The Gatekeeper: An ordinary girl An extraordinary task

By ZEE DAMMEREL

Alex has always been angry! Why? She's not sure, but she hates her life and wants it to be better, or at least like other kids lives. But when Alex wakes up in a field of grass everything changes. Meeting the Fairy Queen, she learns about nature from the inside out and even learns cool things like how to shrink herself to the size of a full stop

• Language: English
• Publisher: Earth Partners Pty. Ltd.
• Release date: Jun 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645767216

ZEE DAMMEREL

Immersed in nature from an early age, Zee has always managed to live surrounded by it. Eventually, she began to paint, both on canvas and ceramics, and opened her own gallery however a push from within led her to write about nature, for children. Zee writes to awaken a love of nature in children, for with the overload of modern technology, our young ones are losing their natural connections to the world they live in. That must never happen!

Book preview

The Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper

An ordinary girl An extraordinary task

ZEE DAMMEREL

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Copyright © 2023

The moral right of Zee Dammerel  to be identified as the Author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, photocopying, or in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Publisher: Earth Partners Pty Ltd

Author: Zee Dammerel

Cover Illustrator Laila Savolainen (Pickawoowoo Publishing Group)

Interior & Cover Layout: Pickawoowoo Author Services

Print and Channel Distribution: Lightning Source / Ingram (US/UK/AUS/ EUR)

ISBN: 978-0-6457672-0-9 (paperback)

ISBN 9978-0-6457672-1-6 (ebook)

The Gatekeeper is dedicated to carers, protectors,

and selfless lovers of nature, worldwide.

Without them, we would be homeless.

Contents

Dedication

1 RYMAN STREET

2 GRANDPA’S GARDEN

3 LOSING NOAH

4 THE ATTIC

5 IN GRANDPA’S ARMS

6 INTO STILLNESS

7 WILL, THE DALMATIAN

8 THE MAGIC TREE

9 THE FAIRY QUEEN

10 THE WISDOM TREE

11 LOOKING BACK

12 TREE TRAVELLING

13 MEETING BEK

14 GOING DOWN!

15 BREAKING AWAY

16 TOUCHING HEAVEN

17 THE GATEKEEPER

18 THROUGH NEW EYES

19 FLOWER POWER

20 COMING HOME

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

REVIEWS

1

RYMAN STREET

In earlier years, it was rare for homes on Ryman Street to change ownership. Lately, though, For Sale signs appeared regularly. Most homes sold quickly and were either renovated or razed to the ground: the building trades were busy.

The newly erected, sharp-angled modern homes looked harsh and out of place on this street beside the older houses that nestled in the shade of well-loved leafy gardens.

Here and there along the street, massive trees sighed nervously in the summer breezes as the winds of change quietly skirted around corners and across old verandahs. Then, whistling down the dark hallways where once children played, the breeze spilled across faded rose-patterned carpets to disturb the drawn curtains slumbering in the half-light.

Which house would be next to disappear?

One block of land on Ryman Street was equal to two large-sized housing blocks, or more; it was a no-brainer that the street would attract anyone who wanted to be close to the town centre. Of course, some of the new landowners did very well financially by building a home on one half of their block and selling off the other half.

And in the country, older farmers looked forward to their retirement. After a lifetime of milking cows, ploughing land and relying on the weather for a good financial year, they dreamed of retiring and living in the town where life would be easier.

So, they consulted the local real estate companies.

In no time, For Sale signs appeared here and there along the country roads.

Then, the farmers began to sell off their precious farmlands.

With money in their bank accounts and seduced by a desire for the ease and comforts of town living, they put aside the hard work of country life and came to town to buy or build their dream houses.

They looked forward to being five minutes from shops, schools, the bank, the doctor, the movie theatre and all the conveniences they had only dreamed of until now.

The women anticipated the conveniences of local shopping, hairdressers, coffee mornings, gym classes and not having to pick up the children from school or the country bus stop.

And the children?

They were over the moon and looked forward to swapping farm chores for sports, dance classes, movies and the freedom to play with friends after school.

So, most of them couldn’t wait to move to town.

Then as developers bought up the farmlands, housing estates began to surround the town in no time.

But closer to the town centre, building blocks were in short supply, and it wasn’t long before anywhere along Ryman Street became a rare but expensive find.

Of course, it meant a death knell to the older homes. It wasn’t pleasant to see old places ripped apart, and beautiful trees that had stood for fifty years or more being cut down simply because they were in the way.

Alex hated the noise!

Ryman Street was calm, peaceful and inviting on Saturday and Sunday. Then, on Monday, it turned into a dragon, spewing noise, dirt, mud, bad manners and a get out of my way attitude.

It seemed impossible for the workers to do anything unless their radios played at full volume so the whole road could hear them, like it or not! It wasn’t that Alex didn’t like the music they played, she did, but she thought of the older people who lived close to the houses under construction; it must have been hard on their eardrums.

And did they get a choice of what they might like to hear? Of course not.

But sometimes on the weekend as she passed beneath huge trees, Alex smiled as she imagined little fairies flitting along the branches above. Of course, she told herself not to be so ridiculous! After all, fairies were for children and she was 13 going on 14, so she wasn’t a child anymore!

And anyway, even if fairies were real, Alex thought, they wouldn’t be hanging out around here with all the noise the builders make all week. Any sensible fairy would have cleared off a long time ago!

When a block was cleared the old homes were smashed and loaded onto trucks for the rubbish dump; even the massive trees were cut down, chopped up and carted away together with old toys, a broken swing, and other things that spoke of someone’s life.

Then, with everything gone, bulldozers arrived to smooth and level the land and when every blade of grass had been removed, the workers congratulated themselves on doing a great job.

And Alex? She felt a great wave of anger for the beauty they had destroyed, the workers’ disrespect for the trees as living things, and the unfairness of it all!

Why did they have to pull down the trees? They weren’t hurting anyone, and I bet it will take fifty or more years to grow trees that size again, thought Alex. She wanted to scream at the workers for what they had done but of course, they would have laughed at her.

Here and there, a few of the older houses had become cheap rentals, and it wasn’t hard to pick them. Their old wooden fences leaned precariously, and rampant weeds smothered the smaller shrubs that once had flourished there. Fading paint and rusting gutters blocked with leaves suggested the tenants had more important things to do than taking care of someone else’s property.

And the gardens? It seemed renters didn’t have time for well-kept gardens, although Alex thought it a shame. Why would they let beautiful gardens slowly die for lack of love? They were paying rent anyway, so why not keep the gardens tidy and enjoy them?

Alex would shake her head at the messy yards, puzzled at how some people complained when they didn’t have all they wanted but neglected to care for the things they did have.

Since her parents had never owned a home, Alex knew about cheap rentals. Except for Grandma’s house, she’d never lived anywhere but in rentals, but it didn’t mean she had no dreams of living somewhere beautiful one day.

Dreams constantly popped up inside Alex, and she believed in them all. She would make them come true, come hell or high water.

***

Her grandmother’s house was the best place she had lived in so far, and it had gardens. Alex couldn’t believe her luck each day as she came in the gate from school!

Living in a house that felt like a home was a new experience for someone more used to rundown rentals. Alex recalled some of their city neighbours who were more often drunk than sober, beating each other up and arguing loudly enough for the whole block to hear.

At times it was frightening, but mostly it disgusted her. Everyone said children should respect adults, but how could they when the adults acted like animals?

And how could she forget the loud music? So loud it made her ears ache, and the walls vibrate. Of course, Alex wouldn’t have minded if she had liked the music, but she didn’t, so she thanked technology for headphones, turned up her music and did her best to blot out the sound.

But it didn’t stop the anger she felt; the selfishness of others was something Alex found impossible to ignore.

And just because I’m young, doesn’t mean I should have to put up with other people’s bad behaviour, she would think. In her frustration, Alex would have liked to bang on their doors and tell them off, but then they would have laughed her down. So, she had learned to hold her anger inside herself.

Alex had hated the noise of the parties, especially in the various apartment blocks her family had lived in. Too often, after a loud night, there would be bottles and sometimes broken glass to step over in the stairwell on her way to the ground floor.

Then, as she grew a little older, Alex would wonder why her stomach often felt tied up in knots and why she hated everyone and everything.

Alex realized how much she had hated living in those inner-city apartment blocks. She felt sorry now for all the kids that still lived there; perhaps they might never know how it felt to walk down a beautiful street and feel safe.

But then, she missed her friends and, in some ways, her old school, too. Perhaps her new school would feel better one day, but it wasn’t what she would call fun just yet.

Although a few of her new classmates were polite, many judged her hairstyle and piercings as weird and talked about her loudly enough to be sure Alex could hear. Of course, it was simply because she was a newcomer, and different, but their judgements helped to lower her self-esteem further and ramp up her anger.

Most days, Alex felt scrunched up inside, and alone.

Since she hadn’t yet made any real friends at her new school, Alex had decided to walk somewhere every Sunday afternoon to think and explore the town, by herself. Larkson was a small town, but it had several parks; Alex had been surprised to find so many.

Her most exciting discovery had been a botanical park with magical, old trees that beckoned her to wander beneath their vast canopies. Unlike the giant-sized city parks she was used to, this one was small and still, except for the chatter of birds. Occasionally owners unleashed their dogs beneath the huge trees and Alex was sure the animals smiled as they raced away to scratch and sniff their way in and out of the shrubbery and along the paths.

Alex liked to wander beneath the enormous trees overhanging the nature walk on the creek side of the park. Their peace soothed her anger and for a small moment, a feeling of inner peace quieted the constant outrage she felt - at her life and the world around her.

***

Since her house was at the very end of Ryman Street, almost in the country, on Sundays Alex would often walk the whole length of the street and then cross to the other side to return home. She didn’t mind the long walk since, despite lots of building activity, everything was cleaner and nicer than the grubby city streets she had recently left behind.

The way to and from her new school was long but even on schooldays, Alex enjoyed walking the shady, tree-lined street.

These country trees overwhelmed her with a sense of power, whereas she barely remembered those from her earlier life. Perhaps breathing in constant exhaust fumes and being assaulted by the screech and roar of traffic made it harder for city trees to stand up tall.

Alex had always been a city girl. She had known nothing else until moving to the country only recently. Leaving the noise, clatter and clang of city streets had opened her eyes to many things, and now she was thinking about trees, of all things!

So, where did the city trees put their roots? she wondered. Wriggling under tons of concrete to find enough dirt to grow in would have been hard work.

Suddenly, Alex felt sorry for them.

Indeed, trees were not something she’d ever thought about before coming to the country; now, suddenly, she was falling in love with them.

Considering the difference, Alex could only conclude that these massive country trees felt clean and strong and though it felt weird to say it, being with them made her feel different in a way impossible to explain. Was it more relaxed or more confident about who she was? Alex wasn’t sure of the correct word, but she enjoyed the feeling.

And yes, these changes she felt were weird and unexpected, but they felt amazing, too. At that moment, Alex would have punched the air if there hadn’t been an old lady weeding her front garden as she passed.

***

Alex had finally reached the house she found more intriguing than any other on the street. Unusual and exotic, it was different to the other houses and conjured up dozens of questions in her mind.

A world away from anything she could have dreamed about, tall, slim French doors opened onto sweeping verandahs where ladies in long flowing dresses might once have taken afternoon tea. Alex imagined maids in starched white aprons and frilly caps serving tea, fancy cakes and sandwiches to the family and their guests as they reclined in woven cane armchairs like the ones she had seen advertised in Grandma’s ratty collection of old Home magazines.