The Tales of New Yarn City : Chapter 4 : The Magic Cabinet
Hailey opened the door of a yarn closet. There was a boy, sleeping the middle of wool balls. He seemed to be lost – what a luck Hailey had found him!
„Hm, is this some kind of magic cabinet making people suddenly appear and disappear?” She closed the door and opened it again. The boy was still there, but now he was awake.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the boy asked, "I've never seen you here before."
"Cheeky!“ Hailey thought and replied, "Oh really? How long have you been living here in the closet?"
„Only since last night. But I've been here many times before.” Mortimer sullenly stared on his tiptoes. Then, his stomach started to growl and broke the silence.
„Stay here!“ Hailey ordered. She closed the door and Mortimer heard her hopping away excitedly. A moment later the door opened a tiny crack and a small hand pushed a glass of warm milk and a plateful of cookies into the dark.
Like a cat waiting for prey, Hailey lurked around the closet for the rest of the day. She never took her eyes off the closet door as she was so excited to hear the story of the mysterious boy!
When Hailey's Grandma had finally gone to bed, she couldn't take it any longer and opened the closet. The boy was still there! What luck! Immediately thousands of questions spilled out of Hailey and it took Mortimer all night to answer all of them. The sun was rising and it was time to close Mortimer's closet and open Granny’s shop.
The boy stayed there and Hailey provided him with food, books, and newspapers to keep him from getting bored. Mortimer in his closet felt a little ashamed and at the same time he felt warmth and deep gratitude for this strange girl. "Like my moth and I“ he thought about himself and Hailey.
The next few weeks were the happiest time in Mortimer’s life and the most exciting in Haileys. Every evening she opened the magic yarn cabinet and found her secret friend in there. But one evening the magic cabinet was empty. Instead of her friend, she only found a crumpled newspaper with a headline written in capital letters on the front page: „TERRIBLE ACCIDENT IN NOCTURN’S MOUSETRAP FACTORY - INDUSTRIALIST AND WIFE MISSING"
