The Enchanted Music Box

By Lindsay Johannsen

I wrote this little piece some years back for my grand daughter's tenth birthday. It's a story about a girl on the cusp of turning ten, her grandfather, an antique music box and some very special magic. It turned out a little longer than I’d intended, as it happened, but, you know, you get that. --Oh yes. And "She'll be jake" is dated Aussie slang for "It'll be okay", but I'm a bit dated meself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lindsay Johannsen
• Release date: Dec 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311862570

Lindsay Johannsen

There's not a lot to tell really, though on reflection, looking back on it through the lens of one’s recollections and memories, the whole business seems more akin to an extended Huckleberry Finn adventure, but set in the vastness of Central Australia. Born, raised and schooled in Alice Springs; taken from the leafy glades of learning mid-way through Year-eight to work at my father's remote little copper mine; later employed for some years driving his cattle-hauling road trains – him having pioneered road trains and the cattle hauling business (see "Kurt Johannsen: A Son of the Red Centre"). Married in the fullness of time; built a bush homestead on the northern edge of the Simpson Desert and raised a family there, all while running a small tungsten mining business and provisioning the hundred or so Aboriginal people local to the area who adopted us. Sold our mine and homestead a few years after the kids had flown the coop, acquired a forty foot (12m) touring coach, converted it into a big steel-wheel mobeel Palaise-de-passion motor home and took to the roads of this great land of Oz - in the main visiting our offspring (most of whom had moved to coastal regions), our grandchildren generally and a couple of great grandies, plus various friends and associates from years gone by. So these days all I have to do is keep the missus happy – my Bride my Precious Lamb and Flower of the Early Mid Morning. 'Anywhere you wish, my darling,' I tell her. 'You just say the word and we'll be on our way.' So it's free as the breeze, we are now, out and about having wild and exciting adventures and being amazingly cool generally. Best job I ever had.

Book preview

THE ENCHANTED MUSIC BOX

Published by Lindsay Johannsen at Smashwords

Copyright Lindsay Johannsen 2014

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes.

This children’s story is presented to you free of cost. I insist on maintaining my copyright, however, though until such time as I amend this notice please feel free to disseminate, reproduce, copy or distribute it amongst your friends and/or enemies to your heart’s content, provided you do this for non-commercial purposes only and the story remains complete and in its original form. My preference, however, is for you to recommend to others that they download The Enchanted Music Box from Smashwords themselves, so enriching my life with a warm glow of satisfaction in lieu of any mercenary reward.

Thank you.

National Library Of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data:

Author: Johannsen, Lindsay Andrew

Title: The Enchanted Music Box

Cover art and design bungled by the author.

Also published at Smashwords by one’s sylph: the novels McCullock’s Gold and The Cassidy Chronicles, plus a poem and some other short story rubbish.

To order the McCullock’s Gold paperback version or contact the author please visit

www.vividpublishing.com.au/lajohannsen

The Enchanted Music Box

This is a story about a girl who lived in a city. It wasn’t a big city and it wasn’t a small city. It was just an average sort of ordinary middle sized Australian city. There were playgrounds and shops and buses and schools and all the things you usually find in a city, including a river and some parklands with great big gum trees.

Tilly Hayman was her name. She had dark hair and brown eyes, was well mannered and friendly and enjoyed being helpful to others. She did well at school, too, and was good at games and athletics. Everyone in her class liked her because of her gentle nature. And she was very nearly ten years old.

But Tilly had a very strong will. Once she had made up her mind to do something then nothing would stop her until the job was completed. Even the boys knew that. They either did what they could to help or kept right out of the way.

The house where Tilly lived had a computer repair shop at the front. This was where her mother and father worked. People would bring their computers when they stopped working and her father would fix them.

Her mother looked after the office work. She also ordered and sorted out any parts that were needed, and made sure they were put with the right job. And when a computer was going properly again she would work out the price.

Tilly’s parents were also very keen gardeners. On each side of their driveway, between her bedroom window and