Morning blues

Eba and the witch had assured her that they did not mean to kill Sofia's father, that it was meant more figuratively.

"We just want to silence him, that's what she means," the witch had assured her. "But now we'll stop talking, it's already bedtime."

They walked out of the room, while Arnold chuckled some more in the corner.

"If you don't put that cheese in your mouth and come with me I'll close the door and you'll be locked in here for the next few weeks," the witch said menacingly.

Then they put Sofia back in the room where she had previously encountered Arnold. "This is your room from now on. It's a bit bare for now, I understand, but you can put anything you want in it."

Before Sofia could have asked her how to get a bed, they were already gone. She decided that she would have to sleep on the floor since she had to rest somehow for whatever was going to happen tomorrow. Had they now mentioned a school for people to become gnomes? She didn't know what to think.

The next morning she woke up to a knock at her door. The first thing she felt was that her back and neck were stiff, so she decided that for tonight she should ask where she could get at least something like a mattress, otherwise the time until she could become human again would be unbearable. She knew that the witch had said that actually, all people wanted to become gnomes and that the gnome world was better than the human world in every way, but she still wanted to go home again, preferably with the size she had before.

She had almost forgotten that she had woken up by knocking when there was a second knock. She wanted to shout that she had to put on her clothes, but she had not taken them off last night, and they were still on. Puffing, she got up and walked to the door. It was Arnold.

"Good morning!" he called, overly enthusiastically.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sofia, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Arnold sighed. "Yes, actually there is. We're having breakfast with everyone. Eba signed you up, so you can join us for breakfast now. I had to go and get you again because I wasn't a gnome so I wouldn't be allowed to eat with you," he grumbled.

"You're not a leprechaun, are you? "You look rather like a ladybird to me."

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"That's not the point!" he exclaimed angrily. "It's not the point to me that..."

He was pushed aside by Eba. "My goodness Arnold, how long this is taking, do you still have to dig the road open... hey Sofia! Come quickly, we've already started eating. Slide over quickly, otherwise, you won't get anything," she gave her a wink.

"May I have something to eat too if I sit down quickly?

Eba had already walked a bit further, before she turned the corner she turned around. "Then you have to sit at Sofia's place at the table within ten seconds!" she shouted. Arnold didn't need to be told twice and flew off.

Sofia stayed behind, chuckling. The witch had given her a key last night with which she could lock her room herself, and she was now using it to close the door. She was still checking whether she had done it properly when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She looked around, but there was no one there. Then she looked on the other side, where nobody was standing either. She knew this joke. Sighing, she turned all the way around, looking into the face of a boy who couldn't have been much younger than her, but still a little older than Eba. He was human too, for he had none of the traits that the other gnomes had. First of all, he didn't have a pointed hat, which gave him away, his ears were still nice and round, and he didn't even have a bit of beard hair.

"Hello?" asked Sofia. "Good morning to you too?"

"Good morning!" he said cheerfully. "I saw that you were standing alone in the corridor, and since I haven't seen you here before I thought it would be proper to introduce myself. My name is Jorg, nice to meet you."

"I'm Sofia," Sofia replied. "Are you a gnome already?" she asked, although she already knew the answer. She just wanted to break the rather awkward silence.

"No," said Jorg. "I arrived here a few days ago. I'm going to start schooling today, that whole gnome thing appeals to me. What about you?"

"I arrived here yesterday," she said.

Jorg nodded thoughtfully. "Then I guess you're going to start schooling today as well, as the classes are per week."

"By the week?" asked Sofia. "How many of us are in a class then?"

"I haven't been able to count them properly, but I guess there are forty to fifty per class. I was quite bored last week, so I went ahead and looked at the classes that are already going on."

Forty to fifty, Sofia thought in amazement. Hence, the gnomes didn't see her as a special case, even though she technically fell out of the sky as a huge human being.

"What appeals to you about the gnomes then?" asked Sofia to Jorg. "That you want to be one so badly, I mean."

Jorg thought for a moment as he stroked his index finger and thumb across his chin. "I think freedom. Did you know that there isn't a leprechaun here who gets paid? Everyone just has their task, and as long as they do it well they get stuff from everyone and can eat at breakfast in the morning. Speaking of breakfast, let's eat! It's fantastic."

Sofia had another question. "You said freedom? Are you allowed to go outside, then?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. The freedom is a little less since that one king has power, I forget his name for the moment, but he's somewhere on the other side of the world, so he doesn't make that much of an impact on us.

Sofia had only heard the word "sure". She grinned, and an idea started to form in her head.