The Adventures of Jiggers and the Magic Carpet

In a little house not far from here, lives a little white terrier with black and brown spots. His name is Jiggers. Jiggers has a habit of exploring at night after his people have gone to sleep, and during some of his explorations Jiggers found an old hand mirror, a silver spoon, and a cobwebby passage into a secret space behind the wall. Jiggers wanted to explore the secret space, but the cobwebs were kind of gross. He would never admit it, but that dark place was a little scary. After about a week of staring into the dark, Jiggers finally decided he’d had enough of being too worried to go into the dark place. The cobwebs were another story, so he chased the cat into the hole ahead of him to clean them all out. Now that he could enter without getting covered in grossness, he took a deep breath and prepared to enter.

Very slowly and very carefully the little dog went in. He picked his way through 120 years worth of dust, some bricks, and some wood planks. He was surprised to find that the further into the passage he went, the lighter it got. Finally, he found himself in a little room. There are no windows and no lamps, but the room was glowing with a warm, friendly light. As you can imagine, this was very surprising, but the light seemed so welcoming and friendly that Jiggers was not even a little bit worried.

The glowing light was coming from the ends of a rolled up carpet. Jiggers walked up to the carpet and gave it a good sniff. Then he gave a good SNEEZE. After a few more sniffs and sneezes, he bumped the carpet with his nose and unrolled it.

The carpet came to life! It was so excited to be open, it was wiggling and Jiggers was pretty sure he saw it lift off the ground a bit.

Come sit on me, it said. So Jiggers did. The carpet was warm and comfortable. It felt friendly. Thank you for unrolling me. I was getting stiff.

I’ve never met a living magic carpet before, said Jiggers.

I’ve never met anyone who knew I was alive. I can fly you know.

From that point on, the two were fast friends. The carpet lifted Jiggers gently off the ground. Once he had his balance, the carpet slowly started to move around the room. Jiggers thought this was the most amazing feeling ever! As Jiggers got better at riding the carpet, it took him further and further off the ground. Once they were up to the ceiling, Jiggers noticed a larger hole leading into the attic. Up they went and soared around the open attic space!

In the attic there is a single window. Jiggers and the carpet decided to work together to open it. They were free!

Out they soared into the cool night air. They sailed over houses and through the trees. The feeling was amazing! The carpet was free after so many years of being rolled up and Jiggers was actually flying! They flew high above the trees of the their neighborhood and explored farther and farther away from home. In the night there were all kinds of things that neither of them had ever seen in the day, like fireflies and owls.

The pair saw some owls and stopped to introduce themselves. The owls invited them to go flying with them as they hunted for their dinner. They wandered very far from home. Suddenly Jiggers realized they were lost.

Around and around they flew looking for some familiar landmark. Nothing. They flew high and they flew low. But they couldn’t find anything that might point the way home. They were getting very worried they might not ever see Jiggers’ family again. They thought of this made Jiggers very sad, and even the magic carpet was upset that it may never get to meet the family that lived in the house because Jiggers had told it such wonderful things about them.

The owls tried to help them find their way, but since they didn’t know where Jiggers and the magic carpet came from, they couldn’t. The situation was beginning to look worse and worse. To make matters even worse, the sky was beginning to lighten in the east and Jiggers knew his family would be very worried about him if they woke up and he wasn’t there.

Suddenly he had an idea! Jiggers remembered that the sun always came into the front of the house in the morning. He figured that if they flew toward the sunrise, they would eventually find their neighborhood.

So off they went in the direction of the sunrise. They flew high in the air so they could avoid hitting any trees. They flew as fast as the magic carpet could go. Jiggers wanted to be sure he was home before his family woke up. He couldn’t bear the thought of having worried them.

It seemed that they flew east for a long time, but really it was very quick. Suddenly, Jiggers saw a park that looked familiar. It was the playground his family sometimes took him to when the kids went there to play. The magic carpet slowed down a little and swooped lower. Yes! It was the playgound. They were close to home!

From the playground, the magic carpet followed Jiggers’ directions through the neighborhood, and eventually they found their way to the right house. They were both very, very tired from their night’s adventure. They came into the house through the open window in the attic they used when they left.

Both settled onto the floor in the living room and fell fast asleep. A few minutes later, Jiggers’ “Mom” came downstairs and found them both sleeping soundly. It took her a minute to realize there was a new carpet in the middle of the room.

“Where did that come from?...”