Black line drawing flash of a fairytale castle with stars, trees and a banner reading Who says we have to grow up, shown on paper with no body placement visible.

Fairytale castle with banner quote design

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A black outline drawing of a towered fairytale castle sits within a dotted circle, with a ribbon banner across its base carrying the lettering Who says we have to grow up. Four small four-pointed stars and clusters of trees and clouds frame the castle. The linework is thin and uniform, with no shading or colour, and the design is centred on a plain pale background.

Fine line Castle Banner Star Tree Cloud Lettering Quote Dotted circle

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

You moor Marigold below the weir at dusk because the lock keeper has gone home and the towpath is too muddy for the bikes. Pip hangs off the gunwale with a torch, counting swans that refuse to be counted. Beyond the willows a grey stone tower stands on a hill that is not on any map you own, and she swears it has flags on it, though all you can make out is its shape against the last of the light.

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"Who says we have to grow up?" she asks, which is what she has been asking since the school sent a letter about her reading and the word concerns. You want to tell her that grown-ups are the ones who pay the mooring fees, who unblock the heads, who lie awake at three in the morning listening to the ropes creak in a gale. But the question is hers, and she has been carrying it around like a pebble from the bank. You tell her to put the kettle on instead.

Later, with the stove ticking and the dog snoring across your feet, you find her on the roof again, arms out, balancing on the cabin hatch like a tightrope walker. "Look," she says. The castle has come out of the mist, or perhaps it was always there and you have been too busy to notice. Ribbons of cloud lie along its base like combed wool, and four stars have come out above it, sharp as pins.

You climb up beside her. The water talks against the hull. Tomorrow there will be a lock to work and a bill from the marina, and the castle will still be there when you come round the bend. You stay up there until the cold gets into your knuckles, and for once neither of you feels the need to climb down.