The boat crossed the shore and Maria rubbed her eyes and gave out a yawn, she had the most wonderful sleep in the middle of the violet sea; where the sky was always violet and the sun couldn’t bear the color so, he always hid among the clouds, however, moon loved the color violet as it always kept the sun away and she gets more time to play with the waves.

“I am hungry,” Maria said

The old jolly sailor with his left hand rowed the boat with a crooked oar and was holding goo-like stuff in a bottle, which he drank every time he rows the boat.

“Mr.sailor,” Maria said, “I am hungry.”

The jolly sailor smiled at her with his jagged teeth but never said a word, instead he opened his mouth to drink his goo. Now, Maria was in search of her brown hedgehog, which had run behind the garden and had disappeared and she hopes to find and take him back home.

“Mr. sailor, if you are not going to give me anything to eat, I won't be able to find my hedgehog.” Maria said, “his name is Hoggie and I really love him.” The jolly sailor just showed his jagged teeth and grinned at her, then he started to sing.

“Michael…rowed his boat ashore…like a fish…Michael rowed his boat ashore…like a fish…”

“Perhaps, you’ve heard of this song?” he said.

“Oh! Yes, something like that.” Maria replied. “except… we say a different word for the ‘like a fish’, we learned that during our Sunday school days.”

“ and why use a different word?” said the jolly sailor.

“ well, you see we say ‘hallelujah’ instead of ‘like a fish’,” Maria replied in a soft tone.

“ aren’t ‘hallelujah’ and ‘like a fish’, the same thing?” said the sailor, who seemed offended by Maria.

“Absolutely  Not!” Maria said,

“then what’s the difference?”

“well…hallelujah…means…” Maria replied nervously ( In fact she did not know what hallelujah meant.)

“Hmph!...perhaps you shouldn’t speak if you are not sure.” The sailor said.

“ But I do know what hallelujah is, I just don’t know the meaning,” Maria replied angrily.

“well, you ought to learn more” replied the sailor. “you don’t know what hallelujah means, how can you be sure that ‘hallelujah’ and ‘like a fish’ are not the same thing.”

“ I may not know the meaning of it, but I'm sure that ‘hallelujah’ and ‘like a fish’ are not the same thing,” Maria said, but the sailor paid no heed to her and continued singing his song. Maria had to cover her ears as to not listen to his song.

                                                                                     …

Maria jumped from the boat and made ashore, she slapped mud off her blue linen dress and turned back to thank the jolly sailor but he was long gone-vanished into the thick fog. She walked around the brown land, the sky was violet, and all the trees, grasses, and rocks were brown “Oh! How peculiar” she said to herself. “ It is already fall! I must have slept for a whole season  because the last time I remember it was spring.” ( and  just like her grandmother, Maria too was very curious and she loved adventures.)

“I wonder where Hoggie went,” she said as she danced around with the brown butterflies. “ he must have loved this place to run away.”

Maria had a habit of talking to herself and would sometimes argue with herself, like that one time when she began arguing to herself about ‘ why a raven is like a writing desk’  she would say that ‘ raven is like a writing desk because ravens are as dark as ink,’ but soon she will scold and call herself ‘stupid!’ for that was a very stupid answer.

“ I never thought, there would be a world behind our garden.” Maria said. “ a world where everything is brown and violets, now I can boast around and tell grandma that she is not the only one who entered wonderland.”

Suddenly a gravel path appeared before her, “ Oh! My, a gravel path? This must mean good luck.” ( for you know Maria always thought gravel path means good luck.)