Donna Jo Napoli has written many books for kids and often puts her own spin on classic fairy tales. You may know some of her books, such as the Sly the Sleuth series, Beast, Ugly, and Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale. Napoli loves writing stories, especially because they help her find out about the world. Read Weekly Reader’s interview with Donna Jo Napoli here.

 

Lena opened her eyes. Then she closed them. Then she opened them again. She sat up and stared. No, it couldn’t be. Water stretched ahead as far as she could see. She rubbed her eyes and stood.

Clunk! Her head hit a ceiling above her. Where on Earth was she? This was like a little cave, just made of wood. And now that she was on her feet, she felt distinctly nauseous. Her little cave was swaying. Swaying?! She dropped to her bottom and leaned out the front of the cave. Yikes! It was a long way down to that water. Two white wooden pillars that came to a point stuck up on either side of the cave mouth.

Lena held on to one of them and looked down again. The sun sparkled off the water. It sparkled off the white pillar she was clinging to. It sparkled off the red floor of the cave. Where was she? And now she heard them. Men, singing together. She knew that song; it was what the Vikings sang as they rowed. It was coming from somewhere below and behind her.¹

The voices of the Vikings resonated through the little cave, and Lena covered her ears as their voices got louder and louder.

“This must be a dream,” thought Lena, while rubbing her eyes with her right hand and clenching her teeth. “Ah, and those voices are giving me a headache.”

Lena released the white pillar, got down on her knees, and crawled farther into the cave. As she was crawling and trying to keep from tumbling from all of the swaying, she discovered a small trapdoor that blended in perfectly with the red floor. Lena put her ear to the door and found that the Vikings’ voices were coming from the door.

Heave ho! Heave ho!

“I don’t want those voices to get any louder, but I’m willing to sacrifice my hearing to get out of this horrible cave,” whispered Lena, as she slowly lifted the trapdoor.²

When the door was open she noticed she could stand up straight. As she climbed out, she felt a hand grip her shoulder! ³

Lena whirled around. Her eyes met the scared yellow eyes of a small boy with black hair.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked in a whisper.

“I came to see what the Vikings were doing,” she replied.

“You shouldn’t be here! If the Vikings should find you then you ...” His voicetrailed off.

“What? What will happen?”

“They’ll turn you into a Viking. Look below,” the boy replied.

Lena walked over to the railing. Below her hundreds of Vikings were rowing. They chanted their song over and over again. Lena gasped.

“W-why aren’t you a V-viking then?” Lena asked.

“They haven’t found me yet. They captured my two brothers and my mother.”

“Oh. What is your name?” Lena asked, after much thought.

“William.”

Then a scream broke out. Lena looked over the side of the railing at the Vikings.

“Oh my,” was all she could mutter. ⁴

The woman’s scream was still ringing in Lena’s head as she saw her being taken away by two Vikings.

She thought to herself, “Why am I here? How did I get here?”

“Watch out!”

She spun around and then saw a Viking coming her way. She turned and yelled, “William! William!”

Then someone pulled her back into a corner. She was about to scream when the person’s hand covered her mouth.

She turned and saw William. She felt so much relief, she hugged him.

“Thank you,” she gasped.

“No problem. Just watch out next time.”

Finally, the Vikings were gone, and William and Lena went out the trapdoor.

“Thanks again. You saved my life down there,” she said.

“Well, I know from the future you will save mine soon,” William said.

“How long have you been here?”

“I really don’t remember —”

Then the loud voices of the Vikings stopped and there was a big bang. The whole cave shook, and all Lena could hear were footsteps getting louder and louder until ...⁵

A tremendous ringing shook Lena from sleep.

“William? Wait, where, where … am I?” Lena looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand. The time flashed 3:30 a.m. and the clock kept ringing and rattling against the nightstand. Lena was so confused. She did not remember going to sleep. She still wore her school clothes and her shoes, but her ankles were covered with mud.

“When did I fall asleep?” Lena wondered.

Then, with a clang, the alarm clock fell onto the floor, and Lena leaned over to pick it up. Her eyes grew wide.

“Wait, this isn’t my alarm clock,” she exclaimed.

She turned the strange clock over in her hands, until she saw ...⁶

Lena saw some words engraved in the back. PROPERTY OF WILLIAM SHARPS.

“William,” Lena murmured.

Lena was in shock. Moments later she realized that the room wasn’t hers. All of a sudden, the door to the room burst open and there was a bright light. Lena was momentarily blind. She started to get her vision back when she heard ...⁷

“Turn the clock back in time, but you must not fear what you find.” With that, Lena put the clock back on the nightstand.

“What does it mean? What should I do?” Lena whispered to herself.

She sat up on her bed and looked around the room slowly. She made up her mind and took the clock in hand. The clock now read 3:50 a.m.

Carefully, she turned the clock key counterclockwise a few times but nothing happened. She stepped out of bed and went to the door. As she opened it, a black LIGHT shined out. And then she found ...⁸

She saw a strange looking hallway. It was lined with mold and dust. Lena had a strange feeling of déjà vu that she should know this place, but she didn‘t.

She slowly made her way down the strange hallway, feeling dampness in the air. She suddenly felt that she must finish walking down the hall; it was as if her whole life depended on it, but she didn‘t know why. Now, she had come to the end of the hallway. And then ...⁹

Lena found herself looking at a family eating dinner. As she looked, she saw William. She ran down some steps to where he sat. But before she could talk to him, the door burst open and Vikings swarmed the room like a pack of hyenas.

She tried to turn back, but it was no use. She was knocked unconscious by the rushing mob.

Lena opened her eyes and shut them quickly. Then she opened them again. She sat up and stared.

“What? Again?” Water stretched ahead as far as she could see. She was back where she started. She stood up, and yet again she hit her head against the ceiling. She climbed out of the cave and found William where she saw him last.

“We don’t have much time before this thing happens again, so tell me why we are here,” said Lena.¹⁰

“Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong for me to be stuck in this horrible place? I can’t take it,” cried Lena.

“We are here because you turned the clock back like the voice told you,” said William. “Now we have to get off this Viking boat or this will keep happening over and over again.”

“OK, Lena, we can do this together. Now’s our chance to escape off the boat,” whispered William.

So Lena and William started crawling to the front of the boat so they could leave.

When they got to the front of the boat, they noticed there were two guards blocking the exit. Are they looking for William and me? wondered Lena. Then they went to the other side of the ship.

”We have to jump; there’s no other way we can get off without the guards noticing,” explained William.

“Um, um, OK,” Lena said, trying not to sound frightened.

They both jumped, but instead of hitting water they hit the ground.¹¹

Lena looked around in confusion. She and William were in a green field that stretched as far as the eye could see. The Viking ship was nowhere to be found. Weren’t we on the ocean? she thought. The ground she stood on was covered with thick, leafy vines.

“What is this stuff?” Lena asked William, who was also inspecting the vines.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. Wait, what is happening?”

The vines were quickly growing small buds. The buds were an assortment of red, pink, yellow, and blue. They grew to the size of baseballs and then started to flower.

The petals of the flowers were growing even faster than the buds had. They swayed back and forth as if they were trying to say something. Lena and William leaned in closer.

“Your journey is nearly complete. To end it for good you must find a stone wishing well and turn time forward.”

The flowers’ whispers echoed eerily through the field, and a gust of wind blew all the leaves and flowers off the vines.¹²

William and Lena walked around for hours. They came upon a strange-looking tree. It had several claw markings on it. They ignored those markings and moved along.

"Have you been here before?" Lena asked William.

"No, I haven’t,” William said. "I’ve never gotten this far. Someone has always turned back the clock."

"Sorry about that,” Lena said. "Where do you think we are?"

"I don’t know. I don’t think I want to know."

Lena fell over a giant stone. The stone flipped over. Lena hurt her leg.

"Are you OK?" William asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, I just scraped my knee," Lena said.

Then William, amazed, said, "What is this? It looks like a map to the stone well." ¹³

Lena looked over William's shoulder. The map was so much gibberish to her. "Can you follow it?"

"I think so," William said. He led the way through the vines. It was hard going because the vines were so thick and came up to the children's thighs. William kept pointing at trees and hills along the way—landmarks. He finally stopped and shook his head. "It should be here. Right here." He blinked back tears. "I must have goofed."

Lena was so tired, she fell to her knees. She hit a stone again. But this time it didn't flip over. She felt around with both hands. "There's a stone here. Lots of stones. They're piled in a wall. And it's curved."

They ripped away the vines, and there was the stone well.

"So how do we turn time forward now?" asked William.

"There's a handle here—for pulling up a bucket, I guess. It's the only thing that turns." Lena chewed on her bottom lip. "Well ... why not?" She turned.

In an instant, she was sitting in the back of a classroom. Terribly uncomfortable, in fact. And the teacher was droning on, thanking them all for coming to Back-to-School Night. Lena looked down at her hands. She had on a wedding ring! She looked down at her feet—high heels! She looked around. She was surrounded by grown-ups. She was a grown-up. And this was clearly her child’s teacher. Lena and William had turned time forward, all right—way forward. Now how could she ever get back? ¹⁴

1. Donna Jo Napoli
2. Lauren O., Grade 12
3. Cheyenne P., Grade 7
4. Samantha R., Grade 8
5. Gabby V., Grade 7
6. Tommy K., Grade 8
7. Efrain O., Grade 7
8. Ashley V., Grade 7
9. Kaitlyn H., Grade 7
10. Kendale K., Grade 9
11. Allie H., Grade 6
12. Andrea F., Grade 9
13. Zack R., Grade 7
14. Donna Jo Napoli

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