When Melbourne Met Magic, Literally!

"Anakie? That's the name?"

"Uh huh."

"You do realise that you've turned the story on its head?? I'm Cinderella! I go to the ball, dance with the prince, and hopefully get hitched to that hunk. And I need you to do all that magic jazz. Pumpkin carriages...glass slippers, the full package...How could you be so careless?? Honestly, what kind of a fairy godmother are you, if you've lost your wand??" 

"I didn't lose it, the Anakie imps stole my wand...Look, the more you argue, the more time we lose. The come-back-before-midnight law still holds good. I believe some of our kind live there, in Anakie.... in the fictional world of humans. The imps there are especially mischievous," The fairy godmother's patience was wearing thin,"You have to go, Cinderella, and fast. Remember, all the 'magic jazz' you ask of me depends on this."





Cinderella had no choice. She was desperate to leave her cruel stepmother and stepsisters, and for that she needed the wand. She had to go.

"Listen, when you recover the wand from those dratted imps, press it close to your heart, and say very clearly, 'It is time to return', and you will be transported back here, hopefully with time to spare for the ball. Now go,go!"

And so the fairy godmother mumbled something, and lo and behold, Cinderella felt her surroundings shimmer and disappear. For a moment, everything was dark, and suddenly she thumped down onto the ground. Still disoriented, she looked up, at a large metal board in front of her, proclaiming in big fancy letters:

Image courtesy: http://www.petesadventuresmelbourne.net

Cinderella looked at the sign; so Melbourne was the city, a great dwelling of the Humans. It was quite different from home, there were tall,tall structures rising from the ground, and people kept entering and exiting them. Could they actually live in those things? There were no carriages to be seen, instead the roads were full of four-wheeled contraptions that were driven by  humans, but how they ran was a mystery to her. No horses were visible anyway. This was a curious and beautiful world, but she remembered she had no time to dwell on these; she had to reach Anakie as quickly as possible. She scurried out onto the sidewalk, taken in by the wondrous sights of this new world. 

She was in a very pretty, peaceful seashore neighbourhood which the road signs deemed to be St.Kilda.  

                                            Image courtesy: http://www.stanford.edu

She could see people lazing in the sun , and there were kids who were doing something on the waves, which she would later come to know as 'surfing'; indeed, Cinderella was itching to try it, but alas, there was no time. There were places where she saw people sitting under colourful umbrellas, eating a sumptuous lunch. Which reminded her how hungry she was, yet she could not do anything, for Anakie beckoned.

She did not stop to ask for directions, for a part of her secretly wanted to continue exploring the city.  She heard a lady talking about Philip Island and something called the Penguin Parade, where people would flock to watch the little birds called penguins return home after their daily fishing and hunting. Cinderella was curious about this, she wanted to see what those penguins looked like; and made a mental note to return to Melbourne after all this ball business. 

Walking along , she presently came upon an immense rounded structure, which seemed like an arena of some sort. Did they have knights fighting dragons in the world of humans too?

                                  Image courtesy:  http://www.possumcreek.blogspot.com 


Presently, she found out that it was called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, cricket being some sort of sport played amongst the humans.  Now the lack of time was getting onto her nerves, and she found herself caring less for the ball; Melbourne had firmly taken hold of her senses, and was gradually hypnotising her into discovering more. She discovered the serene Yarra River with all its ferries, and was most chagrined when she saw that the dresses of the pretty ladies frequenting those fancy shops of Fitzroy, Bourke Street and Brunswick Street were far more beautiful than the ones her fairy godmother conjured up. Now that  was annoying.


Still miffed, she plodded on, and happening to look up, she saw this

                                        Image courtesy: http://www.tripadvisor.com


Balloons!!  And from what she saw, there were people in them, which meant that they were actually flying!! Why oh why hadn't she come here before? She was growing more frustrated by the moment, because of the time limit imposed on her. There was a whole new universe out here and she was letting go of all these opportunities for a stupid ball.

She could not find any more excuses to waste more time. She went up to a policeman  and introduced herself as Cindy, asking for directions. To her dismay, she found that she was quite a long way from Anakie. However, thanks to the detailed directions from the friendly policeman, and using a combination of what they called 'buses' and 'trams', she reached Anakie.


And she saw this :

    

      Image courtesy: http://www.beaconresort.com.au              

So this was where the imps came from; her fairy godmother back home had told her that this was some kind of exhibit where the fictional world of human beings came to gawp at likenesses of Cinderella's own kind, the humans called these 'fairy tales'. Cinderella chuckled and went on her way. She had a hunch as to where she could find the wand. Dodging through the groups of chattering families in their Sunday best, she reached the Cinderella exhibit, chortling at her own likeness. The statue of the fairy godmother there was, as she expected, holding the wand she was seeking.; no doubt the imps were working for her. The humans weren't supposed to know that these likenesses weren't statues, but very much alive; and so far the 'statues' did a very good job of keeping their secret.  Cinderella quietly prised the wand out of the godmother's hand; the 'statue' couldn't do anything in front of so many other people milling around; however it did give Cinderella a baleful stare.

Ecstatic, Cinderella rushed out, and remembering the fairy's words, pressed the wand close to her chest and said, "It is time to--" when she suddenly spied those multicoloured hot air balloons up in the air again. She began to feel wistful, as images of those wonderfully green streets, the cheerful people, the beautiful dresses, the MCG and everything else she'd seen flashed through her mind. 

And she really did want to see those strange animals the people so lovingly referred to as kangaroos  and koalas. 

And surf.

And discover more secrets in this amazing city of Melbourne.

Steeling herself, she made a decision. She chucked the wand away and said to herself, "No Cinderella, it isn't time to go back.....it's your time to return, it's your time to visit Melbourne NOW."

This post is an entry for the contest on Melbourne, organised by Indiblogger