Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, in a quiet corner of the kingdom, there was a little shop called Willow Lane.

It was a small shop, a lovely shop — the kind of place travellers would stumble across on their wanderings and whisper, “Oh! What is this enchanting little place?”

Inside were all manner of delights:
fantasy novels, prints and cards, colouring books, notebooks, mugs, small treasures made by two sisters who worked side by side each week in joy, creativity, and the warm favour of their Patron, Jehovah Jireh, who had blessed the shop from the beginning.

The sisters didn’t have many sales, but they didn’t mind.
They loved making beautiful things.
And they believed — with that quiet, shimmering belief that takes root in the heart — that one day more travellers would come, and there would be something for everyone to take home.

And all was well…
until the day everything changed.

The arrival of the Big Bad Wolf

Out of the blue, the company who guarded the shop’s treasure chest — the place that took the coins from travellers and delivered them safely to the sisters — was invaded by a creature known throughout the land as the Big Bad Wolf.

No ordinary wolf, this one.
This wolf was called Corporate Greed, and it carried scrolls of new rules and new fees and new demands for every small shop in the land.

One morning it stomped up to the gates of Willow Lane and growled:

“Little shop, little shop,
I’ll huff and I’ll puff
and I’ll blow your door down —
unless you pay me tribute
every single month.”

The sisters were shocked.
The Wolf demanded coins they did not have.
And every small shop it visited shivered at the sound of its voice.

The sisters turned to their Patron and asked, “What shall we do?”

And everything seemed to whisper back:

“Close the shop… but keep the books.
Return to story.
Remember who you are.”

It broke their hearts — but they trusted their Patron.
So, with no alternative and the Wolf at the door, they began to pack up the shop.

The day the shop closed

And so, on the second day of December, in the year 2025, the sisters hung a sign on the door:

CLOSED (except for books)

One sister spent the entire day boxing up five years of work —
carefully removing products from the shelves,
taking down cards,
unshelving prints,
rolling up mugs into protective cloth.

She hammered a notice on poles throughout the kingdom:

“What happened to our cards, prints, and gifts?”

She wrote a blog post titled “What happened to Willow Lane?”
She prepared a letter for the faraway travellers who followed the shop:

“Sadly, we must close,
though the books will remain.”

Slowly, the shop grew quiet.
The shelves grew bare.
The colours dulled.
Even the sunlight through the windows felt a little less golden.

It was the end of a chapter.

Or so it seemed.

But then… a strange thing happened.

In the stillness of the night —
after all the boxes were taped,
after all the signs were hung,
after all the grief had settled —
both sisters felt something unsettled in their spirits.

Something wasn’t right.

Morning came.
The sisters called each other.

“Check the treasury,” one said.

And so they did.

And to their astonishment…

the Big Bad Wolf had not taken a single coin.

Not one.

It should have.
It said it would.
It had threatened to huff and puff and blow the whole shop down.

But somehow, impossibly, the Wolf had either forgotten,
or been stopped,
or perhaps — just perhaps —
the Patron Himself had barred the way with His mighty hand.

The sisters blinked, looked at each other, and wondered:

“Is this… a reprieve?”

A glimmer of hope appears

As they pondered this surprise, a tiny glimmer of light appeared in the distance — a rumour of another gatekeeper, a new kind of treasure-guard, arriving in the kingdom in the year 2026.

A gatekeeper who would welcome small shops.
A gatekeeper who would not take all the treasure for itself.
A gatekeeper who might allow Willow Lane to flourish again.

The sisters felt hope — the gentle, fluttering kind that tugs at the heart.

Should they reopen the doors?

They sought the Patron again.

And this time, everything seemed to say:

“Keep going… for now.
Walk forward until the way is made clear.”

Perhaps it was coincidence.
Perhaps it was grace.
Perhaps it was something more.

Whatever the reason, the sisters agreed:

“The moment the Big Bad Wolf huffs and puffs,
we will know our time is up.
Until then… Willow Lane remains.”

And so the story continues…

The CLOSED sign was lifted down.
The shelves were dusted.
The shop lights glowed warm again.

Travellers returned.
The colours returned.
The sisters breathed again.

And Willow Lane — brave, small, hopeful Willow Lane — lives on.

Where will the story go from here?

No one yet knows.
But the sisters stand ready, listening closely to the Patron,
waiting for the next chapter He will write.

And so the tale continues…

To be continued.

About the Author: Lisa Saul

Fiction writer · creative guide · lifelong storyteller … Lisa Saul writes in the quiet spaces between words and paint. For more than twenty years she has worked side by side with her sister Naomi — shaping novels, illustrations, notebooks, and the little studio world behind this blog. A lifelong maker, Lisa has moved through journalism, photography, editing, watercolour, and award-nominated fiction, always returning to the same thread: story. Whether she’s writing a novel, illustrating a notebook, or sharing a moment from her creative life, Lisa brings a thoughtful, honest voice shaped by imagination, experience, and a deep love of helping others grow creatively.