“I want to write,” she said, “but I don’t know where to start.”
“I like to start at the beginning,” said her grandmother.
“Thanks. That’s helpful. No, I mean how do I get them there – to the other world? All the best stories have some kind of doorway. A wardrobe or a telephone box. A white-gold ring, a magic book, a secret passage on a train platform. Everything I think of has been done.”
Her daughter climbed onto her grandmother’s lap. “Tell us a story,” she said.
The grandmother leaned her head back for a moment then took a breath.
“Once upon a time,” she began, and they were transported.