Miranda is a doll.  She is a pretty doll with a pretty pink dress with a polka dot pink bow.  She has beautiful yellow hair which is long and in two side bunches, held up by matching polka dot pink ribbons.  When she was unwrapped on Christmas day her new owner, Shannon, squealed with delight, “Oh thank you mummy, I will treasure her forever!”

Shannon’s promise lasted until her birthday six months later when she opened her present from her parents and it was a newer doll, a more advanced model.

Miranda found herself in the toy box with the other discarded toys, she laid in there for what seemed like a long time.  During this time her dress became faded, her polka dot pink bow became ragged and her beautiful yellow hair turned quite dull.  All the other toys were in the same fix, the longer they stayed in the toy box the more damaged they became.

Every once in a while, Shannon’s mum would open the toy box and a few of the toys would be picked out and to all the toy’s dismay would never be seen again.  Miranda realised that it was the toys that were damaged quite a bit that would be chosen, so she tried to make sure that she looked the best she could.

One day though, through no fault of anyone’s, Miranda’s left hand fell off.  She searched through the toy box, but she could not find it and none of the other toys could find it either.  Miranda was worried as she didn’t want Shannon’s mum to pick her out the next time she opened up the toy box lid.

“What am I going to do?” Miranda asked Ollie, the old stuffed owl, “I don’t want to be picked out by Shannon’s mother.”  Ollie looked at Miranda and said to her, “There is a land for old toys that have been mistreated or abandoned by their young owners.”  Miranda looked at him in amazement, “Really?  Where is this place, what is it called?” she asked him.

“One question at a time,” Ollie laughed, “This land is called Safe Haven and it’s on the other side of the rainbow.”  Miranda was excited to hear this, “That sounds like a wonderful place, why haven’t you gone there?”  Ollie explained that he was too old to travel to Safe Haven and that he was quite happy to stay where he was.

“So, how do I get there?” Miranda asked Ollie who replied, “You need to climb out of the toy box and go up the book shelves to the third level until you come across a DVD with a picture of a rainbow on it, you must then open the DVD case and enter into it.”  Miranda looked up at the book shelves, they look very high but she was determined to climb them and go to Safe Haven.

Miranda waited until it was dark and Shannon was asleep.  She said goodbye to Ollie who asked her to say “Hello” to Trixie the Pixie, when she arrived at Safe Haven, Miranda agreed to do this and carefully made her way to the top of the toy box.  Once at the top she slightly opened the lid with her right hand and after making sure that Shannon was asleep, jumped out of the toy box onto the bedroom floor.  She ran very quickly across the room towards the book shelves, “They look even higher up close,” she thought and looked for a way to climb to the shelf with DVD’s on it.

As she was thinking it over, the toy fire engine drove over to her, “Hey climb aboard my fire lift, I can get you to the first shelf.”  Miranda accepted his offer, “Oh, thank you so very much,” she said, “That will help me out a lot!”  She climbed into the lift and held on tightly with her remaining hand, the lift rose higher and higher until it was stretched out to its fullest and Miranda was able to step across onto the shelf.  “I’m on the shelf, thank you again,” Miranda whispered to the toy fire engine who sounded its siren very briefly, so as not to wake up Shannon, in reply.

Miranda looked around her, the next shelf up wasn’t too high and she found that by standing on top of a couple of books she was able to haul herself up.  “One more level to go and I’ll be there,” she thought, “I am so excited to go on an adventure, it will be so much fun.”

Then suddenly Miranda heard the sound of the door opening and Shannon’s mum came in with a pile of clean clothes.  Miranda froze, what was she going to do?  Shannon’s mum noticed a book on the floor of the bedroom and picked it up, placing it on the same bookshelf that Miranda was on.  “How on earth did Miranda get up here?” Shannon’s mum muttered to herself, “Oh, I’ve never noticed before but her left hand is missing and she’s looking a bit tatty now, I think she needs to go into the recycle bin outside.”

Miranda was horrified, she thought that this was probably where all the other broken toys had been put, she really didn’t want to go there at all.

Just then, Shannon’s father appeared at the doorway and said, “Julie, your mother is on the phone, she wants to talk about you about tomorrow’s trip.”  “Okay, that’s fine, I’ll come down now,” so she put Miranda back on the shelf and disappeared back through the doorway.

Miranda immediately managed to scramble up to the next shelf, it was a little bit difficult with only a right hand but she was determined and it paid off.  “Wow, that was close, I very nearly didn’t make it to Safe Haven.” She stood up and looked around her, there were lots of DVDs and books scattered around but one DVD stood out to her, it was just as Ollie had said, there was a bright rainbow on the cover.  Miranda approached it with a little bit of trepidation as she wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

The rainbow on the DVD was shimmering and Miranda pulled open the case.  She peered into the gloom and as her eyes became adjusted to the dark she saw that instead of a DVD inside the case there was a long, dark tunnel.  Miranda was a little bit scared as it looked very gloomy, but she stepped inside and began to take a few steps.  As she walked along the tunnel, it lit up, section by section and as Miranda was walking she noticed that there were other tunnels which joined hers in different directions and there were other toys walking along, all wide eyed like Miranda and at various states of disrepair.

They all came to the end of the tunnel where there was a golden gate with the words, “Safe Haven” engraved on it.  Miranda immediately felt happy and when she looked at everybody else, they all had smiles on their faces.  There was a queue at the golden gate and she could see that there were toy soldiers who were busily checking the toys and writing things down on a notepad.

Soon it was Miranda’s turn and a rather stern looking soldier with a big, bushy moustache asked for her name.  “My name is Miranda,” she informed him trying not to sound nervous.  “Hello Miranda, you are very welcome to Safe Haven,” the soldier said with a smile, “And what has happened to you?”

“I was owned by a little girl called Shannon but she got bored with me and then when I was in my toy box my right hand came off,” she said to the soldier, who didn’t seem so stern now and was busily writing in his notebook.  “Let me take a look at your arm,” he asked her politely and Miranda immediately held out her arm to him.  “Oh, I am sure that Trixie the Pixie will have a spare one for you, just follow the signs to the toy repair factory and you will be sorted.”

“Thank you so much,” Miranda said as he waved her through the golden gates, “You have been most kind.”  As she followed the signs to the toy repair factory Miranda suddenly remembered what Ollie had said to her, “Say hello to Trixie the Pixie for me,” that must be who I am going to see to about my new hand.

When she arrived at the toy repair factory it was very busy and there were signs everywhere showing the toys where to go – ‘teddy bear squeakers’ were in one direction, ‘new eyes, ears and noses’ had to go somewhere else, ‘new batteries’ had to go downstairs.

“Excuse me,” a voice interrupted Miranda’s thought, “But I’m afraid I can’t see very well, can you tell me where I need to go for a new eye?”  Miranda turned around and saw a very cuddly teddy bear, he was a sandy colour with a lovely navy blue bowtie around his neck.  She saw that he was missing an eye, so of course, he needed a new one, “It’s in that direction, you need to go across the hallway and into the first door on your left.” “Thank you very much, my name is Threadbare, it’s very nice to meet you,” the teddy bear said.  “I’m Miranda and it’s no problem, I hope we meet each other again.”  She watched as he walked across the hallway, stumbling into a couple of toys as he did so, Miranda thought that perhaps she should have walked across with him.

Her thoughts turned to getting herself fixed and she found the sign saying, ‘new legs, arms, hands and feet’.  She found the room she needed, there were all sorts of dolls, animals and even some toy robots.  Miranda sat down and waited her turn, there was a lot of noise and everybody seemed to be talking at once.  She waited patiently and eventually it was her turn to see Trixie the Pixie.

Trixie was a small pixie, she was beautiful with long hair and delicate wings and a gentle, soothing voice.  “Now Miranda, let me take a look at you,” and she obediently held out her arm.  “Oh, that’s quite easy, I have a lot of hands that should fit you, let me take a quick look in the back storeroom.”  She quickly returned with a left hand and reached into a cupboard for a pot of glue and expertly glued the hand onto Miranda’s arm.

“That feels a lot better,” said Miranda wriggling her hand, “Oh, I nearly forgot, Ollie the Owl says hello to you.”  “Really?  You know Ollie?  He’s such a gentleman,” Trixie said with a smile, “Yes, he’s the one who told me about Safe Haven,” Miranda replied.  “Well, I’m pleased he did, it is lovely to see you,” Trixie said, “Now you’re all fixed, you need to go to the doll house building to sort a house out for yourself.”

After receiving directions from Trixie, Miranda made her way towards the doll house building.  Again, there were signs everywhere and Miranda decided to follow a sign saying, ‘new doll houses.’  She opened the door cautiously and was delighted to see that it was empty.  She stepped in and took a seat, there was nobody sat at the desk, so she thought she would wait.  After patiently waiting for a lot of minutes, Miranda got up and walked towards the desk, she jumped out of her skin, sat behind the computer was a small dwarf.  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know anybody was here,” Miranda said apologetically.  “That’s okay,” the dwarf replied, “I’m used to it, I’m a bit deaf, so I didn’t hear you come in, silly me, of course I wouldn’t hear you if I was a bit deaf.”

“So, are you here for a new house?” he asked, “Well, silly me, of course you are, that’s why you came in!”  Miranda smiled, she liked him, he was funny.  “Well, I have a couple available, they’ve just come in from the doll house factory after being damaged by a child, whereabouts would you like us to put it?”

Miranda looked at him confused, “What does he mean?” she thought.  “Oh my, I’ve done it again,” he said, “You’ve only just come to Safe Haven, silly me, you don’t know what I am talking about.”  Miranda nodded, “Well, as the doll house has just been delivered to Safe Haven and been fixed, it can be put anywhere you like.”

“That’s a lovely idea, but I don’t know anything about Safe Haven, where would you suggest?”

“Well,” said the dwarf, “there are a few areas that I would recommend, the first is an area called “Sunshine Terrace”, it’s a lovely street that has lots of sunshine, silly me, of course you probably thought that, it has some shops and a playground.”  Miranda thought Sunshine Terrace sounded lovely.

“The next one is Sparkle Avenue, that one is very clean, it sparkles it’s so clean, silly me, I expect you thought that.  It has a school nearby and a train station.”  “That one sounds lovely too, it is difficult to know which to pick.” Miranda thought.

“And the third, it’s not as nice as the other two, but it’s not so crowded, so if you wanted a bit of peace and quiet and a bigger garden, then I would pick that one.”  “What’s that one called?” asked Miranda.  “Silly me, I forgot to tell you, it’s called Meadow Park.”

“Yes, that one please,” she replied, “it sounds like somewhere I would like to live.”  With that, the dwarf picked up the phone and pushed some numbers, “Hey, it’s Billy here, I have a request for a dolls house on Meadow Park, can you do that for me right away?  You can, good, that’s wonderful, thank you for your help.”  Billy, put the phone down and smiled at Miranda, “It’s all sorted, you can go over straight away.”  He reached in his drawer and got out a key, “There you go, congratulations on becoming a resident of Safe Haven!”

“Thank you very much, I just have one question, where is it?” Miranda asked with a smile, “Oh yes, silly me, that would help you,” and he produced a map for Miranda to follow.  “That’s great, thank you for your help, Billy.”

As she left the room, Miranda smiled at the way he kept saying, “Silly me,” and she thought his name suited him very well, Silly Billy!