bottom bed.
“Shamrock?” Clover asked.
The person on the lower bed reached his bare hands out, taking hold of the posts holding the beds up at the head of the bed. He gave them a tug and a push and a tug, causing the top bed to shake.
“I’m falling!” the boy on top shouted.
“You’re not Shamrock,” Clover mumbled. “You look like a bully who likes the shake the bed.” Shamrock waved her wand. “Now your bed is on top!” A green glow illuminated the bed, causing the older boy under the covers of the bottom bed to look out. The younger boy on the top bed looked out also. The top bed’s mattress lifted off the bed, and floated to the side. The bottom mattress lifted into the air, maneuvering until he rested atop the top bunk. The top bed’s mattress then moved in to a resting place on the bottom mattress.
The little boy looked at the floor from his new location. He reached down, touching the tall carpet. “If I fall, I won’t get hurt.”
“Are you afraid of the top bunk?” Clover asked. “It wasn’t shaking because you live in a tall building now. It was your big brother shaking it. Nothing was falling.”
“I’m not afraid now,” the boy said. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to a tall mirror behind Clover.
“Oh!” Clover exclaimed as she saw the item. “This’s the way for me to return home, I think.” She looked back at the boy. “If I leave, then…”
“I’ll be okay,” the boy assured her. “It’s my brother who was shaking the bed, right? I didn’t know that before! He kept saying the wind was gonna knock everything over, but it was really him! I’ll be all right now.”
“You’ve done a good job,” Shamrock’s voice said from the other side of the mirror. “I watched everything from here.”
“Didn’t you fall?” Clover asked into the mirror.
“Didn’t you say it yourself? Nothing was falling. It was only a nightmare, and thanks to Clover, magical girl, one more person can dream without nightmares.”
“Is this really all a dream?” Clover asked.
“It was until a few minutes ago.” Shamrock smiled. “When those two wake up, they’ll wonder how they switched beds. It’s time for us to wake up, too.” Shamrock reached a hand out in the reflection.” Come into the mirror, and see the morning.”
Softly, Clover pressed her hands against the mirror. She closed her eyes as she stepped into it. When her eyes opened again, Sarah looked at the ceiling as the light of the morning sun filled her bedroom. “I had a sweet dream,” she said to herself softly. She didn’t recall what happened, but she knew it was something incredible.
