On Paper Only

• Jess Dee, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2009

It was a beautiful day outside. She heard her friends' laughter as they played in the street below her window. As exciting and fun as it all sounded, she couldn't bring herself to leave what was in front of her. It was too exciting, too addicting. She could barely leave it for a second without her mind racing with what would happen next, ideas going too fast for her to write down. It was the story. Her story. She was so proud of it and so happy to be able to create her own world, like her very own getaway from real life. Her mind was still racing. She had so many ideas, it seemed, that they ran out of room in her mind and began to fill up the rest of her body. She wrote of a wizard, his student, the enemy, their magic. She was writing a fight scene. There was no fight scene like it. She could see it all before her eyes on the paper behind the words. How she wished that her characters would burst out from their papery jail and explode into real life! How wonderful that would be!
“Jazz! Come on! Don’t be so unsociable! Your friends are all outside having a great time. What are you doing up there?” her mum’s voice pulled her out of her imaginary world’s fight. “I hope it’s not that story!” Jazz sighed, she prepared for the lecture she had heard so many times, “You know full well that writing and reading stories is a silly waste of time. They give you false ideas of mystical lands beyond that don’t even exist,” Jazz put her pen down and stood up to go to her mother, before she could say anymore. She couldn’t believe that her mum thought so little of the wonderful worlds trapped behind closed paper doors, just because she thought they gave false hope to people who enjoyed them so much.
“I’m here mum. I was just doing an assignment. Calm down,” Jazz lied.
“Okay, okay. I was just making sure. Why not go outside with your friends. It’s such a beautiful day I don’t think it should be wasted. Go on... Have some fun!” her mum insisted. Jazz smiled, a bit disappointed that she had been taken away from her story, but also a bit glad to be free from its binding addiction.

“Hey guys! It’s Jazz! She actually came out!” Mitchell, one of Jazz’s best friends yelled out when he saw her. Jazz laughed. She didn’t know they wanted her out here so much.
“Hey Mitch,” she greeted him happily.
“Hey. Want to play with us? We’re playing cricket, but Dad took my bat away from me, so we’re just using hands as bats,” he explained. Jazz laughed. Her friends looked so funny batting with their hands.
“Sure! I’ll go wicket keeper, Caitlin looks bored out of her brains,” Caitlin looked up at the mention of her name, and smiled.
“I wasn’t bored, just resting my eyes... But sure, go ahead,” she said, racing out to go as a fielder.

They played for hours on end, constantly swapping positions. It was around four o’clock when everyone realised a huge cloud had just blocked out the sun. This was strange, because it was a beautiful day, and there were no clouds around when they looked up. It reminded Jazz of her wizard. She had made it his signal to anyone whenever he arrived somewhere to block out the sun. What if... no, don’t be silly, Jazz! That’s impossible, she told herself. Then, in a flash, the sun’s light came back.
“That was strange...” Hayden, another in Jazz’s group of friends commented.
“Just a bit,” Mitch said, still looking up.
“Oh well, just keep playing,” Lana, another friend, said. Everyone nodded and Jazz bowled the ball. Suddenly, Caitlin, who was fielding way out, screamed. Everyone ran over to her, shocked. They were all asking what was wrong, but all Caitlin could do was point, shakily, towards Jazz’s house.
The group looked at Jazz. Jazz looked at her house.
“I’ll be back in a second,” she said, a bit worried.

As she went down the side of the house, where Caitlin had pointed, she saw something she never thought she would ever see.
“M-m-marcus?” she stammered. The boy turned around and looked at her. He looked very confused, and why wouldn’t he be? He had never left the pages of Jazz’s notebook before in his life. Jazz was shocked. She stared at her character, and he returned her gaze, then, without any warning, turned and ran into Jazz’s back garden. Jazz pursued, but stopped, petrified at the sight before her. It was all of them, Marcus, Marcus’ teacher, who was the wizard named Jenklin and their enemies, Hunter, Grunt and Brute. She had given them those names, those faces, those swords. She had given them a life on paper, and somehow, they had found their way into the real world.

“Where are we, strange person?” Marcus asked. Jazz shivered. He actually spoke. His voice was amazing, just as she had described it.
“You are in the real world, no longer in the land you know. Yes, I know of the land you come from. It is magnificent, as is this one, if you give it a chance. Please do not leave,” Jazz explained.
“We had no intention of leaving, female. We were wondering if this is all your doing, us being here,” Did he just call her ‘female’?
“My name is Jasmine, but please, call me Jazz. No, I don’t know how you got here, but I am thrilled that you are,” at this, her characters looked at each other.
“How could you be glad that this stupid rider is here, along with this old man?” this time, it was Brute who spoke. Jenklin glowered at Brute for calling him an old man.
“Oh, be careful Soot, you have a very bad temper, especially when you are jealous! I would not want you to scream down my house,” Jazz felt so superior, seeing their surprised faces at her knowing their names.
“How do you know my name?” Soot demanded, snarling his evil snarl.
“Oh, I know a lot more about all of you than your names,” Jazz smiled. “I created every aspect of your being, how you came to be, what you dream of at night, who and what you fear, even your deepest, darkest secrets,”

After a lot of trying to convince them that she wasn’t a witch, Jazz ran inside and showed them her story. All was quiet as they read it.
“This is my life exactly!” Marcus exclaimed.
“How do you know all this?” Jenklin questioned, untrusting.
“I wrote this book. You are under my control. I created your world, and all of you, and I don’t know how, but you ended up in my world,”
“Well, there is only one thing for sure,” Hunter, who was the softest of the villains, started, “if you don’t know how we got here, and we don’t know how we got here, then we must all put our differences aside,” he looked at his companions and at Marcus and Jenkiln especially, “and work hard to fit in here, because we obviously can’t get back.” Grudgingly, all the other characters agreed.

Within a few weeks, all the human characters new everything about Jazz’s world. They dressed, talked, and even walked like the average teenager from this world, except Jenkiln, who acted as Marcus’ father. Jazz was over the moon to have her dream come true. All the characters from her book had come to life! They were popular at school, and eventually were able to go off into their own groups without needing Jazz’s assistance. Then, on the one year anniversary of the characters coming to life, Jazz came home from playing with her friends, and they were gone. She started to cry when she saw the message left on her notebook.

‘The story needed us. We are not meant for the real world, but for paper and ink only. The story has taken us once again. Good-bye, Jazz.”