Tommy was 8 when he first met grandma. His parents left the country right after marriage and had not been back since. It was always due to work or pregnancy or baby being too young to travel and so on but the insistence grew and they surrendered finally.

All that Tommy knew was that grandma was very old and not to disturb her during her sleep. But the reality couldn’t be much more different. Grandma sounded and acted more active than his parents. She was there with her dog at the airport and hadn’t let go of Tommy the whole way home.

She lived in a cottage at the outskirt of a small town within a nice small garden. If grandma was old , the house must be even older still. It had a chimney which looked like it was designed and built in the last century. And it suited the weather perfectly. Light snow fell on the garden as Tommy walked across it to enter the cottage.

Tommy sat and waited in what seemed like a living room while mama and papa unpacked the bags. He noted there was no telly nor computer. He doubted the house was prepared even for radio. Soon , grandma brought a hot chocolate cup for Tommy and they talked till dinner time.

Tommy walked around the cottage after dinner and found a ladder leading to the roof. He quietly climbed up and managed to squeeze into the attic. It was so small that Tommy couldn’t even stand up. He wondered how could Grandma fit in there.

Just as he was about to came down , he noticed a wooden cabinet at the corner. He tip-toed towards the cabinet and slowly opened the doors. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It wasn’t a cabinet but a castle! He could see the tiny soldiers patrolling by the gate and tiny horses pulling the carriages.

Then he heard his mother calling for him and he hurried down the ladder. He was too breathless to tell his mother what he had seen. And grandma took him away just before he was able to calm down. Grandma asked him if he had seen the castle in the attic and not to tell anyone of their secret.

It was 20 years ago then. Grandma had passed away 5 years ago and Tommy had grew up into a fine young man. But till then he wasn’t sure if he had actually seen the castle or it was all his imagination.