The
first time Thea became aware of the possibility of something more to life than
polishing her school shoes on Sunday nights, remembering to feed her goldfish
Fred every day and trying to keep up with Mrs Pritchett’s horrid times table quizzes
was when she walked into a library. There were large mobiles swaying from the
ceiling, each featuring characters and scenes from Roald Dahl books. Her eyes
were drawn to the large text dangling below a depiction of The Minpins: “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
The quirky lettering seemed to mock Thea, as if to say that she’d never
believed, had she? From that moment on, she became determined to find magic by
believing in it almost as hard as she believed in Father Christmas, the Tooth
Mouse and the Easter Bunny. Except for one small thing: whenever Thea tried to
tell anyone about her magical mission, people laughed. They scoffed, called her
childish and ridiculous and taunted her for voicing her vision to them. She
began to wish she had never set foot in that stupid library and seen that quote,
and who was dumb old Dahl anyway? What did he know about magic? He was making
it all up. He was a liar.
