The Paper Kingdom

The kingdom started on the kitchen table.

It needed: paper (a whole ream from the spare room cupboard — they asked, and their father said yes without looking up from his book, which Bea considered a strategic use of distraction), scissors, tape, a ruler, every colouring pencil in the house, and Reuben, who was in charge of enthusiasm and occasionally getting things from lower shelves.

Bea drew the first map. She did it properly — to scale, with a compass rose, with rivers marked in blue and forests marked in green.

"There needs to be a mountain," said Reuben.

"Mountains are hard to draw to scale," said Bea.

"Put one anyway."

She put one anyway. She labelled it: King Reuben's Very Important Mountain.

"Better," said Reuben.

They built for three hours without stopping.

The castle came first: twelve sheets of paper folded into walls, with turrets made from toilet roll tubes from the recycling bin. It was not structurally sound but it looked magnificent. Bea reinforced the west wall twice. Reuben drew a dragon on the east wall and declared it a feature rather than a flaw.

The kingdom needed citizens. Reuben drew thirty-seven of them — small, round-headed people in various states of happiness. He named them all. He was meticulous about this.

"This one is Gerald," he said. "He works at the bridge."

"What does he do at the bridge?"

"He counts how many people cross. He writes it in a book."

"Why?"

Reuben considered this. "He likes counting."

"Fair," said Bea.

She built the bridge. She made Gerald's booth out of a matchbox. She added a tiny paper book.

The kingdom needed laws.

Bea took this seriously. She got a fresh sheet of paper and her best pencil.

"Law one," she said. "Everyone must have somewhere warm to sleep."

"Law two," said Reuben. "No throwing food."

"Law three: the river stays clean."

"Law four: Gerald is allowed to count as many people as he wants and nobody can say it's strange."

"Law five," Bea added, looking at Reuben. "Younger citizens can be king but must listen to the architect on matters of structural importance."

"I agree to that," said Reuben, in his most dignified voice.

They taped the laws to the castle wall.

The kingdom also needed a problem to solve.

This arrived in the form of Reuben's discovery — at approximately noon, when the rain was at its very worst — that the river had flooded.

This was because he had poured a glass of water over it.

"REUBEN," said Bea.

"The kingdom needed weather," Reuben said calmly.

The flood was considerable. Gerald's booth was waterlogged. Four of the citizens had been swept gently off the table into the kitchen floor, where they were rescued by Bea and laid out to dry on the radiator.

Reuben felt bad about this. He looked at the four wet citizens.

"Is Gerald okay?" he asked.

"Gerald is fine," said Bea, examining him. "Slightly damp. I think he needs a new book though, his got wet."

She made Gerald a new book. It was smaller than the first one. She drew tiny lines in it to represent pages.

Reuben took it and placed it back in the booth very carefully.

"Sorry, Gerald," he said.

By the afternoon, the kingdom covered the kitchen table, the adjacent counter, three chairs, and most of the living room floor.

Their father appeared in the doorway and stood for a long time looking at it.

"What is this?" he said.

"Paper Kingdom," said Reuben. "I am the king. Bea is the architect. Gerald counts people at the bridge."

Their father looked at Gerald's booth. He looked at King Reuben's Very Important Mountain. He looked at the thirty-seven citizens, most of them named, all of them doing specific things.

"Can I be a citizen?" he asked.

Bea and Reuben looked at each other.

"You'd have to follow the laws," Bea said.

Their father read the five laws on the castle wall. He was quiet for a moment.

"These are excellent laws," he said.

"Thank you," said Bea. "I wrote four of them. Reuben did the one about food."

"I stand by it," said Reuben.

Their father sat cross-legged on the living room floor next to the kingdom. "All right," he said. "I'm in. What's my job?"

Reuben thought carefully. Then: "You're the one who reads the laws to everyone. So everyone knows them."

"The herald?"

"The herald," Reuben agreed.

Their father picked up a pencil. "Can I make my own citizen?" he asked.

"You can," said Bea. "But give them a proper job."

He drew a small round person and wrote underneath: Nadia. She checks that everyone has had enough to eat.

"Nadia's good," said Reuben. "She can sit next to Gerald."

Outside, the rain went on all afternoon.

Inside, the Paper Kingdom thrived.

The End.