Baby Heather Button (unfinished)

December 2022

Heather had moved into her bed a month ago, and while it had been great that she was able to go to bed herself, it was increasingly frustrating that she wouldn't stay in bed if she didn't want to. And she very rarely wanted to.

So Alison had introduced a rota for the ghosts; each night one of them would sit at her bedside and talk at her until she fell asleep, usually of boredom. The Captain liked to feed her endless stories about tanks and battles; Robin spoke about the moon and stars, teaching her the - still wildly inaccurate - names he'd chosen for them; Mary would talk about raising livestock; Kitty about parties; and Pat liked to tell campfire stories. Julian was not allowed to give bedtime talks.

But Thomas was Heather's favourite, at the moment. That evening, as Thomas followed Alison shyly into Heather's bedroom, her face lit up. "Tom's!" she cried. "Story!"

Alison grinned at him, planting a kiss on Heather's head, switched on the nightlight and closed the door behind her. Thomas took a seat on the end of Heather's bed. He cleared his throat. "Once upon a time..."

Once upon a time there lived a young princess named Heather.

"That's me!" Heather butted in. Thomas smiled.

"That's right."

She lived in a big castle in the country, with tall turrets and big gardens and a pet cat called-

"Kitty!"

"Alright, called Kitty."

Heather and Kitty were best friends and Heather loved Kitty more than anything else in the world. But one day, when Heather woke up, Kitty wasn't in her bed. She wasn't eating her breakfast, and she wasn't hunting mice, as she was wont to do.

"What's that?"

"It means that it's something she enjoys doing and does a lot."

"You could say."

"Heather, story telling is an art-"

"Story."

Thomas sighed. "Yes, princess."

Heather looked everywhere: she looked in the basement and in the attic, she looked in the wardrobe and under her bed. She even looked in her mummy and daddy's room. But she couldn't find Kitty anywhere.

She asked her mummy, "have you seen Kitty?", but she didn't know where the cat was.

She asked her daddy, "have you seen Kitty?", but he didn't know where the cat was either.

She asked everyone she could find: the cook didn't know, the butler didn't know, the maid didn't know, the stable boy didn't know and even the painter didn't know.

So princess Heather decided to take matters into her own hands. She went to her room and changed from her pretty pink dress into her riding gear. She wore knee high boots, which were...

"Pink!" Heather shouted gleefully.

She wore a pink riding jacket, purple trousers and a riding helmet with a tiara embroidered on the front, with real diamonds.

Then she went to the stables, and told the stable boy that she needed to look for her cat. He nodded solemnly-

"What's that?"

"Serious," Thomas said, demonstrating. Heather nodded carefully, committing the word to memory.

And when he returned, the stable boy brought with him princess Heather's unicorn.

Heather's eyes shone with excitement. She'd heard tales of princess Heather hundreds of times, but every time the unicorn made an appearance, she almost screamed. But she was getting tired, nestling into her pillow. Thomas continued with the story.

Princess Heather saddled up her unicorn, stroking its soft white fur, and rode off into the sky. Her unicorn was a very clever unicorn, because her unicorn...

"Could fly," Heather mumbled. This was her favourite line in Thomas' stories, but her eyelids were beginning to close.

"Shall I finish tomorrow?"

"No," she said. "Now. Find Kitty."

Princess Heather and the unicorn soared through the sky, flying under a rainbow and twisting clouds into elaborate - fancy - structures. But Princess Heather couldn't enjoy the ride as much as she normally did, because she missed Kitty too much.

But then, to Heather's excitement, she spotted something moving on the ground. A big, fluffy calico cat, mostly black but with splotches of orange and white fur, walking in circles in a forest. Heather and her unicorn sailed down towards the cat, who bounded towards them and leapt into princess Heather's arms as they reached the floor.

Princess Heather gave Kitty the biggest, tightest, fluffiest cuddle of all time, and they climbed back onto the unicorn and sailed away into the distance.

Soon, the three of them arrived back home, where her parents, the king and queen, were waiting. The king and queen reached out for Heather, who gave them both a big bear hug. Kitty jumped up between them and showered all three of them with happy cat kisses.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Thomas finished his story with a smile and glanced down at Heather. She was well and truly asleep now, her eyelids lightly closed and her breathing soft and regular. He stood up quietly, brushing his fingers through her hair despite the nausea he felt from touching her, and caught Alison's eye as she watched them from the doorframe.

"That was a lovely story," she said quietly.

Thomas flushed. "Well, I've been telling the others for years that I'm a competent writer, and really, it's hardly my best work."

She laughed. "You don't need to tell me. She loves your stories." She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "In fact, I think you're her favourite. Don't tell the others."

"I'm... glad you think so, my love."

"We can drop that, though," Alison said sharply. "Goodnight."

Thomas sighed wistfully and wandered through the house, dreaming up more adventures for Princess Heather and her unicorn.